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]VJeraaiiial anfi Biogiiapljiccrl Jfistary 



OF THE COUNTIES OF 



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fcV 



CALIFORNIA. 



-ILiLtUSTHfLTED. 



Coqtaii L g a History of this Important Sectioq of the Pacific Coast frorrj tr^e Earliest 

Pet iod of its Occupancy to tr]e Present Time, together with Glirqpses of its 

Prospective Future: witl"[ Profuse Illustrations of its Beautiful Sceqery, 

Full-page Portraits of Some of its npst Eminent Meq, aqd 

Biographical Meqtioq of Maqy of its Pioqeers, 

aqd also of Promiqeqt Citizens 

of to-day. 



'A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy 
to be remembered with pride by remote descendants."— Macaulay. 




CHICAGO: 

5f?e Ceu/is publi5f?i9<§ (?ompapy. 



': ( 



PREFACE. 




?E do Dot expect to present to our 
patrons in this volume accounts of 
strange and novel events only; neither 
do we pretend to make history, our duty is to 
record that which has been made. At the same 
time we do not claim to give all that is worthy 
of record. The immensity of such an under- 
taking is beyond the comprehension of those 
who have had no experience in this line. Vol- 
umes could be written of this wonderful coun- 
try. We have given in this large volume such 
an amount of matter as our space will permit, 
and such as will be of the greatest interest and 
most lasting value to the greatest number of 
readers. We are dealing with the tangible his- 
torical facts, made up from the statements and 
records of others. There can be no originality 
in the work of the historian. 

Our object has been to collect the chief his- 
torical facts relative to this country, for the use 
of residents, and to furnish valuable informa- 
tion to those seeking homes in this wonderful 
valley. We do not claim perfection. Much 
more could have been written, and some things, 
possibly, might have been left unsaid. While 
we have no apology to offer, we desire to say to 
the fastidious critic, if you think you can do 
better, the field is open to you. There is no 
patent on this process, no monopoly, and you 
will find a cordial welcome at the hands of this 
enterprising, hospitable people, who are gener- 
ous and ever ready to patronize an enterprise 
tending to advance the interests of their coun- 
try and to place before the world its great re- 
sources. 

Probably the most useful thing that a person 
can know is where to look for information. 



Emerson has said that "knowledge is the know- 
ing that we do not know," and Dr. Johnson, in 
somewhat the same strain, said, "There are 
two kinds of knowledge: the one knowing a 
thing, and the other knowing where to find in- 
formation about it." One of the old philoso- 
phers boasted that he had taken all knowledge 
for his province, but it has been suggested that 
there were many outlying corners and edges of 
his province with which he was not acquainted, 
to say nothing of not having conquered them. 
Besides, in that age of the world the recognized 
field of knowledge was so small, as compared 
with its extent at the present day, that the 
boast may have had some show of reason , 
whereas if made now it would be simply 
ridiculous. This the would-be critic will find 
lamentably true did he undertake to gather 
together and properly arrange the important 
events transpiring to-day. The things to know 
then are, first, that we know nothing; and 
secondly, where to look for what we want to 
learn. 

Every one, no matter how diligent a student 
or accomplished a scholar, must have been 
struck with something like amazement when he 
ventured to contemplate the immensity of his 
own ignorance. It is like looking into the 
measureless vault of heaven until the observer 
seems to himself to shrink to less than an atom 
of sand in comparison with the beginning of 
the infinite which stretches away and away, 
above and around him. Happily for those who 
want to know, much of the literary talent and 
ability of the age is bestowed upon com- 
pendiums and manuals of all kinds which 
present the kernel of information, stripped of 



PREFACE. 



the useless and troublesome husk which in- 
closed it. There are dictionaries, and cyclopae- 
dias, and summaries, and synopses, and indexes, 
and catalogues on every imaginable subject; so 
that all the student need do is to know where 
to look for what he wants. — that is, unless he 
be desirous of mastering a subject; and even 
then these compilations will tell him where to 
find the information which they themselves do 
not supply. 

The question may be raised whether the road 
to learning is not being; made too smooth and 
easy. We answer this in the negative. The 
person in search of information is no more 
bound to go through all the preliminary steps 



which some one has taken before him. than a 
man who eats a dinner is bound to catch aud 
kill the meat or grow the vegetables which 
form part of it. We are entitled to the gar- 
nered store of information which the genius 
and industry of others have accumulated, and 
it would be the height of folly not to use it. 

For much of the data used in the general 
history in this volume we are especially in- 
debted to the press and county officials of the 
district comprised herein, and to Messrs. S. II. 
Cole, H. S. Dixon, Frank Dusy, J. E. Denuey. 
Dr. Lewis Leach, Mrs. F. A. Tracy, and many 
others. 

Thk Publishers. 




The Wonderful State of California. 

Discovery 9 

The Name " California" 9 

Further Discoveries 9 

Catholic Missionaries 10 

California Divided 11 

The Period 1811-'23 11 

The Period 1823-'36 12 

The American Immigration 13 

The Mexican War 14 

The American Period 14 

The Donner Party 14 

Governmental 15 

Gold Discovery 15 

State Government 16 

Present Status 17 

Topography 17 

Geology ' 20 

Climate , 20 

Facts Worth Knowing 24 

" Wonderful " 25 

The "Argonauts" 31 

The Great San Joaquin Valley. 

Origin of the Name " San Joaquin " 33 

Geographical 34 

Geological 35 

The Primitive Landscape 38 

The Valley in May 39 

A Most Promising Country 40 

The Chief Sources of Wealth 41 

Floods and Drouths 41 

Indians 44 

Murder of Major Savage 47 

Fresno County. 

Fresno Prior to Organization 49 

Fort Miller in Good Times 52 

Fresno County Organized 52 

Boundaries of the County 53 

The First Jail 54 

New Courthouse and Jail 54 

Removal of the County Seat 55 

The Present Courthouse and Jail 55 

Millerton 56 

Elections and Other Proceedings 57 

The " Lone Republican " 60 

Early Court Incidents 60 

Crimes and Punishments 61 

Early Colonies of Fresno County 63 



Climate 65- 
Th e Thermal Belt 67 

Rainfall and Humidity 67 

Mineral Resources 08 

Fossils and Petrefactions 69 

Forest Growth 70 

Grand Scenery 71 

Tehipitee Valley 72 

Paradise Valley 73 

Wild Animals 74 

Soil and Productions 77 

Irrigation 79 

Its Wonderful Results 82 

Easterby's Great Enterprise 83 

Raisin Packers 83 

Transportation, Early and Modern 83 

The County's Wealth , . . 84 

Schools 85 

County Officials 87 

Fresno City. 

Beginnings go 

Early Fresno Society 94 

Fresno's Climate 91 

Water Works 93 

County Hospital 93 

City Cemetery ■ , 94 

Street Improvements 94 

Sewerage System 94 

Street Railroads 94 

Fresno Flouring Mill 95 

Banks 95 

Board of Trade 96 

Fresno's Shipments 97 

Post Office Business ^ 97 

Newspapers 99 

Churches 101 

Societies 102 

Schools 105 

The Bar of the County , 105 

Physicians jq5 

Miscellaneous 406 

City Government and Officers 107 

Other Towns. 

Selma jqs 

Sanger m 

Madera ^g 

Kingsburg 121 

Raymond 133 



CONTENTS. 



Toll House 124 

Firebaugh's Ferry 124 

Buchanan 124 

Kingston and Centerville 124 

Fowler 124 

Huron and Coalingo 127 

Reedley 127 

Hendon and Borden 128 

Berenda and Minturn 128 

Special Interests. 

The Colony System 128 

Notable Vineyards 129 

West Side Colonies 130 

Fresno's Great Avenue 131 

Farming Pays in Fresno 131 

The Wine Product 132 

Raisins 132 

Timber and Stone 139 

Clays for Brick 141 

Tulare County. 

Tulare Valley 142 

Topography, etc., of Tulare County 144 

Climate 147 

The Dry Season 147 

The Rainy Season 148 

The General Health 149 

Among the Mountains 149 

Subterranean Wonders 151 

Big Trees of Tulare 152 

Lumber 159 

Soils 159 

Tulare County Organized 161 

An Important Case 162 

County Government 163 

Kern River Mining Excitements 163 

Pastoral 164 

The "Sandlapper" 165 

Mussel Slough Troubles 166 

Various Products 168 

Grains and Fruits 169 

The Thermal Belt 170 

General History Resumed 170 

Miscellaneous Items of Early Times 171 

Indian War on Tule River 179 

Courthouse and Jail 187 

Irrigation 188 

The Artesian Belt 189 

Property Assessment 190 

Railroads 192 

Educational Matters 192 

County Officials 194 

Train Robbers 1 96 

A Brave Deed 19G 

V ISALIA 198 

Fire Department 200 

Newspapers 200 

The Season's Rainfall 203 

Societies 203 

Tulare County Legal Lights 205 

Medical Profession 205 



Other Towns. 

Tulare City 206 

Tulare Irrigation District 210 

Porterville 210 

Hanford 215 

Traver 219 

Lemoore 220 

Springville 221 

White River 222 

Orosi 223 

Dinuba 

Goshen, Grangeville, Camp Badger, Farmersville 

and Tiplon 224 

Pixley, Alila, Poplar and Kaweab Colony 225 

Kern County. 

Early History 227 

First Settlement 

Early Mining 

Beginnings 229 

Governmental, etc 

County Statistics, Values, oic 238 

Population 234 

Public Schools 234 

County Officials 235 

Kern County as it is 237 

Its Topography 

Products 239 

Resources 240 

Scenery 24:; 

The Kern Delta 845 

Railroads 247 

Water Supply 247 

Irrigation 250 

Artesian Belt 250 

Canals 251 

Transportation 258 

Colony Settlement 258 

Oil Field 258 

Physicians 259 

Climate and Healthfulness 291 

Bakersfield 262 

N e wspapers 

Courthouse 261 

Lynch Law 281 

Singular Bank Robbery 26'1 

Legal Lights 268 

Freights Shipped 

Gas and Electric-Lighl Company 269 

Churches and Societies 269 

Smaller Towns. 

Poso 272 

Woody Precinct 27;; 

Delano 27:; 

Glennville 274 

Kernville 27 1 

Tehachapi 27 t 

Cummings' Valley -y,i, 

Bear Valley 276 

Mojave Desert 276 

Post Offices in the County 277 



CONTENTS. 



BIOQfyipj^/H. 5^EJ^ES. 



A 

Abbot, D. C 567 

Agee, C. W 412 

Akers, Oregon 472 

Alberts, A. C 337 

Albin,J. N 781 

Al ford, B. M 655 

Alford, B. T 343 

Allen, H. L 766 

Allison, J. R 468 

Anderson, G. R 799 

Anderson, F. H 453 

Ardizzi, B 509 

Armstrong Bros 815 

Armstrong, D. F 815 

Asay, C. E 631 

Ashe, E. M 755 

Ashe, R. S 755 

Asher, 1 714 

Ashmore, J. Y 522 

Atwell, A. B 486 

Austin, H. Z 324 

Austin, M.F 472 

Ayers, A. M 284 

B 

Baber, E. J 

Bacbman, H. S 680 

Bachtold, C 559 

Bacon, James A 732 

Badger, W. S 355 

Bagby, E. W 691 

Baird, Alfred 305 

Baird, W. F 495 

Baker, Frank 792 

Baker, J. T 395 

Baker, P. Y 404 

Baker, T. A 383 

Baker, Thomas 279 

Balaam, Alfred 716 

Balaam, E. S 330 

Baley, Gillum 370 

Ballou.G. A 701 

Bank of Visalia 517 

Bannon, P. M 559 

Bareroft, Fred 815 

Barker, J. A 791 

Barker, John 727 

Barker, Vining 479 

Bailing, A. D 394 

Barris, Emery 665 

Barton, James 804 

Barton, Robert 694 

Batz, J. B 342 

Beall, Z. D 626 

Beaty, John 723 

Beckwith, R. E 587 

Bedford, J. S 324 

Belcher, C. H 683 

Bell, I. T 637 

Bell, T. A 314 



Benson, F. IS 564 

Beiges, J. B 474 

Bernamayou, P 318 

Berry, F. G 609 

Berry, J. H 757 

Berry, W. A 519 

Betteridge, W 471 

Billingsley, J. D 510 

Bingham, Ozias 611 

Birkenhauer,George 707 

Birkhead, J. T 555 

Bishop, B. F 639 

Bixby, M. H 593 

Blakeley, F. A 766 

Bland, Tilley 725 

Blayney, O. C 583 

Bloyd, Leander 740 

Blowers, G. M 746 

Bohna, Henry 602 

Bones, J. W 594 

Boone, L. L 549 

Borden, Joseph 791 

Borgwardt, H., Sr 511 

Borgwardt, H. L., Jr 783 

Botsford, G. A 516 

Bowhay, J. N 725 

Bowles, J. M. & Sons 811 

Boyd, J. A 739 

Boyd, J. S 402 

Brady, P. T 350 

Bratton, T. C 577 

-Bi-eyfogle, W. O 492 

Briggs, S. W 772 

Briggs, T. L 820 

Brite, James M 297 

Brite, J. H 297 

Brite, L. F 297 

Brite, John M 296 

Brooks, J. T 401 

Brooks, Willard .' 602 

Brown, C. T 689 

Brown, E.E 565 

Brown, F. R 481 

Brown, John 798 

Brown, O. C 779 

Brown, T. W 752 

Browu, W. W 668 

Brownstone, D 774 

Brownstone, H. P 813 

Brownstone, Joseph 498 

Brundage, Benjamin 692 

Bryan, A. C 603 

Buckland, A 453 

Buckman, A.J 546 

Buckman, C. T 314 

Buckman, J. E 294 

Buckreus, Franz 415 

Biihn, D. P 299 

Buhn. F. L 681 

Bull, Walter 497 

Bump, A.J 283 



Burke, Daniel 478 

Burke, H. A 663 

Burks, N. B 584 

Burleigh, F. J 295 

Burleigh, H. E 455 

Burnett, J. G 490 

Burnett, M. M 397 

Burns, James A 814 

Burns, J. F 701 

Burrel, C 407 

Burris, David 433 

Burton, J. M 736 

Butler, A. B 418 

Butler, R. B 568 

Byrd, Pleasant 518 

Byrnes, M. J 706 

Byron, H. W 749 

C 

Cadwell, Ambrose 628 

Caldwell, J. W. V 599 

Calhoun, E. E 632 

Callison, E. Z 436 

Camp, W. S 537 

Canfleld, W 553 

Cannan, David 479 

Carpenter, A. B 291 

Carver, Wm 756 

Castro, Thomas 713 

Catron, G. B 623 

Caughran, W. W 709 

Cawrey, Charles 461 

Cecil, D. L 560 

Cesmat, Marius 820 

Chance, W. H 385 

Chapin, J. E 489 

Chase, A. B 375 

Chauvin, E 747 

Child, B.W 489 

Chism, J. T 679 

Chittenden, J. E 775 

Chittenden, L. S 734 

Chrisman, H. T 537 

Church, Firman 381 

Church, M. J 457 

Clack, J. S 694 

Clack, R.N 687 

Clark, A. M 329 

Clark, C. R 443 

Clark, J. A 482 

Clark, J. P 745 

Click, M. C 693 

Cline,J. W 480 

Clough, W. O 642 

Clow, B. R 415 

Cody, G. W 301 

Coffee, D. F 309 

Coffee, G. W 753 

Coffman.W. F 502 

Cohn, D. S 568 

Cole, J. A 376 



CONTENTS 



Cole, J. S 699 

Cole, L. M 299 

Cole, S. H 345 

Collier, J. M 318 

Collins, John 681 

Collyer. .1. C 541 

Colvin, E T 330 

Combs, F. A 530 

Conklin, A. R ..280 

Conner, C. L 481 

Cook, F. M 063 

Coolbaueli, D. H 769 

Coons, W. H 782 

Corbly. P. M 551 

Corti, Paul 465 

Cory, J. M 430 

Cory, L. L 300 

Cotton, G. W 770 

( 'oughlin, Michael 682 

Coughran, C. E 463 

Covalt, A. B 302 

Coverdale, D. S 722 

Cowing. John 639 

Craig, F. W 512 

Craine, S. J 715 

Creightou, Thomas 799 

Cress, J. D 337 

Crichton, W. D 600 

Crocker, E. M 7(1!) 

Crocker, J. C 813 

Cromley, A. P 326 

Cronin, Thomas 709 

Crookshauks, S. A 805 

Cross, W. W 311 

Crossman, A. C 601 

Crowley, Arthur 533 

Cruse, Ferdinand 450 

Cuddeback, John 720 

Cullom, W. B 702 

Cummings, A. H 786 

Cunningham, W. S 700 

Curtin.I). H 711 

Cutter, E A 742 

Cyrus, Joseph 742 



D 



Danuer, J. D 591 

Darnell, J.J 718 

Davenport, Daniel 304 

Davidson, E. M 804 

Davidson, J. A 608 

Davis, A. J 724 

Davis, A. P 567 

Davis, E. P 376 

Davis, F. E 722 

Davis, O. S 766 

Davis, Solomon 463 

Davison. W. A 531 

Day, B. F 494 

Dean, G. C 521 

Dean, H. W 621 

Deatdoff, A. G 361 

Deas, Henry 298 

Deater, W. J 544 

Decker, S 586 

Denicke, M 370 

Dennv, J. E 369 

Detles, II. M 605 

Dickenson, J. J 483 

Dice, J. H 691 

Dilley, Albert 563 

Pineley, Samuel 7!>3 



Dixon, L. L 316 

Dodds, W. H 410 

Dodge, F. A 396 

Dodge, F. L 717 

Dodge, G. A 546 

Dolan, Alfred 444 

Donahoo, P. B 556 

Doody, P. J :738 

Dooley, O. D 596 

Dore, Benjamin 660 

Dore, J. S 475 

Dorn, David 469 

Douglass, D. It 723 

Dow, B. N 657 

Doyle, B. W 327 

Drake, J. A 733 

Draper, E. J 454 

Dudley, Edwin 631 

Duncan, N. P 405 

Duncan, T. J 308 

Dunlap, Calvin 744 

Dunlap, J. M 492 

Dunlap, W.J 758 

Dunn, E. C ■ 408 

Durnal, J. A 680 

Dusserre, J 783 

Dusy, Frank 634 

Duvall, C. W 469 

Dyer, George 550 



Earl, S. F 611 

Eastin, James T 504 

Eccleston, E 646 

Edmiston, N. B 733 

Edwards, D. F 478 

Edwards, E. D 368 

Edwards, George 790 

Edwards, Samuel 685 

Edwards, S. F 717 

Eggers, George H 802 

Eggers, Herman C 806 

Einstein, Louis 418 

Eller, W. H 475 

Elliott, C. C 339 

Elliott, George 447 

Ellis, J. S 774 

Ellis, W.J 341 

Elrod, John W 697 

Emmons, C. H 299 

English, William 411 

Erickson, A 483 

Erlanger, Edward 778 

Espitallier, M. M 781 

Esrey, Jonathan 670 

Fates, F. A 444 

Etter, A. J 64J 

Evinger, S 812 

Ewing, A. D 336 

Ewing, D. S 336 

F 

Fahev.Wm 543 

Fanning, P. R 452 

Farley, M 828 

Faure Bros 571 

Fay, Alfred 535 

Fay, Alvin 506 

Ferguson, J. M 524 

Fernald, J. P 627 

Fickert, F. W 338 

Fickert, Louis 675 



Fink, P. W 650 

Firebaugh, J. F 884 

Fisher, W. A 476 

Flournov, W. V 886 

Flynn, Matt 67s 

Foster, J. C 308 

Fox. J. M 325 

Frankenau, Max '17 1 

Freear, H. T 

Freeman, Ed 854 

Freeman, R. L 

Fugitt, F. S 600 

Fugitt, Wm 670 

Fulgham, J. J 649 

Furber, S. D 806 

Furnish, W. R JOT 

G 

Galloway, J. D 804 

Gallup, Elias 768 

Galtes, Paul 7!i5 

Ganyard, A, B 488 

Gardett, Peter 384 

Gardner, R. C 365 

Giddings, C.J 04* 

Gilbert, D. E 688 

Gilbert, J.L 7-.Nl 

Gill.L. L 543 

Gilroy, Launcelot 750 

Glasscock, A. H 

Glenn, G. R. G 389 

Glenn, Robert 880 

Goodin, O. C 

Gordon, Ales 601 

Goth, M 578 

Goucher, G. G 550 

Grady, W. D 449 

Graham, Wm. P 585 

Graham. W. J 412 

Grant, R. P 78S 

Granz, Herman 484 

Gray, A. W 381 

Gray, H. P 77.! 

Gray, R. P 770 

Gray, W. A r<^ 

Greeley, C. E 880 

Green,"j. W 807 

Greene, P. D 672 

Gregg, S. G 789 

Greive, Alex 504 

Grimes, George C 67B 

Guard, W. C 554 

Gundelfinger, Leopold :'.);; 

Gundelfinger, Louis 377 

Guy. S. S 426 

II 

Haber, F.J 589 

Hackett, Henry 620 

Haering, Fred 403 

Hague, B. M 588 

Halemeier, A 473 

Hall, J. H 561 

Ham, I. H 44". 

Hamilton, IF 467 

Hammers, E . F 711 

Hammond, W. II 437 

Hanke, W. F 645 

Hansberger, H ■•',■> 

Hansberger, Lu J - r >7 7 

Hansen, L 775 

Hansen, N 775 

Haralson, J. A 859 

Harden, J. H 188 



C0NTE1 TS. 



Harden, J. K 721 

Sffarlow, J. J 712 

Harp, Lemuel 603 

Harrell, Alfred 548 

Harrell, Jasper 409 

Harrington, J\ r 307 

Harris, Geortce 305 

Harris, M. K. 667 

Harris, W. H 462 

Hart, C. A 787 

Hart, C. C 534 

Hart, Isaac 341 

Hart, Moses 726 

Hatch, H. L 666 

Hatch, Miss L. H 472 

Hatch, M. P 666 

Hayes, Jacob 686 

Hays, J. C 737 

Hedge Row Vineyard 472 

Heinevnan, S 318 

Helm, T. W 401 

Helm, Win 606 

Hely, Gorges 496 

Helman, H. H .' 722 

Henderson, C. U 640 

Hendricks, II. T 395 

Hendrickson, J. J 682 

Hennick, A. A .452 

Henry, A. R 041 

Hensley, J. M 533 

Herrington, J. C 564 

Higgins, E. R 362 

Higgins, O. C 754 

Hill, S. H 554 

Hill, V.E 775 

Hilton, F. T ; ...357 

Hinds, S.J 607 

Hinds, Wiley 288 

Hirsht'eld, D 363 

Hobart, B. F 714 

Hockett, J. B 513 

Hodges, I. A 557 

Hogue, S. L 526 

Holmes, S. A 335 

Holton, S. B 544 

Hooper, J. W 684 

Hooper, Richard 351 

Hope, S. D 816 

Hopkins, H. St. George 344 

Hotchkiss, B. M 688 

Houghton, W. E 285 

House, J, A .741 

Howell, L. M 356 

Hoy, P. A 614 

Hudson, D. D 785 

Huffaker, J. V 631 

Huffman, M. D. . . . 582 

Hughes, Hiram 581 

Hughes, J. E 456 

Hughes, T. E 374 

Hunt, S. B 356 

Hunter, W. W.W 478 

Huntley, J. H 416 

Hurs', J. S 731 

Hutchinson, W. J , 293 

Hyde, I. N 309 

Hyde, R. E 517 

I 

Iribarne, John 325 

Irwin, Rowen 521 

J 

Jacob, Elias 368 

Jacobs, Justin, Jr .432 



Jackson, Spier 803 

James, J. G 585 

James, AValter 378 

James, W. D 004 

James, T. J 364 

Jarrett, E. V 491 

Jefferds, E. M 317 

Jenkinson, Thomas 771 

Jewett, Pliilo D 761 

Johnson, E. A 445 

Johnson, Jeff 777 

Johnston, John 547 

Jones, J. S 610 

Jones, T. L 500 

Jordan, John 690 

Joyner, C. E 710 

Judd, S. M 467 

Jurgens, P. G 397 

K 

Kaarsberg, H. M. H 47 7 

Kay, E. W 772 

Keith, J. M 503 

Kelsey, Hiram 724 

Kenneson, M. D 547 

Kessing, Bernard 311 

Kett, John ' 716 

Kimball, F. T.. 801 

Kieffer, G. F 699 

Kincaid, J. A 6n9 

King, I. N 463 

Kirkman, G. W 319 

Kiser, Joseph 685 

Knapp, W. H 315 

Knox, J. G 817 

Knupp, V. D 393 

Kohler, G. M 570 

Kuhl, Hugo 289 

Kurtz, J. L 664 

L 

Lacy, H. G 420 

Lafever, A. J 529 

Laird, J. W. P 378 

Lake, J. L 504 

Langrick, G. F . . 710 

Lanz, Henry, 572 

Larkins, E. O 340 

Lathrop, Ezra 501 

Lavers, Thomas 662 

Lazar, Sol 798 

Leach, Lewis 649 

Lechner, C. E 770 

Lee, C. A 290 

Leonard, D. A 419 

Letcher, F. F 558 

Levis, Ado] ph 552 

Levis, Mahlon 600 

Libbey, C. A 442 

Lightuer, A. T 385 

Lightner, A. T 494 

Lightner, D. S 683 

Lightner, Win 38/ 

Linder, R 393 

Lindrose, M. J 642 

Lindsey, James , 788 

Lindsey, Tipton 323 

Lipscomb, D. S 794 

Li vermore, W 482 

Long, G. L 357 

Lord, E 740 

Lowrey, J. E 635 

Lowry, J. W - 690 



Lowry, T. B 571 

Loyd, AVm 760 

M 

Mace, R. P 751 

Macmurdo, W. R 414 

Madden, D. W 286 

Mahon, J. W 783 

Malter, G. H 291 

Maltby, A. J 443 

Manasse, J 384 

Mandis, A 576 

Manley, J.S 481 

Manter, J. T 686 

Mariott, Joseph 613 

Marshall, H. O . '.573 

Martin, Isaac 354 

Martin, J. M 661 

Martin, J. W 549 

Martin, Win. S 508 

Mathewson, A. W 633 

Mathews, T. B 598 

Mattly, Chris 469 -/ 

Maud, A. C 819 

Maupin, W T 384 

Mason, E. D 626 

May, E. A 522 

May, F. P 471 

McCartney, W. S 700 

McClellan, J. L 595 

McC'ollough, Ge.orge 426 

McConnell, D. J 580 

McCutchan, J. W 579 

McDonald, Daniel 744 

McDonald, R. H 514 

McFarland, Wm 810 

McKamy, J. M., Sr 588 

McKenzie.W. H 339 

McLaughlin, Daniel 789 

McLaughlin, S. A 328 

McMaster, A. D 565 

McMillen, Joel 561 

McQuiddy, T. J 719 

McQuiddy, W. R 327 

McWhirter, L. B 400 

Meade, O. J 351 

Melone, J. H 630 

Menzel, Wm 742 

Merriam, C. C 309 

Metzger, E. B 719 

Meyers, A. G S10 

Mickle, B. C 662 

Miller, E. O 729 

Miller, G 544 

Miller, H. T 675 

Miller, J. E 675 

Miller, W. P 566 

Mills, Alex 809 

Miuter, M 768 

Mitchell, J. II 679 

Mitchell, J.S 721 

Mitchell, Susman 324 

Mitchell, Wm 462 

Moncure, R. A 466 

Monleot, M 728 

Monroe, Donald 68'J 

Montague, R. E 698 

Montgomery, Wm 784 

Moodey, N. W 366 

Moore, B. F 706 

Moore, Charles 788 

Moore, Edwin 469 

Moore, Felix..- 440 



CONTENTS. 



Moore, G. C 506 

Moore, L. L 434 

Morgan, Alfred 523 

Morris, J. B 365 

Morrison, J. P 59:3 

Morrow, Jesse 349 

Moshier, I). B 730 

Motberal, N. W 422 

Mowry, M. J 778 

Murrell, J. G 396 

Murry, J. P 753 

Musgrave, R. W 659 

Myer, J 484 

N 

Nathan, H 760 

Neame, E. A 620 

Neil, J. P 495 

Neill, A. 796 

Nelson, W. D 569 

Newman, .1. E 493 

Newman, Emil 518 

Newport, W. J 511 

Nicoll, John 731 

Niedraur, J 422 

Nightingale, F. L 5S9 

Norboe, P. M 797 

Nonis, 0. H 802 

Norris, Smith 803 

Nourse, G. A 379 

O 

Oakes, J. W 334 

Oatman, E. P 377 

O'Brien, Patrick 737 

O'Connor, J. B 438 

Oeltle, C. L 694 

O'Hare, P 784 

Olds, H. P 488 

O'Mara, James 671 

O'Neal, Charles 598 

Osburn, R. M 816 

Otto, A 466 

Overall, D. G 805 

P 

Packard, N. P. 392 

Packard, T.J 401 

Paige, Hoot and Chittenden 734 

Palmer, Robert 536 

Palmes, E. C 489 

Parker, G. A 638 

Parker, W. H 320 

Parlier, I. N 588 

Patterson, II. 8 485 

Patterson, J. A 316 

Patterson, J. M 735 

Peacock, II. R 714 

Peacock, II. F 414 

Peacock, Joseph 416 

Pease, E. R 794 

Peaselee, Wm 294 

Pedlar, A. J 380 

Pendergrasa, T. W 711 

Perkins, II. P....: 708 

Peters, A. F 592 

Peterson. N. P 355 

Phelps, O B 767 

Phillips, W. W 367 

Phillips, BR 468 

Phillips, D. L 403 

Piffard, C C 693 

Pillsbury<& Ellsworth 209 



Piper, Herman 754 

Porteous, James 562 

Potter, G. M 424 

Powell, F. M 780 

Power, M. E 315 

Pratber, W. J 344 

Prewitt, J. (' 736 

Prince, D. H r 579 

Putnam, R. P 387 

Pyle, D. M 417 

Q 

Quinn, Harry 289 

R 

Racine, George 739 

Railsback, C 398 

Ramsey, E. H 715 

Rankin, Walker 737 

Rawlins, H. W 757 

Rawlins, J. E 293 

Kea, Francis 538 

Rea, W. W 515 

Redd, Robert C 515 

Redfield, L. J 047 

Reed, G. W 646 

Reed, J. R : 646 

Reed, T. L 616 

Reed, Wm 777 

Reeve, George 702 

Reicbman, John 332 

Reiley, J. R 349 

Rboads, Daniel 614 

Rhoads, Henry 743 

Rhoads, J. W 658 

Rhymes, J. J 582 

Rice, G. F 524 

Rice, L. C 788 

Ring, W. C 767 

Ritchie, I. A 423 

Robb, W. B 625 

Roberts, J. V 361 

Roberts, Return 806 

Robertson, G. L 819 

Robinson, C. II 599 

Robinson, J. B 574 

Robinson, J. S .441 

Rockwell, L. A 331 

Rodriguez, J. V 545 

Roeding, F 464 

Roes, H. C 636 

Rogers, C. A 436 

Rogers, E. B 811 

Rogers, L. S 446 

Rogers, Robert G 697 

Root, E. J 734 

Rose, R. A 586 

Rosendahl, F. D 456 

Rosenthal, N 480 

Ross, S. II 535 

Roul, J. H 655 

Howell, Chester 612 

Ruggles, L. B 310 

Rupert, George 812 

Russell, E. S 709 

Russell, J. C 281 

Rutledge, F. A 447 

Rutledge. P 597 

livan, .1. E 0:>8 

Ryan, M.J 781 

S 

Salcido, Eduardo 780 

Sanders, W. A 601 



Sanders, Wm 734 

Sanger, Gustave his 

Saudoz, Auguste 683 

Saxe, C 797 

Sayle, C. G 439 

Sayre, A. L 490 

Schmidt, Louis 748 

Schofer, Augustus 295 

Schwartz, M.. Jr - 589 

Scobie, James 554 

Scodie, Wm 728 

Scott, B. T 121 

Scott, John B98 

Scribner, W. H 360 

Seligman, Emil 429 

Selleck, E. F 501 

Serigbt, A. M 811 

Shafer, D. R 705 

Sharp, Craigie, Jr 382 

Sharp, L. Orrin. .. 170 

Sharpies, Frank 71* 

Shedd, J. II 490 

Shepard.J.C 580 

Sherwood, II 527 

Shields,.! 886 

Shipp, W. W 804 

Short, F. II 301 

Short, J. W 282 

Sides, Marion BOO 

Sims, W. A 727 

sim, k. h era 

Skaggs, A. A 485 

Bledge, L. A 735 

Slover, R. H BBS 

Smith, A. A 881 

Smith, C. C 021 

Smith. CD 687 

Smith, E. D 507 

Smith, G. A 177 

Smith, G. W 528 

Smith, J. B 448 

Smith, J. E 497 

Smith, T. H 358 

Smith, Wm 703 

Smoot, S. .M 474 

Snell, Mrs Hulda 321 

Snodgrass, D. S 

Snyder, Monroe 503 

Spear, J. L 669 

Spencer, H 075 

Spier, Joseph 

Spinney, Joseph 573 

Sponog'le, F. M 350 

Sprague, W. D 745 

Staley, W. S 802 

Stanton, C. S 485 

Staub, II. AV I5i 

St. Clair, L. P 176 

Sleiiinc, G. W 664 

Stevens, R. II 128 

Stewart, V. A 698 

Stockton, C. C IM 

Stockton, I. I) 451 

Stockton. R. L 747 

Stokes, B. F 718 

Stokes, Y. B 540 

Stoner, Yandoren 18 1 

Stonsland, W. W 704 

Stontenborough, J. II.. Jr v,| ~ 

Straube, S. N 610 

Studer, George 592 

Sumner, .1. W 

Sutherland, -lames 759 

Suttenfield. W. T 566 

-wain, T. II 



CONTENTS. 



Sweet, Solomon 431 

Swearingen, .1. B 516 

Styles, Belle R 529 

T 

Tadlock, F. E., Jr 573 

Tadlock, W. L 570 

Taggart, C. F 569 

Tasgart, T. E 569 

Taylor, R. R 726 

Teachers' Library, Bakersfleld. .548 

Thacher, Oliver 729 

Thomas, I. H 532 

Thompson, Charles 319 

Thomson, Win 507 

Thyarks, George 413 

Tibbetts, C. B 814 

Tilley, J. L 735 

Timmons, W. B 746 

Todd, H. L 717 

Toler, Mrs. Hattie S 676 

Tombs, A 298 

Topham, T. J 750 

Tracy, F. A 681 

Trauger, J. H 633 

Tucker, E. H 312 

Tucker, W. H 306 

Tulloch, Wm. K 552 

Turner, H. F 691 

Tyler, Alonzo 461 

Tyler, A. W 499 

Tyler,.!. D 622 

Tyer, S. J. W 510 

U 

Underwood, Wesley 435 



V 

Valencia, Don Y. S 781 

Van Buckuer, Wm 623 

Van Loan, Casper 713 

Van Tassel, Lewis 705 

Van Valer, Peter 755 

Vaughn, D. A 648 

Verdier, Eugene 500 

Viguave, L 573 

Vincent, J. P 708 

W 

Wagner, J. D 542 

Wallace, W. B 352 

Waller, Thomas 391 

Walser, D. W 419 

Walter, C. L 696 

Ward, Nelson G 820 

Wareham, E. J 811 

Warnekros, A 581 

Watson, Wiley 738 

Watts, B. M 736 

Webber, A. A 674 

Wells, M. J 541' 

Wells, T. A 732- 

Weringer, Joseph 408 

Werfield, W. H 748 

Wharton, .1. F 353 

White, Harrison .625 

White, H. M 677 

White, J. R 434 

White, J. W 467 

White, T. 617 

Whitendale, L 363 

Whitney, Walter 645 

Whitson, J. E 613 

Whitt, L. D 754 

Wible, S. W 505 



Wicker, C. G 759 

Wiggins, W. C 297 

Wiggins, W. T 688 

Wilcox, C. G 779 

Wilkes, A. G 578 

Wilkes, T. E 578 

Wilkes, Thomas 578 

Williams, A. C 493 

Williams, A. C 292 

Williams, G. W 388 

Williams, Reuben 517 

Williams, Wiley 624 

Williams, W. J 580 

Wilson, 3ST 442 

Wilson, O. S 629 

Wilson, R. M 362 

Wimmer, Elijah ■ . . .658 

Winchell, E. C 821 

Withington, R. W 756 

Witt, T.J 509 

Wolfrom, J 498 

Wood, Daniel 373 

Wood, L. N 366 

Woodward, O. J 429 

Woody, S. W 406 

Woolley, J. R 450 

Wormser, S 474 

Worswick, John 412 

Wyatt, W. S 570 

Y 

Yancey, C. A 

Yost, Thomas 589 

Youug, Austin 333 

Yribarne, Pedro 292 

Z 
Zumwalt, J. B 678 



Baker, Thomas 

Canfleld, Wellington 

Canfield, Julietta 

- Canon View iD the Coast Range 

Church, M. J 

Cole, S. H 

■Green Horn Mountain, Kern County. 

Harrell, Ja3per 

James, J. G 

Jewett, Philo D 



278^ 

553" 

553 1"' 

.Frontispiece v 

457 J' 

345 

243U 

409 u 

585 

761,/ 



Jewett, Jeanie D 761^ 

Leach, Lewis 649"' 

^Mount Tom, Fresno County 71 ^ 

Putnam, R. P 387,/ 

' Railsback, C 398 ^ 

- Table Mountain, Tulare County 149<^ 

Tracy, F. A 681^ 

White, T. C 617 w 

Wible, S. W 505 ^ 



HISTORY OF 



CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



DISCOVERY. 

§dfHE discovery of California was directly 
the result of a belief entertained in the 
early part of the sixteenth century that 
there was a direct passage from the Atlantic 
ocean to the Indian seas. This highway was 
sought for by various navigators of that time, 
and when Hernando Cortez landed in Vera 
Cruz in April, 1519, he was confident that he 
had reached Asia. It was his intention to set- 
tle the shadow of doubt by following the coast 
around to India, and this resolution in succeed- 
ing years resulted in the discovery of California. 
Cortez founded the town of Zacatula, 180 
miles north of Acapulco, Mexico, where he 
built a fleet and a few years later, in 1532, sent 
out the ships in search of lands then unknown 
to previous travelers. The voyage was a dis- 
astrous one, and in 1533 he sent out two ships 
in search of the missing vessels. These ships 
were under the command of Hernando Grijalva 
and Diego Becerra de Mendoza, the latter a 
cousin of Cortez. Grijalva soon abandoned 
the search in despair and returned to Zacatula; 
Mendoza was murdered by the crew of his ship, 
headed by one Fortuno Jimenez, a pilot; and 
the mutineers followed the coast northward 
until a beautiful bay, since called La Paz, was 
reached. This bay is on the western side of 
the gulf of California, 100 miles north of Cape 
St. Lucas. Jimenez and nearly all of his crew 
were here murdered by Indians, and the leader 



of the mutineers was not aware, at the time of 
his tragic death, that he possessed the proud 
distinction and would be credited in history as 
the discoverer of California. 

Cortez landed at Santa Cruz, then known as 
Jimenez Bay, May 3, 1535, but owing to the 
hostility of the Indians he was compelled a 
year later to abandon his possessions. In 1539, 
he sent Captain Francisco de Ulloa to the gulf, 
which he explored nearly to the mouth of the 
Colorado, and then, rounding the point, sailed 
up the outer coast to Cedros Islands. 

THE NAME "CALIFORNIA." 

It was Ulloa who on this voyage applied the 
name of California to the peninsula, the source 
of the christening being an old romance by 
Ordonez de Montalvo, a great favorite among 
the Spanish, from 1510 to 1526, in which he 
describes an "island of California on the right 
hand of the Indias very near the Terrestrial 
Paradise," peopled with black women, griffins 
and other creatures of the author's imagination. 
While there is no historical proof of the ap- 
plication of this name, the coincidence is so 
striking that authorities generally agree that 
the title "California" was derived from this 
source. 

FURTHER DISCOVERIES. 

The honor of first sighting New, or Upper, 
California was reserved to Juan Rodriguez 
Cabrillo, one of the pilots of Cortez, who in 



10 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



1542, under instructions from the viceroy of 
Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, sailed from the 
port of Navidad in Mexico, on an expedition 
of discovery of the coast toward the north. 
He anchored in San Diego bay, to which lie 
gave the name of San Miguel, and in October, 
1542, visited the Santa Catalina Island. After 
touching at the Indian town of Xuca, in the 
vicinity of what is now known as San Buena- 
ventura, Cabrillo made his way northward un- 
til he reached Monte: ^y bay, where the brave 
navigator a short time after died. 

He was succeeded by Bartolome Ferrello, a 
Levantine pilot, who continued northward until 
he arrived at the region between Humboldt and 
Trinidad bays, after which he turned south 
again. No further efforts were made to dis- 
cover the mysteries of the upper coast for 
thirty-live years following. 

In 1577, Captain Drake, the famous navi- 
gator, started on his great buccaneering expe- 
dition along the Spanish coast, and in 1579 he 
determined to make for England by way of the 
Cape of Good Hope. Contrary winds drove 
his ship northward, but finding himself in the 
arctic latitudes he headed south again until he 
reached the latitude of thirty-eight degrees, 
where he discovered a country which from its 
white cliffs he called New Albion. Here he 
found a bay in which he anchored, and formally 
took possession of the country in the name of 
Queen Elizabeth. Some diversity of opinion 
exists as to the identity of Drake's anchorage, 
some assuming that he reefed sails in Bodega 
bay, others that he stopped in the waters now 
bearing his name, and others still that he had 
reached the bay of San Francisco. The general 
inference, however, is, that Drake anchored in 
the bay that now bears his name and did not 
discover San Francisco. Several years later, 
voyages were made by Francisco Gali, Carme- 
non and Sebastian Viscaino. 

.Neither of these voyagers accomplished much 
more than their predecessors, and between the 
years 1G15 and 1668, eight separate and fruit- 
less efforts to make further discoveries were 



advanced. The glaring accounts of these ex- 
plorers excited the public mind for many years, 
There were visions of a magnificent country, 
golden sands and pearls of great price, but 
gradually the adventurous spirits of the con- 
quering Spaniards waned, and for more than 
100 years there is a blank in the annals of 
California. 

CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES. 

Kesiiming the second historic period of Cali- 
fornia, we find the Jesuit regime inaugurated 
by the Spanish Court at Madrid, in 1677, when 
it was decided that the survey, conquest, and 
settlement of the new country should be under- 
taken on a new basis. The instructions were 
accordingly sent to Enrique de Rivera, then 
Viceroy of New Spain, as well as Archbishop 
of Mexico, and the prosecution of the enter- 
prise was entrusted to Admiral Don Ieidro 
Otondo. The plan was, that the undertaking 
should be conducted at the expense of the crown, 
which was to supply Otondo with a body of 
priests and a sufficient number of soldiers to 
protect the missionaries. The spiritual govern- 
ment of the expedition was conferred on the 
Jesuits, then the most powerful priestly organ- 
ization in Mexico, with Father Ensebio Fran- 
cisco Kuhn — a German by birth and called by 
the Spaniards Kino — at their head. The party 
left Chacala in May, 1683, and sailed up the 
gulf, landing at various Indian towns on the 
peninsula and preaching their gospel to the (so 
called) heathens. In later years Kuhn associ- 
ated himself with Fathers Salvatierra Picola 
and Ugarte, and these pioneers of Christianity 
and civilization, filled with a pious zeal which 
urged them on against every obstacle, — the un- 
willingness of their own society, the indiffer- 
ence and backwardness of the court, the delay 
of officials, and their own limited finances as 
well as the small number of their coadjutors, — ■ 
pursued their labors to a glorious end. In 
1691, Kuhn and Salvatierra reached the mod. 
ern Arizona line, and afterward explored the 
country as far as the Gila river. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



11 



Later on the Jesuits began to lose their in- 
fluence, a feeling of enmity grew up against 
them, and they became involved in vexatious 
controversies; settlers and miners began to ad- 
vocate secularization; hatred to the priests was 
fomented, and in 1766 Charles III. summarily 
put an end to all the strife by an ordinance for 
the instant and general expulsion of the Jesuits 
from all the Spanish dominions. Early in 
1768, the decree went into effect, and Califor- 
nia was again left to the savage tribes which 
had peopled it from remote ages. 

We find the next historic period of civilized 
invasion of California was by the Franciscan 
friars following the expulsion of the Jesuits. ■ 
Their instructions were to take possession of the 
missions in peninsular California, and also to 
establish new missions which should protect 
the country further north against seizure by the 
English or French. The convent of San Fer- 
nando, the principal establishment of the Fran- 
ciscan monks in New Spain, was given charge 
of the work, and the head of the convent selected 
Junipero Serra as the head of the proposed 
establishments. 

In 1768, Serra, with fifteen friars, arrived in 
Lower California, and San Diego — the San 
Miguel of Cabrillo — having been decided on as 
the objective point, two expeditions by land and 
two by sea were started for that place. Expe- 
riencing many hardships, privations and diseases, 
the expeditions arrived at their destination, and 
on July 11, 1769, the mission of the San Diego 
was founded. Three days later Captain Por- 
tola\ who afterward became first governor of 
the territory, set out in company with friars 
Crespi and Gomez, with forty-five other whites 
and a few Indians, with a view of occupying 
Monterey. The object of this expedition was 
not accomplished, but resulted in the discovery 
of San Francisco bay; and January 24, 1770, a 
second attempt to find Monterey was made. 
June 23 the mission of San Carlos and the presid- 
io, or fort, of Monterey was founded, and a formal 
declaration of the possessions of the country in 
the name of the King of Spain was made. 



The foregoing events were the subject for 
hearty congratulations and prayers in Mexico, 
and immediate and liberal provision was made 
for the establishment of other missions. 

The mission of San Antonio was founded at 
the foot of the Santa Lucia Mountains July 14, 
1771; that of San Gabriel, on the river of the 
same name, in August, 1771, and that of San 
Luis Obispo in September, 1772. Four years 
later, in 1776, the missions of San Juan Capis- 
trano and San Francisco were founded. Subse- 
quently the following missions were founded: 
Santa Clara, 1777; San Buenaventura, 1782; 
Santa Barbara, 1786; Concepcion, 1782; Sole- 
dad, 1791; Santa Cruz, 1794; San Fernando, 
1797; San Miguel, 1797; Sau Juan, 1797; San 
Jose in this same year, and San Luis Rey, in 
1798; those of Solano, San Rafael and Santa 
Ynez being built in the present century. 

CALIFORNIA DIVIDED. 

The division of California into two district 
provinces was projected in 1796, but it was not 
effected until 1804, when a royal order from 
Spain, in which the official names of the new 
provinces were fixed as Antiqua and Nueva 
California, was received. The fixing of the 
boundaries of the two provinces was left to the 
Franciscans, and Arrillaga was made political 
and military governor of Nueva California, at 
a salary of $4,000 a year. The first years of his 
term were devoted to interior explorations, 
during which time the river San Joaquin was 
named, and the Tulare, Mariposa, King's, Mer- 
ced and Tuolumne rivers were visited. 

thk peeiod 1811-23 

was characterized by a period of strife growing 
out of a revolution by which the colonies sought 
to throw off the Spanish yoke. 

On July 24, 1814, Colonel Don Jose" Joaquin 
de Arrillaga died at Soledad mission, at the age 
of sixty-four years. He was succeeded by Lieu- 
tenant Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola. It was 
during his term that the first invasion of a foreign 
foe, led by Captain Hippolyte Bouchard, com- 
monly known as the "pirate Bouchard," occurred. 



13 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Sola made great preparations to receive the 
unpleasant visitor, and on November 20, 1818, 
a sentinel on Point Pinos, reported that Bouch- 
ard's vessels were approaching Monterey. A 
few hours later two large vessels anchored in 
the bay and began tiring upon Sola's forces, 
which lined the shore. Nine boats, containing 
400 of the invaders, succeeded in landing. Sola, 
seeing the hopelessness of resistance, spiked his 
guns, burned his powder, and retreated to the 
Rancho del Rey, fifteen miles distant, where 
Salinas City now stands. The invaders killed 
all the cattle they could find, looted the stores, 
burned the guns and set the fort and presidio 
on tire. 

Leaving Monterey, Bouchard sailed down to 
the Santa Barbara channel, where he plundered 
the buildings of the Refugio ranch, killed the 
cattle and carried away some prisoners. On 
the 6th of December he stopped at Santa Bar- 
bara briefly, exchanged some prisoners, and 
sailed away — out of the history of California. 

February, 1821, Iturbide proclaimed the in- 
dependence of Mexico. This valiant royalist 
became regent of Mexico in September of that 
year. This information reaching Sola, he im- 
mediately called the commandants of the four 
presidios to a junta, or council, at Monterey, 
together with Father Payras as representative 
of the missions and neophytes. The junta met 
on the 9th of April, and it was resolved to ac- 
quiesce in the regency, to obey the new govern- 
ment, to recognize the dependence of California 
on the Mexican empire only, and to take the 
prescribed oath. 

Iturbide followed up his past success by pro- 
claiming himself Emperor of Mexico and Cali- 
fornia under the title of Agustin 1., and sent a 
commissioner to California to learn the feelings 
of the people, to obtain an oath of allegiance, to 
raise the new national flag, and in general lo 
superintend public affairs. This commissioner 
was Fernandez de San "Vicente, a canon of the 
Durango Cathedral. He went to Monterey on 
September 26th, and there obtained the oath of 
allegiance, and on November 9, 1822, organized 



the first legislature of California, presided over 
by Governor Sola, and of which Francisco de 
Ilaro was secretary. Sola was chosen as deputy 
to the Mexican Congress, and Captain Luis 
Arguello was elected to the office of acting 
Governor. Two days after Sola's departure for 
Mexico, Arguello assumed the cares of govern- 
ment, November 20, at Monterey. 

The Iturbidian dynasty came to an inglorious 
end in March, 1823, when he was forced to ab- 
dicate and be banished from the country. One 
of his last official acts was to appoint a governor 
to succeed Sola, choosing for the position Cap- 
tain Bonifacio de Tosta. He held the office but 
a short time, and the only official act he per- 
formed was the collection of money at Gauda- 
lajara, on salary account. 

Then came the death of Iturbide, July 19, 
1824, and the formation of the Mexican Repub- 
lic, the constitution of which formed New 
Spain, Yucatan, the Internal Provinces of the 
East and West and the Call" for nias, into a feder- 
ation of nineteen States and four territories. 
The executive power was vested in a president 
and vice-president, and the legislative in a 
senate and chamber of deputies. The States 
were recognized as free, independent and sov- 
ereign, and the territories, of which Alta Cali- 
fornia was one and Baja California was another, 
were to be administered by a governor appointed 
by the president and a legislature to be elected 
by the people. 

From this time forward California was no 
longer a royal or an imperial province, but a 
republican territory. 

THE PERIOD BETWEEN 1823 AND 1836 

was noted for many changes, unrest, disaffec- 
tion and revolts in the territory of the young 
republic. 

In 1825, Victoria, then President of the 
Mexican Republic, decided not to confirm Ar- 
guello in office, and in February, 1825, ap- 
pointed Lieutenant Colonel Jose Maria de 
Echeandia, Governor of both Californias. He 
met Arguello at San Diego. October 31, 1825, 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



15 



called the Dormer party, numbering eighty 
persons. They reached the eastern slope of 
the Sierras October 31, 1846, and, owing to 
lack of provisions, were compelled to push for- 
ward regardless of the falling snow which 
threatened to bury them. Finally finding 
themselves snowbound, and hemmed in on 
every side, they built cabins to pass the winter 
there. In a few weeks starvation stared them 
in the face, and a party of fifteen was organized 
to make their way to Sutter's fort for assistance. 
Only one of the miserable party survived to 
reach William Johnson's ranch on Bear river, 
and he carried the sad news to Sutter's fort and 
San Francisco. Relief parties were immedi- 
ately organized and started to the rescue of the 
sufferers. The first party of rescue arrived at 
the camp near Donner lake, February 19, 1847. 
Of the eighty persons who composed the party, 
thirty-six had perished from cold and hunger, 
Donner and his wife among the number. The 
latter it is said, was murdered by a man of the 
party named Keseberg, for the valuables she 
possessed. The sufferers, in order to preserve 
life, fed upon the corpses of their late com- 
panions, several went insane, and others subse- 
quently died from the hardships they had 
endured. Details of the sufferings of this un- 
fortunate party are heart-rending. 



GOVERNMENTAL. 



The regulation of the authority and juris- 
diction of the American alcaldes, or mayors, 
was one of Governor Mason's principal duties. 
The powers exercised by them included the 
right to sell lots within the limit of their town, 
and they were also criminal judges up to the 
point of inflicting the death punishment. The 
growth of American law during this transitory 
period was very slow, but gradually the com- 
mon law principles and forms were either amal- 
gamated with or supplemented the old customs 
and procedures. 

The first jury in the country was summoned 
by Walter Cotton, the American alcalde, or 
mayor, of Monterey, in July, 1847, and on 



December 29 of that year Governor Mason 
made the great move, ordering all civil cases 
involving a sum exceeding $100, and all crim- 
inal cases of a grave nature, to be tried before 
a jury. After the peace, crimes were of frequent 
occurrence, and gradually lynch law became a 
power in the land. Mason refused to interfere 
with a course of popular vengeance that alone 
held lawlessness to some degree in check, and. 
it being distasteful to him, he demanded to be 
recalled. In October, 1848, Brigadier General 
Bennett Riley was directed to relieve Colonel 
Mason as Governor of California, and the fol- 
lowing November, Brigadier General Persifer 
F. Smith was appointed to the command of the 
United States Army on the Pacific coast. Gov- 
ernor Riley entered upon the discharge of his 
duties April 12, 1849. 

THE DISCOVERT OF GOLD 

early in 1848, and the confirmation of the re- 
peated reports of the uncounted mineral wealth 
of the country, attracted the attention of the civ- 
ilized world to California, and an immigration 
unprecedented in history was the result. The 
discovery was contemporaneous with the treaty 
of peace with Mexico, known as the treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo, and with the transfer of 
California from Mexico to the United States. 
The spot where gold was first found was at a 
place since called Coloma, on a branch of the 
American River, and its discoverer was James 
Wilson Marshall, a native of Hope Township, 
Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Marshall had 
entered into a partnership with J. A. Sutter on 
August 19, 1847, for the purpose of erecting a 
sawmill, and several months were consumed in 
securing a suitable mill site. This having been 
found, as already stated, at Coloma, Marshall 
engaged several hands and began constructing 
a mill-race. On the morning of January 19, 
1848, while examining the tail-race, Marshall 
caught the glitter of something that lay lodged 
in a crevice some inches under water. He 
picked up the substance, found that it was 
heavy and of a peculiar color. He knew that 



1G 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



he held in his hand some sort of metal, but 
whether mica, sulphuret of copper or gold he 
could not determine. He remembered that 
gold was malleable, and as this thought passed 
through his mind, he placed a specimen upon a 
stone and tested it by striking it with another. 
The substance did not crack or flake off; it 
simply bent under the blows. He felt confident 
that he had discovered gold, and a few days 
later, having in the meantime discovered other 
pieces of the same metal, he took them to 
Sutter's Fort, where all doubt as to its being 
gold was set at rest, after it had been weighed 
ami tested with nitric acid. 

The news of the discovery spread like fire 
among the dry grass on a windy day, and in an 
incredibly short period of time the mountains 
were filled with gold-seekers who had deserted 
the towns. The excitement spread to the East- 
ern States, and ere long the great rush to Cali- 
fornia took place. At the end of 1849 the Ameri- 
can population of California numbered nearly 
100,000 persons. It was these people, brought 
together from the several States and localities 
in the Union, that amalgamated and combined 
to lay the foundations of the wonderful State of 
California, pre-eminently in fact as well as in 
name, the li Golden State " of our American 
Union. 

The first recognition of California by the 
United States Government was in March, 1849, 
when an appropriation bill was passed by Con- 
gress, which extended the revenue laws of the 
United States over the entire territory. San 
Francisco was made a port of entry, and Mon- 
terey, San Diego and Fort Yuma ports of 
delivery; a collector of customs was authorized 
and a complete revenue system adopted. 

But soon the subject of a 

STATE GOVERNMENT 

for themselves was agitated by the people. 
This resulted in the convening of a convention 
at Monterey, September 1, 1849, at which a 
constitution was adopted. The State seal was 
presented in the name of Caleb Lyons, and also 



adopted, despite the objections of Vallejo, who 
had some enmity for the bear which forms its 
chief figure. The constitution was sent to.Gov- 
ernor Riley, and he issued an order for a gen- 
eral election to be held November 13. The 
successful candidates were: Peter II. Burnett, 
Governor; John McDougal, Lieutenant Gover- 
nor, and Edward Gilbert, and George W. 
Wright, Representatives in Congress. 

At the same time there were elected in the 
various districts sixteen Senators and thirty->ix 
Assemblymen, to constitute the first State Leg- 
islature. That body met at San Jose, Satur- 
day, December 15, 1849, and adjourned April 
22, 1850, after holding some very stormy ses- 
sions. Fremont and Gwin were elected to the 
United States Senate. 

Meanwhile the question of admitting Califor- 
nia into the Union was exciting warm debates 
in Congress, though President Polk had as- 
sumed a favorable attitude in the matter. The 
California representatives, upon their arrival at 
Washington, presented a copy of the constitu- 
tion to President Taylor, February 13, 1850, 
and by special message he announced the formal 
application of the new State for admission. 
The measure was strongly opposed by Henry 
Clay, of Kentucky, and John C. Calhoun, of 
South Carolina, and as warmly advocated by 
Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, William II. 
Seward, of New York, and several others. A 
number of compromise measures were submitted 
and debated, but on September 7, despite the 
almost general opposition of the Southern Sen 
ators, the bill admitting California as a State was 
passed by a vote of 150 to 56. Two days 
later, on September 9, the bill was signed by 
President Fillmore (President Taylor having 
died July 9), and California became the " Golden 
State" of the Union. Its representatives at 
once took their seats in Congress, and when the 
glorious news reached the people of California 
celebrations of the event took place with great 
enthusiasm in all the towns within the bound- 
aries of the new State. No State hail before 
entered the Union with such an extraordinarily 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



17 



rapid and triumphant career With the passing 
of the golden era, the admission of the State 
into the Union and the purging of society by 
the heroic treatment of the vigilantes, the his- 
tory of California loses its romantic features and 
glides quietly into the plain record of passing 
events. 

In the first decade appeared the clipper ships 
in response to the demands for quick transpor- 
tation of freights, the introduction of the " Pony 
Express" across the continent in 1859; the 
opening of the Panama railroad for business on 
January 23, 1855, the Fraser river gold excite- 
ment of 1858, and the organization of the Steam 
Navigation Company in March, 1854, for traffic 
on the interior waters of the State. The out- 
put of mineral in these ten years was phenom- 
enal, the figures reaching $553,000,000. The 
agricultural resources of the State were also 
largely developed, and many manufacturing in- 
dustries were established. 

On February 25, 1854, the Legislature was 
removed to Sacramento, which became the State 
capital. In the second decade, 1860 -'70, the 
following were the principal events : Steamer 
communication with the Hawaiian Islands estab- 
lished in 1861; a line of steamers started to 
China in 1867; first steamer communication 
with Australia in 1869; disastrous floods in the 
Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys in the 
winter of 1861-'62; completion of the overland 
telegraph from Western Missouri to San Fran- 
cisco, October 22, 1861, and the opening of the 
Central Pacific Railroad in May, 1869. 

PRESENT STATUS. 

It was also in this decade that the viticultural 
interests of the State began to be developed, and 
California was rapidly pushing her way into the 
front rank of the cereal and fruit producers. 
Exports grew to the enormous figures of 18,- 
000,000 centals of wheat for the decade, to 
nearly 2,500,000 barrels of flour, to over 
1,000,000 centals of barley and to 70,000,000 
pounds of wool. In 1850 the population 
of the State was 92,597; in 1860 it was 



379,994; in 1870 it had increased to 560,257, 
in 1880 to 864,694, and in 1890 the population 
is 1,204,002. 

So far as the State is concerned, California is 
again, as in 1849, the great attractive region of 
the world. The days of the " Argonauts " are 
over, but the enormous agricultural, horticul- 
tural, and viticultural interests, the extraordi- 
nary growth of her population; the wonderful 
impetus that is being given to enterprise in 
general; the appreciation of real estate and the 
marvelous new life that has struck the Southern 
San Joaquin Valley, as also the southern coun- 
ties of the State; her climate, scenery, oppor- 
tunities for solid investment and profitable re- 
turns; her standard of culture and educational 
advantages — all of these have again crowned 
California anew as the great Golden State. 

THE TOPOGKAPHY 

of California is of the most varied description 
imaginable and comprises what may without 
exaggeration be called an unequal aggregation 
of vast mountain ranges, lofty glacier-clad peaks, 
extensive valleys, boisterous mountain torrents, 
and smoothly flowing rivers, land-locked bays, 
peaceful lakes, the most tremendous forest 
growth ever seen, and a coast line without a 
superior. For 800 miles from north to south 
along the Pacific ocean sweeps this great com- 
monwealth, while it is almost 200 miles from 
the sands of the seashore to the foot of the 
eastern slope of the Sierra, which marks the 
limit of the State in that direction. The 
sinuosities of the coast are such that California 
has nearly 1,100 miles of shore line, while 
the vast territory of more than 100,000,000 acres 
is comprised within its boundaries. Such an 
extent is so immense that some means of com- 
parison must be furnished in order to secure an 
adequate conception thereof. 

If California were on the Atlantic coast it 
would extend from the latitude of Cape Cod 
down the coast to Charleston, South Carolina, 
thus covering the shore line of the States of 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 



18 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, North and South Carolinas. Inland it 
would reach across New Jersey and about half 
way across Pennsylvania. With her 155,000 
square miles of area, in which can be found 
every physical characteristic and variety of 
climate, California is an empire within itself, 
and in every respect may well challenge com- 
parison with any equal area in the world. 

Two great mountain ranges traverse the State 
throughout its entire length. On the east is 
the Sierra Nevada with the loftiest summits 
existent in the United States. On the west is 
the Coast Range, divided into many spurs, with 
extensive intervening valleys, and with a general 
altitude far less than the Sierras. In the north- 
ern part of the State there are two mountain 
ranges verging toward each other until merged 
into one, and the same thing is repeated in the 
south. The Coast Range is divided into numer- 
ous spurs under other names. Thus the range 
that practically divides the fertile valleys of the 
south from the Mojave desert is called variously 
the Sierra JVTadre and the San Bernardino moun- 
tains, and has almost a due east and west course, 
finally trending off southeaslerly across the Colo- 
rado desert. On the north of the Mojave desert 
is the Tehachapi range, which with the San 
Emigdio (by some writers spelled Emidio) 
mountains form the connecting link between 
the Sierra and the Coast Range. Through Ven- 
tura and Santa Barbara counties runs the Santa 
Ynez spur, which is divided again into the Santa 
Lucia and Mount Diablo ranges in San Luis 
Obispo County. The first named keeps well 
toward the ocean and finally ceases wheil the 
bay of Monterey is reached. The other con- 
tinues up the east side of the Carisa plain, east 
of the Santa Clara valley, and so on northward, 
fixing the western limit of the San Joaquin 
valley, until it terminates in the peak from 
which the name is derived, near San Francisco 
bay. A spur from the Diablo range is the 
Gabilan, which forms the western boundary of 
the Santa Clara valley, and finally merges into 
the Santa Cruz mountains, which continue 



northward until they gradually slope into the 
low hills upon which San Francisco is situated. 
Northward of the bay of San Francisco the 
Coast Range is found more in a body and the 
valleys are few and limited. 

Beyond the Coast Rauge and between it and 
the Sierra lies the great interior valley, for it is 
practically one throughout its entire vast length 
from Shasta on the north to Tehachapi on the 
south. The northern portion is drained by the 
Sacramento river, and its tributaries, flowing 
southward for 200 miles to the bay of San 
Francisco, while the southern portion is the 
watershed of the San Joaquin and its tribu- 
taries, flowing northward to the same destina- 
tion. All the principal streams of both ends 
of this great valley have their source iu the 
Sierra Nevada, the eastern slope of the Coast 
Range being but poorly provided with water 
courses. 

Commencing at the upper end of this great 
interior valley the Sacramento river receives the 
Pit, Feather, Yuba, American, Cosumnes, 
Mokelumne, Calaveras, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, 
Merced, San Joaquin, King's, Kaweah, White 
and Kern rivers. Besides there are many 
smaller streams all along the western slope of 
the Sierra from Shasta to Tehachapi, whose 
waters are contributed to the same system. The 
beds of each and all of these streams contain 
deposits of gold-bearing gravel, and the greater 
portion of the quartz mines now operated are 
located on their banks. Their sources in the 
mountains present some of the grandest scenery 
in the world, while their waters are utilized 
largely for both mining and agriculture. 

Along the eastern slope of the Coast Range 
there is not a stream that can be designated by 
the name of river. In the Sacramento portion 
of the valley, Clear creek, Stony creek and other 
streams are tributaries of the river, with numer- 
ous other smaller streams. On the western Bide 
of the San Joaquin valley, however, there is 
scarcely a stream whose waters find their way, 
except in midwinter, to the river. All are lust 
in the sands soon after reaching the plain.-. 



HISTORY OF UENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



19 



The western slope of the Coast Range has a 
number of streams, some of which are of con- 
siderable proportions, and are navigable for 
short distances from the ocean. The Klamath 
in the northern part of the State is a large 
stream, as also the Smith river further north. 
The Trinity river is an important stream, and 
so are the Eel, Elk, Mad and Russian rivers, 
which drain the entire coast from the Oregon 
line to San Francisco bay. 

South of San Francisco are the San Lorenzo, 
Carmel, Salinas, Pajaro, Santa Maria, Santa 
Ynez, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, San Gabriel. 
Santa Ana, Santa Margarita., San Luis Rey, San 
Dieguito and San Diego rivers. 

Besides, many smaller streams are either 
tributary to those mentioned or flow directly 
into the ocean. Nearly every mountain callon, 
from the peninsula of San Francisco to San 
Diego, is provided with a stream of greater or 
less size, some of which assume the proportions 
of rivers during the rain season. 

o 

Some of the streams mentioned as having 
their source in the Coast Range possess very 
singular characteristics, which have given rise 
to the saying that in California many rivers are 
turned upside down, — that is, the sandy bed is 
on the surface and the water flows beneath. 
This is true in fact of nearly all the southern 
Coast Range streams. The Salinas in summer 
resembles a bed of dry sand, yet there is a large 
body of water underneath, and the apparently 
dry bed has a most startling habit in the sum- 
mer of suddenly opening beneath the weight of 
a horse or team and giving the rider or driver 
a most uncomfortable and even a dangerous ex- 
perience. The Santa Ana, Santa Maria, San 
Gabriel and Los Angeles rivers have the same 
features. The first named is the most impor- 
tant stream of the far south, and furnishes an 
immense amount of water for irrigation. It 
rises far up in the San Bernardino range, on the 
very crest of the ridge that divides the Mojave. 
desert from the fertile southern valleys. Even 
before leaving its mountain canon it is tapped 
by the irrigators, and thence almost to its 



mouth there is a perfect network of canals de 
riving their supply from it. More than once is 
the entire apparent flow diverted into some 
canal, but a few miles further down the water 
again rises to the surface and supplies still other 
systems of irrigation. There are probably few 
other streams in the world whose waters possess 
so large an intrinsic value as this. Water 
rights from this stream have increased im- 
mensely in value, and are sold in some in- 
stances for as much as $1,000 and $1,200 an 
inch, and even more. Tens of thousands of 
acres of land are irrigated from it. The greater 
portion of the finest orange orchards in South- 
ern California owe their existence to the Santa 
Ana river; and, while it is so insignificant a 
stream that in more than one place an active 
man may jump across it at a bound, neverthe- 
less it has added millions to the wealth of the 
communities which it serves, and each year is 
the cause of millions of dollars being dis- 
tributed among the residents along its banks. 

Two other rivers of considerable size are de- 
serving of more than passing notice, because of 
the fact that, though carrying large bodies of 
water, none of it finds- its way into a river 
running toward the ocean. Rising on the 
northern slope of the San Bernardino range is 
the Mojave river, a never-failing stream of 
large size where it leaves the mountains. It 
runs nearly 100 miles directly through the cen- 
ter of the desert, but finally the absorptive 
character of the soil proves too much and the 
waters sink in the sand, forming what is so well 
known to the old teamsters by this route, the 
" sink of the Mojave." Some of the water of 
this river is used at the base of the mountains 
and even out in the desert 'for irrigation, but 
the bulk of it is lost in the sands. 

Following the eastern slope of the Sierra Ne- 
vada for a distance of seventy-five miles through 
Inyo County is Owens river, emptying into 
Owens lake, a body of water without an outlet 
and highly charged with minerals. This river 
is used largely for irrigation, the land along its 
banks being very productive when watered. 



20 



WSTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



A notable feature of this part of the State is 
Death valley. This region has been treated by 
various writers throughout the State, and lias 
been the subject of a vast amount of romancing 
as well as misrepresentation. It is situated in 
the eastern portion of Inyo County, near the 
Nevada line, and is the sink of a 6tream called 
the Amargosa river. It is nearly 400 feet be- 
low sea level, and is one of the worst portions 
of the desert. At present a thorough explora- 
tion of it is going on under the auspices of the 
United States Government, which will result in 
setting at rest many of the weird tales that 
have been told concerning it. 

THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY 

of the great interior valley of California has 
been a matter of much discussion, and it would 
scarcely be expected that the writer could cast 
any additional light on this region. There is 
abundant evidence in support of the well 
grounded theory that at one time the entire 
valley from Shasta to Tehachapi was a vast lake 
or inland sea, and that by a great convulsion of 
nature the mountain barrier through which 
passes the Golden Gate was riven asunder and 
the lake drained. Indian tradition, though un- 
reliable, ascribes this origin to the valley, and 
there are abundant indications that such is the 
case. The fact that marine shells and the re- 
mains of sharks, whales, etc., found high up on 
the summits of the Coast Range and in places 
well up the sides of the Sierra, is indisputable 
evidence of the former presence of a great inland 
sea, or perhaps the evidence more conclusively 
shows that the Sierra was once the eastern shore 
of the Pacific ocean. Along the foot-hills of 
the eastern side of the valley may be seen ter- 
races and deposits of sand and gravel in which 
are yet traceable the action of mighty waves in 
long ages past. Further south in that remark- 
able region, the Colorado desert, the same phe- 
nomena are found. Away up on the mountain 
sides are the unmistakable lines showing that 
at some time this was an ocean beach, while 
whale bones, coral, shells and other indications 



of marine life are abundant. The Indian tribes 
of that region even have a tradition of a time 
when the desert waste was covered with water 
and the people inhabited only the highest peaks. 
They also tell of a period when all the people 
of the world were drowned except a single 
couple, who took refuge on the topmost summit 
of the loftiest mountain peak, and from whom 
all the nations of the earth have since been 
populated. In no part of the world can the 
geologist find a better or more interesting field 
for investigation than here. Unsolved problems 
and mysteries confront him on every hand, re- 
quiring a lifetime of study and investigation. 

The islands off the Southern coast are another 
feature of great interest which have received 
scant attention. Catalina, Santa Cruz, Santa 
Rosa, San Miguel, San Nicolas and Anacapa are 
all easily accessible from the mainland and on 
all the archaeologist, the botanist and the geolo- 
gist can find abundant data for investigation. 
The remains of mastodons, the relics of long 
perished thousands of human beings, the pecu- 
liar vegetable growths, the strange rock forma- 
tions and more than a thousand other points of 
interest are to be found on every hand. Other 
features of far less interest and intrinsic value 
have been written of and given a world-wide 
notoriety, but there is no part of California that 
warrants closer study and investigation than 
this. 



CALIFORNIA S CLIMATE. 



"The glorious climate of California" has, it 
is true, been a hackneyed subject; yet it is one 
which we have always with us and which from 
the time of the first explorers who committed 
their discoveries as well as ideas to writing has 
been one of the most potent charms of the Pa- 
cific coast. The climatic peculiarities of Cali- 
fornia are the first of the many attractions which 
are offered to the attention of the tourist, and 
there are so many anomalies and apparent con- 
tradictions, so many reversals of all preconceived 
ideas and former experience, that tiiis is always 
a fruitful subject for discussion and investi^a- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



21 



tion. The climate of California differs widely 
from that of any other portion of the United 
States, and in many features from that of any 
other part of the world. These points of vari- 
ation apply to every climatic feature that can be 
suggested, and in every detail the contrast results 
advantageously for this highly favored region. 

Contrast these climatic conditions with those 
on the Eastern coast, where the rigors of winter 
scarcely lose their grip, when the cyclones and 
thunder-storms begin their work of destruction, 
and thousands fall from sunstroke. The ma- 
jority of Californians are familiar with climatic 
conditions on the first day of January east of 
the Rocky mountains. There, north of the Gulf 
States the principal industry January first is to 
battle against the piercing cold winds and guard 
against freezing, while in California the air is 
balmy, the sky blue, and the earth is clothed in 
her spring-like garments. The farmer is busy 
plowing his fields, vegetables are being planted 
and harvested everywhere, the orange trees are 
golden with their luscious fruits, the pale green 
foliage of the olive is intermingled with the rich 
purple of its thickly clustered fruit; flower 
gardens are abloom with roses and geraniums, 
fuchias and heliotropes; children are rolling on 
the grassy sward, and existence out doors is as 
enjoyable as during an Eastern May. When 
the tourist from the Eastern States crosses the 
Sierra Nevada, his attention is directed to the 
marvelous transformation that occurs. 

The important fact should be borne in mind, 
— and one that is perhaps hardest of all to be 
understood, — that so far as California is con- 
cerned latitude cuts almost no figure whatever 
in climatic changes or differences. The climate 
of San Diego in the south is practically that of 
Crescent City on the north; there is little vari- 
ation of temperature, winter or summer, between 
the two ends of the great interior valley, al- 
though one extreme boundary is nearly 500 
miles south of the other. Coast, interior, foot- 
hill or mountain, the same law applies, and 
demonstrations will be given in figures compiled 
with the greatest care by trained observers. 



Broadly speaking, the year in California is 
divided into but two seasons. There are none 
of the sharp changes that form so disagreeable 
a feature of the climate in other parts of the 
world. On the contrary the two seasons shade 
into each other so gradually that the change is 
almost imperceptible. The dry season is fre- 
quently prolonged until the so-called winter 
months are half gone, while the wet season 
sometimes reaches well into the summer months. 
The popular idea of the wet and the dry season, 
as held by those who have had no experience in 
such matters, is that during the one " the rain 
it raineth every day," while during the other 
there is nothing but a cloudless sky from one 
month's end to the other. Nothing could be 
further from the truth, however. 

With an average rainfall varying from ten 
inches in the far south to thirty-six inches in 
the extreme north, it will appear evident to the 
thinking mind that a long continued down-pour 
is out of the question. Under ordinary con- 
ditions, a half dozen storms of three or four 
days' duration each, is all that California has 
during a year. There are some seasons, as in 
all other localities, when there are storms of 
longer duration, and a much greater precipita- 
tion, but the figures given are an average for a 
long series of years. " The rainy season" (bet- 
ter called the rain season) is not unpleasant by 
any means. On the contrary it is considered 
by many the most enjoyable portion of the year. 
The first storm of any importance lays the dust, 
cleanses the atmosphere, washes the foliage of 
the numerous evergreen trees of every variety 
and causes the earth to be covered with a 
blanket of grass and blossoms of a thousand 
varying hues. The air is balmy and invigor- 
ating, and the most beautiful day in the late 
spring of the Atlantic coast, rare as it is, is not 
more enchanting or enjoyable than the greater 
portion of California's " rainy season." 

Let us briefly inquire into the causes which 
produce such a wonderful climate in California, 
and which is little understood, and in fact 
scarcely thought of, by the average individual. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Perhaps the clearest statement as is possible of 
the causes which produce the unique climate 
enjoyed on the Pacific coast of North America 
is that furnished in an interesting paper pre- 
pared by a well known medical writer of Oak- 
land, Dr. J. B. Trembley, from which we 
quote: 

" The western coasts of Europe and North 
America are examples of similar climate, modi- 
fied by the same corresponding causes, — ocean 
and air currents. Without entering into an ex- 
tended inquiry over the various portions of the 
world in comparing climatic factors, the knowl- 
edge, positive and theoretical, of the climatic- 
conditions that are imposed upon the western 
slope of the Pacific coast from Alaska toward 
the south, and the causes so far as observed, are 
all that will interest the general reader. The 
same general causes that modify the climate of 
Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon and Califor- 
nia, extending into Mexico, have long been 
known to meteorologists and those who have 
made physical geography a study. But the 
many local modifying influences that these 
great currents of water and air meet with as 
they impinge upon the northwestern coast of 
the continent, by high mountain ranges, inland 
valleys and solar heat, give as various climates 
as the topography of the country is different 
where their influence is felt. 

"The ocean current that modifies the climate 
of the Pacific coast is a portion of the great 
equatorial current, which is deflected northerly 
and easterly when it meets the eastern coast of 
Asia. This current, a portion of the warm 
equatorial current, as it flows toward the north- 
west, washing the eastern shores of China and 
Japan, takes the name of the Japan current, or 
Kuro Sivo. At or near latitude 50 degrees 
and longitude 170 degrees, it divides. One 
portion, continuing northerly, passes through 
Behring strait; the other, south of the Aleutian 
islands, assumes the name of the Aleutian current. 
It advances eastward until it strikes the north- 
west coast of North America, then turning 
acutely to the southeast, flowing along the 



western shore, until what is left is drawn into 
the great equatorial current at or near the 
Tropic of Cancer, again to make the current "f 
nearly a quarter of the hemisphere. Various 
elements of this great current, when taken into 
consideration, that go to make it one of the 
physical constituents in the formation of cli- 
mate, seems as yet but partially understood. 
Its depth, width, velocity and temperature have 
not been investigated as have some of the cur- 
rents of the Atlantic ocean. 

" Professor Davidson of San Francisco seems 
to have been almost the oidy one who has given 
this subject any attention, with the exception 
of some few casual observers, who have here 
and there made memoranda for their own curi- 
osity. The professor starts with a maxi- 
mum temperature of the Japan current of 
88 degrees Fahrenheit; at Alaska, 50.06 de- 
grees; six to eight hundred miles west from 
San Francisco, 60.33 degrees; 100 miles west, 
55.05 degrees. At the tidal station at Fort 
Point the mean temperature for eight years was 
55.66 degrees, that of the air being 54.07 de- 
grees. The temperature of the ocean 900 
miles west of San Francisco for one year was 
60.52 degrees as found by the ocean steamers 
going and coming from Yokohama to San 
Francisco. 

"This shows a difference of temperature be- 
ween the water of the ocean current 100 miles 
to the west and at the tidal station on shore 
to be 61 degrees less here; at 600 to 800 miles, 
4.67 degrees greater; at 900 miles, 4.86 degrees 
greater or warmer. The great ocean current 
in flowing from its origin to the coast of Cali- 
fornia has parted with 32.34 degrees of heat; 
or, in other words, has lost, from the average 
temperature of the equatorial waters (78 de- 
grees), 22.34 degrees, and leaves an average 
surface ocean temperature, to the distance of 
900 miles west of California, of 57.89 de>j 
The temperature of the air along the coast, and 
the water, hardly ever rises more than two or 
three degrees, and the above figures show only 
2.92 degrees for the average difference in tem- 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



23 



perature of the water and air over a large area 
of the ocean contiguous to the Pacific coast, 
and give an explanation of the low temperature 
at the base of the atmospherical column that 
rests on the ocean's water. Also the great free- 
dom from rain during the summer months, 
when the westerly winds overcast, and fogs 
prevail. 

"The great aerial current that moves with the 
ocean stream, is the counter trade wind of the 
northern hemisphere, and seems to determine 
the character of the climate of California al- 
most wholly. As it strikes the Pacific coast, it 
is always the high current, and flowing from a 
westerly direction changing but very little the 
point of the compass at the same date of time in 
each year. It oscillates from the south of west 
at one portion of the year to the north of west 
at another, moving from north to south with 
the declination of the sun, and then back again. 
During the summer season it blows nearly from 
the west, and in the winter being acted on by 
the polar winds, is given a more northwesterly 
direction. 

"Physical geography so well describes the 
great systems of atmospherical currents that it 
is superfluous to enter into a description of all 
the winds and the laws that produce them. 
Owing to solar heat and the diurnal motion of 
the earth three distinct belts or systems of 
winds are produced, — easterly winds in the 
tropical zone, westerly winds in the temperate 
zone and northerly or northwesterly in the 
higher latitudes. These zones of wind move 
bodily to and fro with the vertical rays of the 
sun, toward the north in summer and toward 
the south in winter. On the movement of 
these zones of water and air rest the causes of 
the wet and dry seasons over the great area of 
country bordering on the western coast of the 
United States. 

"The causes of the principal climatic phe- 
nomena of California having thus been set 
forth at length, it remains to give sume atten- 
tion to certain peculiarities in other directions 
which are noteworthy. One of these is the 



periodical prevalence of what is known as 
'northers,' and which are one of the most un- 
pleasant climatic" features known on the Pacific 
coast, though, as will be shown, possessing 
many compensating advantages. All parts of 
California, but more especially the vast interior 
valleys, are periodically subjected to winds 
from the north, which at times are of great 
violence and become decidedly uncomfortable. 
These wind-storms are caused by the intense 
heat which prevails in these valleys, by which 
the air is rarefied, ascends, and thus creates a 
vacuum. The cool air from the north at once 
rushes in to restore the equilibrium, while the 
heat in the soil creeps northward until the 
whole surface of the valley becomes heated, 
thus creating a practical vacuum 450 miles 
long, with an average width of forty-five miles. 
Then from the north the cold air rushes in in 
increasing volume, and the norther thus created 
sweeps down the valley. Opposite the Golden 
Gate the cool air is drawn in from the bay and 
ocean, and again the norther rushes down the 
valley. Reaching the lower end it leaps the 
mountain barrier and traverses the desert Here 
it gathers up vast quantities of sand and dust 
of an almost impalpable character, and with 
the accumulated heat pours over the mountains 
again into the lower valleys. Warning is al- 
ways given to the people of that section of the 
approach of a norther, or sandstorm, by a pecu- 
liar brazen tinge of the atmosphere for a day 
or more beforehand, caused by the quantities of 
dust held in suspension. The north wind produces 
violent electrical disturbances, the exact cause 
of which is hardly known, though the effects 
are familiar to all. All animal life suffer alike. 
There seems to be a general lowering of vitality, 
headache is prevalent and a lassitude and in- 
disposition to exertion is common. When the 
norther is of an unusually high temperature 
vegetation of all kinds suffers. Fruit has been 
known to be actually roasted and fall from the 
tree, while grain and grass wither and dry up. 
Damage, however, only takes place when the wind 
is exceptionally high, and of long continuance. 



24 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



"On the other hand the unpleasant features 
of these winds are well balanced by their bene- 
ficial effects in more than one direction. With- 
out them the climate of the interior valleys 
would be humid, moist and oppressively tropical. 
Vegetation would be rapid and the soil would be 
quickly covered with an excessive and unhealthy 
growth. The north wind by its desiccatory 
power destroys the germs of disease caused by 
vegetable decay and prevents malaria and other 
sickness. Fevers disappear before its coming, 
and invalids suffering from various diseases 
find themselves better. The fungi that attack 
vegetable growth where there is a superabun- 
dance of moisture are almost unknown where 
the northers occasionally prevail, and in a word 
the unpleasent momentary effects of the high 
wind are more than counterbalanced by the 
lasting benefits conferred by it. 

"There is still another peculiarity connected 
with California climate which is exceedingly 
difficult to understand, and the causes of which 
are even yet not fully demonstrated. The fact 
that the earliest fruits come from the central 
and northern part of the State is one of those 
apparent anomalies which are difficult of com- 
prehension to the stranger. It seems like a re- 
versal of the laws of nature to find vegetation 
of any kind maturing at an earlier date in the 
north than in the south. Yet such is an in- 
disputable fact, remarkable though it seems. 
There are two well-defined and widely separated 
'early-fruit regions' in the State, and they are 
so far apart that it must be evident that differ- 
ent causes produce the same result. In Solano 
County, a short distance north of San Francisco, 
is the Vaca valley, with its tributaries, or 
neighbors, Pleasant and Capay valleys. In 
these localities every variety of deciduous fruit 
ripens long before it does at points 500 miles 
further south. Cherries, apricots, peaches, 
plums, grapes, etc., are in readiness for market 
here several weeks in advance of any locality 
to the south. A similar singular state of facts 
is found in the foothills of Placer County and 
contiguous localities, where fruits ripen practi- 



cally at the same time as in the Solano County 
valleys mentioned. Sometimes there is a dif- 
ference of a day or two between these localities, 
but for years the earliest fruits have been pro- 
duced there, maturity being attained so nearly 
at the same time that both are practically alike. 
The explanation of this early maturing lies un- 
questionably in the existence of some phenom- 
ena that cause the nights of early spring to he 
uniformly warmer in these early fruit districts 
than elsewhere. 

"The days certainlyare no warmer,as is shown 
by the records of thermometrical observation. 
But that the nights are warmer and vegetation 
is thus assisted is a fact, whatever the natural 
cause may be. There is a variety of explana- 
tion for this singular state of facts, such as the 
sheltered character of the localities where the 
early fruits mature, etc., but there are many 
other spots which apparently are fully as well 
protected, but without the faculty of hastening 
early maturity. Whatever may be the exact 
cause, however, the remarkable fact remains 
that the earliest fruit region is found north of 
the central line of the State. Hundreds, yea, 
thousands of pages could be written of this 
wonderful State, and yet the half would not be 
told; its undeveloped resources are beyond con- 
ception, and are just now beginning to attract 
attention. Twenty-five years hence this Golden 
State will be the Empire State of the Union, as 
it is verily an Empire within itself." 

For convenience as a ready reference we give 
some important figures: 

FACTS WORTH KNOWING ABOUT CALIFORNIA. 

California is the second largest State in the 
Union; area, 157,801 square miles. 

She is the leading State in the value of gold 
product. Total value of gold and silver pro- 
duced since 1848, $1,367,450,000. 

It is the most diversified agricultural State 
in the Union. Produces more wine and honey 
than any other State, and is the only State pro- 
ducing raisins. It is the only State in which 
the olive thrives, and is the home of the orange 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



25 



and the fig. It is the leading producer of 
almonds, walnuts, etc., and justly claims the 
finest climate as well as the largest trees in the 
world. She has the largest per capita wealth 
of all States in the Union, and has the third 
commercial city, San Francisco. 

Value of mineral products in 1890, $23,- 
850,000. 

Population in 1880, 864,690; in 1890, 1,205,- 
391. 

Ranked twenty-second in population in 1890. 
Ranked sixteenth in percentage of growth from 
1880 to 1890. Percentage of increase of popu- 
lation, 39.25; percentage of increase of voters, 
55.75. 

Assessed value of property in 1880, $666,- 
183,320; in 1890, $1,060,390,296. Deposits 
in savings banks, 1890, $98,442,000; increase 
over 1889, $11,430,000. Deposits in commer- 
cial banks, 1890, $42,321,000; increase over 

1889, $1,869,000. Total deposits in all banks, 

1890, $171,229,531. Value of manufactured 
products, 1880, $116,218,000: in 1890, $165,- 
000,000. 

Miles of railroad in the State, 4,500; assessed 
valuation, $40,248,000. 

Area arable land, 38,000,000 acres; culti- 
vated, 2,500,000 acres; forests, 20,000,000 
acres. Aiea wine and raisin-grape vineyards, 
225,000 acres. Capital invested in vineyards, 
$80,000,000. 

Wine product for 1890, 18,200,000 gallons; 
dried wine grapes, 9,000,000 pounds. Raisin 
output for the year, 2,U00,000 boxes, or 40,- 
000,000 pounds. Prune crop for the year, 15,- 
000,000 pounds. Green fruits shipped East in 
1880, 5,180,000 pounds; in 1890, 105,000,000 
pounds. Dried fruits shipped East in 1880, 
590,000 pounds; in 1890, 66,318,000 pounds. 
Value of cereal, hay and root crops in 1890, 
$70,000,000. Oranges shipped East, 1889-'90, 
3,187 car-loads; crop, 1890-'91, 4,000 car- 
loads. 

Number of farm animals in the State, 6,063,- 
440; total value, $57,771,280. Bean crop, 
1890, 1,000.000 centals. Honey product for 



1890, 6,000,000 pounds. Average annual wool 
product, 35,000,000 pounds. Average annual 
barley product, 16,000,000 bushels. Hops con- 
sumed and shipped, 40,000 bales. Wheat crop, 
1890, 27,000,000 centals; exports, 13,266,409 
centals, valued at $17,600,000. Flour exported 
in 1890, 1,201,304 barrels, valued at $4,- 
899,000. 

Public school expenditures in 1890, $5,119,- 
096; increase over 1889, $1,057,779. Number 
of children attending school in 1890, 198,960. 
Securities in school fund, 1890, $3,268,350. 
Total value of school property, 1890, $13,624,- 
143; increase since 1888, $3,060,363. 

" WONDERFUL." 

The reader who has not traveled over Cali- 
fornia, spent months in various portions of the 
State, and noted the wonderful products, may 
question our term, "wonderful," as applied to 
the golden member of the great American 
Union. We will therefore itemize a few among 
the many just grounds we have for calling Cali- 
fornia " wonderful." 

The width of the State on the north end is 
216 miles; extreme extension from west to 
east, 352 miles; average width about 235 miles; 
extension from north to south, 655 miles. A 
direct line from the northwest corner of the 
State to Fort Yuma, being the longest line in 
the State, is 830 miles; a direct line from San 
Francisco to Los Angeles is 342 miles; from 
San Francisco to San Diego, 451 miles. San 
Diego lies 350 miles south and 285 miles east 
of San Francisco. Los Angeles lies 258 miles 
south and 225 miles east of San Francisco. 
Cape Mendocino, the most westerly point in the 
State, is ninety-six miles west and 185 miles 
north of San Francisco. 

California has an area of 157,801 square 
miles, or 100,992,640 acres, of which 80,000,- 
000 acres are suited to some kind of profitable 
husbandry. It is three and one-half times as 
large as the State of New York, which accord- 
ing to the census of 1890 has a population of 
5,981,934. California will make five States the 



•30 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



size of Kentucky, which has a population ot 
1,855,436. It will make twenty-four States the 
size of Massachusetts, which has a population 
of 2,233,407. It has an area 144 times as great 
as Rhode Island. It is four-fifths the size of 
Austria, and nearly as large as France, each 
having a population of more than 36,000,000. 
It is nearly double the size of Italy, which has 
a population of more than 27,000,000; and it 
is one and one-half times greater than Great 
Britain and Ireland, having a population of 
more than 32,000,000. California's areas of 
climate, salubriousness and degrees of tempera- 
ture, as well as the general proportions thereof, 
are in striking contrast to the area and fertility 
of her soil. 

She has the largest valley in the world; and 
when we make this assertion we mean to define 
a valley by boundaries of hills or mountains, 
and not as extensive plains bordering on im- 
mense streams, such as the vast expanse of 
level land along the Mississippi river, or the 
great body of low lands along the Amazon 
river in South America. The valley wonder of 
California we will reserve for special treatise 
further on in this work. 

California has the highest elevation of land 
in the United States, the grandest mountain 
scenery in America, and not surpassed, if 
equaled, by any in the world. She has a longer 
range of mountain heights, extending up into 
the regions of perpetual snow, than has any 
country of like area in the United States. She 
has some of the most beautiful, grand and 
picturesque valleys on earth. She has the won- 
der of the world in timber growth, the mighty 
Sequoia or redwood trees, some of which are 
thirty-six feet in diameter and tower heaven- 
ward all of 400 feet. California has more of 
the valuable metals than any other like area of 
earth now known to man. 

California has a greater variety of and a bet- 
ter climate than all other countries combined. 
The statement as to climate is difficult to define 
or explain. The writer desires to be under- 
stood as desiring to convey the idea of the won- 



derful variety of climate, difference of tempera- 
ture, etc., to be found within a radius of a few 
miles from a given point, and the peculiar sen- 
sation produced by the approaching shades of 
evening following the warm, sunny day. And 
here it is in place to state that California has 
more bright, delightful days than any other 
State in the Union. 

She can also boast of a greater share of sea- 
coast line than can any other State. She pro- 
duces nearly all kinds of fruits and vegetables 
that other States produce, and a great many 
which others cannot. She can point with pride 
to the best wheat produced in the world. She 
also possesses the two largest observatories in 
the world. There is but one California in all 
the world, and the world is beginning to recog- 
nize that fact. 

Tdie above statements were made by the late 
Governor Waterman, a few years since, and 
thousands can testify that he was right. There 
is but one California in the whole world, and so 
far as the western hemisphere is concerned 
there is no other State or country at all like it 
or comparable with it. That we may not be 
accused of speaking in an unduly boastful 
manner of California, at the outset we will 
concede that other States and other countries in 
the western world may possess certain points of 
superiority over California, jet the fact remains 
the same, — that California is at least unlike 
any other country under the sun. 

In point of geographical extent California is 
a great State. The area and proportions as to 
other States and countries having been stated, 
we will further say that California is a " hill 
country," so that not all of her vast area can be 
classed as arable until such time as her popula- 
tion shall press upon her productive powers for 
their sustenance much harder than they are 
likely to for some generations to come; but in 
time there is little doubt that even her steep 
mountain sides will be called upon to contribute 
their share to the sustenance of the State's great 
family, ami will respond more generously than 
people now deem possible. Were one to ascend 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



27 



Mount Hamilton, and set the great Lick tele- 
scope to a terrestrial rather than to a celestial 
gaze, and with it survey the State from Shasta 
to San Diego, he would perceive that of a truth 
California is a hilly country. The State is 
deeply cleft longitudinally by its great interior 
valley, the valley of the Sacramento sweeping 
grandly northward to Shasta's feet, and that of 
the San Joaquin southward to Tehachapi. All 
else seen by the observer would be mountains, 
though many broad and fertile valleys lie hid- 
den between them — mountains arranged in 
mighty chains, in scattered groups, detached 
spurs, and lone sentinels; mountains piled peak 
upon peak, until their snowy summits pierce 
heaven's dome; and mountains decapitated and 
leveled off into arable plateaus; rock-ribbed 
mountains ragged and desolate as icebergs, and 
mountains whose outlines are curved as grace- 
fully as the rainbows and whose sides are clad 
in a vesture reflecting all the rainbow's colors. 

In beauty and grandeur of natural scenery 
California is not excelled by any country in the 
world. Her waterfalls are highest; her moun- 
tain valleys are cut deepest; her lakes, though 
small, are gems of purest ray placed in most 
gorgeous settings; her precipices aremostabrupt 
and present largest surfaces to the view. 

Nor are her climatic conditions less varied 
than her scenery. She has within her borders 
all the climates of the five zones, and often 
within plain view of each other. Her thermal 
belts are frostless, her valleys temperate, her 
deserts torrid and her mountain summits are 
wrapped in perpetual snow. She has large areas 
as rainless as Egypt, and other sections where 
the rain is measured by the foot rather than by 
the inch. In portions of the State snow is 
never seen nearer than the distant mountain- 
tops, while in other parts only the tops of the 
trees are visible above the downy covering. 

But it is not in her great geographical extent, 
nor yet in her varied and most picturesque scen- 
ery, that California takes most pride. She is 
proudest of her great diversity of climatic con- 
ditions and the corresponding diversity of pro- 



duction which her climate permits. What 
Italy and Switzerland are to Europe, and more, 
California will be to the Western world. Her 
mission is that of a ministering angel to all her 
sister States; she will heal their sick, supply 
their tables with all the choicest delicacies of 
all climes and seasons; she will become the 
pleasure grounds of the nation and the sanita- 
rium of the world. Busy men, their tasks 
completed, will fly to California to spend in 
stormless peace their declining years. Students 
will seek her salubrious climate to study, artists 
to gather inspirations, and poets to sing their 
sweetest songs. 

The world demands of each community that 
of those commodities which are most needful, 
each shall produce what it can produce best, 
and commerce is legitimate only when it effects 
an interchange of such commodities as may be 
produced with advantage for such as may not. 
Other States can produce pork, beef, mutton, 
wool, as well, perhaps, as California; but where 
within the Union, if not from California, are her 
sister States to get their supplies of peaches, 
prunes, pears, grapes, raisins, almonds, oranges, 
lemons, limes, figs, pomegranates and olives? 
North America furnishes no rival to California 
in the production of all these delicacies. She 
has an easy, natural, legitimate monopoly of 
them all. Thus it is that the world shall de- 
mand these things of her, and her supply will 
be ever equal to the demand. She must first 
have her large grant ranches divided and sub- 
divided into small tracts, owned by enterprising, 
industrious workers, who will drive out from 
their midst the drones who toil not but consume 
the substance of the industrious. She must 
have her many valleys, hillsides and mesas set- 
tled upon, planted and cultivated; and when all 
this is done and well done, California will have 
become the Empire State of the nation. This 
state of affairs will not be long in coming, for 
" there is but one California in all the world, 
and the world is beginning to recognize that 
fact." 

What is the secret of the undeniable, almost 



28 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



indescribable, fascination which is exercised by 
California upon every one who comes within 
the reach of her influence? The permanent 
resident and the transient visitor alike are sub- 
ject, to that mysterious enchantment. Why is 
it that scarcely an individual who remains here 
for twelve months can he persuaded to shake 
off the glamour which insensibly steals over 
him, and return to his old home? Why is it 
that, no matter how strong may be the affection 
once felt for the home of childhood, all that 
sentiment intensified tenfold is transferred to 
this far Western land, and that the feeling of 
loyalty to their adopted home outweighs all 
national or sectional feeling in the hearts of the 
people of this State and makes them above all 
else Californians? 

Here is gathered a more cosmopolitan popu- 
lation than can be found in any other part of 
the world. Every State in the Union is here 
represented. Every province in British Amer- 
ica; every one of the Central and South Amer- 
ican countries; every country in Europe and 
Asia, Africa, Australia and the uttermost isles 
of the sea, is represented, — American and 
Englishman, German and Frenchman, Greek 
and Russian, Spaniard and Portuguese, Italian 
and Austrian, Hungarian and Pole, Dane and 
Swede, Armenian and Slavonian, Alaskan and 
Mexican, Canadian and Brazilian, Chilean and 
Sonoranian, Hawaiian and Samoan, Chinese 
and Japanese, Malay and Indian, Persian and 
Arabian, — white, black, red and yellow, and all 
the intermingling shades, — all live here side by 
side, and all are imbued with the same common 
sentiment which makes them Californians, no 
matter from what source they have originally 
sprung. That such a conglomerate mass from 
all nations of the earth should live contentedly 
here in the closest juxtaposition speaks marvel- 
ously well, both for the laws and institutions of 
the country as well as for the attractions of this 
particular portion of the universe. With the 
single exception of the Chinese, few of these 
people, after having passed a year here, can be 
persuaded to return to their old homes. They 



may have come in the lirst place with the inten- 
tion of remaining but a short time, but as the 
years roll round the sentiment of affection grows 
stronger and stronger, until finally nothing but 
the scythe of the Reaper proves sufficient to 
sever the ties that have become so powerful. 
Occasionally, it is true, the memories of old 
home become so strong that one returns thither, 
filled with the determination to remain, but a 
short stay is usually sufficient, and almost before 
his absence has been noted he is back again. 
" California is good enough for me,'' is the uni- 
versal conclusion of every one who has lived 
here for any length of time, and who by any 
means is persuaded to pay a visit to his previous 
home, no matter in what part of the world it 
may be. 

While in other portions of the United States 
there is a constant change in progress, a con- 
tinual going and coming, a departure of dis- 
couraged people for other localities, and an 
arrival of those who hope to be satisfied, nothing 
of the sort is seen here, so far at least as regards 
the departure of the old settlers. Since the 
subt-idence of the gold-mining excitement, in 
the days when men came to the State simply to 
" make their pile" and get home as quickly as 
possible, there has been practically no emigra- 
tion of people who have once settled here. Let 
the reader, if he be an old California!), cast about 
in his circle of acquaintances and note how few 
if any have ever gone back East and remained 
there. It is no doubt true that such instances 
do occasionally occur, but in the majority of 
cases a single winter's experience has been suf- 
ficient to drive them back again to the Pacific 
coast. As a rule, people who remain in Cali- 
fornia for a year remain for a lifetime. They 
are never so well satisfied anywhere else. Hav- 
ing once fallen under the influence of the climate, 
the scenery, the manners and customs of Cali- 
fornia, they feel lost anywhere else, and are 
unable to accommodate themselves to other 
circumstances. 

For the person who has never had the good 
fortune to visit the Pacific coast, California has. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



29 



too, a charm of a forceful though perhaps inde- 
finable character. Such was the case with the 
writer previous to coming to California. From 
the time the first Americans crossed the plains 
or sailed around the Horn and returned with 
their marvelous tales of the sunny land, there 
has been a glamour cast over the very name of 
California which has caused hundreds of thou- 
sands to look this way with longing eyes and to 
regard a trip hither as the consummation of one 
of their warmest desires. The stories of the 
early explorers, the journals of Fremont and his 
contemporaries, the experience of the gold hunt- 
ers, told in book, magazine and newspaper, in 
prose and poetry; the quaint records of the 
missions; the marvelous discoveries of scenery, 
the grandest the world knows; the genial cli- 
mate, without a parallel elsewhere; the wonder- 
ful development of resources, shown in the fact 
that California is rapidly becoming the orchard 
and the vineyard of the world, — all these and 
numerous other reasons have given to the State 
an attractiveness that is felt the world over, and 
is well nigh irresistible to any one who has been 
so fortunate as to have been placed within its 
influence. 

While acknowledging the strength of the fas- 
cination which California exerts upon all within 
her reach, few seem to consider of what that 
influence is composed. Each individual has 
his own idea on the subject, and the feature that 
appeals most strongly to the individual imagi- 
nation becomes in his opinion the principal claim 
to distinction. Each writer follows his own 
particular bent, and too frequently in so doing 
is led away by enthusiasm and by those features 
which appeal most strongly to him, and so does 
not do justice to other particulars which to the 
impartial judge are fully as deserving of notice. 
Another difficulty is that a great portion of the 
information furnished for Eastern and foreign 
readers is the work of visitors who pass at the 
most but a few months in the State, hastily skim 
over the surface, visiting a few of the principal 
cities and towns on the main line of railroad, 
and then set down their necessarily superficial 



observations as indisputable facts. If there is 
any part of the world more than another which 
needs persistent study and investigation in order 
to acquire perfect knowledge concerning all its 
salient features, that part is certainly California. 
It is a region of contradictions. Two per- 
fectly impartial travelers may traverse the State 
and faithfully report their experience and im- 
pressions, yet one would never for a moment 
suspect that they were both writing of the same 
country, so entirely different in every detail 
would be their statements. Thus, one might 
write of California as a region of snow and ice. 
He might with perfect truth tell of railroads 
inclosed for miles with massive structures 
which resemble tunnels dug through the snow. 
He might with equal propriety and truthfulness 
tell of two-story buildings so completely hidden 
by snow that their very existence would not be 
apparent to the stranger. He could tell of 
snow slides which have wiped towns out of ex- 
istence, and by the side of which the avalanche 
of the Alps sinks into insignificance. He could 
with truth complain of railroad travel suspended 
for weeks despite all the efforts of thousands of 
men, aided by the best and most powerful steam 
machinery known to modern ingenuity. He 
could, in fact, draw such a picture of Arctic 
California as would make even an Esquimau 
shudder. On the other hand, another traveler, 
writing upon the self-same day, could with equal 
truth tell of a journey in which the utmost dis- 
comfort was suffered from heat and thirst. He 
could tell of traveling vast stretches where the 
quivering heat actually sears the eyeballs, where 
the water supply becomes lower and lower, until 
exhausted; where one would give his right arm 
for but a single draught of the precious fluid, 
and where, failing it, more than one poor wretch 
has either lain down to die or has had the nerve 
to place the muzzle of a pistol to his tortured 
brain and pull the trigger that released him 
from the burning torture. And still another 
traveler might on the same day, write truthfully 
and give the reader a pen-picture of the most 
sublime region and clime ever invaded by man. 



BO 



BJSTUIiT OF CENTHAL CALIFORNIA. 



He could tell of bill and plain carpeted with 
the most lovely flowers that the eye ever rested 
upon; billows of gold and blue, pink and white, 
stretching in every direction. Also of orange 
groves, their dark green foliage intermingled 
with the golden fruit — golden in adouble sense; 
the atmosphere heavy with the odor of blossoms, 
the drone of bees humming in his ears, lie 
might, indeed, with truth claim to have found 
Tennysons's " Land of the Afternoon " realized 
in every detail. 

Contradictory as all this may sound, never- 
theless it might all be written with equal truth 
at one and the same time. Indeed, these seem- 
ing impossibilities and contradictions might be 
carried much further, until the reader were 
entangled in a mass of apparent paradoxes abso- 
lutely appalling. It is from this fact of so 
many having written about California from a 
single standpoint, and because there is such a 
vast amount of new information afloat upon the 
subject, that we propose to consider the various 
attractions of the State and to treat each as 
fairly, dispassionately and fully as the space in 
this volume will permit. This brief description 
is not from the hands of a casual traveler, with 
an acquaintance of a few months at the most, 
but rather from one who has for many years 
studied every feature of this wonderful State; 
and who is thoroughly familiar with it from the 
Mexican to the Oregon line, and from the ocean 
sands to the eastern slope of the Sierra; who has 
no feeling of prejudice for one section more than 
another, but whose love for California as a 
whole is as warm as such a sentiment can pos- 
sibly be. Whether the task shall have been 
faithfully performed, the reader must judge. 
One thing may be accepted as certain, namely, 
that no statements are made, no matter how 
startling or apparently contradictory, that are 
not susceptible of the most ample demonstra- 
tion. Many things will possibly appear to the 
uninitiated like reversals of what are supposed 
to be the immutable laws of nature. Yet the 
accuracy of these statements will be conceded 
by all the old Californians and those acquainted 



with the facts. The sole purpose here is to give 
the truth, and nothing but the truth, devoid of 
exaggeration in every detail. No friend of 
California need fear the facts or desire to sup- 
press any of them. California is so far superior 
to any other part of the world that the worst of 
her drawbacks become almost advantages, and 
indeed in many instances they are truthfully 
so, as we will endeavor to show. 

The attractions of California are of a varied 
character. Whether one touches the history, 
the climate, the scenery, or the development by 
artificial means, he finds so much to admire and 
wonder at that it requires a long period of in- 
vestigation and familiarity before an adequate 
conception can be formed of their real immen- 
sity. The historical features of the State have 
been so fully dealt with by many able writers 
that little is left to be said. Yet we will draw 
from the many, at the same time realizing that 
there are certain phases of this feature of 
attractions that are of the highest interest, 
because too frequently neglected. What may 
be called the prehistoric history of this State 
affords rare opportunities for study, — oppor- 
tunities that are all too much neglected, and 
are indeed rapidly passing away. The rock in- 
scriptions of the coast, the Sierra and the desert 
should be transcribed, and so far as possible 
translated. That they were made witli a definite 
purpose and have a distinctive meaning, no one 
who has seen them can doubt. George W. 
Stewart, a promising young writer, editor of the 
Delta, at Visalia, Tulare County, is deeply in- 
terested in preserving the above historic matter, 
and is now engaged in gathering such inscrip- 
tions as his time will permit. The cliff dwell- 
ings and mounds of the desert and of the grand 
canon of the Colorado are certainly worthy of 
investigation, while in the folk-lore and tra- 
ditions of the remnants of the Indian tribes 
which once densely populated the coast there is 
a mine for investigation of unsurpassed interest 
of which, if much longer delayed, all traces will 
be obliterated, for soon the last of the aborigines 
will have passed away. The origin of those 



IIISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORFIA. 



31 



tribes themselves opens another broad field. 
Types can be selected from the Indian tribes 
and from the Chinese residents of this coast 
which, placed side By side, are so similar in 
every respect as to be startling. Notably is this 
so with the Indians of Southern California. 
Individuals can be found in those tribes, who, 
except for peculiarities of dress and mode of 
wearing their hair, resemble in every feature the 
Chinese, while on the other hand Chinese are 
frequently seen who compare in every detail of 
feature with the Indians. Yet with all this 
racial resemblance, no more cordial and recip- 
rocal hatred can be conceived than that which 
exists between the two peoples. 

But it is not the purpose of this work to go 
into the historical attractions of California, 
numerous and interesting though they be. The 
climate, scenery and notable physical character- 
istics of the State, are all we can take under 
consideration here, and only the most salient 
features thereof attempted. Many of the lead- 
ing features are widely known, and, therefore, 
we will give more detail to some not so well 
understood. The unbeaten paths will be neces- 
sarily followed to some extent, and an effort 
made to show that there are many attractive 
features which are as yet unknown, or familiar 
to but few at most. 



THE AKGONATJTS. 



During the period of gold excitement, men 
came hither from every portion of the known 
world; but come from wheresoever they might, 
they had to learn life over again. The experi- 
ence of other climes availed them little, for 
hers they found new conditions of soil, of cli- 
mate, and of production, totally at variance with 
all that they had ever before met with or heard 
of. Consequently it is not to be wondered at, 
that the Argonauts were slow in developing and 
bringing into prominence other than the mining 
resources of the State. 

And even now, after forty years have come 
and gone, it may be frankly admitted that what 
has been accomplished in other fields of enter- 



prise scarcely more than suffices to reveal to the 
more far-seeing the limitless possibilities of the 
future. The Argonautic era has passed. The 
forty years' sojourn in the wilderness has prac- 
tically ended. Californians have found, and are 
now rejoicing in, the promised land, and have 
entered into their inheritance; and right busy 
are they now, planting their vines and fig trees, 
and making for themselves sucli homes as are 
possible in no other land. 

But it should not be thought that all the 
years spent in the wilderness of California's 
early history were joyless or profitless. Once 
setting foot on the soil of California, the Argo- 
nauts encountered no such hardships as did the 
Pilgrim fathers, the Jamestown colonists, the 
pioneers of the interior "West," or those later 
but equally resolute and patriotic heroes who 
shouldered their riflles and went into the terri- 
tory of Kansas to prevent slavery from obtain- 
ing a foothold there. True, the journey across 
the plains was wearisome, and not without its 
dangers, and the voyage around Cape Horn or 
by way of the Isthmus was not looked upon as 
a pleasure trip; but once upon the western 
slope of the Sierras, the pioneers' hardships 
were ended. They found themselves in what 
seemed a perpetual summer land. No rigors 
of climate were to be contended with, no forests 
were to be cleared away before planting, no in- 
corrigible prairie sod was to be pounded into 
subordination; and no insidious miasmas stole 
upon him from swamps or morasses to strike 
him down unawares. Even the primitive sav- 
age dwelt with him in comparative harmony, 
and forebore to lift his scalp except upon extra- 
ordinary occasions, while the pioneers of other 
States were forever at war with the red men. 

Moreover, the pioneers of other States gave 
up all they held dearest and went into the wil- 
derness in search of liberty, of homes for those 
dependent upon them, or waged war against 
savage elements, and more savage men, for the 
sake of some principle for which, if need be, 
they were willing to lay down their lives. The 
Argonauts were in search of gold, and for gold 



UISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



only. Their highest ambition was to make 
their "pile," go back to the "States," and live 
like lords, the envy perhaps of less enterprising 
neighbors. 

We are not disposed to speak disparagingly 
of the " Forty-niners." On the contrary we will 
say that it may go down to coming generations 
that no more hardy, resolute, or capable set of 
men than they figure in the history of any 
country; there was no obstacle too great for 
them to surmount. They revolutionized the 
mining industry of the world, created a new 
department of jurisprudence, made rivers to 
How backward, leveled down mountains, and 
burrowed so far into the interior of the earth 
that the hiss and roar of the infernal regions 
resounded through their tunnels. Granting 
that all this was done for the love of gold, do 
not the human race the world over seek it just 
as madly in divers ways? and what they sought 
they found, and the pity is that all who found 
did not keep what they found, for many who, 
to use a mining phrase, "struck it rich," ven- 
tured again, lost, aud lived and died poor. 

But it was characteristic of the Forty-niner 
never to give up, never complain, never aban- 



don hope, always looking hopefully to the mor- 
row, confident that a fortune was in store for 
him; never complaining of ill luck, nor aban- 
doning his quest until dealh took him off the 
track. The world is, and especially are the 
people of California, much better and richer for 
the Argonauts having lived. Columbus, while 
seeking a western passage to the East Indies, 
blundered upon a continent, for which the world 
will never cease to sing him praises, and yet 
Columbus failed to find that which he sought. 
So that the California Argonauts, though more 
fortunate than Columbus, inasmuch as they did 
find gold, trebling the world's product of that 
precious commodity, also "builded better than 
they knew." They not only made their country 
rich enough to destroy human slavery, and to 
form a yet "more perfect union," but they gave 
to the greatest nation on the globe what will 
yet become the greatest, most populous, richest 
and happiest commonwealth in that nation. 
And should the mere fact that such was not 
their aim detract from their fame more than 
from that of Columbus or other fortunate blun- 
derers into worldly fame? 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



33 





THE GREAT SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY. 



m^kmm-jm,^ 





ORIGIN OF THE NAME " SAN JOAQUIN." 

tS the San Joaquin River is the only stream 
conveying the waters of this great valley to 
the ocean it will be of interest to learn 
something in regard to its discovery as well as the 
origin of its name. From the report of General M. 
G. Vallejo to the State Senate in 1852, on the 
" Origin of the names of counties in this State," 
we find the following: "San Joaquin: — The 
meaning of this name has a very ancient origin, 
in reference to the parentage of Mary, the mother 
of Christ." According to divine revelations, 
Joachim signifies "preparation of the Lord," 
and hence the belief that Joaquin, who in the 
course of time was admitted into the pale of 
sanctity, was the father of Mary. In 1813, 
commanding an exploring expedition to the 
valley of the rushes (Valle de los Tules), Lieu- 
tenant Gabriel Moraga gave the appellation of 
San Joaquin to a rivulet that has its source in 
the Sierra Nevada, and empties into lake Buena 
Yista; and the river San Joaquin is said to 
have derived its name from this rivulet. Father 
Crespi, a priest in charge of an exploring expedi- 
tion sent out by the mission on the 30th of 
March, 1773, discovered the mouth of the San 
Joaquin, at a point about where Antioch now 
is, and was probably the first representative 
white person who ever saw the river and the 
great valley which it drains. 

Captain Juan JBautisto Anza was sent to ex- 



amine the port of San Francisco and ascertaiu 
whether it could be really entered by a channel 
or mouth which had been seen from the land. 
This great problem was satisfactorily solved by 
the San Carlos, a ship of perhaps 200 tons, in 
the month of June, 1775. When she entered, 
they reported that they had found a land-locked 
sea, with two arms, one making into the interior 
about fifteen leagues to the southeast, the other 
three, four, or perhaps five leagues to the north, 
where there was a large bay about ten leagues 
across and of around figure, into which emptied 
the great river of our Father San Francisco 
(this is the Sacramento), which was fed by five 
other rivers, all of them copious streams flow- 
ing through a plain so wide that it was bounded 
only by the horizon, and meeting to form the 
said great river; and all this immensity of water 
discharging itself into the Pacific ocean, which 
is there called the Gulf of the Farallones. 
This very striking description was accurate 
enough for the purpose of that day ; and as soon 
as Anza and his people had arrived, and Anza 
in person had gone up and selected the site, a 
party was sent out by land and another by sea 
to establish the presidio and mission of San 
Francisco. The date of the foundation of the 
presidio was the 17th of September, and that 
of the mission the 9th of October, 1776. 

After the presidio and before the mission was 
established, an exploration of the interior was 



34 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



planned, and as usual by both land and sea. 
Point San Pablo was given as the rendezvous; 
but the captain of the presidio, who undertook 
in person to lead the land party, failed to ap- 
pear there, having, with the design to shorten 
the distance, entered a cafiada near the head of 
the bay, which took him over to the San Joa- 
(piin river. So he discovered that stream. 

Whether or not the "Captain of the Presidio" 
above referred to, was Captain Anza, we are not 
sure; but from the best sources of information 
we are of the opinion that ho was, and that to 
him belongs the honor of discovering and 
naming the San Joaquin river. It is at any 
rate certain that the San Joaquin was discovered 
and named between the 17th of September and 
the 9th of October, 1776, or a little more than 
two months after the declaration of the inde- 
pendence of the United States. 



&BOGBAPHIOAL. 



We will first consider the San Joaquin valley 
as extending from the Cosumnes river 260 
miles south to the Tehachapi mountains, and 
with an average width as previously stated, this 
constitutes about three-fifths of the area of the 
whole basin. This southern half of the great 
plain is subdivided into the San Joaquin and 
Tulare valleys, although the latter is practically 
a continuation of the former. It is proper here 
to define our understanding as to what con- 
stitutes a valley, and thus establish as well as 
deline onr position as to the great interior basin 
being one valley. It will certainly be con- 
ceded that a valley is a comparatively level body 
of land surrounded, or bounded, by higher 
lands, hills or mountain ranges. Assuming that 
this is admitted, we will state further that there 
is no perceptible elevation marking the line 
between the Sacramento and San Joaquin 
valleys; neither is there an elevation to mark 
the divide so as to establish the Tulare valley 
claim. The subdivisions admitted are marked 
and defined by the Sacramento river in the 
north-central portion of the valley; and the 
same will apply to the San Joaquin river where 



the Southern Pacific Railroad crosses that stream 
near the Fresno and Tulare county line; and the 
Kern valley claim may likewise be defined by 
the Kern River, which crosses the plains near 
Bakersfield en route to Kern lake. 

Having briefly defined our position we will re- 
sume our valley rambles, and proceed by saying 
that this great valley is situated between two 
parallel mountain chains extending in a north- 
westerly and southeasterly direction, through a 
great part of the State — the Sierra Nevada, on 
the east, attaining their highest point in Tulare 
County, in the lofty peak of Mount Whitney, 
rising to an altitude of 15,056 feet above sea 
level, from which the summit line slopes gradu- 
ally both to the north and south, and the Coast 
Range, on the west side, having an average 
height of less than 2,000 feet. 

The valley consists of two plains of unequal 
width extending from the foothills of the mount- 
ains, and meeting in a trough, not midway, but 
considerably west of the center line of the great 
depression. This trough, extending from one 
end of the valley to the other, has a general 
inclination in a northwesterly direction toward 
the outlet for all drainage waters of this great 
basin, Suisun bay. Its slope is not uniform, 
but flattens out at intervals where lakes and 
marshes exist, as the streams flowing in on 
either side have banked up the silt and detritus 
washed from the mountains at special points 
for ages past. In this manner Kern river, 
sweeping down enormous volumes of de- 
composed granite, has spread out a broad barrier 
across the valley, including a basin above it for 
the reception of the waters forming Kern and 
Buena Vista lakes, at the southern extremity of 
the trough; and King's river, carrying its load 
of sand and silt to the lowest part of the valley. 
has raised a dam across the depression, and com- 
pleted the shallow basin where now exists Tulare 
lake, one of the largest sheets of fresh water in 
California. The general conformation of the 
valley favors the opinion that this trough once 
held the bed of a continuous stream from Kern 
river, extending the entire length of the valley 



E J STOUT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



35 



and receiving the tributaries flowing in on 
either side. As it now is, the depression serves 
as the drainage way for all the valley, however 
impeded may be its course. 

From Kern and Buena Vista lakes, which 
occupy the same level in the lowest depression 
of the southern end, and are at an elevation of 
about 293 feet above low tide, it slopes at the 
rate of about two feet per mile for forty-two 
miles to Tulare lake, whose elevation is 198 to 
210 feet, according to the stage of its waters. 
Thence to the mouth of Fresno slough at the 
great bend of the San Joaquin, fifty-five miles 
from the lake, the slope is eighty-six hundredths 
of a foot per mile. The total fall from this point 
to the mouth of the San Joaquin river, a dis- 
tance of 120 miles, is 165 feet. 

GEOLOGY OF THE VALLEY. 

The geology of this great valley is a wonder- 
ful study. The student will here find ample 
field for in . estigation, and volumes conld be 
written thereon and yet not begin to exhaust the 
subject. " 

As yet writers are left in a measure to their 
various ideas and speculations as to the time 
when this great valley was made, and as to the 
exact causes which culminated in preparing 
this fertile region for man's habitation. The 
general topography and geological features of 
this valley leave no doubt upon the mind of the 
average man that it has been in some remote 
period an inland sea, whose waters have for ages 
received the wash and wear of the surrounding 
mountains until at the lowest depression de- 
posits of diluvium thousands of feet deep have 
been made, which have been builded upon by 
vegetable matter and soils formed by the recedence 
of the waters. The foothills bear traces of hav- 
ing been worn by some mighty stream, and are 
covered by the decomposed granite, gravel, lava 
and humus of ages. From their base the land 
gently descends and does not lose the volcanic 
appearance of the soil until it reaches the general 
level of the plains. The richness of the soil of 
this great valley is undoubtedly due to the 



glacial period. The soil is seemingly made from 
the granite rocks and lava, ground into a paste 
by the glaciers in the mountains and passed 
down into the great inland sea by other glaciers, 
and great bodies of water seeking a common 
level. 

John Muir says of the Sierras: They are 
everywhere marked and adorned with character- 
istic sculptures of the ancient glaciers that swept 
over this entire region like one vast ice-wind, 
and the polished surfaces produced by the 
ponderous flood are still so perfectly preserved 
that in many places the sunlight reflected frcm 
them is about as trying to the eyes as sheets of 
snow. While nature's great glacial mills have 
ground slowly, they have here ground exceed- 
ingly fine, and have been kept grinding long 
enough to prepare soil for any alpine crop. 
Most of the soil has been borne to the low lands, 
where man can plant and till it, leaving the high 
regions generally bare and uninviting. 

Less than 3,000 feet below the summit of 
Mount Ritter, we find tributaries of the San 
Joaquin and Owen's rivers bursting forth from 
the eternal ice and snow of the glaciers that line 
its flanks; while a little to the north are found 
the highest affluents of the Tuolumne and 
Merced. Here we find the fountains of four of 
California's principal rivers within a radius of 
a few miles. 

When nature was preparing the great Ameri- 
can continent for man's habitation — first by 
the ordeal of fire, as shown by volcanic action 
which heaved to the surface all minerals for 
man's convenience and use, — then came a time 
demanding a radical change to grind down the 
mighty mountains and prepare a soil upon 
which man could produce vegetation to sustain 
life. Then came the period of ice, when the 
mighty glaciers from Nevv England to the shores 
of the great Pacific ocean were put to grinding 
and planing away the stupendous mountain 
ranges stretching away across the continent, 
when the high lands about the sources of the 

o 

great Mississippi river were being planed down 
and the debris carried down to form the great 



36 



UISTORT OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



valley along that stream to the Gulf of Mexico. 
Then too the ice was planing down the old lava 
slopes of the Sierras, and to their action is due 
the uncovering of the gold fields, as also the 
gold they ground out of the quartz, and the 
alluvium that made the inexhaustible soil of this 
greatest of valleys. 

No prehis*oric remains have been reported as 
found within this valley; but stone mortars, 
pestles, and arrowheads have been found, it is 
reported, in Pliocene gravel, at Murphy's Camp, 
Shaw's Flat, Columbia, Springfield, Tuolumne, 
Table Mountain. Sonora and Knight's Landing. 
Hills and mountains contain bones of the masto- 
don, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, 
camel, whale and a quadruped resembling a 
tapir. Oyster shells fifteen inches long have 
been found at Coral Hollow, and Oyster Peak 
near Mount Diablo is named for its fossils. It 
is claimed that part of the skull of a man was 
found in sinking a shaft in one of the mining 
districts at a depth of 130 feet, under four suc- 
cessive strata of lava, which if true would 
indicate that man was on this coast prior to the 
great eruptions of this portion of the earth. 

Professor Amos Bowman, of the State 
Geological Survey, thus defines certain eras in 
the geological history of California: — 

First, the Pliocene, or ancient eroding period, 
during which these deep "dead''-river channels 
were cut into the -'bed rock." 

Second, these Pliocene channels filling up 
with gravel, or the choking, or damming period. 

Third, the active volcanic period of the 
Sierras, where the gravels were capped with 
lava and volcanic ashes. 

Fourth, the cold or glacial period, when the 
slopes were covered with living, moving glaciers. 

Fifth, the modern erosive or more recent 
period, during which the present river channels 
were formed crossing the old channels at various 
angles. 

There seems to be no controverting the theory, 
or we may well say fact, that the great San 
Joaquin valley was at one period submerged 
with the waters of the Pacific ocean, which left 



upon their subsidence a 6oil of adobe that has 
since received a coat or deposit of sedimentary 
alluvium. The soil of the valley largely formed 
through glacial influences belongs to the second- 
ary formative period. The mountains are of 
volcanic substances. Trap or basalt is the had 
ing rock, although porphyry, syenite, slate, and 
especially carbonate, or magnesian limestone 
are found. 

In attempting to define the several geological 
formations, we will assume that the mountains 
and valley are without breaks in their formation, 
and as it would appear if all the groups of for- 
mations were present at one place in their 
natural order. But this seldom occurs. These 
formations are very much broken and disturbed, 
presenting a great variety of structures. Sup- 
posing we were to examine a section of the 
earth in its original condition before any dis- 
turbing cause disarranged the several strata, and 
beginning at the San Joaquin and extending to 
the top of the Sierras, the rocks, strata, etc., 
there would be, — 

First, soil and alluvium. The conclusion will 
be readily reached by an observing person, from 
the soil and vegetation of which this is the 
debris, that this formation is exceedingly rich 
for agricultural purposes. This deposit covers 
almost the entire surface of this great valley, 
varying somewhat as to depth, and in fertilizing 
strength, or rather special adaptation to certain 
products. The higher valleys and hills are not 
deficient, as a rule, in depth of soil, and in some 
of the smaller basins it reaches a depth of from 
ten to twenty feet, sufficient to support groves 
of immense trees. It is impossible to give the 
exact depth of soil in anyone locality. 

We give figures of a well bored some years 
since near the Chowchilla ranch, and within two 
miles of the river. Total depth. 2'J1 feet. Two 
fee^, surface soil and sandy loam. Through a 
space of ninety-eight feet was found fine sand 
streaked with thin layers of clay. The sand was 
similar to that of the plains, then one foot of 
solid hard-pan. Then, passing through ninety- 
five feet, the strata were found to lie composed 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



37 



of various qualities of sand, from that of quick- 
sand to coarse gravel. Then through 101 feet 
was found to be a compact mass of hard blue 
clay, such as is found by the grinding away and 
decomposition of granite and other rocks. After 
passing through this flowing water was obtained. 

Secondly, the conglomerate formation, com- 
prising a deposit of shale, clay, boulders, sand, 
and fragments of all the lower strata, worn and 
loosely cemented with calcareous matter, which 
was evidently deposited when most of these 
mountains were under water. There is found 
in this formation evidence of floods and wash- 
ings of the sea, fossils of wood, bones (mostly 
of marine animals), shells of mussels and other 
lnollusks, turtles, such as are now found in 
creeks, with occasional impressions of sea weeds. 
This formation has no regular thickness. It is 
sometimes found in piles against the shale to a 
depth of from thirty to forty feet. In the foot- 
hills it extends over the Pacific coast, stratified 
by the action of water. 

The third stratum, or bituminous shale, — 
"chalk rock" — varies from a white to a dark 
color, and from a very fine to a very coarse text- 
ure, as also from a soft and friable condition, 
crumbling between the fingers, to a flinty hard- 
ness, that withstands the hardest steel. In this 
stratum are found tree-like concretions of hard 
sandstone 50 to 100 feet long, and also bones 
of marine monsters, such as whales, seals, etc., 
and occasional beds of lignite, an impure or 
immature coal, three or four feet thick. Some 
of this coal, however, is of a fair quality. In 
the white and gray chalk beds are found micro- 
scopic remains of diatoms, sponges, and other 
organic structures. In fact, this formation 
seems to be composed of the remains of these 
microscopic beings. Therefore, this formation 
must have taken place under the water, when the 
present Coast Range was near the level of the 
sea, and when perhaps the Sierra was the east- 
ern barrier to the Pacific ocean. 

The fourth, or sandstone, formation, differs 
but little from the shale, except the quantity 
of sand contained therein, not very firmly 



cemented, and mixes more or less with the shale 
in alternate layers. The fossils in each are 
similar. Beneath the sandstone are found the 
upturned edges of the clay slates. These are 
interstratified with a limestone, copper ore and 
quicksilver. As the old red sandstone, and the 
'■true carboniferous" rocks so called, are not 
found in California, it was long supposed that 
no valuable coal would be found in the State. 
Recent discoveries of that valnable commodity 
in large bodies in the Coast Range have set aside 
such theory. These coals contain far more solid 
combustible matter, and less incombustible 
materia], than most tertiary coals. It is really 
more properly "lignite," and belonging to a 
later period than that of the real coal formation, 
lying in different strata. The rocks are of the 
upper secondary age, sandstone and shale, and 
were formed by alternating depositions in salt 
and fresh water. 

The fifth, or limestone, formation, is more or 
less metamorphic, and the rock is crystalline. 
This lime rock is of very good quality, and 
when properly selected is an excellent building 
material and easily worked, and is found in large 
quantities. In places there are unexplored caves 
of considerable extent. No important fossils 
have been reported as found in this formation. 
It is not found in distinct horizontal strata but 
generally in masses, as having been thrown into 
heaps when in a semi- plastic state by the up- 
heaval of underlying formations. 

The sixth, or metamorphic, rock, was un- 
doubtedly originally stratified, but now broken 
and thrown into endless confusion. There are 
alternations of slate, granite, limestone, quartz, 
gneiss, etc. It is the most prevalent rock of 
these mountains occupying a large portion of 
their area, and contains copper, gold, quick- 
silver, iron, and has recently been shown to con- 
tain petroleum of vast variety and excellent 
quality. 

The real economic value of this formation in 
these mountains is as yet but partially known, 
and therefore little appreciated. Undoubtedly a 
river ran nearly in the course of the present 



3S 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALTFORNIA. 



Stanislaus, in the Pliocene age, and was de- 
stroyed by a lava flow, which rose to the level of 
the banks, leaving no bed for the water, and 
continued to build up until it assumed a moun- 
tain appearance, with serpentine, steep sides, 
and a bare and level top. Sinking down through 
the middle of Table mountain, the miners passed 
through 150 feet of basalt, 100 of volcanic sand, 
fifty of clay and sand, thirty of gravel (the 
lowest ten feet being rich in gold), and then 
struck the slate or bed rock. 

The seventh or granite formation, makes up 
the bulk of the Sierra Nevada mountains. This 
granite has undoubtedly at some period been 
stratified, although nearly all evidence of such 
a fact has been lost. Where exposed it crumbles 
readily. The lowest rock is granite, but differ- 
ing greatly in its composition in different 
localities. Overlying this are found shales and 
sandstones of the crustaceous period, — a very 
recent geological age; hence the conclusion that 
these granites are but the metamorphosed 
sedimentary rocks of past ages. 

During the deposition of the cretaceous rocks, 
this country and the great San Joaquin valley 
formed a part of the bottom of the Pacific 
ocean. Time swept on, however, and the hour 
which closed a period of the world's history 
came, and with it the upheaval of the mighty 
Sierras. 

Then undoubtedly followed a long period of 
comparative rest, and perhaps the period when 
mine deposits or upheavals were made. Large 
rivers were formed, deep channels and gorges 
cut through the uplifted rocks, which were so 
heated by volcanic fires as to crumble when 
coining in contact with water, and the heat also 
metamorphosed the disintegrated parts, sands, 
mud, etc., and they became hard rocks. In 
places, interstices veins, etc., were tilled with 
the melted rocks from below, through others 
circulated hot water, charged with the various 
valuable minerals, gold, silver, copper, etc. 
These were slowly deposited where now found 
in large quartz ledges, as also later in gravels 
where glacial mills had ground them down and 



washed them down the streams along the foot" 
hills and into the valleys. 

The climate of this great valley has been 
spoken of in the general history of the State, 
but will be given special local attention in the 
history of counties elsewhere in this work, as 
also will the various products. We wish now 
to call the reader's attention to the condition 
and aesthetic appearance of this great valley. 

THE PRIMITIVE LANDSCAPE. 

There began to settle in this valley in 1848- 
'49 that intrepid band of pioneers who had 
scaled the Sierras or sailed "around the Horn." 
At length they gained the promised land. 
When they entered this great valley they found 
it an interminable grain-field, miles upon miles 
and acre after acre; wild oats grew in wondrous 
profusion, and in many places to a prodigious 
height, — one great, glorious green of wild, 
waving grain, high over the head of the way- 
farer on foot, and shoulder high to the eques- 
trian. Wild flowers of every prisma'ic shade 
charmed the eye, while they vied with each 
other in the gorgeoosness of their colors, and 
blended into dazzling splendor. One breath of 
wind and the wide emerald expanse rippled 
itself into space, while with a heavier breeze 
came a swell whose rolling waves beat against 
the mountainsides, and being hurled back were 
lost in the far-away horizon, and shadow pur- 
sued shadow in a long, merry chase. The air 
was filled with the hum of bees, the chirp of 
birds, and an overpowering fragrance from the 
various flowering plants weighted the air. The 
hillsides, overrun as they were with a dense 
mass of chapparal, were hard to penetrate, 
while in some portions the deep, dark gloom of 
the forest trees lent relief to the eye The 
almost boundless range was intersected through- 
out with divergent trails, whereby the traveler 
moved from point to point, progress being, as it 
were, in darkness on account of the height of 
the oats on either side, and rendered dangerous 
in the valleys by the bands of untamed cattle. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



39 



sprung from the stock introduced by the mis- 
sion fathers. These found food and shelter on 
the plains during the night; at dawn they re- 
paired to the higher grounds to chew the end 
and bask in the sunshine. At short intervals 
coyotes sprang almost from beneath the trav- 
eler's feet. The flight of numerous qnail and 
other birds, the nimble run and leap of the 
jack rabbit, and the stampede of the elk and an- 
telope, which abounded in thousands, added to 
the charm. 

THE VALLEY IN MAY. 

The month of May has robed the great val- 
ley of the San Joaquin in a garb of beauty. 
The oak forests, which burst into leaf early in 
the spring, present to the eye when viewed 
from an eminence a vast billowy sea of green. 
The wide plain seems an unbroken expanse of 
waving grain, just beginning to ripen for the 
harvest, field succeeding field, and mile succeed- 
ing mile as far as the vision can extend. Lawns 
are fresh and beautiful, and flower-gardens con- 
tain a wealth of bloom; climbing vines wind 
about arbor and lattice, making masses of leaf 
sprinkled with blossoms of every hue. Flowers 
from the north grow in the shade of the palm 
from the south. Numberless plants from nur- 
series nestle with the spine-covered but bril- 
liantly flowered cactus from the desert. The 
most beautiful ornamental exotics from every 
clime and every corner of the world are natural- 
ized here, and grow and thrive by the side of 
the flowering favorites native to the soil, which 
have been transplanted from forest and field. 

Such is this great valley in the last days of a 
California spring, — the period of transition be- 
tween the showery April weather and the warm, 
rainless summer. May finds it a land of beauty, 
and leaves it a paradise. 

We will attempt to convey to the reader the 
scene meeting the eye of the traveler on his en- 
trance into this great valley. The writer will 
ask the reader to be seated with him on the 
north-bound train over the Southern Pacific 
railroad. We will discuss different topics 
until we pass through the great Mojave desert, 



and note the grand scenery through the Te- 
hachapi mountains, the wonderful engineering 
skill displayed in rounding the many points, 
crossing canons, through tunnels, and the 
famous loop where the railroad doubles over, 
across and under itself in finding its way into 
the great valley below. The long grade de- 
scended, and before the traveler lies the great 
San Joaquin valley. An almost level plain ex- 
tends away to the north 500 miles. Practically 
an unknown stretch of territory reaches all the 
way from Caliente to Redding, walled in by 
mountains on either side. The very immensity 
of the valley of the San Joaquin and Sacra- 
mento, for they are practically one, is a source 
of attraction, for truly it is without an equal in 
more respects than one. 

If it be winter or spring when the tourist 
reaches this portion of the State, the earth will 
be dressed in the most gorgeous garments of 
green and gold, purple and red, white and blue, 
— all the colors of which nature is capable. 
Hundreds of thousands of acres will be a sea of 
waving grain, the passing breeze rippling over 
it as the wind does over the water. Other 
hundreds of thousands of acres will be covered 
with a natural growth of grass and flowers of 
unlimited variety, but in gorgeous masses of 
color, visible for miles. Here a whole slope 
will be a literal field of the " cloth of gold," 
there royal purple will be massed over acres and 
acres, and yonder purest white or azure blue 
salutes the vision in solid masses, unmixed with 
other shades. The soft, balmy breeze comes in 
at the car window, spicy and perfumed as no 
artificer can produce or imitate; the drowsy 
hum of bees is in the air, and a feeling of de- 
licious languor and contentment steals over the 
senses. 

Although the level plains extend as far as 
the eye can reach, yet so lovely is it in its 
springlike dress that not for a moment does it 
become wearisome. 

Suppose, however, that it be midsummer 
when this journey is undertaken. Except where 
orchards or vineyards, alfalfa or cornfields, with 



40 



IlfSTOIT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



their dark green verdure, relieve the eye, the 
landscape is a dull monotone of brown, with 
slightly varying shades. In the great grain- 
fields huge machines move to and fro, apparently 
of their own volition, cutting gigantic swaths of 
golden grain, and leaving their pathway strewn 
with sacks bursting with choicest wheat. By 
the side of the track acres are covered with 
these sacks, literally corded up and awaiting 
shipment to tide-water. No fear of rain haunts 
the farmer here, and he calmly stacks up the 
threshed grain in the open field, with no shelter 
other than a handful of straw, and perhaps not 
even that. Later in the season the traveler will 
be delighted with the sight of thousands of tons 
of apricots, peaches, raisins, etc., spread out in 
the sun to dry, and he will doubtless learn with 
surprise that, cured with no other aid than the 
heat of the sun and the desiccating power of 
the atmosphere, that fruit will rival the choicest 
products of the most expensive and elaborate 
evaporators in use elsewhere. 

Great irrigating canals, large as rivers, will 
attract notice all through the valley, their, 
waters spreading out in every direction and 
making valuable lands that otherwise would be 
little else than a desert. Artesian wells, too, 
that rival the most noted ones in this or the 
old world, may be 6een in this valley. Single 
wells that flow one, two, almost three millions 
of gallons daily are here, while those of smaller 
proportions are to be met on every hand. A 
single one of these wells will furnish water 
enough for a thousand acres, and sometimes 
even more, and their value reaches a sum that 
would appear fabulous. 

Every few miles a halt is made at a town 
well built and prosperous and surrounded by 
comfortable homes and farms. Then the great 
colony region of Fresno County is traversed, 
and now the traveler will be told of thousands 
of men who enjoy incomes from little plats of 
from ten to thirty acres far larger than the 
farmer of the East can realize from ten times 
that area with thrice the amount of labor 
Here small farms are numbered by the thou- 



sand, and the uniform prosperity of their own- 
ers is apparent from the comfortable, even 
elegant homes, and the genera] air of happiness 

that exists. 

From the time the San Joaquin valley is en- 
tered at the south until it is left at the north 
the observant traveler will tind an abundance 
to interest and amuse, and not to have visited 
this great valley will have been to miss one of 
the most important portions of the State. 

A MOST PROMISING COUNTRY. 

The San Joaquin valley is the most wonder- 
ful agricultural region in the United States, 
capable of producing almost everything, and its 
area is large enough to maintain millions of 
people. The great interior basin of California, 
comprising the Sacramento and San Joaquin 
valleys — two divisions of one uninterrupted 
plain — has an area of about 17,200 square 
miles. The extreme length of this great valley 
is nearly 500 miles, and the width averages 
about fifty miles. The writer in speaking of 
this great valley is constantly reminded by citi- 
zens of each subdivision of the valley, that he 
resides in the Sacramento valley; and another 
wishes it to be distinctly understood that he is 
proud of his domicile in the famous Tulare val- 
ley, whilst a third is proud of his home in the 
only Kern valley on earth! Thus it will be 
seen how the writer, not even a resident of the 
State, and attempting to treat of this great val- 
ley from an unprejudiced standpoint, will at 
the same time run in opposition to, and in con- 
flict with, opinions of good men, who from a 
commendable local pride and home attachment 
wish their immediate section to be known as a 
distinct and independent valley. This claim 
we will admit, theoretically, and will so recog- 
nize and treat on each, in the local chapters in 
this work. At the same time we must treat of 
this great valley practically as a whole, and it 
certainly can not detract in the least from the 
other grand subdivisions to be mentioned as 
constituting a portion and an important portion 
<if '-The Great San Joaquin Valley." 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



41 



We have asserted, and adduced evidence to 
prove, that California is the most wonderful 
State in the Union, and making rapid strides 
toward the position of the empire State; 
and furthermore, that California is an empire 
herself. This in no wise detracts from the 
glory of other States, neither does it from the 
United States; and though California, bearing 
this proud distinction, would not be other than 
one of the shining stars of the great American 
Union, she gladly shares her glory with her 
sister components of the greatest nation on 
earth, and so do the subdivisions of the great 
San Joaquin valley feel proud to occupy a posi- 
tion as a portion of the world-renowned valley. 

Perhaps some writers, as well as readers, will 
demur to the claim that the San Joaquin, speak- 
ing of it as a whole, is the greatest valley in the 
world. The claim will be made that the great 
Mississippi valley, the Amazon valley, etc., are 
of greater area. This will be readily conceded; 
but the writer will not concede that greatness 
consists alone in area as applied to a country, 
and defies the world to show another valley of 
like area with the San Joaquin that is its equal 
in the general averages of all the elements of 
good quality, — soil, climate, health, adjacent 
mountain scenery and variety of productions, 
and a capacity to sustain so large a population. 
The writer has spent months in this great val- 
ley, has made its resources, and future possibili- 
ties a study, and has arrived at conclusions not 
only from observation and study, but from con- 
sulting travelers who have been over the civil- 
ized world; and when such have been asked the 
question, "Have yon seen a valley equaling the 
San Joaquin in every respect?" the answer has 
been in every instance, '-No; nothing that will 
compare with it." 

THE CHIEF SOURCES OF WEALTH. 

To the early Californian the chief sources of 
wealth were cattle and gold mines. Mining 
was the chief industry, and stock-raising re- 
ceived great attention. Over the richest soil of 
this great valley, roamed large herds of cattle, 



horses and sheep; but in the course of time, as 
population increased, the country, watered by 
the San Joaquin and King's rivers, was found 
to be most fertile and productive. The dwell- 
ers of these valleys engaged in tilling the soil, 
and the dwellers of the hilly parts of the Coast 
Range and Sierra Nevada, which are better 
adapted to grazing, became the owners of herds 
of cattle and sheep. 

At the present day the sources of wealth are, 
in addition to the foregoing, everything in the 
line of agriculture and horticulture. Details 
are given in the respective county histories 
further on. 

FLOODS AND DROUTHS. 

The traveler, when inquiring as to the great 
floods in California, and also extreme drouths, 
both of which have had their disastrous effects 
upon this great valley, will receive answers pro 
and con, as he would in all other countries, and 
each enthusiast has his theory which he will in- 
sist upon as a fact. In order that the stranger 
may know the exact state of affairs for all time 
since the American occupation, and to refresh 
the memory of the old settlers, we present an 
exhibit of flood and drouth periods carefully 
prepared, which will give the reader all of the 
facts, and, as will be seen, not seeking to hide 
any; and this great valley has had its share of 
the two extremes. 

Of the many peculiar climatic characteristics 
of California none are so puzzling as those 
which relate to the rainfall and its effects. 
They set all previously formed ideas at defiance, 
and the longer one seeks for some law that 
governs their idiosyncrasies — for law there 
must be — the more hopelessly does one become 
lost in a mass of contradictions. Take the 
question of floods, for instance. "Their cause," 
some glib-tongued forestry crank will quickly 
exclaim, "is easily explained. Remove the for- 
ests from the mountains and floods in the val- 
leys must inevitably result. It is a law of 
nature which cannot be transgressed. Really, 
my dear sir, you insult me by asking a question 



42 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



whose answer is so self-evident. Propound 
something more difficult, if yon please." 

But hold on. Doubtless this explanation of 
it is according to the text-book theory and is a 
plausible explanation, too. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, it conflicts diametrically with the tacts. 
Tbe worst floods California has ever experienced 
occurred years before any considerable area of 
the forests had been destroyed. Since tens of 
thousands of acres about the headwaters of the 
streams have been denuded of their dense 
growth of trees the floods have decreased in 
frequency and violence; and it has been many 
years since, with a single exception, anything 
approaching the flood seasons of the first fifteen 
years' history of the State has been seen. 

Look in another direction for information 
upon the subject. Ask some member of an 
anti-debris association, for instance, for his 
opinion on the flood question, and he will tell 
you it is hydraulic mining that has filled up 
the beds of the streams and caused them to 
overflow their banks. Yet, singularly enough, 
the records prove beyond cavil that the worst 
floods the State has experienced occurred years 
before hydraulic mining was generally practiced, 
and that during the palmiest days of that in- 
dustry there were few disastrous overflows. 
The theory and the facts are as badly at va 
rience here as they are when forest denudation 
is saddled with the blame. 

It is worth while taking a glance at the his- 
tory of the floods that have visited this State. 
The Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers and 
their tributaries, draining the vast interior val- 
ley, are of course the streams that are most 
subject to overflow. Prior to the. American 
occupation there are records of floods that oc- 
curred in 1805, in 1825-'26, and in 1846-'47. 
Doubtless there were many other seasons of 
high water as well, but there being little or noth- 
ing to injure no records were kept of such oc- 
currences. 

The winter of 1849-'50, however, was one of 
excessive rainfall, the storms commencing on 
November 2d, and continuing almost without 



cessation for six weeks. As a result the valley 
was flooded and the city of Sacramento was 
covered with water to a depth of four feet. In 
January another great storm flooded the city, 
and in March and April another overflow was 
threatened, but was prevented by the energetic 
construction of dams. 

This experience led to the construction of 
levees, upon which a large amount of money 
was expended, but they were ineffectual, and in 
1852, 1853 and 1854 there were floods which 
did a tremendous amount of damage. After 
the last mentioned date the levees were greatly 
strengthened, and the city escaped further dam- 
age until the winter of 1861-'62, when they 
gave way before the pressure of a flood and loss 
aggregating over $3,000,000 resulted. Although 
threatened several times since, there has never 
been a flood down to the present time which 
was so disastrous as this. 

In the Yuba river floods occurred in 1849- 
'50, in 1852-'53, in 1861-'62, in 1866 and 
in 1875. In the San Joaquin river there 
were similar seasons of flood. Since the great 
flood of 1861-'62, however, there have been no 
such periods of high water, and no such losses 
have been suffered from this cause. It is true, 
many streams overflowed their banks during the 
excessive rains of the winter of 1889-'90, but 
the damage was mostly confined to the overflow 
of farm lands, and consisted largely in the ina- 
bility to put in grain crops for the season. So 
far as absolute destruction of property was con- 
cerned, similar to that cansed by the floods in 
the first fifteen years of the State's history, there 
is no comparison. 

In the lower part of the State there have been 
occasional losses from high water. One of the 
notable instances is afforded in the Santiago 
canon, in Los Angeles County. When the 
Southern Pacific Railroad was built through 
that region in 1876, some of the old Spanish 
settlers pointed out certain marks high up the 
walls of the cafion which they declared had 
been made by floods many years previous. The 
railroad builders could hardly credit the state- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



43 



ment, and paid no heed to the warning, but lo- 
cated the iine in the bed of the canon, down 
which ordinarily only a slender stream trickles. 
Twice, however, within the last live years have 
there been floods here which have literally 
obliterated miles of railroad bed, ties, rails and 
bridges. But these floods have certainly not 
been caused either by the destruction of the 
forests (there being none to destroy), or the work 
of hydraulic miners (there being no such enter- 
prises in that region). 

The same experience has befallen one or two 
streams in San Diego and San Bernardino coun- 
ties. Twice have many miles of the railroad 
through the Temecula canon been destroyed 
by floods, while some damage has been occa- 
sioned by high water in the Santa Ana and 
other streams. Yet, as a matter of fact, the 
recollections of the oldest white settlers, and of 
the Indians as well, together with the indelible 
traces left in many places, show that far worse 
floods occurred prior to the general settlement 
of the State than have happened since. For 
forty years the forests of the San Bernardino 
mountains have been attacked in a constantly 
increasing proportion each year. Yet the 
streams that rise in those mountains show no 
diminution in their flow, are not, in fact, sub- 
ject to as great floods as they were many years 
ago, and indeed furnish a greater area with sup- 
plies for irrigation than they did twenty years 
ago, or was deemed possible at that time. 

Just as there was much more loss from floods 
in the early years of the State's settlement, so 
there was greater damage from droughts in that 
period, while there has been a steady decrease 
in the frequency of dry seasons. The flrst dry 
season after the American occupation was that 
of 1851. There being little agriculture at that 
time not much loss was caused except to the 
cattle men, who were dependent entirely upon 
the natural grasses, and in the absence of these 
were compelled either to allow their stock to die 
or else kill them for their hides and tallow. In 
1856 occurred a drought which, while less se- 
vere than the one in 1851, caused a greater loss 



among agriculturists, there being a much larger 
area then under cultivation. 

Following the flood season of 1861-62, there 
came, however, a drought, in 1864, the most 
disastrous the State has ever seen. The grain 
crop was almost a total failure, while, owing to 
the absence of feed, cattle and sheep starved by 
the hundred thousand. In some sections scarcely 
any were left alive out of bands which had num- 
bered many thousands under a single owner- 
ship, and many a man who had been considered 
wealthy saw his entire fortune melt away with- 
out the power to save even the smallest fraction. 

Seven years of plenty followed, and then in 
1870-'71 came another drought, which, how- 
ever, was not so productive of ruin as the pre- 
ceding one. The grain crop was scant and 
much stock was lost, but there was no such 
general destruction and entire loss. 

For six years thereafter there was a season of 
general prosperity, and it was at this time that 
the southern portion of the State received its 
first great " boom." Immigrants came by the 
thousand from the East, and vacant lands were 
settled in every direction. But in 1876-'77 a 
drought came which was second in its disastrous 
results only to that of 1864. Cattle and sheep 
perished in droves. In sections that were wood- 
ed the oaks and other trees were felled by thou- 
sands to allow the starving animals to browse 
on the foliage and tender twigs. Bands of sheep 
numbering thousands each were abandoned by 
their owners to die of starvation! Men made a 
business of going among the abandoned animals 
and slaughtering them for the sake of their pelts. 
In some districts the very air was polluted by 
the thousands of dead animals scattered every- 
where, while the sky was blackened with hordes 
of feathered scavengers hastening to their car- 
rion feast. Bands of sheep were sold for a bit 
a head, which in ordinary seasons were worth 
two or three dollars, and tens of thousands of 
the starving animals were killed and their bodies 
cooked wholesale for the sake of the little fat 
which they contained. Millions of dollars were 
lost Jby the stock men, and the industry received 



44 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



a set-back from which in more than one locality 
it never recovered. 

This was the last bad drought, however, to 
which California was subjected. There have 
been seasons of scant rainfall since then, but no 
such general destruction of crops and animals. 
Every year, it is true, there is the same amount of 
talk about the possibility of dry seasons, short 
crops and all that. But this is merely the per- 
petuation of an old custom. As a matter of 
fact California farmers have little to fear on this 
score, and even the occurrence of a season of 
scant rainfall has little appreciable effect upon 
business circles. 

The increase of irrigation has of course much 
to do with this state of affairs. The fruit crop 
is largely independent of the rainfall, while 
grain-growers have learned by experience meth- 
ods which assure them a fair return with Jess 
rain than was thought possible twenty or thirty 
years ago. It is certain that this state of affairs 
will continue, too. Each year sees a larger area 
brought under irrigation, and sees the farmers 
more generally emancipated from their thraldom 
to the uncertain elements. With the indisputa- 
ble facts that floods and droughts are of less 
frequent occurrence now than in the earlier his- 
tory of the State, all branches of farming are 
put upon a basis of greater certainty, and the 
tiller of the soil can now plow and sow with the 
almost positive certainty that he will also reap 
an ample reward. It is not too much to boast 
that in no other part of the world has the agri- 
culturist so great an assurance of reasonable 
success as in California. 

Opening out, as we did, on the physical fea- 
tures of the San Joaquin valley, it seemed that 
we could not appropriately interrupt the thread 
of the recital by the introduction of other mat- 
ter. Under the head of social history we have 
space for only one or two topics, as follows: 

INDIANS OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY. 

This formidable race is almost a people of the 
past. Few are now to be seen in the valley, and 
ere long none will be left to tell the story how 



their ancestrv (who were numbered by perhaps 
hundreds of thousands) were at one time mon- 
arch* of this wonderful country. 

Kit Carson said that in 1829 the valleys of 
California were full of Indians. He speaks of 
many flourishing tribes then existing. When 
he again visited the State in 1839, they had 
measurably disappeared, and people then re- 
siding where lie saw them on his first trip de- 
clared they knew nothing of tlieir. . No estimate 
of their numbers had been made until 1833, and 
it was then known that they had greatly de- 
creased. It is no difficult matter, however, to 
account for their rapid disappearance when we 
take into account how the several tribes were 
constantly at war with each other; and in the 
fall of 1833 the cholera or some other fearful 
scourge broke out among them and raged with 
such fearful fatality that they were unable either 
to bury or burn their dead, and the air wa9 
tilled with the stench of their decaying bodies. 
The Indians used a sweat-house for all the ills 
of their race, and much depended on the kill or 
cure, according to the disease of the subject. 

The valley Indians subsisted principally on 
grass-seeds, acorns and fish, the squaws doing all 
the heavy labor; and sometimes they killed a 
deer or antelope, but meat of land animals was 
rarely on their bill of fare. The women were 
supposed to provide all the food for the family. 
They made water-tight baskets from willow 
twigs, in which they collected and prepared 
their food, carried water, etc.; they reduced the 
acorns to a tine meal in morta p s made of stone, 
after which they soaked it in water to rid it of 
the bitter taste, and then they made it into a 
kind of soup in a willow basket. Soups were 
also made from grass-seed. The men caught 
salmon in the spring season, which were dried 
in sufficient quantities by the women to last 
during the year. 

The men would at times sally out and secure 
a deer or antelope. AVhen hunting the deer 
they went under the skin and horns of that ani- 
mal as a disguise, and thus slipped upon their 
prey. While they generally used their acorn 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



45 



meal in a soup form, they also baked a kind of 
bread from it. Grasshoppers formed one of 
their favorite dishes, as also many other insects 
and reptiles not poisonous. The grasshoppers 
for immediate use were either mashed into a 
paste and mixed with other edibles, or were 
saturated with salt water, placed in a hole in 
the ground, which had been previously heated, 
then covered with hot stones. When thoroughly 
cooked they were eaten like shrimps. When in- 
tended for winter use they were thoroughly 
dried in the sun, after cooking. They caught 
fish both by spearing and netting. Their spears 
were made from a tough wood, from four to 
five feet in length, pointed with either flint or 
bone. 

Their weapons for hunting and warfare were 
the spear, as before described, and the bow and 
arrow. These Indians were peaceably inclined 
toward the whites, and resorted to deeds of 
violence only under great provocation. 

The government of the respective tribes was 
vested in a chief, which was generally heredi- 
tary in his family, in the male line only. Much 
dignity was attached to the chief, and his family 
were treated with greater consideration than 
those of others. The widows and daughters of 
chiefs were treated with distinction and not re- 
quired to work. 

These Indians cremated their dead, and such 
ceremony at the funeral pyre of a chief was an 
affair in which the entire tribe participated, and 
their ceremonies and lamentations continued 
for several days. 

There seems to be but little known as to 
their marriage ceremonies. It appears that the 
maiden's wishes were consulted. She was not 
forced to marry against her will. The husband 
could abandon the wife at will, but the wife 
could not leave the husband. He could have as 
many wives as he could keep, but the woman 
but one husband. Adultery was not common 
among them, yet a husband would prostitute 
his dearest wife to a white man for a small 
consideration. The wives were prolific, bring- 
ing forth children regularly each year, and 



never losing a day from their labor thereby! It 
is given as a fact that at the birth of a child the 
husband takes to bed and feigns sick and suffer- 
ing while the women attend him as though he 
was the real sufferer! 

Among other traditions the Indians had the 
following: "Their ancestors once inhabited 
the Coast Range mountains and valleys. The 
'Great Spirit' became angry with them and 
sent earthquakes, fire and water and destroyed 
great numbers. Those who escaped remained 
ever afterward away from that region." 

There are yet a very small number of the 
Mono tribe living on the Sierra range, in 
Fresno County. 

In the year 1850 James D. Savage kept 
a tradiug post on the Fresno river, then in 
Mariposa County, near what has since been 
known as Leach's old store; and on Christmas 
night of that year, Savage being away from 
home, the store in charge of two clerks and a 
man named Brown, the Indians revolted, killed 
the two clerks and demolished the store. Brown 
was carried across the Fresno river, barefooted 
and in his night-clothes, by an Indian, when he 
was permitted to go, and he did not hesitate to 
improve the opportunity and went as fast as 
possible to Mariposa. 

Cassady & Lane kept a trading post a few 
miles below Millerton, and were engaged in 
mining at a point above, since known as Cas- 
sady Bar. Here they had some thirty men en- 
gaged. This was early in January, 1851. The 
mining camp was enclosed by a stone fort, the 
trading post by ditches, and the parties felt 
secure and had no fear of Indian depredations; 
but soon the Indians engaged in a general war- 
fare, which was opened by killing two men on 
Fine Gold Gulch, driving off their stock, and 
killing two other men below Millerton. 

About January 15, 1851, Dr. Lewis Leach, a 
prominent pioneer, now residing in the city of 
Fresno, arrived at Cassady's trading post from 
Four Creeks, in company with several men, one 
of whom, Frank W. Boden, had received four 
arrow wounds in his right arm at Four Creeks. 



46 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Arriving at the trading post, Dr. Leach found 
it necessary to amputate Boden's arm, which lie 
did and remained with and cared for him, and 
in some eight or ten days he was convalescent. 

About the 20th of January Cassady and Sav- 
age came down from the mining camp to see 
how matters were going at the trading post. 
The clerks had been vigilant guarding at night, 
which Cassady hooted at and said, "No dan- 
ger; - ' so they concluded that if he could stand 
it, they would. Therefore they all went to bed, 
and no guard was posted. Savage slept in a 
covered wagon, within the ditch enclosure. In 
the morning there was an arrow sticking in the 
canvass of the main tent, also several in the 
mules, and Indian footprints around, yet Cas- 
sady persisted there was no danger! On the 
following day Leach and Savage left Cassady's 
camp and went to Mariposa, where three volun- 
teer companies were organized under command 
of Major James D. Savage. Captain Knyken- 
dall commanded Company A, of seventy men; 
Captain John Bowling, Company B, of seventy- 
two men; and Captain William Dill, Company 
C, of fifty-five men. M. B. Lewis was Adju- 
tant, and A. Brunston, Surgeon, who was soon 
after succeeded by Dr. Leach. 

Soon intelligence was received from Cassady's 
camp that he had been killed by the Indians. 
A detachment of thirty men from Company A, 
with Dr. Leach accompanying, was immedi- 
ately sent to ascertain the facts. They found 
the body of Cassady on the bank of the San 
Joaquin river, a short distance below his trading 
post, his legs cut off, his tongue cut out, and 
pinned with an arrow over the region of his 
heart. He was decently interred by the de- 
tachment, near where the body was found. From 
Cassady's place Company A was ordered to the 
headwaters of the San Joaquin, where they 
fought a battle with the Indians, killing thirteen 
and wounding many. Captain Bowling with 
his company was sent to the Yo Semite coun- 
try, and Captain Dill with his company to the 
headwaters of the Chowchilla. Several battles 
were fought and the Indians soundly whipped 



on each occasion, which caused them to sue for 
peace, and they signed a treaty on the 29th day 
of April, 1851. 

A boundary or reservation was then assigned 
them, and stock, provisions, clothing, etc., fur- 
nished them by the Government, and thus 
ended the short Indian war. In the summer of 
1851, after the treaty was concluded, Savage 
put up a store on the Fresno river. The fol- 
lowing winter he built Fort Bishop, further 
down the river. His principal trade was with 
the Indians. He purchased gold dust from 
them. They yet seemed restless, and Savage 
used caution in his dealings with them. About 
this time the Fresno reservation was estab- 
lished. Colonel Thomas Henley was appointed 
Indian Agent. Soon thereafter King's River 
reservation was established, also under Colonel 
Henley. The Indians in the meantime kept 
quiet until the 16th day of August, 1852. 

The Meewoc nation extended from the Sierra 
snow line in Tuolumne County, to the San 
Joaquin river; the Walla tribe were confined 
within the present bounds of Stanislaus Couuty ; 
the Wallalshumnes occupied the country lower 
down the valley between the two rivers; the 
Coconoons and Potoancies, between the Tuol- 
umne and Merced, and the Yachichutnnes be- 
tween the San Joaqnin and Mount Diablo. 
These Indians rarely exceeded five feet eight 
inches in height, though they were strong and 
well built. Their complexion was dark, fre- 
quently approaching black, hair very coarse, 
thick, straight and black. 

The Indian dress was very primitive; in sum- 
mer the men wore nothing scarcely. On some 
occasions they wore a slight covering about 
their loins; in winter they wore a kind of robe 
made from hides of animals, also a species of 
robe made by uniting feathers of birds with 
strips of seal-skin, etc., thus securing effectual 
protection against the inclement weather. The 
Indian women wore in summer an apron which 
they manufactured from the tules and other 
grasses. This garment was open at the sides, 
and extended to the knees, back and front. In 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



47 



the winter season they used a half tanned deer 
skin in addition to the tule garment. The 
young belles frequently wore their hair long, 
flowing to the waist, and cut short, or, modernly 
speaking, "banged" in front. They were very 
fond of all kinds of ornaments — both men and 
women — which were worn in profusion in their 
hair, and bone ornaments, etc., in their ears, 
and beads and other trinkets about their necks. 
The head-dress for gala days and dances was 
formed of gay feathers skillfully arranged, and 
topped off with long feathers from some large 
bird. The upper part of their body was painted 
in several colors, red predominating, however; 
this they obtained from the cinnabar fields in 
the Coast Range. Tattooing seems to have been 
a custom among the women, but rarely prac- 
ticed by the men. 

These people lived, in summer, under sheds 
formed of brush, and in winter in excavations 
some four feet deep made in the earth. This 
was governed in size by the number in a family. 
Around this excavation was firmly set numerous 
willow poles, which were drawn together at the 
top, leaving a space for the smoke to pass out. 
They then wove through those poles crosswise 
smaller branches, after which they covered the 
whole with brush, bark, mosses, etc., and 
then daubed it over with mud, leaving only 
an opening to pass in and out. In the 
center of this rude, San Joaquin cottage, they 
built their fire and did their cooking, and 
around it they slept on mats made from the 
grasses. 

This would seem to the native sons and 
daughters of to-day rather a crude parlor, 
kitchen, dining-room and sleeping apartment 
combined; it will be seen that it was built and 
arranged for comfort and convenience, more 
than for its internal or external ornamentation. 
The occupants were lords in their day and in 
their way. They lived in villages and had a 
large centrally located structure for use on pub- 
lic occasions, as pow-wows, dances, etc. It was 
constructed on the same general plan as their 
residences. 



In 1851 Major James D. Savage gave the 
number of Indians in California as follows : 

Klamath, Trinidad, Sacramento and tributaries, 30,000 

San Joaquin and tributaries down to Tuolumne,. . . 6,500. 

Tuolumne Rivet Indians, 2,100 

Merced River Indians,. 2,100 

San Joaquin headquarters Indians, 2,700 

King's River Indians, 200 

Kern River Indian? 1,700 

Tulare River Indiana, 1,000 

Umas River Indians, 5,000 

East Side Sierra Nevada Indians, 31,000 

On the coast not civilized, 6,000 

Total, 88,300 

MURDER OF MAJOR SAVAGE. 

Some time previous to the above date, one 
Major Harvey, the first County Judge of Tulare 
County, and Win. J. Campbell, incited a lot of 
men who rushed into one of the rancherias on 
King's river and killed a number of old squaws. 
Harvey and Campbell were jealous of Savage's 
prosperity with and influence over the Indians. 
Savage complained of the dastardly crime to the 
Indian agent and stated that Harvey was no 
gentleman. This reaching Harvey, be declared 
that if Savage ever came to King's river he 
would never return alive. Savage went to and 
arrived at King's river early in the forenoon of 
August 16, 1852, where he found Harvey and 
Judge Marvin, and a quarrel at once ensued 
between Harvey and Savage. Savage slapped 
Harvey in tbe face with his open hand, and in 
so doing his pistol fell to the floor and Marvin 
picked it up. Harvey then said to Marvin, 
" You have my pistol." He replied, " Not so; 
this is Major Savage's pistol;" whereupon 
Harvey, finding that Savage was without a 
weapon of defence, began firing upon him, four 
balls piercing Savage's body, and he died almost 
instantly, while Judge Marvin stood and looked 
on, either too cowardly or indifferent to attempt 
to prevent the murder. Harvey, being County 
Judge at the time, appointed one Joel H. 
Brooks Justice of the Peace (it is said) for the 
sole purpose of investigating the case, and he 
did not so much as hold Harvey to the grand- 
jury, but acquitted him at once. Harvey, how- 



48 



HI STORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ever, soon left the county through fear of the 
Indians, who were warm friends of Savage. 
He had married the daughters of five different 
chiefs, and, although uneducated, being unable 
to either read or write, he amassed within a few 
years a fortuue estimated at $100,000. 

That he was deservedly popular at the time, 
is attested by the kind act as well as proof of 
true and lasting friendship of one of Fresno 
County's prominent citizens, now residing in 
the city of Fresno, and a man who stands at the 



head and front of all public enterprises, as well 
as in that of his professional line. This gentle- 
man is Dr. Lewis Leach, one of the few pioneers 
of the valley now living, who was for a time 
partner in business with Major Savage and who 
has erected a monument over Savage's remains 
at an expense of $800. He removed Savage's 
remains to a point on Fresno river since 
known as Leach's old store, where he erected 
a shaft ten feet in height of Connecticut 
granite. 




HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




4&&2SF- 



«*«© 



I pnES^O COUNTY. * 





FEESNO PEIOE TO COUNTY OEGANIZATION. 

5 HEN" the State was first organized into 
counties, February 18, 1850, the terri- 
tory now comprising what is Merced, 
Mono, Mariposa and Fresno counties was called 
Mariposa. This portion of the San Joaquin valley 
about the year 1835 was almost a terra incognita, 
having been visited by the trappers only, as pre- 
viously stated. 

At about that time an expedition into this 
part of the valley was undertaken by Lieuten- 
ant Moraga of the Mexican army, then stationed 
at the presidio of San Francisco, who in com- 
mand of a company of soldiers in June pursued 
into the valley of the Jan Joaquin some In- 
dians who had been committing depredations 
upon the settlers in the coast valleys. Moraga, 
with his command, crossed the San Joaquin 
near the mouth of the Tuolumne river, and 
traveled in a southeasterly direction to the Mer- 
ced river, a distance of about forty miles, the 
whole of which had to be accomplished without 
water. The weather being very hot, it is no 
wonder that they called the river in whose wa- 
ters they slaked their burning thirst and laved 
their throbbing temples, El Rio de la Merced, 
the river of mercy. 

Resting here a few days the party continued 
their journey southeastwardly until they arrived 
at a small stream along the banks of which 
they found myriads of beautifully variegated 



butterflies, which in the Spanish tongue are 
called las mariposas; hence Moraga named the 
creek El Arroyo de las Mariposas, which name 
it has since borne, with only the final s omitted. 
The Mexicans are noted for giving beautiful 
and appropriate names to their towns, ranches, 
rivers and mountains, as well as other natural 
objects. They seem to have been actuated by a 
grateful feeling or religious sentiment, some- 
times having in view the beauties of nature, as 
in the case of Las Mariposas; at others being 
moved by a profound feeling of gratitude to 
God for what they acknowledged as a "gift" or 
"mercy," as in the case of La Merced. 

In 1851, the north boundary of Mariposa 
County was the 38th parallel on the east side of 
the Sierras, which corresponds very nearly with 
the north line of Mono County and included 
Mono lake. The line extended down the Sierra 
to the headwaters of the Tuolumne and thence 
followed that river westerly to the San Joaquin 
and on to the Coast Range. It followed the 
Coast Range to a point opposite the mouth of 
King's river, and thence followed that stream to 
the Sierras, and thence to the Nevada line. 
The population of this large territory was, by 
the census of 1850, 4,379. Out of this terri- 
tory was formed Merced County, in 1855, with 
the county seat at the ranch of "Turner and 
Osborn," on Mariposa creek, about eight miles 
from Merced. Lieutenant Governor Samuel 



50 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Purdy was at that time president of the Senate, 
and W. W. Stowe speaker of the House. Mari- 
posa County was represented in the Senate by 
Major A. McNeil, and by E. Burke and Thomas 
Flournoy in the Assembly. In 1856, Fresno 
Connty was formed from the territory, and in 
1863 Mono County was organized. 

A history of Fresno County could not be 
well given without at least a brief review of the 
incidents and conditions of the mother county, 
Mariposa, of which the present territory of 
Fresno formed a part in the pioneer days of 
California. The broad plains and beautiful 
rivers of the section then embraced in Mari- 
posa County was inhabited by rrfany Mexican 
ranchers, who with their fatted herds enjoyed 
the greatest freedom; and who exhibited in 
person a royal hospitality toward the wayfarer, 
often furnishing guides and horses at the com- 
mand of a stranger, for many days' journey, 
with the only injunction, " Cuando buelva no 
dye de venier a verme.'' 

Later the mining interest predominated, but 
for a short time however, as the husbandman's 
plow no sooner turned the soil than a bountiful 
yield gladdened the hearts of the many house- 
holds whose habitations began to deck the 
plains, and in a few years hamlets and villages 
took the place of lowing herds, and to-daj 
Mariposa County as it now exists is more noted 
for its far-famed Yo Semite valley than for any- 
thing else. It is said that when the Mariposa 
Gazette was started there was not a white 
woman in the town. 

Soon thereafter several white families moved 
in, and the editor at once began complaining of 
the crying of children. The writer has not been 
able to ascertain his name, which is of little 
consequence, however, as he must have been a 
soured old bachelor, and of no consequence to 
women and an unpleasant monument to his 
own sex, who enjoy the music of children and 
the companionship of women, the safeguards of 
society and the noblest work of the great Creator. 
An old miner says he will never forget the 
time when the miners heard there was a woman 



coming into camp. All quit work and marched 
four miles down the road to meet her. Several 
large arches were erected over the road, and a 
baud of music led the march into town. The 
town was alive with miners when they got there 
who came from the hills to get a glimpse of the 
woman and participate in the celebration. The 
first woman who arrived started at once into the 
pastry business, and sold pies for $5 apiece! 
Sometimes the miners complained of the pies, 
but the woman who made them would say if 
they didn't like thorn they needn't buy any, as 
she was not particular whether she sold pies 
for $5 anyway. Those were days when every 
one felt as independent as a lord. 

During the summer of 1851, Coarse Gold 
Gulch became a prominent mining camp, and 
in the fall of that year an election for county 
officers for Mariposa County was held. At this 
election there was polled at the Texas Flat pre- 
cinct 150 votes. "Jim" Wade was elected to 
the Assembly, and Captain Bowling Sheriff, 
whose opponent, Judge Ramsey, afterward be- 
came County Judge of Monterey County. By 
the first of October, 1851, the Indians having 
threatened war, Coarse Gold Gulch was deserted, 
only four or five miners remaining, among 
whom was William Abbie; but before Decem- 
ber many returned, among whom were C. P. 
Converse and T. C. Stallo, who opened a store 
about one and a half miles below Texas Flat. 
This was placed in charge of Samuel II. P. 
Ross, who became known as "Alphabet" R"->. 
who was afterward District Attorney of Merced 
County. 

Asa Johnson with three negroes and a wench, 
Mary, also arrived in December and engaged in 
mining. During the summer of 1852, John- 
son killed a man by the name of Thomas Lar- 
rabee; Johnson was tried and acquitted and 
finally left the country. What became of the 
negroes is not positively known; it was reported 
that Mary was murdered while on her way back- 
to Texas, in company with another negro. 

In the spring of 1852, Stallo and Convene 
discontinued their store on Coarse Gold Gulch, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



51 



and James N. and C. F. Walker, two brothers, 
erected a store there, which they continued un- 
til 1859. In 1852, John Letford and one Car- 
son erected a store at Fresno Crossing, but soon 
sold out to J. L. Hunt and J. R. Nichols. The 
latter sold his interest to James Roan. In 
August, 1852, three Frenchmen, whose names 
were not ascertained, went on a prospecting 
tour to the Yo Semite country, near the Yo 
Semite valley. They were attacked by a baud 
of Indians. Two of the Frenchmen were killed, 
and one escaped, making his way toward the 
settlement. Arriving at Coarse Gold Gulch 
the latter part of August, and having told his 
story, a party of thirty miners went back with 
with him to tind the remains of his unfortunate 
comrades. Their bodies were found near the 
valley, and were decently buried. 

In October, 1854, J. M. Shannon and S. B. 
Coffee came to Fresno County and settled at 
Coarse Gold Gulch, at a place since owned by 
Andrew Johnson. They engaged in the raising, 
buying and butchering of hogs, aud did a 
profitable business for three years. There were 
a large number of Chinese in the placer mines 
during the time, and pork sold at 25 cents and 
upward per pound. Jeff. Shannon did the 
peddling and had little opposition in business. 
He sold pork at his own price, and in addition 
to that he weighed the meat be sold, and the 
gold dust he took in exchange therefor, on his 
own scales: hence the large profits. 

Among the first settlers at Upper King's 
river were a Mr. Pool, who established the first 
ferry across that river; William Y. Scott, the 
second sheriff of Fresno County, and after whom 
the settlement once known as Scottsburg was 
named; William W. Hill, the Smoat family, 
the Akers family, F. W. Fink, John A. Patter- 
son, A. M. Darwin, E. C. Ferguson, William 
Hazleton, C. F. Cherry, William C. Caldwell, 
Jesse Morrow, afterward proprietor of the 
popular "Morrow House;" Richard and Will- 
iam Glenn, William Deakin and others. They 
all engaged in agriculture and stock-raising, 
and in a few years after the first settlers had 



located there the settlement became the largest 
in the county, and for a few years held the 
balance of power politically; and a candidate 
for office who could secure a fair majority at 
the King's River precinct considered himself 
sure of election. The first settlers were good, 
old-fashioned people who cared little for politics 
or the outside world; they stayed at home, tilled 
the soil, raised stock, made money, and were 
contented and comparatively happy; and while 
they formed the largest settlement in the county, 
its history is stained with less crime or deeds of 
violence than many smaller communities. A 
defeated candidate after the fall election of 
1863, unjustly and perhaps maliciously observed 
that the King's River people reminded him of 
a flock of sheep,— "As the bell-wether goes, so 
go they all." 

King's River was in later years given the 
name of Centerville, which it still bears, but 
has been stripped of much of its former busi- 
ness by various rival towns springing up in 
close proximity. Near by at one time there 
were discovered, and for a time worked, mines 
of quicksilver, called New Idria, and at one 
time were considered very valuable, worth at 
least $5,000,000. Years of litigation, however, 
has prevented all parties from realizing profits 
from its valuable deposit. 

In 1854 one Whitmore established a ferry at 
Lower King's River. It was for many years 
known as Whitinore's Ferry. Subsequently 
Whitmore was killed, and the property passed 
into the hands of O. H. Bliss, who maintained 
the ferry for several years, but afterward dis- 
continued it, and built a substantial bridge 
across the river. 

In 1855, George Grierson, Otto Froelich and 
Gomer Evans settled at Millerton, engaging 
in the mercantile business. Evans afterward 
removed to San Francisco; Grierson went back 
with his family to Denmark in 1868; Otto 
Froelich continued in the mercantile business, 
having purchased Grierson's interest, and in 
1872 removed to Fresno. In 1854 Alexander 
Ball erected the first saw-mill in Fresno County, 



52 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



some fifteen miles east of Millerton. Later 
C. P. Converse erected a saw- mill in Crane 
valley, and later still George McCollongh and 
Thomas Winkleman erected one still lower down 
on the north fork of the San Joaquin river. All 
of these mills have long- since been obliged to 
give way to the more rapid motor, steam. Fort 
Miller was established in 1852, under General 
Miller. The name of Rootville, by which the 
mining camp situated about a mile below the 
fort was designated, was chauged to Millerton, 
in honor of General Miller. Captain Jordan, 
who was for a time quartermaster at the fort, 
commenced the construction of a dam across 
the San Joaquin river for mining purposes in 
1853. The remains of both dam and ditch can 
yet be located. Millerton was a thriving village 
in 1853. Among the foremost settlers there 
were C. P. Converse, T. C. Stallo, Hugh Carlin, 
T. J. Allen, Hugh A. Carroll, Charles A. Hart, 
L. C. Hughes, Dr. Du Gay, Ira Stroud, Colonel 
Henry Borrough, John McLeod, William Rous- 
seau and others. 

In 1854 Ira McCray and George Rivercombe 
settled at Millerton, and in partnership engao-ed 
in the hotel and livery business, which they 
conducted successfully. Later McCray pur- 
chased his partner's interest and continued the 
business alone. 

The principal amusement indulged in by the 
miners in those days were rifle and pistol prac- 
tice and a game of cards called "rounce," and 
sometimes an indifferent horse-race was gotten 
up; but Shannon took a new departure in the 
way of getting up races. In the summer of 
1856 Shannon and "Jim" Roan made up a 
foot-race between two young squaws. Jeff, 
trained a young squaw known by the eupho- 
nious name of Mustang, and Roan trained an- 
other named Chutaluya. Quite an interest was 
manifested in this race, and considerable money 
was bet. Oh the day appointed for the race a 
great crowd assembled to witness the speed of 
the contestants, and when the squaws appeared 
upon the track, Mustang dressed in red, and the 
other in blue, a deafening cheer rent the air, 



and both squaws looked eager for the fray; and 
when the word "Go" was given away they 
went, each doing her best. The result was. 
Mustang came out a few feet ahead, and was 
declared winner, and Jeff, won about $150 on 
the race. L. A. Holmes, then editor of the 
Mariposa Gazette, in commenting on the race, 
observed that if Roan had kept his squaw in as 
good training as Jeff, kept his, the result of the 
race would have been different. 

Judge M. B. Lewis, who was a Texan soldier 
under General Sam Houston, was an early set- 
tler and one of the commissioners for the organi- 
zation of the county, and was in early day> an 
Indian agent on Fresno river. 

FORT MILLEK IN WHAT WAS CALLED GOOD TIMKS. 

When the Legislature created Fresno County, 
Millerton was designated as the county seat. 
The mines on the bank of the river were then 
yielding rich returns, and the county official, as 
also the officers and men at Fort Miller, had a 
very agreeable time with Millertonians, and 
everything was conducted in a loose, careless 
style. County court at Millerton was adjourned 
one day in order to give the jury an opportunity 
to attend a horse-race, and the Board of Super- 
visors would adjourn twenty times a day in 
order to go and take a drink. 

No further Indian troubles being appre- 
hended. Fort Miller was evacuated in Septem- 
ber, 1856, and was placed in charge of T. C. 
Stallo, with authority to take care of and pre- 
serve the property for the Government. 

FRESNO COUNTY ORGANIZED. 

Fresno County is the geographical center of 
the State. Previons to 1856 the vast territory 
now contained within the limits of Fresno 
County was embraced in Mariposa, Merced and 
Tulare counties. In that year the people living 
within the territory petitioned the Legislature, 
and on the 19th of April, 1856, the county of 
Fresno was organized, with the county scat at 
Millerton. For the purpose of county organi- 
zation, seven commissioners were appointed. 



BISTORT OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



53 



viz.: Charles A. Hart, Ira McCray, James 
Cruikshank, H. M. Lewis, H. A. Carroll, J. W. 
Gilmore and O. M. Brown. In accordance with 
the provisions of the act creating the county, 
the commissioners met at McCray's hotel, Mil- 
lerton, on the 26th of May, 1856, and there or- 
ganized and elected James Cruikshank chair- 
man, and H. A. Carroll secretary. All the 
members of the commission were present ex- 
cept Gilmore and Lewis. An election was 
ordered for the 9th of June, and the following 
precincts established : 



:t. place of election. 

1 — Near the Chowchilla, at C. A. YaDcey's. 

2 — At Leach's store, on the Fresno. 

3 — At Hunt's, on the Fresno. 

4 — At Ashman's store, on Fine Gold Gulch. 

5 — At Upper Camp. 

6 — At Gaster's. 

7 — At Mono City. 

8— At Millerton. 

9 — At Firebaugh's. 



BOUNDARIES OF THE COUNTY. 

Looking over the act of the Legislature estab- 
lishing the county of Fresno, passed April 18, 
1856, it is difficult to understand the boundary 
of the same. It says: "Beginning at a point 
where the Stockton road to Millerton crossed 
the Chowchilla, known as Newton's Crossing; 
thence down said stream on the north side with 
the high- water mark, to the sink of the same, 
at the lower molt of Cottonwood timber; thence 
south forty-five degrees west to the south 
boundary of Merced County; thence in a 
southeasterly direction with the present south- 
western boundary of Merced and Tulare coun- 
ties to a point in the southwestern boundary of 
Tulare County, south forty-five degrees west 
from the point on King's river, where the line 
dividing township fifteen and sixteen south 
crosses the same; thence with the said dividing 
line to the summit of the Sierra Nevada; thence 
north forty-five degrees east to the eastern 
boundary of the State of California; thence in 
a northwestern direction with said State line to 



a point north forty-five degrees east from the 
place of beginning." 

The reader will have observed the conflicting 
features in the boundary given. The same law 
made it the duty of the county surveyor, under 
the direction of the board of supervisors, to 
make a survey, and mark the limits and bound- 
aries of said county. From the sink of the 
Chowchilla, the statute calls for a line running 
thence south forty-five degrees west to the 
south boundary of Merced County. There was 
a direct conflict between the course and the 
south boundary line of Merced County. It 
seems that the Legislature meant to say the 
southwesterly boundary of Merced County. 
Taking that to have been the intention of the 
act, there was no difficulty in fixing that line. 

August 5, 1856, the supervisors resolved 
that Hewlett Clark and James Smith be ap- 
pointed as commissioners on behalf of Fresno 
County, to meet a corresponding number from 
the counties of Mariposa, Merced and Tulare, 
to ascertain the amount of indebtedness due to 
those counties. These commissioners determined 
the amount and the matter was amicably settled. 

In 1857 the county surveyor, O. M. Brown, 
ran the line dividing Fresno from Tulare, Mari- 
posa and Merced counties. Several ineffectual 
attempts have since been made to take territory 
from Fresno and add to joining counties. 

In April, 1872, the counties of Mariposa and 
Fresno caused a joint survey to be made, estab- 
lishing the limits and bounds of each county as 
per act of the Legislature passed April 1 of that 
year. The surveyors were R. B. Thomas and 
M. B. Lewis. The expense to each county was 
$207.70. There had been for some time a dis- 
pute between Merced and Fresno counties in 
regard to the boundary line. This was also 
amicably settled in 1873, each paying equally 
the cost of survey. 

The county is bounded north by Merced and 
Mariposa, east by Mono and Im^o, south by 
Tulare and west by Monterey and San Benito 
counties. The Sierras form the eastern por- 
tion of the county, and here attain the greatest 



54 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



elevation of all mountains in the United States. 
Mount Whitney is more than 15,000 feet above 
sea level; Mount Shasta, heretofore considered 
the highest, is but 14,442 feet. Whitney, how- 
ever, is in Tulare County. Mount Goddard, 
Mount Tyndall and others are more than 14,000 
feet above sea level. 

Among the glaciers and snow gorges of this 
grand region are the sources of King's and the 
San Joaquin rivers, the waters of which are so 
readily utilized for irrigating purposes on the 
broad, productive plains upon which are now es- 
tablished many prosperous colonies and nourish 
ing cities; and towns and villages are spriuging 
up magic like, from the profitable industries 
made possible to establish, by the water led to 
the valley from nature's unlimited storehouse 
in the great Sierra range. Here nature has 
prepared an eternal, inexhaustible reservoir with 
ample water supply for irrigating every acre of 
land in the valley and for all other purposes, 
provided it is properly distributed and not used 
wastefully. Iu this respect is Fresno County 
more favored than any other county in the State, 
and her enterprising citizens are turning this 
water supply to advantage as will be seen by 
the many thousand acres now yielding the hus- 
bandman from $250 to $300 per acre, where, 
before irrigated, — that is, before the vast system 
of irrigation was established, — the jack-rabbit 
would not venture, fearing death from thirst. 
This feature will be fully treated elsewhere. 

The western slope of Fresno's Sierras is cov- 
ered with beautiful pine, fir and tamarack for- 
ests, scattered through which are numerous 
groves of the Sequoia gigantea, or " big trees." 
Some individual specimens of these forest mon- 
archs are among the largest in the State; and 
their grandeur, considered with the weird pic- 
tures of the higher Sierras, or glacial region, 
accord to Fresno County some of the most sub- 
lime scenery in America. 

The western boundary of the county is the 
summit of the Mount Diablo spur of the Coast 
Range. This part of the county has in the past 
been nearly entirely devoted to stock-raising. 



When irrigated all the semi-tropical fruits grow 
well. In these mountains, about eighty miles 
from the city of Fresno, is the celebrated New 
Idria quicksilver mine, one of the most valu- 
able in the world. Petroleum and coal are also 
found in abundance in these mountains; nature 
seems to have placed the timber supply, the 
great irrigating fluid and precious metals in the 
Sierras on the east, and the coarser metals, fuel 
and lighting supplies in the Coast Range on the 
west. 

THE FIRST JAIL ERECTED IN THE COUNTY. 

September 15, 1856, the Board of Supervi- 
sors awarded a contract to build a jail at the 
county seat, to Henry Borroughs, the cost to be 
$6,000. On the 23d of February, 1857, the 
supervisors accepted from the said Borroughs 
the jail that he had built. It was not a sub- 
stantial structure, constructed of stone, brick 
and wood, with mud for mortar, and here and 
there a little iron-work. When finished, a day 
was appointed for its acceptance by the board 
of supervisors. A German who had been so 
indiscreet as to be caught stealing a watch, was 
confined in the new jail, when the supervisors, 
accompanied by Colonel Borroughs, went to 
inspect the structure and ascertain if it was done 
according to plans, etc. The prisoner informed 
the colonel that he would scratch out of that 
institution in less than twenty minutes; in fact 
he had removed two or three brick to show the 
colonel how easy was the undertaking. The 
colonel became alarmed, and begged the pris- 
oner " for God Almighty's sake not to scratcli 
out until it was accepted by the Board of Su- 
pervisors," otherwise he would be a ruined 
man! The prisoner seems not to have been en- 
tirely void of honor and sympathy for his fellow 
man, as he remained in the jail until the build- 
ing was accepted; and then, with the aid of a 
ten-penny nail, scratched out and made his 
escape! 

There was a proposition to build 

A NEW COURTHOUSE AND JAIL 

in 1863, and the clerk advertised for plans, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



55 



bids, etc. Receiving none the matter was 
dropped until May. 1866, when the supervisor's 
decided to erect a courthouse and jail, and in- 
structed the clerk to issue bonds to the amount 
of $20,008 to pay for the same. 

The contract for constructing the two build- 
ings was awardedto C. P. Converse & Co., for 
$17,008.25. Subsequently changes were made 
in the plans and several thousand dollars added 
to the cost. The construction of the new stone 
and brick courthouse and jail began in the 
winter of 1866, at Millerton, and was completed 
in the summer of 1867. 

They were substantial buildings, the jail es- 
pecially at that time being second to none in 
the State; but when in 1874 the county seat 
was removed to Fresno, the entire town of Mill- 
erton was abandoned, and the splendid court- 
house was left standing alone. It is proper 
here to remark, that with the advent of the 
Central Pacific Railroad in the spring of 1872, 
the foundation was laid upon which the present 
city of Fresno has builded so well, and which 
became the county seat soon thereafter. 

EEMOVAL OF THE COUNTY SEAT. 

The railroad having been extended through 
the San Joaquin valley, and farming having in 
a measure supplanted mining and stock-raising, 
the center of population changed and a restive 
desire prevailed to have the county seat re- 
moved from Millerton to some more central 
point. Accordingly a petition was presented to 
the Board of Supervisors, on February 12, 1874, 
asking that an election be called to select some 
more central point. The board accordingly 
ordered an election to be held on the 23d day of 
March, at which the question was disposed of 
with the following result: 

For Millerton, 93 votes; Centerville, 123; 
Lisbon, 124, and Fresno, 417. Fresno having 
received a majority of all the votes cast, was 
fixed as the county seat. 

At this election, A. J. Thorn was elected 
County Treasurer. 



THE PRESENT COURTHOUSE AND JAIL. 

The County was also authorized to issue 
bonds to the amount of $60,000, for the purpose 
of erecting a courthouse and jail at the new 
county seat. The county officers removed to 
Fresno September 25, 1874, where they occupied 
a temporary building, size 24x80 feet, erected 
by J. L. Smith. This building was sold, after 
being vacated, to A. J. Thorn, for $146, Sep- 
tember, 1875. The corner-stone of the new 
courthouse was laid September 18,1874, under 
the supervision of the Masonic order, composed 
of members of Merced and Fresno lodges, Dr. 
Titus, Most Worshipful Grand Master of the 
State of California, officiating. A procession 
was formed headed by Woodman's band, and 
composed of Masons, Odd Fellows, county of- 
ficials and citizens. The exercises were opened 
with a t,ong by the choir, composed of Mrs. 
Phillips, Mrs. J. C. Hoxie, Mrs. Win. Lambert, 
and Messrs. Win. Faymonville, A. W. Burrell 
and S. W. Geis. Mrs. Phillips presided at the 
organ. The Hon. C. G. Sayle, on behalf of the 
supervisors, addressed the assembly as follows: 

" Ladies and Gentlemen : The Honorable 
Board of Supervisors, on behalf of the citizens 
of Fresno County, are now about to commence 
the erection of the grandest and noblest edifice 
that has ever been planned or contemplated in 
this county. The said edifice, when completed, 
is expected to stand the heats of summer and 
the storms of winter for a period of 1,000 years 
or more; and in order to perpetuate the present 
history of this county, the Board of Supervisors 
deem it their duty, in accordance with ancient 
customs, to invite the Most Worshipful Grand 
Master of the Free and Accepted Masons of the 
State of California to lay the corner-stone of 
this edifice. Here they may deposit the usual 
mementos and items of history, for the benefit 
of future generations, when by the lapse of time 
this edifice shall have crumbled to dust. And 
now, in behalf of the supervisors and citizens 
of Fresno County, we hereby invite Dr. Titus, 
Most Worshipful Master of the Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons of California, to lay the corner- 



56 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



stone of this edifice, and present the proper 
working tools to the Grand Master." 

There were deposited in the corner-stone the 
following articles: Copy of the act of the Leg- 
islature fixing the county seat at Fresno; copy 
of the act authorizing issuance of courthouse 
and jail bonds; copy of said bonds; copy of 
joint report of the county auditor and treasurer 
of Fresno County; names of Fresno county 
officers; copy of the great register of Fresno 
County; Fresno Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 4, May 
18, 1870; also Vol. 5, No. 25, October 7, 1874, 
same paper; San Francisco Daily Examiner, 
October 5, 1874; Daily Alia California, Octo- 
ber 7, 1874; Sacramento Record, October 7, 
1874; Oakland Daily News, October 6, 1874; 
Dixon & Faymonville's Map of Fresno County, 
also of the town of Fresno, contributed by the 
firm mentioned; Holy Bible, contributed by 
Dr. Leach; business card of Whitlock & Young; 
one $20 gold piece, United States coin of 1874, 
contributed by A. W. Burrell; one $10 gold 
piece; one $5 gold piece; one $2.50 gold piece; 
one $1; one half-dollar, one quarter-dollar, 
one ten-cent coin, — of silver; one five-cent, one 
three-cent and one two-cent nickel coins; and 
one copper coin, of the United States, contrib- 
uted by the Board of Supervisors; list of sheriffs 
of Fresno County, contributed by J. Scott Ash 
man; historical notes of the first twenty years 
of San Joanquin valley, containing a copy of 
the original treaty of peace between the Indians 
and whites, made at old Fort Barber in 1851; 
and a copy of the muster roll of the Volunteer 
Battalion of 1851, under Major J. D. Savage, 
contributed by W. T. Rumble and Dr. Lewis 
Leach. 

Judge E. C.Winchell delivered an ableoration. 

The courthouse is 60x90 feet, three stories 
high and surmounted with a cupola, from 
which one can look north and south in the val- 
ley until the extent of vision is arrested by the 
horizon. From this elevation one can view with 
reverential awe and wondering admiration the 
snow-capped peaks of the grand Sierras miles 
away to the east, and away to the west the 



Coast Range serves to rest the eye after spanning 
the vast plain. The courthouse is suitably di- 
vided into county offices, court rooms, etc., and 
is fifty-seven feet high above the grade, and the 
entire height from grade to top of the figure 
which surmounts the dome is 112 feet. This 
figure represents Minerva, the Goddess of Wis- 
dom. The entire walls of the building are of 
brick covered with cement. The three arches 
are ornamented with figures of the Goddess of 
Justice. The building is very ornamental as 
well as convenient, comfortable and substantial, 
is provided with all the modern conveniences, 
and is a credit to the designer as well as to 
those who supervised its erection, being an edi- 
fice of which the citizens of Fresno city and 
county should feel proud. 

The contract for the erection of the building 
was let May 14, to the California Bridge and 
Building Company of Oakland, represented by 
its president, A. W. Burrell, for $50,370. The 
building was delivered to the county completed 
the 1st day of August, 1875. The grounds sur- 
rounding this edifice are well graded, and the 
many varieties of ornamental trees show a 
wonderful growth, already resembling a shady 
forest. The commanding appearance of the 
courthouse, surrounded by the well-kept, pleas- 
ant park, is and always will be an attractive 
feature of the city of Fresno. 

MILLERTON. 

Having followed the courthouse to completion 
at Fresno, let us resume the passing events at 
Millerton, where a military fort was established 
in April, 1851, on the south bank of the San 
Joanquin, about one mile above the town of 
Millerton, and called at the time Fort Barber; 
it was soon afterward changed to Millerton. 
Here the Indian treaty was signed. The last 
serious Indian difficulty occurred in the sum- 
mer of 1856, with the Four Creek Indians. 
Tho soldiers stationed at Fort Millerton under 
Colonel Livingston, a company of fifty men 
from Fresno County, also a force of volunteers 
from Tulare County, joiued Colonel Living- 



HISTORY OF CENTRA!, CALIFORNIA. 



57 



sron's forces and soon the Indians were sub- 
dued. Particulars of this Indian war will be 
found in the history of Tulare County. 

In 1857 Ira McCray erected a stone hotel at 
a cost of $15,000, and did a thriving business 
until 1863, when reverses set in, and in 1866-'67 
his tine hotel and ferry-boat were swept away, 
and he never recovered financially. 

In 1863 Colonel Warren Olney was sent with 
a force of United States troops to occupy Fort 
Millerton, owing to a rumor of an uprising in 
the valley in favor of the Southern Confederacy. 
Nothing of the kind occurred, and the troops 
and citizens got along together in good style. 
Soon afterward the fort was abandoned and the 
buildings sold. 

In 1870 the census showed 113 school chil- 
dren in Millerton. The last business transacted 
in the courthouse at Millerton was by the Plus 
Ultra Mining Company, and thiy hold their 
last meeting in their new quarters, Fresno. 

The first meetiug of the county supervisors 
iu Fresno was October 5, 1874. Their first 
official act was to levy a tax for county pur- 
poses. The Expositor of September, 1874, 
said: " The glories of Millerton have departed; 
one by one the buildings are being moved to 
Fresno. Last week Faymonville's and Dr. 
Leach's were torn down for removal, and Judge 
Sayle's residence and office is following. Also 
Dixon's residence will soon go, and thus Miller- 
ton in a manner died fir the time and gave life 
to the new town of Fresno. 

ELECTIONS AND OTHER PEOCEEDINGS. 

At the first election, held June 9, 1856, 383 
votes were cast and the following officers were 
elected: County Judge, Charles J. Hart; County 
Clerk and Recorder, James Sayle, Jr.; Sheriff, 
W. C. Bradly; County Treasurer, Geo. River- 
combe; District Attorney, J. C. Craddock; 
County Assessor, J. G. Ward; County Sur- 
veyor, W. W. Bourland ; Coroner, H. A. Car- 
roll; Supervisors, J. A. Patterson, John R. 
Hughes and J. M. Roan. 

The first meeting of the Board of Super- 



visors was held June 23, 1856, at which John 
R. Hughes was elected chairman. At this 
meeting the county was divided into three 
supervisor districts and judicial townships, and 
Hewlett Clark and Hugh Carlin were appointed 
Justices of the Peace for township 2, How- 
ard for township 3, and D. J. Johnson and 
Thomas J. Allen for district No. 1. 

At a meeting of the Board of Supervisors 
August 4, 1856, the salary of the county judge 
was fixed at $2,500, and that of the district 
attorney at $1,000. 

In February, 1857, James E. Williams ap- 
pears as one of the supervisors. The records 
do not show whom he succeeded, but circum- 
stances lead to the conclusion that he took the 
place of J. A. Patterson. May 4, 1857, at the 
meeting of the board, Clark Hoxie has suc- 
ceeded John L. Hunt as supervisor. 

Iu 1857, the supervisors ordered the tax col- 
lector to receive gold-dust in payment of foreign 
miners' license, at $14 per ounce, and the treas- 
urer is instructed to receive it at that figure. 
Officers received liberal prices in those days. 
That the prisoners were well cared for is in- 
stanced by a bill presented to the board at its 
session in 1857, for feeding and guarding a 
prisoner for thirty- two days. For this service, 
$6 per day was demanded. Ten dollars per day 
was allowed commissioners when doing business 
for the county. The salary of the county judge 
was reduced this year to $1,500 per annum. 
At the meeting of the board in August, 1857, 
S. W. Rankin succeeded John R. Hughes as 
supervisor, and Clark Hoxie became chairman. 
This year an additional precinct was established 
at Temperance Flat. 

In 1857, W. Y. Scott was elected Sheriff; 
James Sayle, Jr., Clerk; James T. Cruikshank, 
District Attorney; J. G. Simpson, Assessor; 
T. C. Stallo, County Surveyor. During this 
year there were five supervisors elected, viz.: 
Clark Hoxie, R. T. Burford, James Smith, J. W. 
Rankin and J. E. Williams. The average vote 
cast for the successful candidates at this election 
was about 130. 



58 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



On the 9th of August, 1858, the board estab- 
lished a precinct at Whitmore's Ferry, on Lower 
King's river, and ordered an election at which 
C. D. Simpson was elected supervisor of Dis- 
trict Xo. 1; H. E. Howard, District No. 2, and 
A. S. Bullock, District No. 3; also J. M. Roan, 
Representative. Two hundred and sixty-four 
votes were polled. 

At the election September 7, 1859, fifteen 
precincts were established. At this election 
James Sayle, Jr., was elected County Judge; 
C. J. Johnson, Clerk; J. Scott Ashman, Sheriff; 
George Rivercombe, Treasurer; W. H. Crane, 
Assessor; M. B. Holt, Surveyor; Justin Esery, 
J. R. Royal and A. J. Carmack, Supervisors. 
About 200 votes were cast at this election. 

The first County School Superintendent was 
E. C. Winchell, appointed by the Board of 
Supervisors February 6, 1860. There were 
then live school districts in the county. At the 
November election in 1860, L. G. Carmack, G. 
B. Abel and J. B. Royal were elected Supervi- 
sors. At this election the total vote for Presi- 
dent was 469, of which Lincoln received 53, 
Douglas 22, Breckenridge 271, and Bell 123. 
This is a strong showing as to the sentiment 
and sympathy of the majority. At the Septem- 
ber election, 1861, J. J. Johnson was elected 
County Clerk; J. Scott Ashman, Sheriff; 
George Rivercombe, Treasurer; E. C. Win- 
chell, District Attorney; John C. Walker, Sur 
veyor; Thomas J. Allen, Assessor; E. S. 
Kincaid, Superintendent of Schools; Ira Mc- 
Cray, Coroner; R. Reynolds, J. L. Hunt and 
W. II. Parker, Supervisors. The latter was 
chairman of the board. 

At the September election, 1862, James 
Smith was elected Assemblyman: II. S. Quig- 
ley, Superintendent of Schools, and J. L. Hunt, 
J. Blackburn and J. G. Simpson, Supervisors. 
At the general election held for State and 
county officers in September, 1863, 461 votes 
were cast. J. W. Freeman was elected State 
Senator; J. M. Walker, Assemblyman; J. Scott 
Ashman, Sheriff; William Fayinonville, Clerk; 
Stephen Gaster, Treasurer; Alex. Kennedy, 



Assessor; N. L. Blackmail, Public Adminis- 
trator; Ira McCray, Coroner; S. 11. Hill 
Superintendent of Schools; John L. Hunt and 
W. H. Hill, Supervisors. 

At the judicial election in October of this 
year, 360 votes were cast, and J. M. Bondurant 
was elected District Judge and E. ('. Winchell 
County Judge. 

At the Presidential election in 1864. Lincoln 
received 92 votes and McClellan 359. J. G. 
Simpson was elected Supervisor. At the Sep- 
tember election, 1865, J. W. Freeman was 
again elected to the Senate, and R. P. Mace to 
the Assembly; J. Scott Ashman, Sheriff; Will- 
iam Fayinonville, Clerk; C. J. Sayle, District 
Attorney; Stephen Gaster, Treasurer; W. C. 
Wyatt, Assessor; J. C. Walker, Surveyor; 
Clark Hoxie, Public Administrator; Ira Mc- 
Cray, Coroner; S. H. Hill, Superintendent of 
Schools, and S. S. Hyde, Supervisor. 

At the judicial election, October, 1865. 343 
votes were polled, and M. B. Lewis, Absalom 
Yarbrough, J. W. Patrick and James Sutherland 
were elected Supervisors. H. C. Daulton was 
elected Supervisor in 1866. 

At the general election, September, 1867, 
372 votes were polled. Hon. R. P. Mace whs 
elected to the Assembly; J. N. Walker, Sheriff; 
A. G. Anderson, Clerk: S. B. Allison, District 
Attorney; William W. Hill, Treasnrer; W. S. 
Wyatt, Assessor; Frank Carroll, Coroner; T. O. 
Ellis, Superintendent of Schools; John C. Wal- 
ker, Surveyor; J. R. Jones, Public Adminis- 
trator; John G. Simpson, Supervisor. 

At the judicial election, October, 1867, A. C. 
Bradford was elected District Judge and Gil- 
luni Baley, County Judge. 

At the Presidential election in 1868, 453 
votes were cast, the Democratic electors re- 
ceiving 381, and the Republican electors 72 
votes. J. G. Simpson and John Boston were 
elected supervisors. 

At the election in September, 1869, Thomas 
Fowler was elected to the Senate and 1'. ( '. Ap- 
pling to the Assembly; J. X. Walker, Sheriff; 
Harry S. Dixon here enters the political arena 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



59 



as County Clerk; S. B. Allison, District Attor- 
ney; W. W. Hill, Treasurer; T. W. Simpson, 
Assessor; S. II. Hill, Superintendent of Schools; 
J. C. Walker, Surveyor; Ira McCray, Coroner, 
and H. C. Daulton, Supervisor. 

At a special election held September 7, 1870, 
Michael Donahoo was elected Supervisor, to 
succeed John G. Simpson. 

At the September election iu 1871 there 
were 729 votes polled. H. S. Dixon was elected 
County Clerk; J. IST. Walker, Assemblyman; 
J. Scott Ashman, Sheriff; C. G. Sayle, District 
Attorney; W. W. Hill, Treasurer; T. W. Simp- 
son, Assessor; T. O. Ellis, Superintendent of 
Schools; M. B. Lewis, Surveyor; T. W. Rich, 
Public Administrator; W. J. Lawrence, Coro- 
ner, and T. F. Witherspoon, Supervisor. At 
the judicial election in October of the same 
year, Gill una Baley was elected County Judge. 

At the Presidential election in 1872, 348 
votes were polled, of which Grant received 111, 
and Greeley 237, notwithstanding the vile epi- 
thets applied to the Democratic party by the 
latter gentleman but a few years previously. 
At this election H. C. Daulton was elected 
Supervisor. 

At the election in September, 1873, 762 
votes were cast. Tipton Lindsey was elected 
Senator; J. W. Ferguson, Assemhlyman; Leroy 
Dennis, Sheriff; W. W. Hill, Treasurer; A. M. 
Clark, Clerk; C. G. Sayle, District Attorney; 
M. B. Lewis, Surveyor; T. O. Ellis, Superintend- 
ent of Schools, and J. N. Musick, Supervisor. 

At the September election in 1875, 897 votes 
were cast. J. D. Collins was elected Assembly- 
man; A. J. Thorn, Treasurer; A. M. Clark, 
Clerk; J. Scott Ashman, Sheriff; J. A. Stroud, 
Assessor; W. H. Creed, District Attorney; M. 
B. Lewis, Surveyor; R. H. Bramlet, Superin- 
tendent of Schools; T. W. Simpson, Coroner, 
and I. N". Ward, Supervisor. At the judicial 
election this year, Gillum Baley was elected 
County Judge. 

At the presidential election in 1876, there 
were 1,306 votes cast, of which Tilden received 
968 and Hayes 338. Thomas P. Nelson was 



elected Supervisor; Thomas Fowler was elected 
Senator; R. P. Mace, Assemblyman; E. Hall, 
Sheriff; A. J. Thorn, Treasurer; A. M. Clark, 
Clerk; R. H. Bramlet, Auditor and Superin- 
tendent of Schools; W. H. Creed, District At- 
torney; C. D. Davis, Surveyor; N. P. Duncan, 
Coroner, and Thomas Waggoner, Supervisor. 
C. G. Sayle represented the county in the Gen- 
eral Assembly in 1879. Previously, and in- 
cluding this year, the general elections had 
been held in the odd years. The new constitu- 
tion in 1879 changed elections to even years, 
and in May, 1880, E. T. Griffith was elected to 
the Assembly; Dr. Chester Rowell was elected 
to the Senate in 1879; S. A. Holmes was 
elected as a delegate to the State Constitutional 
Convention held in 1879, which formed the 
present State Constitution and which was in- 
dorsed by 9 000 majority at the election in 
May, 1880. This year, S. A. Holmes was 
elected Superior Judge; E. J. Griffith, Asssem- 
blyman; A. M. Clark, Clerk; H. M. Bramlet, 
Auditor; E. Hall, Sheriff; A. J. Thorn, Treas- 
urer; W. D. Grady, District Attorney; W. II. 
MoKinzie, Assessor; C. D. Davis, Surveyor, 
and R. H. Bramlet, Superintendent of Schools. 

In 1882 the Board of Supervisors redis- 
tricted the county so as to conform to the law 
at that time allowing five supervisors to the 
county. They therefore described and bounded 
five districts, and they further ordered that each 
of said districts should constitute a judicial 
township, and said townships to be numbered 
from one to five, corresponding with the super- 
visor districts. 

In June, 1882, B. A. Hawkins and A. A. 
Smith were appointed members of the County 
Board of Education. 

Holding offices in this county does not seem 
to have been so popular and desirable in years 
past as now, from the foregoing resignations 
and causes thereof. 

In November, 1856, O. M. Brown was ap- 
pointed County Surveyor; Joseph Smith, Pub- 
lic Administrator; John G. Simpson, County 
Assessor, and Dr. Du Gay, Coroner. These 



GO 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



appointments were made to till offices vacated 
l>y those elected resigning. 

In 1857, the sheriff and Board of Supervisors 
eonld not agree, and the former resigned, to 
avoid more serious complications, and George 
S. Hardin M'as appointed to fill the vacancy. 
In February, 1858, James T. Cruikshank re- 
signed the office of District Attorney, and 
Hewlett Clark was appointed to fill the vacancy. 
In November, 1862, Wm. Faymonville was 
appointed County Clerk, the office being vacated 
by the death of D. L. Johnson. 

February, 1863, Thomas J. Allen resigned 
the position of Assessor, and Wm. M. Mathews 
was appointed to that office. Hon. James 
Smith, Assemblyman, died during the session 
of the Legislature, and in February, 1863, Hon. 
J. N. Walker was elected to fill the vacancy. 
In April, 1863, Alex. Kennedy was appointed 
Assessor, W. M. Mathews having resigned. 
Hon. E. C. Winchell resigned his position as 
District Attorney, having been elected County 
Judge, and February, 1864, C. G. Sayle was 
appointed to rill the vacancy. September 22, 
1866, S. Gaster, having been found a defaulter 
to the amount of $6,000, left the county, and 
George Grierson was appointed County Treas- 
urer to rill the unexpired term. Michael Dona- 
hoo, having resigned as Supervisor for the 
second district, J. N. Musick was appointed 
to fill the vacancy. The death of County 
Treasurer W. W. Hill, in 1874, made it obliga- 
tory upon the County Board to appoint a treas- 
urer to rill the unexpired term, which they did 
in the person of N. L. Bachinan. March 23, 
1874, A. J. Thorn was elected Treasurer. At 
the September election of that year, Austin 
Phillips was elected Supervisor, having previ- 
ously been appointed to till the unexpired term 
of Major Witherspoon. 

A list of county officials will be found else- 
where in this work. 



LONE REPUBLICAN. 



In 1854 one Payne had a store on Fine Gold 
Gulch, which was in charge of J. S. Ashman 



and one Aldrich.the latter doing the choree and 
making himself generally useful about the 
premises. This man Aldrich was then and for 
several years afterward the only Republican in 
that portion of the territory since forming 
Fresno County, and finally was known all over 
the State as the " Lone Republican'* of Fres- 
no, lie had many good qualities, and, al- 
though bordering on "fanaticism" (so con- 
sidered at that time perhaps in that community), 
was undoubtedly sincere in his political convic- 
tions; and although he would discuss the current 
political topics with more vehemence and in 
ruder language than is employed by well-bred 
gentlemen, he was still liked by the mass of the 
people, and everybody seemed to be "old Al- 
drich's " friend. 

The Republican Governor who was elected at 
this time sent a tine new hat to the county clerk 
to be given to this "lone Republican.'' He 
declined wearing it until the county should 
give a Republican majority. More than three 
decades have passed, and the county has always 
been Democratic. The hat and the lone voter 
have passed away, but many Republicans have 
come to stay, and this year, 18'JO, Thomas J. 
Kirk, a stanch Republican, has been eleeted 
County Superintendent of Schools. There are 
many Republicans in the county, and the two 
parties are working in harmony for the general 
welfare of the county. 

EARLY COURT INCIDENTS. 

In 1856, T. J. Allen kept a restaurant and 
bar at Roan's store, and also officiated as justice 
of the peace. Meat, drink and justice were 
dealt out in the same room. In August, Dr. 
Lewis Leach sued a Frenchman in Justice Al- 
len's court, claiming something like §350. A 
jury trial of three jurors was had, and a verdict 
for the plaintiff for the full amount claimed 
was rendered, and judgment entered accord- 
ingly, notwithstanding justice courts had juris- 
diction only in cases where the amounts did not 
exceed $200. On the last day of grace for 
taking an appeal, which was on Saturday. James 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



61 



Oruiksliank, a lawyer of Millerton, came to 
Justice Allen to take an appeal in the case, on 
the good and sufficient ground that the judge 
had exceeded his jurisdiction. The boys, hav- 
ing been previously warned of his coming, were 
ready for him, and as soon as he entered the 
house they commenced plying him with the 
best "tarantula juice" they had, and at 12 
o'clock that night, when the legal time for ap- 
pealing had expired, Cruikshank was (in the 
language of the boys) "gloriously" drunk. Of 
course, the appeal papers were not perfected; he 
was carefully put to bed, and next morning, 
Sunday, was politely informed that the time for 
appealing had passed. He took in the situation 
at once, acknowledging that he had been eu- 
chered, and went sorrowfully back to Millerton, 
muttering curses, not loud, but deep, and swear- 
ing vengeance on all and e^ery one who had 
been instrumental in frustrating the object of 
his mission. 

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS. 

Making little mention of crimes prior to 
county organization, numerous homicides and 
murders have been committed in different parts 
of the county to the present time. Many of 
the later, and even very recent, atrocious crimes 
are fresh in the memory of the citizens of to- 
day. It would require a good sized volume to 
detail the crimes committed in the county since 
its organization, although the people were no 
worse here than elsewhere in the State. A suf- 
ficient number of crimes will be here mentioned 
to show the lawlessness which prevailed in the 
past, and the lax manner and indifference with 
which .the law was formerly administered by 
juries. We will avoid going into unpleasant 
details as much as we conscientiously can, of 
the man}' atrocities which were committed and 
which now stand, and must for all time, as black 
stains upon the records of the county. We 
would gladly drop the curtain and forever hide 
the scene from memory's eyes, if by so doing all 
would be wiped from history. Such, however, 
cannot be, and our duty as historians is to relate 



and not to make history. Therefore we will 
make but brief mention of a few facts, not going 
into the limitless field of details. 

Here we wisli to impress upon the reader the 
fact that this county has been but a repetition 
of others in regard to a lawless period; and 
when speaking of a period when lax methods 
were used to enforce law, it should be borne in 
mind that during that period there were as good 
citizens in Fresno County as were to be found 
in the world. They were in the minority, per- 
haps. Now the whole scene is changed, law and 
order rule, and morals are cultivated, and rights 
protected equal to any locality in older commu- 
nities. The law-breaker must avoid Fresno 
now or take the consequences, as by the present 
generation justice is speedily meted out to all. 
No better people are to be found than Fres- 
noans. 

July 5, 1852, at Fresno Crossing, Gus. Gray 
shot and killed Tom Overton. Gray was tried 
and acquitted. In 1855 John Donaldson and 
Henry Morris, who were engaged in mining on 
the San Joaquin river above Millerton, were 
murdered in their tent at night. Their bodies 
were found riddled with buckshot. One of the 
bodies was dragged from the tent and stuck 
full of arrows, to convey the impression that it 
was the work of Indians; but no one believed 
other than white iiends committed the crime, 
and that for robbery. Several white men, 
among whom was the notorious Billy Ferguson, 
were suspected of the crime, but no evidence 
was obtained to fasten the deed on any one, and 
soon it was in a measure forgotten. 

At the first county election held at Roan's 
store, in 1856, the vote was large and stimu- 
lants appeir to have flowed copiously, if not 
fredy, until finally one George Bingham be- 
came boisterous and "spoiling" for a fight. 
Armed with an ax-helve he attacked Frank 
Kerrins, who shot Bingham in the groin, from 
the effects of which he died. Kerrins was also 
shot in the thigh by some unknown party, as 
Bingham had no pistol. Kerrins was tried for 
killing Bingham, and acquitted at Mariposa, 



6-2 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALlFOh'XIA. 



but was afterward killed there by a Chinaman. 

In 1856 two Italians who kept store about 
200 yards from Roan's store, had their estab- 
lishment burned to the ground one night, and 
no clue was had as to the incendiaries. 

Numerous such crimes could lie cited, but we 
pass to more recent fields, pavising on the way 
to make mention of the trial of "Gabe" Moore. 
Gahe was the slave, in Arkansas, of Richard 
and William Glenn, early settlers on King's 
river, and was brought by them to this State. 
Gabe was as black as the ace of spades, and, as 
were many of the pioneers, without a wife. At 
that time there was an Indian agency on King's 
river, near Centerville, under the control of one 
Campbell, who had inaugurated among the 
squaws the custom of Brigham Young, and had 
without law taken unto himself several of the 
best appearing dusky maidens. lie was a man 
of some consequence, aside from possessing 
several of the feminine sex, and a man of de- 
termination as well as ferocious disposition. It 
seems that Gabe looked with a covetous eye 
upon some of Campbell's fair maidens, and, 
having a melon patch in the near " bottoms," 
was somewhat popular with these dusky belles, 
— only when they wanted melons, — greatly to 
his exasperation. Finally one of them, witli 
grievous lamentations, reported to her lord 
(Campbell) that in her case the incident of the 
Sabine women had been re-enacted, and that 
Gabe was the actor. Campbell was in a rage 
and swore he would take Gabe's life. The latter 
in great fright fled to, and appealed for the pro- 
tection of, his former masters, which they readily 
gave. In those days every man was a law unto 
himself, might taking the place of right in 
many instances. However, Campbell finally 
consented to submit the case to a judicial settle- 
ment. The case was brought before a justice 
of the peace. There was no lawyer within 
twenty miles. The entire community assembled 
at the justice's cabin; Gabe was arraigned be- 
fore the judge; W. W. Hill, a man of much 
honor as well as strong sense, appeared as his 
counsel; a jury was impanneled, and the trial 



proceeded. Gabe pleaded not guilty, in fear 
and trembling, and to the end of his days re- 
fused to admit that his plea was untrue, although 
the belief then was and continued to be that he 
was guilty, whether as charged or not. The 
prosecutor's witnesses were all Indian women. 
Neither the prosecution, the defense nor the 
court could extract anything intelligible from 
them, but enough evidence was heard to cause 
the court to submit the case to the jury. The 
case continued well into the night, and stimu- 
lants were introduced and freely used to keep 
their spirits alive and their eyes awake. With- 
out entering into detail as to argument of coun- 
sels, Gabe was unanimously acquitted. Years 
afterward Gabe was asked why he committed 
such a cowardly crime. He replied, with a 
chuckle and grin peculiar to his race, "Ah, 
massa, 'omen war a scace article dem days!" 

In 1863 robberies of Chinese stores and 
mining camps became frequent, bold and 
troublesome There seems to have been an or- 
ganized band for that nefarious business, among 

whom are mentioned Jim Rains, ■ Jackson, 

Al. and John Dixon, McDowell, Mc- 

Intyre, Hosier and Jim Hall (the latter 

afterward shooting and severely wounding C. S. 
McKeown). The purpose of the band seems to 
have been to rob all races and classes who 
might be too weak to resist their combined 
force. The law-abiding citizens bore with their 
depredations during 1863, but in 1864 forbear- 
ance with them had ceased to be a virtue. Ac- 
cordingly, a company of twelve men was silently 
organized, and one dark night in mid-winter 
they repaired to the haunts of the outlaws. 
Either the desperadoes had word of their 
coming or there was not the necessary concert 
of action, as but one of the band was caught 
that night, — Al. Dixon, — and his dead body was 
found hanging to a tree the following morning. 
This had the desired effect, and the remainder 
of the band vacated the county, except Rains, 
who persisted in his lawless career until he 
finally met with a like fate as that of Al. Dixon. 
This second object-lesson of the rope in a 



HISTORY Off CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



03 



measure put a stop to such lawlessness in the 
county. 

EARLY COLONIES OF FRESNO COUNTY. THE CEN- 
TRAL CALIFORNIA COLONY. 

This was the colony of Fresno County. Had 
colonization upon the dry plains of this great 
valley been an easy matter, it is safe to say 
there would have been no colonization upon 
them, as the favorable conditions necessary to 
make colonization easy would have caused the 
lands to have been settled many years since by 
individuals of small means. Preparing to irri- 
gate is no small undertaking, as water-rights 
must be secured across large intervening; tracts 
owned by capitalists, etc. Farming by irriga- 
tion requires the highest order of agriculture. 
Even the most favorably situated land needs 
preparation — leveling, dyking and ditching — 
before it can be planted. These require not 
only knowledge and skill, but they take time 
and require money. In the meantime the 
farmer must live on his means, and cannot de- 
pend on what he expects to raise. For said 
reasons the rich, productive lands of the valley 
lay unimproved for many yeart. The land was 
acquired and held in vast tracts by capitalists, 
who used it for grazing purposes during the 
winter months, when their flocks and herds 
were driven from the mountains by snow. 
Here and there a solitary farmer had A^entured 
to sow grain on the too dry soil, and harvested 
defeat, besides receiving the taunts and ridicule 
of the sheep men who had in a measure crowded 
out the cattle men, and now stood in fear them- 
selves of being driven out by the agriculturists. 
As will be seen elsewhere, M. J. Church was 
the prime mover in bringing about colonization 
conditions and possibilities in Fresno County. 

Bernard Marks, of San Francisco, may be 
said to be the father of colonization in Fresno 
County. He had been a successful miner and 
teacher. His investments on the San Joaquin 
river having been seriously damaged by an 
overflow of that stream, his attention was called 
to the fine lands in Fresno County by Professor 



William A. Sanders, and after carefully survey- 
ing the situation decided that colonization 
could be made successful, and he at once pro- 
ceeded accordingly. The plan devised by Mr. 
Marks for what he afterward called the Central 
California Colony has been in the main fol- 
lowed by the many colonies which have since 
grown up and made Fresno County and city the 
marvel of the State, and the wonder of all who 
for the first time behold what has been accom- 
plished within a few years, owing to the distri- 
bution of water through the fertile valley 
lands. 

Mr. Marks contracted with Wm. S. Chap- 
man for twenty-one square miles of the best 
lands in the valley, then nearly surrounding 
the town of Fresno. For the beginning of the 
enterprise he selected six square miles in the 
center of his large tract, and this he divided 
into 192 twenty-acre farms, each one-eighth of 
a mile wide and a quarter mile long. Twenty - 
three miles of avenues were laid out, the Fresno 
Canal and Irrigation Company's canal was ex- 
tended through this land in three capacious 
branches. The miles of avenues were at once 
set along their borders with a variety of choice 
ornamental trees, which now give an attractive 
and beautiful appearance to the farms and 
country, and also were set many choice fruits' 
figs, cherries, white walnuts, etc. The first 
planting of vineyards was to an extent a fail are, 
owing to the newness of the canal, which failed 
to furnish a sufficient water supply that year. 

Among the first colonists who settled here in 
1875 as especially deserving of mention, being 
hopeful and always cheerful and encouragiuor in 
words and deeds to others more dependent, was 
Dr. Watson, a natural nobleman, who saw ob- 
stacles but to overcome them, mistakes but to 
correct them, etc. The stockmen spent hours 
striving to dishearten the already despondent 
colonists. Stories of blasted crops, deadly cli- 
mate, mercury 130 degrees in the shade, birds 
dropping dead from heat, fruit baked on the 
trees before ripened, sand-storms, hot winds, 
etc., made it " impossible" for families to live 



64 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



here; jet through the encouragement of such 
leading pioneer citizens as J. W. Ferguson, 
of the Expositor, Dr. Lewis Leach, Otto Froe- 
licli. Win. Faymonville and others, the young 
colony weathered through the storm of adversity 
encountered the first year. 

But chief among the elements of success was 
the fact that Win, S. Chapman owned the land 
on which the colony was founded. He not only 
owned more land at the time than any other 
man in the State, hut made hetter use of it than 
large landed men generally do. By the exercise 
of wise enterprise and intelligent use of large 
sums of money in improving lands, he greatly 
enhanced the value of his large possessions in 
the valley. He was a man highly esteemed 
and respected throughout the valley, and 
yet he had little faith in the success of 
Mr. Mark's colony enterprise. More than a 
year alter the work was commenced at the 
colony, he consulted with Mr. Marks as to 
purchasing the interests of the few settlers and 
abandoning the undertaking; but Mr. Marks 
seemed wedded to his pet undertaking and said 
the best way out of it was to persevere through 
it; and the two united in pushing improve- 
ments, and their success is better shown by the 
many prosperous colonies in the county to-day 
than it is possible to portray in this work. 
Volumes would be required to tell the half 
which has been accomplished in Fresno County 
by the colonists since the beginning in 1875. 
A large proportion of the first settlers in this 
colony were Scandinavians, — Danes, Swedes and 
Norwegians. Their honesty, industry, intelli- 
gence and very social, home-like natures con- 
tributed largely to their success. 

In 1S78 "The Washington Irrigation Colony " 
was organized by J. P. Whitney, Wendell 
Easton and A. T. Covell, and was soon a pros- 
perous settlement. S. A. Miller, who was editor 
of the Fresno Republican, deserves much praise 
for his untiring aid to the colony enterprise. 
He founded the Nevada Colony, and M. J. 
Donahoo, one of Fresno County's foremost 
enterprising citizens, gave the new colony an 



impulse by improving in handsome style the first 
land purchased. Among the many citizens who 
were attracted to the colony, settled and gave 
great aid to it, were J. S. Croodman, John Rae 
Hamilton, Colonel Forsyth, J. W. Pugh, Henry 
Donnelly and F. A. Woodward. 

Space will not permit naming each and every 
colony planted and grown to wonderful propor 
tions, which has made the desert blossom 
as the rose and produced millions of wealth in 
Fresno County within a few years. We can but 
give the great growth, and wealth-producing 
communities in general, showing what irriga- 
tion and colonization have done, and can and 
will do, for all irrigable lands in this great val- 
ley, which ere long will be the Eden of America, 
if not of the world. 

Many enterprising citizens from Southern 
States — Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee — 
settled in Fresno County soon after the war, 
many of whom have attained prominence in 
both the judicial and political arenas, the two 
present superior judges among the number. 
There was a settlement known as the Alabama 
Colony, settled in 1868, some of whom became 
prominent in Fresno County and filled respon- 
sible positions. Among the many who com- 
prised this settlment were the Dixon family, 
Mississippians — Judge R. L. Dixon, sons and 
daughters. One of the sons, now residing in 
Fresno, was for two terms county clerk nnd be- 
came one of Fresno's distinguished lawyers, an 
enthusiastic advocate and a formidable op- 
ponent, honorable and conscientious, who has a 
heart as large as his brain. He was the first 
attorney for Fresno city. 

The Alabama settlement was at the time the 
only colony on the plains south of Mariposa 
Creek for agricultural purposes in the sense of 
grain farming. From that creek to Tejon Pass 
no grain worthy of mention was grown; the \ a.-t 
acres were held in compauy by numbers of 
stock- raisers, all of whom warned the colonists 
that graiu could not be successfully and profit- 
ably grown there. All their supplies had to be 
transported from Stockton by wagon. A few 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



65 



had comfortable cabins, from material hauled 
from Stockton; the many had rude board cabins 
and some of the young men lived in tents, and 
the first year, owing to excessive drought, their 
crops in a measure died before maturing; and, 
to add to their distress, the stock roamiDg at 
will on the plains played sad havoc with their 
stinted products. H. S. Dixon, in an animated 
manner, recently related to the writer his ex- 
perience during those trying times. He said 
that after a hard day's toil, and feeling almost 
driven to despair at the gloomy prospect, he 
was forced to stand guard at night to protect 
his scant crop from the mighty herds of stock, 
and after many nights' watching to have it 
finally consumed. 

This brave, hopeful, patient little band had 
brought with them from their Southern homes 
a love of fun and vein of humor, which was 
shown by the names some of the young men 
gave their homes. The Pickenses called theirs 
the •' Cradle of Innocence;" and one bachelor 
called his " Hell's Half- Acre " This seems more 
appropriate for the region at that time. Major 
Reading named his place Elkhorn, having 
found a horn of that animal near where he built. 
The Dixons called theirs " Refuge." It is a 
mystery which none are able to solve why this 
name was adopted, as there seemed to be little 
to justify it. Certainly it was no refuge from 
stock roaming the plains and devouring the 
crops ot those pioneers. 

In 1870 others came from the South aud set- 
tled in this community. Judge Dixon did not 
come with his family until this year, his sons, 
James P. and H. S., having located here as 
before stated. The judge's family consisted of 
four sons and a daughter. 

o 

Agriculture did not seem to prosper with 
these people, the majority of whom removed to 
other localities, and those who remained drifted 
into more congenial and lucrative occupations; 
and in 1874— '75 the place contained few of the 
original settlers. 

Fresno Colony, founded by Thomas Hughes 
and sons in 1880, has proven a main factor in 



making the city of Fresno prosper as it has. 
This colony immediately joins the city on the 
south. Within a short space of time the 2,880 
acres were sold to enterprising colonists. 
IS! one have done more to develop Fresno Coun- 
ty's resources and to build up and beautify 
Fresno city than have Thomas Hughes and sons. 
The Hughes Hotel is the finest in that city, and 
equalled by few in the State. A personal his- 
tory of Thomas Hughes will be found elsewhere 
in this work. 

CLIMATE. 

The true Californian never tires of dilating 
upon "the climate." Be it in the ice-bound 
regions of the Sierras at mid-winter, or in the 
heat and mid-summer of the great valleys; in 
the fogs along the coast, or in the sand-storms 
of the plains, — he will assert "it is the finest 
climate in the world." And few who have ex- 
perienced a few months here will attempt to re- 
fute it. As climate, more than any one condi- 
tion or property, determines the comparative 
as well as the intrinsic value of a country for 
man's habitation, it should be given a place 
here. All other conditions may to a certain 
extent be changed by human agency, but cli- 
mate remains a steadfast servant to its mistress, 
nature. Man can remedy such defects as 
scarcity of timber and water, unproductive soil, 
etc. Nations are planted and prosper in the 
midst of these adverse surroundings, but cli- 
mate unaltered outlasts the labor of races. 
Human adventures are not bound to frost or 
heat, and yet homes are not made of choice too 
near either extreme, in the location of a set- 
tlement and selecting a home, climatic condi- 
tions form the first and chief factor. Men 
pierce the frozen barriers of the north, or brave 
the wasting heats of the south in search of wealth, 
but seek a mild, congenial clime in which to 
found a home to spend their money and enjoy 
declining years. 

The general characteristics of the climate 
throughout the valley will apply to Fresno 
County. She has some special features which 
others have not, and which enables her to be 



G6 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the excelsior raisin-producing county of the 
State. There are soine disadvantages as to cli- 
mate, it is true, but less perhaps than in any 
other region of like area. The general climatic 
conditions are favorable to industrial pursuits 
above almost any other locality of like latitude. 
The snow limit is far above the valley, and 
while the effects of a rigorous winter are never 
felt, there is still enough of cold to give a brac- 
ing reaction to the animal system, and to ren- 
der in a measure a hardy condition of plant life. 
"At no point between the Rocky mountains 
and the Black sea can be found the snow line 
with so high an altitude as on the Sierras." 
Consequently we find here conditions not to be 
seen within thousands of miles eastward on this 
parallel, namely, a flora peculiar to two zones. 
The nutritious fruits and grains of the temper 
ate belt, as well as the rich products of semi- 
tropical plants, mature here side by side and 
ripen in due time, and fruits grains and flesh 
retain their freshness and sweetness for a sea- 
son seldom equaled in the extreme heat which 
at times prevail in mid-summer. This can only 
occur where there is an extreme low humidity. 
A stranger on learning that this great valley is 
not in the snow zone, seeks for the cause of 
such remarkable mildness of climate. He sees 
on the west the Coast Range, a spur of a 
mountain system witli an altitude of from three 
to live thousand feet; on the east the Sierras 
from six to nine thousand feet high. Thus is 
formed a natural barrier, shutting out much of 
the cold northers, and enclosing a body of air 
measurably isolated, tending to hold an even 
temperature. The great and chief cause of the 
year-long summer in this great valley is that por- 
tion of the Japan current turned toward our coast 
and skirting it from Victoria to Central America. 
This readily accounts for the temperature of this 
valley, which seldom falls below 27 degrees in 
Fresno County, and frequently rises to 110 de- 
grees in the shade during mid-summer, a tem- 
perature closely approaching that of Florida, 
with no corresponding average on the Eastern 
continent west of the Black sea. 



The mildness of this climate in winter is due 
to the set of t'ie J ip anese current, " Kuro Sivo, 
against the coast, as does the Gulf Stream of the 
Atlantic against the coast of Great Britain. Its 
bracing coolness is due to the constant prevail- 
ing winds of the coast which blow from the 
northwest, impinging upon the mountains along 
the coast and following the direction of the 
ranges. These ranges are generally sufficiently 
lofty to bar the ingress of the northerly sea- 
breeze into the interior. But at San Francisco 
and several other points near there, gaps made 
by the outflowing of water-courses and other 
depressions admit these winds, the speed of 
which is accelerated during the day in sum- 
mer, as they rush inland, because the bright 
sun sets the plains glowing, rarefies the air, 
and sends it upward. Thus it is that a vast 
store of sea-breeze tonic is drawn through tunnels 
as it were, and properly tempered when reaching 
the valley, so that it makes the most delightful, 
invigorating climate in the world. Sunstrokes 
are unknown in this valley. The sea-breeze 
enters the great interior valley with uncomfort- 
able force, as well as a degree of frigidity. "With 
no obstacles to impede or deviate its course, 
it pursues the broad line of the great river of 
the south (San Joaquin) fresh and cool, grate- 
fully tempered and modulated as it commingles 
with its first meeting the soft warm air of the 
interior, and spreads out over the wide expanse 
of green tides in which the valley terminates. 
In this way, by one of nature's laws, the whole 
basin is filled daily, during the summer with 
the invigorating atmosphere of the ocean, aided 
somewhat in the night by the descending cool 
air from the snowy crests of the Sierras. 

With a temperature thus equalized and an 
atmosphere thus daily refreshed, the valley of 
the San Joaquin possesses a climate eminently 
conducive to both the health and comfort of 
man. Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties are so 
located as to receive the full benefit of this 
balmy atmosphere. While it is claimed that 
the climate of California in general is much 
like that of Italy, this will apply more particu- 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



67 



larly to the southern half of the San Joaquin 
valley. As we leave the ocean and go inland 
the influence of the trade-winds decreases and 
the heat of summer and cold of winter increases. 
Another effect of these sandy plains is to create 
a daily sea-breeze from the southwest return 
trade-winds that prevail on the coast as surface 
winds during the summer months. Each day 
after the sun rises over these great plains, they 
become heated and increase the temperature of 
the air over their surface. This air rises, and 
as the whole current of cool air is from the 
ocean on the west it iushes in to fill the 
vacancy. A gentle southwest wind may be 
blowing on the coast at night or in the morn- 
ing; and by eleven or twelve o'clock the full 
force of the sun's rays are felt, the gentle breeze 
has increased to a brisk wind and continues un- 
til evening, after the setting sun has withdrawn 
his rays and the sandy plains have radiated its 
heat into space. The gentle southwest wind 
resumes its sway until the next day, when from 
the same course the high wind is again repeated. 
Whatever may be the direction of the wind in 
the forenoon, in the spring, summer and 
autumn months it almost invariably works 
round toward the west in the afternoon. So 
constant is this phenonena that in the seven 
months from April to October inclusive, there 
were but three days in 1890 in which it missed, 
and these were rainy days, with the wind from 
the south or southwest. 

In regard to the hesrith of this valley, and 
especially of Fresno County, to say nothing of 
the sanitary effect of the rapid desiccation and 
curing of the spontaneous vegetable productions 
when the dry season commences, this daily at- 
mospheric current is constantly sweeping away 
in their incipiency the miasmatic exhalations 
and pestilent fermentations which would other- 
wise, incubate and breed undisturbed over the 
rich bottom lands. Epidemics and virulent in- 
fections are almost unknown in this great 
valley; and especially is this true in the three 
southern counties. The mild and genial tem- 
perature tends to stay the development of pul- 



monary affections and diseases of the respiratory 

system. 

THE THERMAL BELT. 

There is a warm stratum of air in the hills a 
few hundred feet above the valleys. This semi- 
tropical belt varies. In some localities it is 
very marked, and in others it is much less so. 
At night, during the frosty seasons, the cold 
air settles in the valleys, displacing the warm 
air which rises. At daylight a heavy frost may 
be seen in the valleys, — heaviest along the 
water courses, — while in the warm belt, a few 
hundred feet above (in some cases not more 
than sixty), the most delicate flowers and shrubs 
are untouched. 

The soil on the hills in this belt has often 
great depth, and is admirably adapted to fruit 
culture. Like the valleys, the lands are covered 
only by scattered groves of trees, and little of 
it too steep for easy cultivation. It is specially 
adapted to growing semi-tropical fruits. Here 
in Fresno County, oranges, lemons, limes, 
almonds, English walnuts, prunes and pomegran- 
ates grow well and yield a certain and bounti- 
ful crop of as fine size and flavor as any in the 
State, and there are thousands of acres of this 
excellent fruit land yet idle in Fresno County. 

BAIN FALL AND HUMIDITY. 

The season of rain in this section of the val- 
ley generally begins in October and ends in 
May, though it sometimes rains in June. It 
is rare that rain falls longer than two or three 
days at one time, and the intervals between 
rains vary from a few days to a month, and 
even six weeks. The "rainy'' or ''winter" 
season in some respects is the pleasanter season 
of the year. As soon as rains begin to fall 
grasses begin to grow, and by the middle of 
November pastures and hills are green; and, as 
soon as the ground is in condition to plow after 
the first rains, farmers sow their grain. 

December is usually a stormy month. Mer- 
cury seldom falls below 37 degrees above zero 
in the valleys. Occasionally there is a thin coat 
of ice over small pools of standing water; and 



68 



HISTORY OF CENT HAL CALIFORNIA. 



December is usually the month of heaviest 
rainfall. Arid yet no one can predict with any 
degree of certainty as to the coming rain. The 
oldest inhabitant seemingly knows little more 
than the recent "tenderfoot" as regards the 
weather. The heaviest rainfall sometimes comes 
in February. 

In January one begins to realize a feeling of 
approaching spring in the air. Almond trees 
blossom and the robins come, and grass and 
wheat grow rapidly. 

February is a growing month and very pleas- 
ant, resembling the month of May in the East- 
ern States. The peach and cherry trees bloom 
in February. 

March, here as elsewhere, is liable to be more 
boisterous than any other month. 

Vegetation grows rapidly in April, and cereal 
crops are assured if a sufficiency of rain falls 
during this month. As a rule no rain falls after 
this month. 

May is the month of roses and flowers in 
general, and the paradisical month of the year 
here as it is elsewhere where literature has most 
prevailed. 

During the first portion of June the grasses 
begin to cure and become hay, standing in the 
field, and stock graze and grow fat thereon. 

On an average there are 220 perfectly clear 
days in a year, without a cloud, in the San Joa- 
quin basin; eighty-five days wherein clouds are 
seen (though in many of them the sun is visi- 
ble), and sixty rainy. Italy cannot surpass that. 
From April 1 to November 1 there are in ordi- 
nary seasons fifteen cloudy days, and half the 
days are clear from the 1st of November until 
the 1st of April. 

MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE COUNTY. 

These are extensive, beyond what one at first 
can imagine. 

The discovery of gold early brought the 
hardy miners to this region, but aside from the 
early placers no great developments have been 
made toward opening up the great and inex- 
haustible mineral deposits, or to determine the 



extent of gold and silver quartz mines. Fresno's 
placers constituted a large portion of what was 
called the "Southern Mines." in order to 
distinguish them from the first discovered 
"diggings" east and north of Sacramento. 
Years before the organization of Fresno County 
the hills and lower mountains of the Sierras 
were alive with miners, some of whom made 
rich "strikes" and amassed fortunes in a 6hort 
time. Gold dust was then the medium of cir- 
culation, and property was valued in ounces of 
the pure metal, instead of dollars and cents. 
There is no attainable data as to the actual 
amount of gold taken in dust and nuggets from 
these placers, but it certainly amounted to mil- 
lions. Gold was reported to exist on the San 
Joaquin as early as 1849. Major Savage cm- 
ployed Indians to procure gold, and the placers 
continued to be developed, and in 1865 the 
leading merchants fixed a scale of prices at 
which they would accept gold dust, namely: 
San Joaquin River or Bar dust, $15.50 per 
ounce; Fine Gold Gulch, Cottonwood, Long 
Gulch, and all taken out in small gulches be- 
tween the San Joaquin and Fresno rivers, except 
Coarse Gold Gulch, at $14 per ounce; Coarse 
Gold Gulch, $16.50; Temperance Flat. $14; 
Big Dry Creek, $16.50 ; Sycamore Creek, $17.50 ; 
Fresno River, $15.50. Placer mining brought 
the early prosperity of the county. The mining 
of to-day is confined principally to quartz in the 
Sierras. In the low hills along the Sierra range, 
in the eastern part of tlfe county, numerous de- 
posits of copper are found. The veins all carry 
silver and gold, but in small quantities. In the 
higher mountains gold-bearing quartz of a 
promising richness have been discovered, all 
bearing more or less silver. Silver-bearing ore 
in large quantities have been discovered in the 
slate range, near the summit of the mountains, 
as also some rich deposits of base metal or ar- 
gentiferous galena. 

The first quartz mill erected in the county 
was at Coarse Gold Gulch — a ten-stamp mill. 
Various and valuable mines are located within 
the county, and only await development to yield 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



69 



an immense treasure. One cause of delay in 
developing the mineral interests of this county 
is the lack of railroad transportation. This 
cause will soon be removed, as soon there will 
be built from Fresno a railroad direct to the 
mineral and timber region of the Sierras. An- 
other and principal reason why capital is not 
used in developing the mineral resources of the 
county is, that better returns for money invested 
can be had from fruits, — grapes, prunes, peaches, 
apricots, etc., which yield larger profit for money 
invested than do the great majority of gold 
mines. 

Mineral springs, both hot and cold, are found 
in this county. The Rogers Hot Springs are 
possessed of remarkable remedial properties, 
highly recommended for rheumatic, neuralgic 
and scrofulous complaints. On the upper San 
Joaquin, near the toll-house, are also remarka- 
ble springs, one of which boils up like a geyser, 
through a cone-like mound of cemented matter. 
Sulphur Springs, near Millerton, were pur- 
chased by a company incorporated in 1873. 
Tliey are situated about three-quarters of a mile 
from the old court-house. As the geology of 
the county is given in that of the valley, no 
definite features are to be mentioned here. 

FOSSILS AND PETEIF ACTIONS IN FEESNO COUNTY. 

The most interesting of fossil discoveries was 
the exhumation of the mammoth and of man — 
"proof positive of the existence of both at the 
same time," and that "both occupied this coun- 
try together with saurians, the remains of all 
three being found in the same gravel deposit 
and stratum." The above is quoted from a his- 
tory made of Fresno County in 1882. It. is 
somewhat surprising to the writer that the 
broad claim should be made "proof positive" 
by one who has seen the wonderful conforma- 
tion of California, and note the laws of nature 
as applied to other regions being here set aside. 
The strata are here more disturbed and thrown 
out of order than in any other country. The 
remains of the mastodon might have been 
thrown up from a burial place of centuries, and 



again submerged with that of man at a time 
when he, too, was destroyed by the mighty 
throes of Mother Nature. Finding the re- 
mains of mastodons, saurians and man in one 
common sepulcher proves nothing more than 
that they are there together; it does not even 
tend to prove they lived at the same period in 
the same locality. It is said that the first 
mastodon remains were found on the Fresno 
river, some distance above what is known as the 
adobe bottom. It measured twenty-two feet in 
length; the tusks were eleven feet, and curving 
upward; at the base they were five feet apart. 
The legs were short, but very heavy. The 
whole structure was complete, but with all the 
care and wisdom of the discoverers, they were 
unable to put the bones together so as to repro- 
duce the animal. The next specimen found 
was on Dry creek, but for want of care the dis- 
coverers did not preserve the remains. No 
tusks were found with these remains, which 
were said to be larger than the first named. A 
pair of tusks some seven feet long were found 
in Holland Hollow, but no other remains. In 
1858 some miners unearthed the remains of a 
huge mammoth, but no records were kept of 
them. 

As has already been stated in the geological 
summary of the valley, the Coast Range moun- 
tains contain numerous petrifactions. There 
was a wonderful " find " of a human petrifaction 
in Cantua canon near the Coast Range, in De- 
cember, 1890. S. L. Packwood and I. N. Bar- 
rett of Fresno City were working in said canon 
on December 12, where Packwood owned a tim- 
ber claim. They were seeking a suitable site 
to construct a dam to divert the waters of the 
canon upon a piece of land which was to be 
brought into cultivation, when Mr. Barrett dis- 
covered a human foot protruding from the bank 
of the stream. Both men viewed the object 
with amazement, and were the more surprised 
on feeling the foot and finding it to resemble 
stone. Their curiosity led them to unearth the 
remains, and soon they decided to take them to 
Fresno. The weight was about 500 pounds. 



70 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Arriving at Fresno, the petrifaction attracted 
all, and several of the medical profession made 
a thorough examination, and took measure- 
ments of the petrifaction and pronounced it 
genuine and not of a "Cardiff" nature. The 
general appearance of the body led to the con- 
clusion that he was a fine specimen of the Cas- 
tilian race. He measured six feet four and 
one-half inches in height, foot eleven and one-half 
inches in length, length of arm sixteen and one- 
half inches, and length of forearm, twelve 
inches, and length of legs thirty-six inches. 
This is the most wonderful petrifaction found 
in the county and preserved. 

There is so much to interest the average man 
in California aside from investigating nature's 
wonders that there is no doubt that wonderful 
petrifactions lie undisturbed in the foothills 
and the valleys bordering thereon. 

FOEEST GROWTH. 

Almost the entire western slope of the Sierras 
is covered with dense forests of lumber yielding 
timber. There is no timber of commercial value 
elsewhere in the county. 

Picea amabilis (red fir) grows in vast forests 
on the Sierras in this county, on all ridges 
and spurs from 6,000 to 10,000 feet altitude. 
It grows thickly upon the ground, has a fine 
clean body, and is a good timber tree, but is 
often attacked by dry-rot while standing. 

Picea grandis (white or balsam fir) is scat- 
tered far and wide throughout the forests. It 
is largely sold on the markets as mountain pine, 
and is used principally as dimension stuff and 
rough boards. 

Pinus Lambertiana (the sugar pine), next in 
value to the redwood as a timber tree, grows 
at an altitude of 4,000 to 7,000 feet, — rarely 
higher. It is one of the finest trees indigenous 
to Fresno County, sometimes growing to a 
diameter of twelve feet. It now furnishes the 
bulk of the finishing lumber used in this part 
of the State. 

Pinus ponderosa (yellow or pitch pine) forms 
a large percentage of the lumber used in the 



valley known among lumbermen as mountain 
pine. There are large forests of this tree, 
especially on the lower slopes of the mountains. 
It is used largely for floors. 

Sequoia gigantea (the "big trees" of Cali- 
fornia), also known as the Wellingtonia 
gigantea (among the British botanists) and 
Washingtonia gigantea (among the earlier 
American botanists, by way of opposition), 
have cones about two inches long, ovate, ter- 
minal, solitary, and with numerous prickled 
stipitate scales. The honor of the discovery 
of the great trees is in dispute, as is also the 
derivation of the name Sequoia. There is but 
one grove of these trees between the San Joa- 
quin and King's river, but on the south side of 
the latter stream is the largest grove of these 
trees in the world, and some of the largest trees 
are in Fresno County and included in a national 
park. 

The most extensive of the "big tree" groves 
in this county is the one in the Sequoia basin, 
about forty-two miles due east of the city of 
Fresno. Its area is far in excess of the Calaveras 
grove, being 3,600 acres, and the trees on it 
being larger than any found elsewhere. Mixed 
with the Sequoias is a plentiful growth of other 
trees, mostly yellow and sugar pine, also some 
cedar and fir. Six miles further east in the 
Boulder creek basin is another grove covering 
1,800 acres. 

South of the first-named grove is another, 
situated partly in this county and partly in Tu- 
lare County, and which was recently set aside by 
Congress as a national park, under the name " Gen- 
eral Grant Natioual Park," General Grant being 
the name of one of the largest Sequoias in the 
grove. The Fresno portion of the park embraces 
sections 31 and 32 of township 13 south, range 28 
east of Mt. Diablo meridian. In this grove is a 
portion of a fallen Sequoia ninety feet long and 
hollow. A man on horseback can ride through 
it nearly the full length without being in the 
least cramped. 

Some of the prostrate trees in the Boulder 
creek basin have been measured, the largest 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



71 



being 350 feet in length. The trees in this 
grove range from 250 to 325 feet in height. 
The average diameter is from sixteen to twenty 
feet, while many measure from twenty-four to 
twenty-six feet. 

The Sequoia basin grove contains still larger 
trees, specimens twenty-seven feet in diameter 
being frequently encountered. Both this and 
the previously mentioned grove are owned by a 
lumbering firm, which has a sawmill in oper- 
ation on the ground. There is enough timber 
on their property to keep the mill running 
steadily for fifty years at its present capacity, 
which is very large. 

The Sequoia yields from 10,000 to 100,000 
feet of lumber. The average yield of a Sequoia 
is about 20,000 feet. 

Libocedrus decnrrens (California white cedar) 
is scattered throughout the forests, and is 
largely used as fence posts. The trees grow 
very large, reaching a height of 200 feet, 
and is an excellent timber for under-ground 
use. 

The Digger or bull pine (Pinus Coulteri) 
grows only on the lower hills and flats. It is a 
scraggy, worthless tree, and is fit for nothing 
except kindling or light fire-wood. Its cones 
are very large, and contain great quantities of 
nuts, which in times past the Indians relished 
very much; hence the name "Digger pine." 
There is a great amount of pitch in the cones, 
and the Indians would build a fire and hold 
them over it until the pitch melted and thus 
released the nuts. These cones are now the de- 
light of camping parties in the mountains, and 
many pleasant hours are spent in the early 
night around the cheerful and high blazing fire 
which they are famous for making. 

Pinus monticola (mountain pine) grows up 
on the higher ridges, and is as yet beyond the 
reach of lumbermen. It is a sugar pine and 
grows very tall and erect. 

Black pine, or tamarack (Pinus Jeffreyi) grows 
around the mountain meadows from 5,000 
to 10,000 feet altitude, and is very durable 
when kept off the ground. It is very pitchy, 



and grows in dense forests. It is very resinous, 
producing a fine chewing gum. 

The valley portiou of the county is almost 
treeless except along the streams, but water 
and cultivation soon changes all this. In a re- 
markably short time fine groves of poplar and 
eucalyptus are grown when water is applied. 

The oak growths extend far up on the foot- 
hills on the side of the valley, and at an eleva- 
tion 2,500 feet the great forest belts are met. 
For size and density of growth these forests 
compare favorably with those of other sections 
of the world. Here, as previously stated, are 
vast growths of pine, cedar, spruce, Sequoia 
and fir. These vast pineries constitute the 
lumber supply of the whole country. Sawmills 
have been built and immense flumes have been 
constructed, by which the lumber is cheaply 
and rapidly transported to the valley. These 
sources of lumber supply are practically in- 
exhaustible. 

GBAND SCENEKY. 

This county contains as grand scenery as is 
in the State, if not in the world, yet rarely 
visited. Its valleys exceed those of Yo Semite, 
and its water-falls are taller than any others. 
On Mount Whitney, the greatest elevation in 
the United States (15,000 feet), one may look 
down into the lowest land, Death valley, in 
Inyo, whose dry and desolate bottom is 380 feet 
below sea level. 

Speaking of the numerous valleys and canons 
in eastern Fresno, Professor Whitney says: 
"One of these rivals and even surpasses To 
Semite in the altitude of its surrounding cliffs. 
The walls rise at various points from 3,500 to 
6,000 feet above the base. At the head of the 
valley, occnpying a position similar to Half 
Dome in To Semite, is a wall nearly vertical, 
between 6,500 and 7,000 feet high." 

In these valleys are the highest water-falls, 
and grand, sublime scenery in greater abundance 
than can be found elsewhere. Here are natural 
bridges and caves, extinct volcanoes to be ex- 
plored, and living glaciers to be examined. The 
"big trees" of this section surpass those of any 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



other locality, not only in size, but in numbers. 
Nestled here and there in the mountains are 
lakes of clear, cold water, like settings of dia- 
monds in the rock-ribbed mountains. No part 
of the Sierras combines so great a variety of 
grand and instructive features as does this 
region, with its towering peaks, perennial snows, 
ancient fossils, and other exhaustless stores of 
study. 

Starting from Fresno, one day's travel will 
bring yon to the foot-hills covered with oaks of 
mammoth size. They gently rise from the 
heretofore unbroken level of the valley. Hill 
after hill is passed, higher and higher ascent is 
made toward the snow-covered peaks above. 
Here the path changes; the smooth, hard- 
packed loam is changed to broken rocks and 
slate, and huge boulders rise up on nil sides. 
The oak is superseded by towering pine, and 
deep, awe-inspiring canons and gulches cross 
the path. At the foot of the high mountain is 
the little village of Toll House, thirty-two 
miles from Fresno. This is within a circle of 
lofty mountains. Two miles north is a canon 
through which passes Dry creek in a series of 
cascades of 1,000 feet. From Toll House yon 
begin to ascend the steep grade leading to the 
sawmills of Donahoo and others, until you 
reach Dinkey, sixty-one miles from Fresno. 
From this point it is five miles to the big trees, 
and twenty-five miles to the beautiful Tehipitee 
valley by horseback. From here you go to the 
grand Paradise valley or King's river canon, or 
to Redwood canon, six miles distant, or on into 
the unexplored regions of the Sierra. 

Mount Whitney and other grand mountains 
are about thirty-five miles distant. Dinkey is 
the place where horseback travel begins. Wash- 
ington grove is located six miles from Dinkey, 
on a small creek that empties into Dinkey creek. 
The place is very wild. Professor Whitney, 
State Geologist, speaking of this grove, says: 
"The largest tree seen was 106 feet in circum- 
ference, and 270 feet high. It had been burned 
on one side, and must have been originally from 
125 to 130 feet in circumference. Another tree 



is prostrate and hollow. It is burned out so 
that one can ride in on horseback for a distance 
of seventy-five feet, and have room to turn 
around. At 120 feet from the base the tree is 
thirteen feet in diameter inside the bark. There 
is an immense number of big trees in the vicin- 
ity." Mr. Frank Dusy took accurate measure- 
ment of these trees. The largest measured 122£ 
feet in circumference, and is estimated at 400 
feet high. Not far distant is one that lias fallen 
and been hollowed by decay and lire. Three 
mounted men, followed by a heavily-laden 
Sumpter mule, who insisted on sharing their 
fate, rode in single file, sitting erect and carry- 
ing their nuns with the muzzles raised three 
feet above their heads, into the unbroken, black- 
ened tube for seventy-two feet, and contemplated 
at leisure the beauties of the situation by the 
light from a knot-hole the size of a barn-door, 
and without dismounting or changing position, 
wheeled their animals with perfect ease, and 
rode out, returning the same way they came in. 

TEHIPITKE VALLEY. 

This beautiful valley is little known even by 
Fresno people. Mr. Frank Dusy said to the 
writer that it required much strength, nerve 
and power of endurance to make the trip into 
this valley. It is situated in the middle fork 
of King's river, and must not be confounded 
with the so-called King's river canon (Paradise 
valley), on the middle fork of the same river. 
Our information is derived from Mr. Frank 
Dusy, who in company with Mr. Ferguson de- 
scended into this valley witli great difficulty, 
occupying some four hours in getting down, 
and seven hours in returning. On reaching the 
bottom it seems as if you had left the surface 
of the earth aud entered a mere crevice in its 
foundations, a fissure in the great, everlasting 
rocks. The towering peaks and overhanging 
rocks seem marching down upon you, pressing 
and crowding until it seems a struggle to 
breathe. The forms of the various summits 
are varied and majestic, and vary in height from 
4,000 to 6,000 feet. This grand and remark- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



73 



able valley is about three miles long, and aver- 
ages about one mile in width. Yon creep to 
the edge of the chasm and peep down more than 
6,000 feet — more than a vertical mile — into that 
awful canon. The green silver ribbon which 
stretches along the bottom is a river full 100 
feet wide. The roar of the cataract at your left 
serves to give inspiration to the scene. You do 
not even now realize the immense depth of the 
canon nor the precipitous condition of its sides. 
The distance down from the top or rim of the 
valley is about 6,000 feet, and the valley runs 
nearly east and west. The valley closes up at 
the outlet of the river into a narrow canon. 
Mr. Dusy entered the valley at the lower or 
west end, and went down it some three miles, 
until he entered another small valley of some 
sixty acres covered with oak timber, and a per- 
fect little gem of a place. 

From here a trip is taken to the Silver Spray 
Falls, along up a branch stream. One cannot 
express his feelings at the sight of this truly 
grand view. The falls descend in three sections. 
The first fall is 500 feet, the second 600, and 
the third 800 feet. The water of *he latter is 
separated into misty spray before reaching the 
bottom, which adds much to its beauty; hence 
its name — Silver Spray. 

The valley narrows down at the upper end 
into a cafion whose walls are perpendicular, 
2,500 or 3,000 feet high, and its width only 200 
feet, including the river. Beautiful and re- 
markable falls exist in the upper valley. The 
river divides into two streams, which approach 
within fifty feet of each other, and each then 
falls 200 feet; the falls in descending approach 
and nearly touch each other, and both fall into 
one basin about 100 feet in diameter; then the 
united waters, after whirling around the basin, 
drop 400 feet. The stream continues on, and 
then a remarkable sight is seen, The water falls 
180 feet into a small basin, which has an opening 
or chimney, which carries the spray upward and 
above the falls in a cloud which is seen for along 
way. From above you see only the vast column 
of spray rising out of this chimney or hole. 

5 



Of the terrible grandeur of this valley it is 
hardly possible to convey any idea. In the val- 
ley are many grand cliffs, water-falls and curious 
things that have as yet not been examined or 
named. It opens a wide Held for those who 
love to explore and examine new scenes. 

Tehipitee Dome is formed of solid granite, 
and rises to an elevation of fully 6,000 feet 
above the valley. Its sides are perpendicular 
to within about 1,000 feet of the top, when the 
gradual oval begins, which forms a perfect dome 
in shape. Its name, Tehipitee, is given by the 
Indians, and means '-high rock." This dome 
and Silver Spray Falls are near the center of 
the valley, and within one-quarter of a mile of 
each other. 

PARADISE VALLEY. 

From Tehipitee you can go south to Paradise 
valley, or King's river canon, as it was first 
called. Professor Whitney, who visited this 
valley and attempted to go north toward Te- 
hipitee (then unknownj, reported an "impass- 
able barrier." But this is found not to be so, 
and a good trail passes over the ridge or moun- 
tain, which is 13,000 feet high. "This valley," 
says Professor Whitney, "is from half a mile to 
a mile wide, and eleven miles long. It is closed 
at the lower end by a deep and impassable 
canon. It is deeper and its sides more pre- 
cipitous than Yo Semite. Many points are 
from 4,000 to 6,000 feet high. At the head of 
the valley is a solid rock wall, a perpendicular 
precipice of from 6,500 to 7,000 feet high." It 
rivals and in many respects even surpasses Yo 
Semite in altitude of surrounding cliffs. This 
valley or canon is on that branch of King's 
river formerly called by Whitney and others the 
south fork, but which, by later and more thor- 
ough exploration, proves to be the middle fork, 
of that stream. 

Two hours and a half constantly descending 
will bring you to the bottom of this famous 
cafion. Flowing at your feet is a branch of 
King's river, fresh, pure and cold from its 
snowy fountain. About half a mile wide and 
fifteen miles long, this canon or valley is 



74 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL GALIFOBNIA. 



walled in by rocky mountains, rising perpen- 
dicularly 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the river 
bed. Clarence King says: " We could not find 
words to describe the terribleness and grandeur 
of the deep canon. The average descent is im- 
mensely steep. At times the two walls ap- 
proach each other, standing in perpendicular 
gateways. The ridges of one side are repro- 
duced upon the other." Bierstadt made a 
painting of what he termed '"King's River 
Canon." It was reported sold in England for 
$50,000. 

Muir Dome is a beautifully grand granite 
formation overhanging this valley. 

'• Grand Sentinel" will always be the pride 
and boast of Paradise valley, and well deserves 
all the eulogiums that human praise can utter in 
its behalf. In color it is the same as the North 
Dome, its far-away relative. Its wall in front 
of its crowning dome-ridge stands out a great 
buttress fully 3,000 feet high. Mount Huteh- 
inos is a beautiful granite peak on the south 
wall of the canon, about one mile from the 
Grand Sentinel, and is the most beautiful foi ill- 
ation in the whole canon. Its height is esti- 
mated at 5,500 feet above the valley. The 
silver chains or falls of Mount Hutchings must 
be between 3.000 and 4.000 feet long. 

The "White Woman" is a granite mass some 
6,000 feet high, and foims the wedge or divid- 
ing point between the main south fork of King's 
river and Bubb's creek. It presents a front 
of some three miles in length, and of adazzling 
gray-blue white cast in the sunlight, and is un- 
marred by any great fracture, consequently pre- 
senting what is a comparatively smooth wall 
to the spectator. It is of marvelous majesty. 
There is scarcely a bush or tree upon its face 
wall. 

"Grant Monument," so named by the Tyler- 
Robinson party, is a columnar or chimney- 
shaped mass of granite, some 3,000 feet high, 
nearly at the point where King's river changes 
its course from an east and west direction, and 
runs off directly north. It is the most peculiar 
and abrupt granite formation to be seen stand- 



ing alone, advanced from the the main wall 
some one-fourth of a mile, and rising above its 
general level. It is a very conspicuous object 
and is a complete monumental pile. This mag- 
nificent monolith is something like one-third of 
a mile broad at its base, having a flat top con- 
taining three or more acres, and is a bold and 
striking formation. 

Just beyond Grant Monument is a complete 
counterpart of Yo Semite's Glacier Point 
(3,500 feet). This point, which is nameless, is 
considered about the loftiest in the canon, esti- 
mated at over 6,000 feet. It is certainly a 
most stupendous wall. 

WILD ANIMALS. 

The number of wild animals that roamed on 
the plains, the foothills and mountains of 
Fresno County, and before civilization en- 
croached upon them, was very great, among 
which the grizzly bear was monarch of all. 
Elks in great herds were to be found in the 
valleys, foothills and mountains, but were the 
first to abandon this section upon the approach 
of civilized man, who slaughtered them as 
much for sport as for use. There is now abun- 
dance of quail, wild geese, ducks and other 
game, and at certain seasons are a great nuis- 
ance to farmers. "Wild cattle in large herds 
roamed the plains in early days and were 
slaughtered for their hides and tallow. Ante- 
lopes were more numerous than other animals 
on the plains in early days. They furnished 
meat for settlers, travelers, teamsters, etc. ; were 
more easily approached and killed than deer; 
the meat was more like that of the goat than of 
the deer, and their young were easily domesti- 
cated. They have long since disappeared from 
the plains. Deer were numerous along the 
foothills and among the timber on the moun- 
tains, and even yet are to be found in the 
mountain regions. 

The coyotes were very numerous and de- 
structive to sheep in early days. This made an 
enemy for him in every man; consequently 
every man's hand was against him, and has com- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



75 



paratively exterminated him from the valley. 
A few are still to be found roaming in the foot- 
hills. 

The common ground-squirrel here is darker 
than the Eastern gray squirrel, and are numer- 
ous and destructive to grain crops. They bur- 
row in the ground, and are difficult to kill, 
being so quick of motion, and when shot they 
generally manage to get to their holes. Some 
have been known to get into their holes after 

o 

being shot through the bead several feet away. 
They can climb a tree with an agility equal to 
other squirrels. They are not much eaten by 
the. whites. The most beautiful of gray squir- 
rels are to be found in the pine forests on the 
mountains. The gopher is the most numerous, 
as also the most troublesome, rodent in the State, 
living principally under ground and gnaw- 
ing roots of fruit trees and garden vegetables. 

The prairie hare inhabits the plateau of the 
Sierra Nevada and the San Joaquin valley. It 
is all white in winter, but yellowish-gray with 
brownish tinges above and white below in 
summer. 

Panthers and wild-cats are still found in the 
mountains. 

The mountain sheep is a rare specimen. 
Shy and hard to kill. Sometimes they are 
found on the Sierras, north from Tejon pass to 
the Oregon line, about five feet in length and 
sometimes 300 pounds in weight; color, white 
beneath, grayish brown elsewhere. The horns 
of the ram are sometimes five inches through 
at the base! Mountaineers assert that these rams 
leap from precipices 50 and even 100 feet, 
alighting on their head and bounding ten feet 
into the air from the concussion of the fall, and 
then alighting on their feet without any per- 
ceptible injury ! This, however, seems incredible 
when we take into consideration the weight of 
the animal, and still it is no more improbable 
than are many things in this State which are 
known hy all to be facts. 

The grizzly bear and California lion, once 
unpleasantly plentiful in the mountains, are 
very rare now. 



The jack-rabbit, before mentioned, deserves 
more than a passing notice, as he has been one 
of man's most formidable competitors in the 
valley. Like the Indian, once numerous, he is 
fast ditappearing before the unrelenting, de- 
stroying hand of man. Seeing that his end is 
near, it will be of interest to future generations 
to know something of this animal, — the num- 
bers once in the valley and the method resorted 
to to keep them reduced in numbers to save 
crops from entire destruction. 

It is claimed that the "rabbit drive" is some- 
thing that never occurred anywhere except in 
the San Joaquin valley. The stranger must 
bear in mind that the country where this occurs 
is one vast field or prairie, without trees or 
many fences or obstructions. We copy from 
the Fresno Expositor an account of a drive a 
few years since, and will mention one partici- 
pated in by the writer in Tulare County in 
1891, showing the decrease in rabbits since the 
drive was inaugurated. 

'■ At ten o'clock a line of men on foot, number- 
ing 400, including men and boys, each armed 
with a stick from three to four feet in length, 
started for the drive, and while some appeared 
to have gone into the thing for sport, a major- 
ity of the 'round-up' had fire in their eyes, 
and evidently had severe grievances to redress. 
Said a tender-hearted lady, 'I think it's just 
awfully cruel to kill rabbits as they do at these 
drives.' 'That woman,' said a wild-eyed 
driver, 'must be a 'tender-foot.' She doesn't 
know much about the California jack-rabbit, or 
she wouldn't talk nonsense like that or waste a 
particle of sentimental sympathy on one of the 
worst nuisances in the valleys of California.' 

"Just before the starting of the drive the band 
played a quickstep. Abreast of the line of 
drivers was a long line of vehicles, numbering 
at least 200, these of course following the road. 
With a whoop, up the driving line moved, and 
at once the rabbits ran ahead westward. The 
obstinate ones, and there were a plenty of them, 
would turn, make a break to go back, and in 
most cases they were successful, but never with- 



Hit TORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



out having sticks hurled at them. Probably 
1,000 rabbits got through the lines, some with 
damaged bodies or legs, while several hundred 
were killed on the drive. The drive covered 
a distance of a little over three miles, and was 
virtually ended at noon. As the column ad- 
vanced, the number of rabbits increased, and 
before the corral was reached nothing could be 
seen ahead of the drivers but rabbits, some 
running close to the ground, others leaping 
high in the air, while others jostled . against 
each other in the most unceremonious manner. 
"It will be in order to describe the corral and 
its appurtenances or belongings. Approaching 
from the east ran two wings, each a half mile 
in length, three feet in height, with wire screens 
reaching from the ground to the top of the 
posts to which they were attached. At the en- 
trance was an opening of four feet, a gate, and 
this led to a chute reaching thirty feet into the 
enclosure. The corral, surrounded by a wire- 
screen fence seven feet high, was about sixty 
feet in diameter. The excitement increased as 
the rabbits were driven between the wings, and 
as they passed through the gate such screaming 
and yelling were never heard before; but it was 
the soft murmur of a summer zephyr compared 
with what followed when the gate was closed 
and the killers got to work. Sticks were Hying 
in the air, hi-yis pierced the ears of spectators 
and participants, men and boys ran over each 
other in their eagerness to hurry up the slaugh- 
tering work, and many a luckless one got a rap 
intended for a rabbit. The rabbit generally got 
his quietus in one blow on the head, but some- 
times Jack required several sound whacks be- 
fore being disposed of. The animals huddled 
near the sides of the corral, making noises like 
the cry of a child. Hundreds of them com- 
mitted self-slaughter by rushing against the 
wire fence and knocking out their brains. 
Others forced their heads under the fence, but 
the always vigilant and sometimes useful boy 
was on hand, armed with his stout willow stick, 
and the rabbit's chance for further mischief in 
foraging was summarily abbreviated. 



"The killing was completed in less than half 
an hour, and when the smoke of battle hud 
cleared away, or rather when the atmosphere 
became clear of flying fur, the work of counting 
was commenced. The entrance to the corral 
was covered with dead rabbits to the depth of 
about two feet. About 4,500 rabbit carcasses 
were counted in and about the corral, and it 
was estimated that 500 (a rather low estimate, 
by the way) had been killed outside and during 
the two hours' drive. At least 1,500 people 
were present, principally residents of the sec- 
tion. A few of the rabbits were taken away for 
hog and chicken feed, but most of them were 
left in the corral!" 

The birds of this valley, although numerous, 
are not so strikingly beautiful in colors, neither 
are there as many good songsters as are found 
in some other regions of North America, though 
there are occasionally found some good singers. 
The California vulture, sometimes improperly 
called "California condor," is the largest bird 
on the continent, and, next to the condor, the 
largest flying bird in the world. It inhabits all 
parts of the State, though not abundant in any 
place. It is as prominent and peculiar a feature 
of the birds of California as the grizzly bear is 
among the quadrupeds. It is wry shy, ami is 
rarely killed. The total length of the California 
vulture is about four feet, and its width from 
tip to tip of the outstretched wings ten feet or 
more. Its color is brownish black, with a white 
stripe across the wings. The head and neck 
are bare. They are occasionally seen in the 
Sierras. The golden eagle inhabits California. 
Its length is from thirty to forty inches: its 
color on the head and neck is yellowish brown, 
white at the base of the tail, and brown varying 
to purplish brown and black elsewhere. The 
bald eagle was abundant in California ten years 
ago, and is still seen along the San Joaquin and 
King's rivers. It frequents rapids for the pur- 
pose of catching fish, which seems to furnish 
the larger part of its food. It is from thirty to 
forty inches long, white on the head and at the 
base of the tail, and brownish black on the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



77 



breast, wings and back. It constructs its nest 
on some inaccessible crag of the mountains. 

Tarantulas are common on the plains and in 
the foot-hills. They belong to the same genus 
as the spiders, but the body grows to be three 
inches long and an inch wide, and the entire 
length from end to end of outstretched legs is 
five inches. The body and legs are covered 
with a silky brown hair. They eat little insects 
of various kinds, but unlike most other spiders 
have no net or web. The tarantula lives in 
holes in the ground, not much larger than 
itself when pressed into the smallest compass, 
and the hole is covered by a little door on a 
hinge, which closes by its own weight or by a 
spring. In the top of the door are several little 
holes, into which the tarantula can insert its 
claws when it wishes to euter; and so quick are 
its motions when terrified that it often disap- 
pears suddenly under the eyes of men pursuing 
it, and they have great difficulty in finding its 
hiding-place. The door fits tightly, and is 
larger on tbe outside, so that it never sticks 
fast. The bite of the tarantula is poisonous, 
but not fatal, — or at least has never, so far as 
known, only in one case, proved fatal. It rarely 
bites man, and flees when it discovers his ap- 
proach. The tarantulas have dangerous ene- 
mies in several species of wasps, the females of 
which kill them by thrusting eggs into their 
bodies. When the larvae of the wasp are 
hatched they make food of tbe carcass. As 
soon as the tarantula dies the wasp drags it to 
her hole, usually the deserted burrow of a 
spermophile, where she may collect twenty or 
more dead tarantulas in one season. There are 
three different species of these wasps: one kind 
is blue, another yellow. Sometimes the wasp 
darts down repeatedly upon the tarantula, and 
does not touch him except with her egg-planter, 
depositing an egg at every thrust. On other 
occasions the two grapple, and the wasp con- 
tinues to insert her eggs until the tarantula 
dies. 

Snakes are not numerous, remarkable or larcre, 
and only one species is poisonous, viz., the rat- 



tlesnake, of which there are two kinds, long 
striped, and brown. There are also the pilot, 
green, purple, small garter, milk and water 
snakes. 

The scorpion is found in some portions of 
the county, but are scarce. There are four 
species of lizards, horned toads, common toads, 
frogs, etc. 

SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS OF FRESNO COUNTY. 

This great valley has all sorts of soil. The 
same is true of this county. The valley portion 
of the county is about sixty miles square. Al- 
though seemingly a level plain, there are more 
or less slight undnlations. The bluffs of the San 
Joaquin, ten or twelve miles distant, are from 
forty to fifty feet higher than the level of Fresno 
city. Abundance of good water underlies the 
plain, which can readily be had by sinking 
wells, and where years ago one had to sink a 
well to the depth of from fifty to sixty feet; now 
it requires on an average not more than ten feet 
to get an abundance of water. Since irrigation 
has been in operation the water is fast approach- 
ing the surface, having in places approached as 
near as four feet, which is satisfactory evidence 
that in the future less water will be required to 
irrigate lands first reacbed, and that the surplus 
can be carried on to new fields, thus tending to 
establishing our claim, that there is an ample 
supply of water in the mountains if judiciously 
used and properly distributed, to irrigate all the 
valley lands and for all other purposes. 

Soils in California, like the climate, vary and 
change frequently in a few miles. As a rule 
the nearer the hills the harder tbe land; but 
there are exceptions. "Hog- wallow" land is 
generally solid, sometimes gravelly, and this 
quality of land is most prevalent near the foot- 
bills. North of the San Joaquin the hills and 
border lands are of granite formation. " Hog- 
wallow " lands extend as far out on the plains 
as the railroad in some places. Between the 
railroad and San Joaquin river are large bodies 
of level, solid and rich lands. Along the foot- 
hills from the San Joaquin river south are 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 



several miles of red-clay land, mixed with white 
quartz, very much like the Malaga grape lands 
of Spain. Some of this soil extends as far down 
on the plains as Fresno. In the vicinity of 
Borden much of the laud is what is known as 
ashy land, very rich and especially adapted to 
irrigation. 

Mining characterized the first industrial 
period of the county, which predominated until 
in the '60s, when the stock business began to 
lead, and nourished until about 1874; then the 
"no-fence law" gave agriculture a chance. 
The farming period may be said to have 
assumed momentum as early as 1868, and it 
rapidly grew into enormous proportions in the 
line of wheat and other cereal products. This 
continued to increase until about 1880, when 
viticulture began to flourish, since which time 
thousands of acres once devoted to cereals have 
been transformed into vineyards, and the profits 
have been from ten to twenty fold per acre. 
The inauguration of this period may be said to 
be the birth of the prosperity of Fresno County 
and city. 

The first threshing-machine operated on Dry 
creek was in 1870, by Messrs. Hewlett, Jack 
and Wyatt. The foot-hills of the Sierras are 
full of small valleys, all on the same level as 
the broad surrounding plain, and specially 
adapted to growing grain in the past, but later 
have developed special fruit-growing advantages. 
Between Fresno and Tulare, on either side of 
the valley, there are comparatively no foot-hills. 
The mountains rise in abrupt granite walls. 
The land can be cultivated up to the base of 
these precipitous walls. The soil is black and 
very fertile, and thousands of tons of grain 
have been grown in this region, and it is 
equally good for all other vegetable produc- 
tions. 

The heading- machine was a great improve- 
ment over the first threshing-machine, beincr 
worked by the team pushing instead of pulling 
it, the driver lowering or raising the sickle-bar 
as the height of grain may vary, in order to 
save all the heads. The heads are dropped on 



a traveling gangway which is attached to the 
machine, and elevated into the side of a wagon 
which is carefully driven alongside the header, 
the side of the bed next the header being lower. 
When rilled, another wagon takes its place and 
the header moves on, while the loaded wagon 
goes to the threshing-machine, where it is un- 
loaded on a platform and crowded into the 
thresher, which will clean hundreds of bushels 
daily. This machine has been superseded in 
many localities by the most wonderful as well 
as economical piece of agricultural machinery 
in the world, namely, the combined harvesting 
machine, which, when drawn by a team of 
twenty-four good horses, attended by four to 
five hands, will cut, thresh and sack the grain 
on thirty to thirty-five acres a day, yielding 
from twenty to thirty bushels per acre. 

The most valuable native forage plant in this 
county is the alfilaria, familiarly known as 
"tilaree," of which there are three species: 
Erodium macrophyllum, E. cicntarium and the 
E. moschatum, of the Geranium or cranebill 
family of plants. The second named is the 
most plentiful, and covers the earth with a 
rank growth in springtime. Eutrichiums bloom 
in early winter, commonly known as " white- 
blossom." There are as many as four species, 
and second only to the filarees as forage. The 
county ranks high in exotic feed plants: The 
•' Ilirschhorn," a millet from the Danube; sor- 
ghum, from the Caspian shores; Drerae, from 
Egypt and China; Penicillarea, a large millet 
from India; Imphees, from Southern Africa; 
and the greatest of all named, alfalfa or lucerne 
(Medicago sativa), brought through Spain and 
the Spanish possessions to America, whence we 
get the Spanish name "alfalfa." This pro- 
duces from four to six crops in one season, 
according to location, soil, irrigation, etc. 
Corn, wheat, barley, wild oats, etc., as well as 
all cereals, grow to perfection. In fact every- 
thing seemingly will grow here and flourish be- 
yond the imagination of one who has not seen 
the luxuriant growths. One pumpkin- vine lias 
been known to produce 2,300 pounds of pump- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



79 



kins. Grape- vines have grown twenty feet and 
more in length in one season. 

IEKIGATION. 

There are now sixteen irrigation companies, 
each having its own canals, taking water from 
the King's river, San Joaquin and Fresno river. 
These sixteen companies have 750 miles of main 
canals or ditches, with about the same number 
of miles of distributors and laterals. 

There are twelve dams, sixteen main head- 
gates, one weir and no wing dams. Dis- 
tributing dams are situated probably every mile 
in the length of the canals. 

These sixteen systems have cost in the neigh- 
borhood of $1,900,000 to build, and they serve 
about 350,000 acres of land. 

Of this about 300,000 acres are planted in 
cereals, and yield a profit of $10 per acre. 

JN T ot less than 3,000 acres are in fruits, and 
yield at least $100 per acre. These fruits com- 
prise oranges, peaches, pears, apples, nectarines, 
apricots, plums, cherries, pomegranates, figs, 
olives, mulberries, etc. 

Thirty thousand acres are in grape-vines, 
one-half of which are in bearing and yield $100 
per acre, while 20,000 acres are planted in 
alfalfa, yielding $40 per acre. 

The San Joaquin and King's River Canal 
was the first, for irrigation of any considerable 
magnitude, constructed in California, in which 
capital was invested as a speculation. This 
canal takes its water through the left bank of 
the San Joaquin river at the junction of that 
stream with Fresno slough (the overflow outlet 
of Tulare lake), and passes through the west 
side valley for a distance of sixty-seven miles. 
It was constructed thirty eight and a half miles 
in 1871, and extended to its present terminus 
in 1877-'78. The total cost of construction, 
including changes, repairs, improvements, alter- 
ations, etc., is given as $1,300,000, of which 
$150,000 was used in constructing the exten- 
sion from Los Banos creek to its terminus. 
This canal has a grade of one foot per mile, and 
commands an area of about 283,000 acres. Its 



capacity upon the upper portion of its course is 
about 600 cubic feet per second. During the 
year 1871 the area irrigated by this canal was 
40,000 acres, the majority of which was de- 
voted to cereals. Dos Piano and Temple Slough 
canals were opened by Miller & Lux, and drew 
water from the San Joaquin river on the west 
side. These channels were originally natural 
sloughs breaking out from the river and travers- 
ing the Rancho Sanjon de Santa Rita parallel 
with the river, and were deepened and improved 
for the purpose of affording water for the irri- 
gation of wild grass lands on the rancho. 

The Chowchilla Canal was also constructed 
by the same firm in 1872. This canal starts 
from the right bank of the San Joaquin river, 
two miles above the mouth of Fresno slough 
and the head of San Joaquin and King's River 
Canal, and follows a northwesterly course for 
thirty miles. This canal runs nearly parallel 
with the river, and from five to eighteen miles 
from it, and terminates at the Chowchilla 
slough on Chowchilla rancho. The Chowchilla 
river enters upon the east side of the valley, be- 
tween the Merced and Fresno rivers. It drains 
only the lower mountains and foothills, and 
consequently has but an intermittent supply. 
The San Joaquin river on the south and the 
Merced on the north head behind the drainage 
basin of the smaller streams, and secure the 
snow waters of the higher ranges of mountains. 

The San Joaquin river has its source in the 
Sierra Nevada mountains, in a cafion, and flows 
into the valley within a bed much depressed be- 
low the rolling lands by which it is flanked. It 
differs in this respect from King's and other 
rivers south of it, and in fact is more depressed 
than those north of it, — consequently more 
difficult to draw water from to irrigate the high 
plains depending upon this stream for water. 
For sixteen to eighteen miles below its canon 
proper the waters of this river are from seventy- 
five to 200 feet below the level of the rolling 
lands which border it, and bluffs standing nearly 
perpendicular at points along its course guard 
the approaches. This large volume of water 



80 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



will lie utilized, however, by the ingenuity of 
man, and made to irrigate thousands of acres. 

King's river, when its size is considered, its 
position, and the area of country within the 
limits of perpetual snow which it drains, as 
well as that on the plains which it is capable of 
supplying witli water for irrigation, together 
with the fact that it is not navigable nor a 
tributary to any streams that are, may justly be 
regarded as one of the most important and 
valuable rivers in the State. It is certainly 
such to Fresno and Tulare counties. It has a 
drainage area of 1,855 square miles in the 
Sierra Nevada mountains acd foothills, and 
enters the Centerville bottoms, nearly half of 
which is within the snow belt. It flows in a 
southwesterly direction from the mountains to 
Tulare lake, with but few abrupt turns in its 
ineanderings. From the foothills to the lake, a 
distance of sixty-two miles, it has not a peren- 
nial tributary. The only stream of any note 
winch empties into it is Watska creek, on the 
left, near and above Smith's ferry. 

King's river, like all large streams heading 
high up in the Sierra mountains, has two high- 
water periods each year. The first usually 
occurs in December, after the rains have set in, 
continues through January, and is known as 
the winter rise, and is caused principally by the 
rains. The second begins about the last of 
April or first of May, after the rains are over, 
and continues through June and part of July. 
This is produced by the melting snow, and is of 
longer duration than the winter rise. After the 
spring rise the river gradually falls to the low 
water stage, which it maintains until the winter 
rise sets in. 

The time when most water is needed for irri- 
gation purposes is fortunately during the high- 
water periods, when the river is capable of sup- 
plying more than a sufficiency to supply all de- 
mands; and it has already been demonstrated 
that after a few years' irrigation but very little 
water is required, as the earth becomes saturated 
with water from the canals. It is estimated 
that this river pours into the valley, from the 



first of January to the last of July, an average 
of 8,715 cubic feet of water per second, or 
enough to irrigate more than 1,000,000 acres. 

C. D. Davidson when County Surveyor said, 
as to the matter of water supply, Fresno is ahead 
of any other county in the State. Not only is 
the supply ample for all purposes, but it is so 
situated that at a nominal cost it can be led any- 
where over the plains. The deepest cut on 
King's river, where the main water supply is 
obtained, is not over twelve feet, and some of 
these tap the river at that depth at its bottom. 
At flood time during the month of April. May. 
June and for a part of July, King's river dis- 
charges not less than 11,000 cubic inches of 
water per second. This river alone at an esti- 
mate of one cubic foot per second for each 200 
acres of land, would irrigate 2,000.000 acres or 
nearly five times the amount of land Susceptible 
of irrigation in the county. According to an 
estimate of the Fresno Canal and Irrigation 
Company, of one cubic foot per second for 100 
acres of land, it would irrigate more than three 
times the irrigable land in the county. King's 
river and San Joaquin will furnish an ample 
water supply for this great valley, while nature 
maintains her bounteous storehouse in the 
Sierra mountains, and man spares the forests 
thereon which hold back the melting snows, 
and distribute them gradually so as to maintain 
a steady flow in the streams through the valley 
during the summer season; and ere long all that 
will be required will be a steady flow through 
the main canals, which will keep up the sub- 
irrigation, and little surface application will be 
required. The capacity of King's river has 
been stated from two authors to show the va- 
riance of the two. The first is a low estimate, 
as is also the latter somewhat high; either, how- 
ever, gives an ample supply. 

There had been no water diverted from King's 
river for irrigating purposes previous to 1866. 
In the summer of that year Anderson Akersand 
S. S. Hyde constructed a ditch four feet wide 
and two feet deep, through which they diverted 
water from King's river, at a point im mediately 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



81 



below the line of Wm. Hazelton's farm, and on 
the plains on the west bank of the river to their 
farms, and continued to use water through it 
until the summer of 1868, when they sold their 
ditch and water right to the Oenterville Canal 
and Irrigation Company. This company en- 
larged the ditch to a width of twenty feet with 
a depth of four feet, and ran a considerable 
stream of water to and about Centerville. where 
they furnished water to many farms. 

M. J. Church came to Fresno County in 1868, 
and to him the county owes as much of its 
present prosperity as to any one individual 
citizen. With much more than average fore- 
sight, he at once " took in the true situation," 
viz.: that water was the prime factor in develop- 
ing the vast resources of the county, and he at 
once purchased stock in the Centerville Canal. 

August 5, 1869, J. B. Swum recorded notice 
of diverting water from King's river, just be- 
low that of the Centerville Canal. His was for 
mill and irrigation purposes. July 7, 1870, 
M. J. Church, seeing that a much larger volume 
of water was required, recorded his intention of 
appropriating 3,000 feet of water. He pur- 
chased the entire stock of the Centerville Canal 
and Irrigation Company, and at once set about 
improving the canal and directing all the water 
he could down on the plains toward Fresno, and 
soon succeeded in getting the water a distance 
of twenty-five miles into the heart of the agri- 
cultural lands of the valley, and practically 
demonstrated his confident predictions as to the 
wonderful results to be derived from irri- 
gation. 

Stock- raisers, seeing that the introduction of 
water would be followed speedily by the thrifty 
farmer, and that their vast and free pasturage 
was of short duration, banded together to oppose, 
and if possible, stop irrigation. Others, seeing 
the profitable investment in irrigating canals, 
rival companies began forming, and Mr. Church, 
February 16, 1871, filed letters of incorporation 
for the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company, 
associating with himself Captain A. T. Easterby, 
of Napa, and F. Roeding and Wm. S. Chapman, 



of San Francisco. Mr. Church superintended 
the work and pushed the extension of their 
canal system, and soon had water out on the 
plains to the extent of their appropriations. 

In 1872 the main head-gate of the Fresno 
canal was completed, and 2,000 feet of water 
turned through it and used for irrigating pur- 
poses. Important extensions and enlargements 
were made in 1873-'74. 

In 1875 a ditch previously made from Cham- 
bers' slough and levee across the bluff and con- 
necting the slough with the Centerville canal, was 
enlarged to be sixty-four feet wide on the bot- 
tom and about ten feet deep at the bluff, with a 
rapid grade, and a capacity of 1,100 cubic feet 
per second of flowing water. These canals are 
capable of diverting all the water from King's 
river at an ordinary stage of that stream. 

Out of this irrigation naturally grew the 
" No-Fence Law" as a necessary consequence. 
The passage of that law was earnestly advocated 
by Mr. Church and Captain Easterby, ably as- 
sisted by Hon. Tipton Lindsey of Visalia, and 
many others. The measure was bitterly op- 
posed by the stockmen, and their opposition 
became so violent that Mr. Church's life was 
threatened. Still, he never wavered in his 
course; feeling confident in the right, he never 
once thought to be persuaded or frightened from 
his position. It is by no means detracting from 
the deserved merits of many others in building 
up the flourishing and promising city of Fresno, 
when it is said that the city owes its location, 
and much of its wealth, vigor and prosperity to 
this same Fresno Canal and Irrigation Com- 
pany. When the canal had been brought to a 
point not far distant from the present site of 
Fresno, the railroad officials called on Mr. 
Church, and upon being assured that the country 
around Fresno could and would be supplied 
with an abundance of irrigation water, they laid 
out the town and gave it all the encouragement 
in their power; and it has always been the con- 
fident prediction of Mr. Stanford that Fresno 
would make the best town on the road between 
Stockton and Los Angeles; and it would be 



82 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



difficult to find a man in Fresno County to-day 
who would question Mr. Stanford's prediction. 

The company's franchise calls for 3,000 cubic 
feet of water. Experience has fully demon- 
strated that one-eighth of a cubit foot is amply 
sufficient to irrigate a twenty-acre tract of land. 
At that rate, the water appropriated will irri- 
gate 480,000 acres. 

The Sunset irrigation district has voted 
$2,000,000 of bonds for the construction of 
canals by which to lead water to lands on the 
West Side. This is the largest irrigation 
scheme ever begun in the world under one sin- 
gle management. California has no other equal 
to it in magnitude and the scope of its purpose. 

It is calculated that the canal will open up to 
cultivation 400,000 acres of land, which now is 
nearly worthless. Though it has little value 
now, it is naturally as fertile as any in the State. 
Its usefulness is due to its location. It is on 
the western side of the valley, where so little 
rain falls that agriculture cannot be carried on 
by natural means. This has been fatal to the 
settlement of that country. Men who lived 
there could not prosper by raising grain or by 
any other means except stock-raising, and that 
must be carried on over a large area in order to 
find pasturage. 

But years must elapse before the full results 
can be reached. 

THE WONDERFUL RESULTS OF IRRIGATION. 

To those who were acquainted with this land 
prior to the introduction of water, the change 
that has taken place in so brief time since the 
water was brought on seems phenomenal. 
Beautiful orchards of fruit and groves of forest 
trees have sprung up and their growth, seeming- 
ly miraculous, must be witnessed to be believed. 
Handsome and comfortable cottages and many 
palatial residences have been built, and many 
who began without one dollar of available sur- 
plus have now large annual incomes and all the 
comforts and luxuries of life, with available re- 
sources running into thousands of dollars. Vast 
vineyards have been planted from which large 



profits are realized, from $150 to $250 per acre. 
In 1880, when the raisin culture was in its in- 
fancy, Fresno County produced more than any 
one county in the State, and had then the repu- 
tation of the best quality. It would not interest 
the reader to go into details how vineyards were 
planted, the yearly increase, etc. We will give 
the wonderful increase in tons and values, when 
treating of the raisin culture. 

Recurring to what irri<ration has done fur 
Fresno County and city, and will continue if 
properly distributed and managed, we would 
state that where a few years since the rattle- 
snake aud owl made their home, where the 
lizard and horned toad scampered over the 
burning sands and played in the broiling sun, 
and where the wild Indian howled, to-day are 
to be seen the fat milk cows wading to their 
knees in luxuriant clover, wild birds chirping 
in the shady trees, and millions of busy bees 
gathering honey from the many and varied 
bright lined and fragrant flowers, while rosy- 
cheeked children, playing about the grassy 
lawns, or wandering through the orchards load- 
ed with ripening, luscious fruits. All this 
change has taken place as it were in a year, and 
still men whose lands have advanced from $2.50 
to $150 per acre, fail to appreciate these great 
results brought about in a great measure by the 
foresight, energy and vigilance of M. J. Church, 
a personal sketch of whom will be found else- 
where. There are those who claim that some 
others would have brought water on the plains 
had not Mr. Church done so. This is conceded. 
Had not Columbus discovered America no doubt 
another man would; had not George Washing- 
ton led the patriots to victory, securing Ameri- 
can independence, some other would; had not 
Ulysess S. Grant succeeded in patting down the 
rebellion some other general would; and yet all 
those men have been duly credited with their 
grand achievements; and certainly no man has 
accomplished more for a community, made pos- 
sible such prosperity, and conduced to such a 
transformation of a once desert plain, than has 
M. J. Church. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNTA. 



83 



EASTERBY S GREAT ENTERPRISE. 

In July, 1868, A. Y. Easterby, of Napa, pur- 
chased 5,000 acres of land on the plains between 
Centerville and "Watson's ferry, merely for 
speculation, paying $1.80 an acre. At that 
time he had no prospect of selling it at an ad- 
vance, but he hoped it was worth about $5 an 
acre. On examining the land shortly afterward, 
in company with I. Church, of Napa, they 
agreed that where filaree was so abundant and 
wild sunflowers grew ten feet high, wheat ought 
certainly to grow ; and Easterby engaged Church 
to put in a small crop of wheat for experiment. 
It did well all winter and spring up to the time 
it was destroyed by drouth and wild cattle and 
horses. 

Mr. Easterby then consulted Mr. Bensley, 
the father of irrigation in this valley, concern- 
ing the practicability of irrigating his land from 
Tulare lake. He purchased the Centerville 
ditch and began preparations for a grand scheme 
of irrigation, meanwhile engaging Charles 
Lohse, one of the best farmers of Contra Costa 
County, to put '2,000 acres of the tract into 
wheat the next year, which was done, after Mr. 
Easterby had flooded and drained it. The grain 
germinated and appeared above ground beauti- 
fully, and Governor Stanford, on his way south- 
ward from San Francisco in company with A. 
N. Towne and Colonel Greene, stopped here, 
and seeing this beautiful green spot were sur- 
prised, and called' it an oasis in the desert. With 
reference to the demonstration thus made Mr. 
Stanford located the town of Fresno. 

To guard this oasis from devastation by live- 
stock running at large, Mr. Easterby had 
eighteen car-loads of lumber shipped from San 
Diego for fencing, — the first shipment of the 
kind over the then new road to this locality. 
The crop yielded splendidly, quadrupling the 
value of adjacent lands, although the freights 
were discouragingly high. While the outlay 
on the crop was only $2,600 the freight was 
$8,000! 

In 1873 Mr. Easterby put in forty acres to 
alfalfa, from which five crops were cut the 



second year. All other crops planted also did 
well, notably tobacco and cotton. By his canal 
Mr. Easterby founded a permanent system of 
irrigation for his and adjoining lands. Also, 
he had wells dug which yielded cheaply enough 
an abundance of pure water for domestic pur- 
poses, and he knew from the tardiness with 
which vegetation decayed in this region there 
could be no malaria, as had been reported by 
some. 

FRESNO RAISIN PACKERS. 

It would be almost impossble to obtain a full 
list of the packers of raisins in Fresno County. 
Many vineyardists have packing-houses of their 
own, using up their own raisins and buying 
those of their immediate neighbors. In this 
way they save the profits of the middle men and 
maintain the character of their brands, which 
every packer guards most jealously. 

The following is a list of the principal con- 
cerns of the county, which probably put up 
about nine-tenths of the raisins of the county: 



NAME. (LOCATION 


BRANDS. 




Fresno 
do 

do 
do 
do 
do 

do 
Oleander 

Fresno.. 

Fowler.. 

Fresno. . 
Oleander 
Fresno. . 

Malaga.. 
Fresno. . 
Selma. .. 
Fresno.. 

do 

do 
Fowler. . 
Malaga . 

do 




Barling, A. D 


El Modelo, Golden 
Gate. 


Butler, A. B 

California Raisin and Fruit Co. . . .. 
Cook & Langley 

Cook, H. E 


Butler's Cluster. 
Seal, Eclipse. 
Horseshoe, Lily, Eu- 
reka. 


Curtis Fruit Co 


Greyhound, San Joa- 
quin. 

Imperial, Tiger, For- 
get-Me-Not. 

Pride of California, 
Comet. 


Fowler Fruit and Raisin Packing Co. 




Americnn Flag. 

The Pride of Fresno, 

Crown of Fresno. 
Olivet, El Monte. 


Fresno Home Packing Co 

Gould, E. H 


Griffin & Skelley 


Griffin & Skelley's. 






Lusk, A. & Co 

Leslie, Chas 

Reese, J. W 

Rodda & Nohmann 

Viau,N 

"Viau, S.P 


Bear, Imperial. 
Liberty, Royal. 
Cartoons. 
Maple Park. 
Viau's. 



MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION. 

The first and only vessel that ever passed 
from Tulare lake to the ocean, it is said, was in 
1868, — a small boat about 16 x 18 feet, a scow 
built and owned by Richard Smith. He loaded 
his vessel with a ton of honey at the mouth of 
King's river, passed through Summit lake and 
Fish slough, thence through what was then 



84 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Fresno slough, thence into and down San Joa- 
quin river to San Francisco. The same year 
Stone and Harvey attempted to get into Tulare 
lake with the steamer Alta. The water was 
not sufficient and their boat stranded at a point 
three miles from the lake. No boat has ever 
entered the lake from the San Joaquin. Steam- 
ers landed freight at the head of Fresno slough 
up to the time the railroad was constructed in 
1870. Here a large two-story house was erect- 
ed, and called " Cassa Blanca," and a town built 
called Fresno City; and here overland stages 
stopped. Freight was then hauled by teams to 
Visalia and other places south of that point, 
and east into the mines. What was then known 
as the mounted express was the prime factor as 
a rapid transit through the county to the mines, 
etc. Gold dust, mail matter and small pack- 
ages were transported by these pack teams. The 
Silman line of stages ran from Stockton to 
Millerton, via Tuolumne City, Paradise City, 
Empire City, Snelling and Plainsburg, making 
regular trips and well loaded with passengers. 
There were no postoffices. All mail was hand- 
led by express companies. Later, Silman and 
Carter ran a stage line from Stockton to Visalia, 
via Millerton. 

Iu 1857 Thomas Heston ran a stage, and what 
was called the Rabbit-skin Express, from Hor- 
nitos via Millerton to Visalia. (In 1858 he 
represented Tulare and Fresno counties in the 
Legislature.) 

Different stage lines ran to and from all 
points, and did a profitable business until Wells, 
Fargo & Co's Express entered the field as a 
competitor, and soon became noted and the chief 
carriers. In 1870 the Central Pacific Railroad 
Compauy branched off from Lathrop with a 
road running through the center of the county. 
This road was called the Stockton and Visalia 
Division of the Central Pacific Railroad, which 
soon changed the general character of the 
county. Business towns at once sprang up 
along this road; shipping facilities gave stimu- 
lus to enterprise and settlement, and soon the 
once arid plains were producing cereals and 



fruits beyond the expectations of the most hope- 
ful; and in 1880 there were shipped from Fresno 
County by this thoroughfare 58,311,280 pounds 
of the various products of the soil. (See the 
amount in 1890 in another statement.) While 
some new lines have been since constructed, and 
have speedily enabled the county to be devel- 
oped, yet the county stands in pressing need of 
more transportation facilities, and would be 
highly favored had they a competing railroad 
company operating in this great valley. 

The railroads in the county now are the fol- 
lowing: The main line of the Southern Pacific, 
running through the whole length of the county 
from northwest to southeast; a branch from the 
same at Berenda in the northern part of the 
county, running east to Raymond in the foot- 
hills; a branch from Fresno to Poso, in Kern 
County, also on the main line by way of Sanger 
and Reedley; the Goshen division from Goshen 
or Visalia westward to Alcalde in the foothills 
of the Coast Range; and there is in process of 
construction a branch from Fresno City east- 
ward to the lumber region of the Sierra Ne- 
vada. 

THE COUNTY'S WEALTH. 

The assessed valuation of the real estate in 
Fresno County in 1890 was as follows : 

Acres of land $ 2,108,668 

Value of acre property 22,049,911 

Improvements thereon 2,054,227 

Value of town lots 5.61i:.los 

Improvements thereon 1,996,950 

Total real estate 27,663,019 

Total improvements 4,061,181 

Value of personal property and money 3,825,455 

Value of railroads 1,876,902 

Total value of all property 37,416,557 

Money and credits and personal property foot 
up §35,525,121, as assessed. 

The exports for 1890 were as follows : 

EXPORTS. POUNDS. VAl.t K. 

Barley 14,620,190 $ 219,302 

Wheat 196,663,015 2,701,116 

Corn ir>6,650 2,075 

Oats 105,790 2,063 

Hay 776,000 5,488 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



85 



MXPORTS. POUNDS. VALUE. 

Flour 3,823,700 78,036 

Millstuffs 3,012,945 28,168 

Cattle and Calves 7,930,000 237,900 

Hogs 380,000 13,360 

Horses 940,000 694,000 

Sheep 15,740,000 629,600 

Hides 476,055 28,563 

"Wool 5,582,035 837,305 

Dried Fruits 7,490,135 749,013 

Green Fruits 7,942,575 158,851 

Raisins 21,791,618 1,317,497 

Brandy 1,111,000 166,650 

Wine 6,405,100 192,153 

Vegetables 1,392,650 13,926 

Nursery Stock .". 2,295,700 22,957 

Honey 163,440 19,612 

Lumber 28,524,525 560,480 

Doors and Sashes 321,070 32,107 

"Wood 11,315,250 56,576 

Coal 15,756,380 31,512 

Stone 10,607,350 45,000 

Gravel and Sand 4,637,150 4,637 

Ore 228,650 9,166 

Brick 3,181,710 31,817 

Agricultural Implementss... 273,000 68,350 

Machinery 637,790 637,790 

Empty Packages 4,146,400 41,464 

Miscellaneous 18,208,125 546,243 

Total 394,208,190 $9,985,560 

This table gives the products of the county 
that were exported a value of $9,985,560. It 
required more than 20,000 cars to move this 
product, and its real value largely exceeds $10,- 
000,000. 

The increase in products has been steady, 
notably in raisins and cereals. In 1889 the 
county exported 299,482,660 pounds, and in 
1888 it shipped 200,381,590 pounds. The in- 
crease in values is proportionately greater than 
in volume, as the increase has been mainly in 
high-grade products. 

The facts presented are' sufficient to show "the 
diversity of the county's products and that good 
work is being done toward placing it in the 
front rank of wealth-producers of the State. 

SCHOOLS OF FBESNO COUNTY. 

By the first school system which was adopted 
in California in 1852, school trustees were 



called commissioners, three of whom were elected 
annually. They had power to examine teachers 
and grant certificates, which should be valid 
for one year. They had power to define and 
change school districts, and it was their duty to 
appoint one of the constables as school census 
marshal, also to report to both the State and 
county superintendent of schools anually be- 
fore the 15th of November. By the law of 
1855, three school trustees were elected an- 
nually, notwithstanding the fact that State 
Superintendent Hubbs had in 1854 recom- 
mended that commissioners be voted for an- 
nually to serve three years. His suggestions 
were finally acted upon and the regulations 
were in force from 1863 until 1880. By a law 
enacted in that year, one was elected annually 
on the first Saturday in May. By the law of 
1852, the assessor in each county was ex officio 
county school superintendent. In 1855 a 
change was made and the order of things then 
established has been adhered to in most coun- 
ties ever since, viz.: County School Superin- 
tendents have been elected as other county 
officers are, with a few exceptions where the 
county clerks were made ex officio school super- 
intendents. 

Hon. E. C. Winchell was the first superin- 
tendent of schools for Fresno County. He 
was appointed by the Board of Supervisors in 
February, 1860, at which meeting three school 
districts were organized, — Scottsburg, Millerton 
and Kingston; later two others were added, one 
other in 1867, 1868, and 1869, respectively, 
with twelve in 1870. 

The first school in the county was located at 
Millerton, and was taught by Mrs. J. M. Shan- 
non. She received a salary of $75 per month; 
average attendance, fifteen, session three months. 
The first schools were supported by subscription 
and rate bill, and as late as 1865 the amount 
thus raised was $1,120. 

In 1872 an academy was erected on Dry 
creek. The capital stock was $50,000. The 
officers were, W. T. Cole, J. G. Sampson, A. D. 
Firebaugh, L. F. Clark and A. C. Thompson 



86 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



as trustees; Jesse Musick, Treasurer; C. G. 
Sayle, Secretary. J. D. Collins was the first 
teacher. The building was 36 x 54 feet, with a 
veranda on two sides, and the Expositor of that 
date speaks of it as the handsomest edifice in 
the county. • 

In 1866 the census returns gave 285 children 
of school age in the county, of whom 180 at- 
tended public schools, and sixty-six private 
schools. The highest wages paid teacher per 
month was $100. The total amount paid teach- 
ers was $1,520. Receipts from State and 
county funds, $507.27. In 1870 there were 
768 school children in the county, 436 of whom 
attended public schools and thirteen private 
schools; highest wages paid to teacher per 
month was $115; total amount paid to teachers, 
$8,540.71; receipts from State and county fund, 
$12,532.87. The census of 1880 gives school 
children in the county, 2,377; at public schools, 
1,768; at private schools 44; highest wages 
to teacher per month, $130; total paid teachers, 
$30,334.69. Receipts from State and county 
fund, $39,578.53. The census of 1890 is given 
a little further on. 

The public schools of the county are a pride 
to the people and one of their chief concerns 
They have kept pace with the development of 
the country and property owners have never 
hesitated to tax themselves for the erection of 
new buildings, no matter how frequently the 
demand has been made. 

Mr. Hawkins, who retired from office with 
the advent of 1891, held the position of super- 
intendent of the public schools since 1883. 
" Since then the schools have made wonderful 
strides," he said, "and they are in good condi- 
tion and constantly increasing in number, in- 
terest and efficiency. I took charge of this 
office in January, 1883, and made my first re- 
port to the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
in July of that year. A comparison of my first 
report with the one now made will show the 
progress that has been made in the last eight 
years : 



1888 1890 

Children between 5 and IT 2,985 6,903 

Children who attend public schools 2,133 5,234 

Schoolhouses built of wood SO 119 

Schoolhouses built of brick 00 3 

Teachers employed 71 1 69 

Teachers graduates State normal 

school 5 35 

Teachers graduates of other nor- 
mal schools 00 15 

Teachers holding life diplomas. . 5 28 
Teachers holding State educa- 
tional diplomas 5 24 

Teachers holding grammar-grade 

certificates 40 111 

Teachers subscribing to educa- 
tional journals 20 223 

Visits made by superintendent. . . 70 14' 

Teachers attending institute 64 140 

Volumes in library 1,610 9,044 

Rate of county school tax 39 15 

County assessment roll $3,308,097 $34,626,100 

Amount received county lax 28,056 51,039 

Value of houses, lots and furniture 47,160 285,770 

Value of library 4,831 27,160 

Value of apparatus 1,996 14,493 

"That's a pretty satisfactory showing." said 
Mr, Hawkins in conclusion. 

These figures are from the official returns of 
the office, and speak more eloquently of the 
progress made than could any words. 

Average daily attendance 3,607. 

The percentage of attendance on average num- 
ber belonging, 92 per cent. 

The census statistics for 1890 show a gratify- 
ing increase over preceding years, as will be 
seen by the following table of comparative 
statistics. 

Number of census children in Fresno County 
for the following years: 

1882 2770 

1883 2985 

1884 3340 

1885 ;S742 

1886 4183 

1887 4717 

1888 5861 

1889 6137 

1890 6903 

As indicative of the rapid growth of the 
county, the increase of (census) school children 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



87 



year by year may be interesting. The figures 
are as follows: 

1883 over 1882 245 

1884 over 1883 375 

18S5 over 1884 402 

1886 over 1885 441 

1887 over 1886 534 

1888 over 1887 1144 

1889 over 1888 576 

1890 over 1889 496 

The following are the official figures in de- 
tail of the census of 1890, as returned by the 
enumerator: 

Number of white children between 5 and 17 6,793 

Number of negro 68 

Number of Indian (with guardians) 24 

Number of native born Chinese 18 



Total. 



.6,903 



Number of white children under 5 2,988 

Number oi negro 27 

Number of Indian (with guardians) 6 

Number of native Chinese 9 

Total 3,030 

Total children under 17 9,933 

Number of white children attending public schools 5,170 

Number of negro 39 

Number of Indian (with guardian) 15 

Total 5,224 

Number of white children attending private schools 164 

Number of negro 1 

Number of Mongolian 10 

Number of Indian (with guardians) 

Total 175 

Number of white children not attending any school 1,459 

Number of negro 28 

Number of Indian (with guardians) 9 

Number of native Chinese 8 

Total 1,504 

Number of deaf and dumb. 2 

Number of blind 1 

Number of boys enrolled 3,044 

Number of girls 2,966 

The following facts in reference to the schools 
of the county will assist in forming an estimate 
of their conduct and general character: 

Number of books in libraries 9,044 

Number of districts, 1889 114 

Number of districts, 1890 118 

Increase in number last year 4 

Number of grammar schools, 1890 47 

Number of primary schools, 1890 114 



Number of high schools 1 

Number of wooden school buildings, 1890 119 

Number of brick and stone school buildings, 1890. . 3 

Number of new school buildings, 1890 17 

Average monthly wages, male, 1890 $81 

Average monthly wages, female, 1890 $62 

Number of schools in session over six months and 

less than eight 37 

Number of schools in session more than eight 

months 77 

Rate of tax levy $0.15 

FRESNO COUNTY OFFICIALS. 

From organization of county to 1890 in- 
clusive. 

COUNTY JUDGES. 

Charles J. Hart 1856-'59 

James Sayle, Jr 1860-'63 

E. C. Winchell 1864-'67 

GilluniBaley 1868-'79 

S. A. Holmes 1880-'83 

The county records show that at the Novem- 
ber election in 1884 the judges are called su- 
perior judges, and J. B. Campbell was elected 
to that position; in 1888, M. R. Harris; and 
in 1890 S. A. Holmes. The two last named 
now fill the position of superior judge, con- 
forming to an act of the General Assembly 
passed in 1883, which provides for two judges 
in Fresno County. 

ASSEMBLYMEN. 

Thomas Baker 1856 

Robert R. Swan 1857 

J. M. Roan 1858 

T. H. Heston „ 1859 

O. K. Smith ... : 1860 

Thomas Baker 1861 

James Smith 1862 

James Smith 1863 

J.N.Walker 1864 

J.N.Walker 1865 

R. P. Mace 1866-'69 

P. C. Appling 1870-'71 

J. N. Walker 1872-'73 

J. W. Ferguson 1874-'75 

J. D. Collins 18 r -6 

R. P. Mace 1877-'78 

C. G. Sayle 1879 

E. J. Griffith 1880-'82 

J.F.Wharton 1883-'84 

A. M. Clark 1885-'86 

J. P. Vincent 1887-'88 

E. H. Tucker 1889-'90 

G. W. Mordecai 1891 



88 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



COUNTY CLERKS. 

James Sayles, Jr '■•' 1856-'59 

C. J. Johnson 1860-'62 

W. Fayraonville 1863-'67 

A. G. Anderson 1868-'69 

H. S. Dixon 1870-'73 

A.M.Clark l-i74-'83 

A. C. Williams 1885-'90 

C. J. Johnson 1890 

The county clerk performed the duties of 

county lecorder and auditor until the expiration 

of A. M. Clark's term, since which time there 

has been a recorder elected to that office. 

COUNTY AUDITORS. 

James Sayle, Jr 1856-'59 

C. J. Johnson 18S0-'62 

W. Faymonville 1863-'67 

A. G. Anderson . . . .-*. 1868-'69 

H. 8. Dixon 1870-'73 

A. M. Clark 1874-'84 

SHERIFFS. 

W.C.Bradley 1856 

George S. Harden 1857 

W. Y. Scott 1858-'59 

J. S. Ashman 1860-'67 

J. N. Walker 1868-71 

Leroy Dennis 1872-'73 

J. S. Ashman 1874-'76 

E.Hall 1877-'82 

M. J. Donahoo 1883 

O.J.Meade 1884-'88 

J. M. Hensley 1889-'90 

The Sheriff was also tax collector until 1888. 

COUNTY TREASURERS. 

George Kivercomb 1856-'63 

Stephen Gaster 1864-'66 

George Grierson 1867 

W. W. Hill . . . .• 186S-'73 

N. L. Bachman 1874 

A. J. Thorn 1875-'84 

Gillum Baley 1885 

T. P. Nelson 1886-'91 

Owing to sorne appointments to fill vacan- 
cies (unex2>ired terms), there may be some in- 
accuracies as to time some have filled the 
office. 

DISTRICT ATTORNEYS. 

J. C. Craddock 1856 

J. T. Cruikshank 1857 

Hewlett Clark 1858-59 

E. C. Winchell 1860-'63 

C. G. Sayle 1864-'67 

S. B. Allison 1868-'71 

C. G. Sayle ...1872--75 

W. H. Creed 18.'6-'79 



W. D. Grady ISM)--. 1 

E. D. Edwards 18S 

J. H. Daley 1885-'86 

R. B. Terry 1887-*88 

W. D. Tupper 1889 

There may be some inaccuracies as to time 
each filled the office, owing to changes in elec- 
tion years, appointments, etc. Exact time has 
been difficult to obtain. It is probable that 
E. D. Edwards filled the position two years, and 
W. D. Grady four years, and that J. II. Daley 
was elected in the fall of 1884. 

COUNTY ASSESSORS. 

J. G.Ward 1856 

J. G. Simpson 1857-'5fl 

W. H. Crane 1860-'61 

Thomas J. Allen 1862 

W. E. Mathews 1863 

Alexander Kennedy 1864-'05 

W. S. Wyatt 1866--69 

T.W.Simpson 1870-'75 

J.A.Stroud 1876-'79 

W. H. McKenzie lS80-'82 

W.J.Hutchinson 18S3-'1M 

Total 6,010 

Average number belonging 3,911 

Average attendance 3,607 

Percentage of attendance 92 

Number of high.school-grade pupils 101 

Number of grammar-grade pupils 841 

Number of primary-grade pupils 5,068 

Total 6,010 

Average number months of school 7 

Number of male teachers, 1890 50 

Number of female teachers, 1890 112 

That the people are alive to the necessity for 

and the value of good schools is shown by the 

following figures from the ledgers of the county: 

Paid teachers (salary) $ 93.782 00 

Rent, etc 19,309 55 

Libraries 1,185 06 

Apparatus 4,079 95 

Sites, buildings and furniture 39,115 00 

Total *157,471 55 

Received from State $ 61,191 62 

Received from county 50,999 11 

City and district tax 39,675 31 

Total $151,866 04 

Value of lots, buildings and furniture $285,770 00 

Value of libraries 27,160 00 

Value of apparatus 14,493 00 

Total $327,423 00 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



89 



COUNTY SURVEYORS. 

W. W. Borland 1856 

A. M.Brown 1S57 

T. C. Stallo 1858---59 

M. B. Holt 1800-'61 

J. C. Walker 1862-'71 

M. B. Lewis 1872-'76 

C. D. Davis 1877-'84 

H. B. Choice 188o-'86 

C. D. Davis 1887-'88 

J. S. Bedford 1889-'91 

COUNTY CORONERS. 

H. A. Carroll 1856 

H. Du Gay 1857-'59 

Ira McCray 1860-'67 

Frank Carroll 1868-'69 

Ira McCray 1870-'71 

W. J. Lawrenson 1872-'74 

T. W. Simpson ,. 1875-'76 

N.P.Duncan 1877-'78 

A. Wittbouse 1882 

J. J. White 1883-'84 

E. J. King 1885-'88 

W. N. Bishop 1889-'90 

E. F. Brown 1891 

At times the offices of coroner and public ad- 
ministrator were both filled at ouce by the 
coroner. 

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS. 

Joseph Smith 1856-'63 

K. L. Bachman 1864-'65 

Clark Hoxle 1866-'67 

J. R. Jones 1868-'71 

T.W.Rich 1872-'82 

J. J. White 1883-'84 

E. i.King 1885-'8d 

W. N. Bishop 1889-'90 

J. M.Johnson 1891 

W. N. Bishop resigned the office, which was 

tilled by the appointment of Freeman, 

who filled the unexpired term. 

COUNTY RECORDERS. 

C. L. Wainwright 1885-'88 

T. A. Bell 1889-'93 

COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS OP SCHOOLS. 

(There was no superintendent until the Board of Su- 
pervisors appointed one in 1859.) 

E. C. Winchell 1859-'62 

E. S. Kincaid 1862 

H. M. Quigley 1863 

S. H. Hill 1864-'67 



T. O. Ellis 1868-'69 

S.H.Hill 1870-'71 

T. O. Ellis 1872-'75 

R. H. Bramlet 1876-'82 

B. A. Hawkins 1883-'90 

T. J. Kirk 1891 

COUNTY SUPERVISORS. 

The following have filled the position of 
county supervisors from the organization of the 
county to and including 1881, in the order here 
named: 

J. A. Patterson, J. R. Hughes, J. D. Hurst, 
J. E. Williams, S. M. Rankin, C. Hoxie, R. E. 
Buford, James Smith, C. Hoxie, D. Simpson, 
H. E. Howard. A. S. Bullock, J. B. Royal, 
Justin Esery, L. J. Carmack, J. B. Royal, G. 
B. Abel, L. J. Carmack, R. Reynolds, J. L. 
Hunt, W. H. Parker, J. Blackburn, J L. Hunt, 
J. G. Simpson, W. H. Hill, J. L. Hunt, J. G. 
Simpson. W. H. Hill. S. S. Hyde, J. G. Simp- 
son, W. H. Hill, S. S. Hyde, J. G. Simpson, 
H. C. Daulton, S. S. Hyde, J. G. Simpson. 
H. C. Daulton, S. S. Hyde, J. G. Simpson, 
H. C Daulton, J. Barton, J. G. Simpson, 
H. C. Daulton, J. Barton, J. G. Simpson, 
H. 0. Daulton, T. F. Witherspoon, M. Donahoo, 
H. C. Daulton, T. F. Witherspoon, J. N. Mnsick, 
H. C. Daulton, A. Phillips, J. N. Musick, 
H. C. Daulton, A. Phillips, J. N. Musick, A. 
Phillips, J. N.Ward. J. J. Hensley, A. Phillips, 
T. P. Nelson, J. N. Ward, A. Phillips, T. P. 
Nelson, T.Waggener, A. Phillips, T. J. Dunlap, 
T. Waggener, A. Phillips, T. J. Dunlap, T. P. 
Nelson, W. L. L. Witt, H. C. Dunagan, A. T. 
Covel, H. C. Daulton, T. P. Nelson, J. Dicken 
son, S. Hamilton, A. T. Covel, J. Yergin, 
D. C. Dunagan, W. M. Rayner, C. L. Walters, 
F. F. Letcher, T. C. White, H. C. Dunagan, 
J. L. Meyer, R. B. Butler. 

As Senator for the Fourth District, Hon. P. 
Reddy was elected in November, 1882, for the 
full term, four years; and Hon. G. G. Goucher 
in November, 1886, and re-elected in Novem- 
ber, 1890. 



so 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




BEGINNINGS. 

fN May, 1872, the Contract and Finance Com- 
pany of the Central Pacific Railroad had 
^ surveyed and staked out the entire ground 
upon which the town of Fresno was then 
founded. The lots were 50 s 150 in size. There 
was at that time no railroad, no water nearer 
than the San Joaquin river, and nothing en- 
couraging whatever. It has been stated else- 
where, however, that both Mr. Easterby and 
Mr. Church had been consulted by the railroad 
officials as to furnishing water, and had been 
assured by those two gentlemen that water 
would be forthcoming. The statement has also 
been made that Fresno County was in a geo- 
graphical sense the center of the State. This 
applies also to the city of Fresno, the center 
stone being within her limits. The first settler 
in the town was A. J. Massen, who erected a 
small shanty, and also erected primitive water 
works. He sunk a well near his shanty, ar- 
ranged a water trough, and erected a sign in 
characters of his own manufacture, " Horse 
Restaurant Bring Tour Horse In One Horse By 
Fresh Water One Bet One Day Hay Water 3 
Bet." Here the tired and thirsty teamster 
could, by pumping the water himself, slake the 
thirst of self and team at small cost, as it seems 
the proprietor implied bit where he wrote " bet." 



In 1872, M. A. Schutz, in connection witli 
one Roemen, erected a building in which they 
conducted a saloon and refreshment stand. Otto 
Froelich and Julius Beals, merchants of Miller- 
ton, erected a board shanty and opened a branch 
store about the same date. This was between 
the present railroad depot and Chinatown. 
Frank Dusey shipped the first freight from this 
station before'a depot was elected. He loaded 
his wool on the cars from his wagons. Rail- 
road employes occupied tents. The first hotel 
was erected by the Larquier Brothers, soon 
after the depot was built, and called the Lar- 
quier House, and later the French Hotel. Rus- 
sel Fleming started a livery stable on the ground 
where now stands Kutner & Goldstein's store. 
George McCollough started an insurance office 
and began to invest in town lots. He was sub- 
sequently elected justice of the peace, and later, 
in company -with Lyman Andrews, established 
the Fresno Water Works. J. W. Williams 
started the first blacksmith shop early in 1872. 
In August, 1872, there was no post office: mail 
had to be carried sixteen miles. September of 
the same year a post office was established, and 
R. Fleming appointed postmaster. In Novem- 
ber the town contained two stores, three livery 
stables, four hotels and restaurants, and three 
saloons. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



91 



EARLY FRESNO SOCIETY THE DARK SIDE. 

At a ball p-iven in Fresno, in 1872, a Mexican 
requested a young lady to dance with him, 
which she refused, and he became much ex- 
cited. At supper he wanted something to drink, 
which also was refused. A friend attempted to 
get hold of his pistol, which went off and the 
firing caused a stampede, and everybody rushed 
through doors and windows in all conceivable 
shapes, — -men and women together. The cry 
was given to " hang him," and the firing be- 
came general and several were shot. One man 
was so excited that he fired several shots at a 
post, taking it for a Mexican. He then ran up 
stairs and told his wife he had " killed a man." 
She fainted and fell face down on the bed on 
hearing the story, and in the excitement so 
much water was thrown upon her that a pool 
was formed about her face and came near 
drowning her. 

GENERAL HISTORY RESUMED. 

In July, 1874, there were fifty five buildings 
in the town. There were four general stores 
and three hotels; restaurants, livery stables, 
saloons, law offices, physicians, tin shop, saddle 
shop, butcher shop, blacksmith shops, etc., tai- 
lor shop, and one printing office, that of the 
Expositor. 

Fresno's climate. 

The following is the monthly mean of the 
barometrical pressure, the elevation ot surface 
of mercury in barometer cistern above the mean 
sea level, on November 30, being 338 feet. 

December, 1889 29.68 

January, 1890 29.77 

February, 1890 29.75 

March, 1890 29.73 

April, 1890 29.65 

May, 1890 29.56 

June, 1890 29.56 

July, 1890 29.51 

August, 1890 29.51 

September, 1890 29.52 

October, 1890 29.61 

November, 1890 29.73 



1890, Annual Means 29.63 

1889, Annual Means 29.62 

1888, Annual Means 29.0-: 

The highest and lowest observations for the 
three years noted were as follows: 

Year. Highest. Lowest. 

1890 30.13 29.22 

1889 30.02 29.06 

1888 30.25 29.20 

The following is the mean monthly tempera- 
ture for the same period: 



1889. 
December 

1890. 

January 

February 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 

Year Mod. 

1890 63 

1889 64 

1888 64 



1889. 
December. . 

1890. 
January . . 
February . . 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September 
October . . . 
November. , 



Year. 
1890 
1889. 
18«8. 



Mon. 


Max. 


49 


65 


42 


58 


47 


70 


55 


77 


61 


92 


69 


103 


73 


104 


82 


111 


81 


105 


75 


103 


64 


88 


57 


82 



31 

24 

28 

33 

36 

42 

46 • 

56 

56 

53 

42 

37 



High. 
Ill 
112 
111 



Low. 

24 
27 
20 



NO. OF DATS. 



Mean 
Abslt Daily 



Min. Max. 
be 32 ab 90 



49 
50 



Mean Min. Max. 

28 13 102 

27 16 121 

27 14 110 



The following table relates to the dew point 
and humidity: 



92 



HISTORY OF CENTRA I, CALIFORNIA. 





is 

|S 

p 


p . 

= 3 
— o 

•3 s 

BS 

86 

82 
73 
08 
60 
55 
42 
30 
38 
48 
51 
55 

57 
59 
04 


Is 

0..2 


1889. 


44 

36 

38 
43 
44 
48 
42 
41 
48 
48 
43 
37 

43 

44 
49 


7 


1890. 


6 




6 
5 




a 




3 




1 


July 


1 




2 




3 




1 




2 


1890 


3 


1889 


3 


1888 


a 







This is essentially a climate of sunshine. 
According to the figures reported by the signal 
officer, which are appended, there were during 
the year ended November 30th 213 clear days, 
eighty-eight fair days, only sixty-four cloudy 
days, and fifty-four of the latter are classed as 
rainy days, thus reducing the number of cloudy 
days without rain to ten. There were but two 
thunder-storms, and both occurred in Auo-ust. 

The following table of the rainfall during the 
year, with the totals for the two previous years, 
will be found of decided interest and of per- 
manent value: 





= 
o 

S 

< 

"as 
O 
H 


Gr't'st a'm't 
in any con- 
secutive Hi 
hours. 




Am't. 


Date. 


1889. 
1890. 
February 


3.87 

2.12 
0.80 
1.04 
0.17 
0.45 


0.75 

0.74 
0.30 
0.33 
0.15 
0.43 


24 

25 
16 


March 


7 




18 




8 
















T 
1.26 


T 
1.12 


9 




29 


1890 


0.22 

9.93 
12.27 

8.76 


0.83 


6 


1889 




1888 







The following is a table of clear, cloudy and 
rainy days: 



1889. 

December 

1890. 

January 

February 

March 

April 

M ay 

June 

July 

August 26 

September 

October 

November 



1890 
1889. 
1888. 







>» 








-r 


X 










V 


a 




a 


O 


fc 


O 


& 


o 


15 


14 


19 


' ■ 


13 


12 


11 


6 


13 


9 


7 


9 


10 


12 


6 


17 


9 


4 


2 


19 





6 


3 


26 


4 








30 


1 








26 


4 


1 





20 


6 


4 


5 


28 


3 








24 


4 


2 


1 


223 


88 


64 


54 


222 


73 


70 


53 


249 


82 


35 


35 



Those interested in that branch of science 
may find the following table on the velocity of 
the winds and their prevailing direction of some 
value: 



1889. 
December 

1890. 
January . . . 
February . 

March 

April 

M ay 

June 

July 

August. . . . 
September. 
October. . , 
November . 



1890 
1889 
1888 



e 



4:il7 

4003 
3466 
4190 
4456 
5335 
6067 
5558 
5019 
3706 
3349 
2882 



1,748 
49.342 
42,619 



Direc- 
MUea lion 
from 



E 

NW 

E 

NW 

nw 

NW 
W 

w 

NW 
N 

NW 
W 



E 

E 

NW 

NW 

NW 

W 

x\v 

NW 
NW 
NW 

w 

W NW 
NW NW 

NW NW 



It should be borne in mind that these figures 
are derived from a United States official, and 
are not prepared by any one interested in the 
sale of lands in the region. Tliev are more 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



93 



eloquent than words, and are submitted to the 
thoughtful without further comment. 

From the report of Ellwood Cooper, presi- 
dent State Board of Horticulture: "The intrinsic 
value of this climate might, as is often slight- 
ingly remarked, be truly estimated by the acre, 
according to what crop the husbandman wishes 
to produce. The land is worth no more than 
the same quality, acre for acre, possibly than it 
is in Illinois or New York, but when its prod- 
ucts bring teu to a hundred times more each 
j^ear in cash, and all on account of climate, is it 
not a reasonable conclusion that the acre in 
California is worth ten to a hundred times more 
than the acre in Illinois or New York? There- 
fore, the climate is worth the difference between 
the cash value of the California and Illinois or 
New York acre, which is largely in favor of the 
former. This estimate is from a commercial 
standpoint, whereas, apart from the intrinsic 
value, there is a more important one of health, 
happiness, and a joyous existence." 

WATER WORKS. 

It was previously stated that Messrs. Mc- 
Colloiigh and Andrews were the founders of 
Fresno's first water system. These gentlemen 
in 1876 put down a well to the depth of 100 
feet, casing it with seven-inch pipe, excluding 
all surface water; they obtained an abundance 
of excellent water. A powerful steam-pump 
was put in, a tank of 23,000 gallons capacity 
erected at a height equaling that of the highest 
building in town and a system of pipes laid to 
accommodate all with water. In May, 1877, a 
corporation was organized under the name of 
Fresno Water Company. Messrs. McCollough 
and Andrews transferred their property to said 
company, retaining large interests therein. In 
1878 another tank was erected, capacity 12,000 
gallons, and in 1881 another well was bored, 
and another and more powerful pump was ap- 
plied to the work. The water supply has kept 
pace with the demand, and the present condition 
of the city water supply we here give, from one 
of tlie local papers: 



"Fresno city is furnished with water for 
domestic purposes by a Chicago corporation, 
superintended by J. K. Allen, under the local 
management of J. J. Seymour. The water is 
of the purest and best quality, furnished by 
eight wells, one of which is 600 feet deep, 
another 400, and the balance ranging from 300 
to 250 feet deep. No surface water is permitted 
to find its way into the wells. The company 
has just finished setting in place a new Gaskell 
pump, with a capacity of 6,000,000 gallons per 
day. With this power, and source of sup- 
ply, they are able to furnish a population of 
50,000 people. Their mains extend to all points 
throughout the city proper, and in many in- 
stances beyond the corporate limits. Many of 
the residents of the Woodward, Belmont, Home- 
stead and Griffith additions receive their supply 
from the city water works, and the laterals will 
be extended to the residences of many parties 
in any of the additions who make application. 

The city contracts with the water company 
to flush the main sewers once a day and the 
laterals twice each week, at a cost of $4,500 per 
year, and the city fire company receives its sup- 
ply from the city water works, which has proved 
to be abundant for all ordinary purposes. 

"The reservoirs have a holding capacity of 
120,000 gallons, and the continuous action of 
the pumps throwing fresb water into them, 
coupled with the constant drain by waste valves, 
keeps the supply always fresh and pure when 
the demand is not large during the winter 
season. It is largely to this pure supply of good 
water that Fresno is indebted for its good 
health." 

COUNTY HOSPITAL. 

The county has one of the best hospitals in 
the State. Since its establishment at Fresno it 
has been under the able management of Dr. 
Lewis Leach as Superintendent. It is situated, 
on slightly elevated ground near the city limits, 
and is an exceedingly well arranged building. 
The grounds comprise about three acres well set 
in ornamental trees. 



9i 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



CITY CEMETERY. 

A cemetery was laid out in 1880, by Messrs. 
McCollough and AY. H. McKenzie, on eighty 
acres of land just east of the city, and has lieen 
improved with the growth of the city, and many 
handsome monuments have been erected, among 
which is one worthy of special mention, as 
follows: In 1882, Dr. Lewis Leach had erected 
. over the grave of Thomas J. O'Neal, one of the 
tineot monuments in the State, and does great 
credit to the Doctor for his taste in the selection 
of the design. The monument is of Penryn 
granite and the best of Italian marble. Total 
height, twenty-one feet, four inches. Ten acres 
of the cemetery was purchased by the Odd Fel- 
lows for their exclusive use. 

STREET IMPROVEMENTS. 

The city authorities made many valuable im- 
provements during the past year in street work, 
beautifying the city as it could in no other way 
be done. Over sixteen and a half miles of 
streets have been graded and curbed under the 
Vrooman law, and two miles more are now 
under contract. In addition to this twelve 
blocks have been paved with bituminous rock, 
with granite gutters and curbs. Crossings have 
been put down at the intersection of twenty- 
four streets. The paved streets have been 
cleaned four times each week under contract for 
§109.90 per month, and the graded streets have 
been sprinkled during the dry season. The city 
is lighted by eighteen electric lights and seven- 
teen gas lamps. 

The work of grading, curbing, sidewalking 
and paving has cost a little over $290,000, all 
of which has been paid by the property owners 
on the line of streets where the work has been 
done, and under the supervision of the superin- 
tendent of streets of the city. 

SEWERAGE SYSTEM. 

During the year 1890 a sewerage system has 
been completed for the city, at a cost of $100,000 
for the main sewers alone. The mains are 
about nine miles in extent. To connect build- 



ings with these laterals have been laid thr« ugh 
fifty -one blocks, or about 20,400 feet in extent. 
To connect buildings with these laterals 294 
connections have been made, at the cost of 
property owners. Since property owners have 
realized the necessity of this system of drainage 
the work is being rapidly carried forward, and 
in a short time the city will have one of the 
most complete systems that could possibly be 
constructed. All these laterals and connections 
are put down under the direction of the Btreet 
superintendent and inspector of streets and 
sewers. The main sewers are flushed daily by 
the Fresno water company, who are under con- 
tract with the city in the sum of §4,800 per 
year. The laterals are flushed monthly from 
the same source. 



STREET RAILROADS. 



The city is traversed by three systems "f 
passeuger railways, which penetrate nearly every 
section of the residence portion. 

The Fresno Street Railroad Company has in 
operation about three and a half miles of road, 
beginning on H street, at the railroad reser- 
vation, running up Mariposa street to K, and K 
to Tulare, and out Tulare to the city limits. It 
also has a line along H, or Front street, as it 
is more generally called, connecting with the 
main line at II and Mariposa streets and ex- 
tending to the city limits. 

The Belmont- Yo Semite Railroad Company 
begins at Front and Mariposa streets, uses the 
track up Mariposa street to J street jointly with 
the Fresno Street Railroad Company, and out J 
street to the northern city limits. It also lias a 
branch line out J street to Tuolumne, up Tuo- 
lumne to O, out O to Stainslaus, out Stanislaus 
to Blackstone avenue to the heart of the Bel- 
mont addition. It operates about three miles 
of road. 

The Fresno Railroad Company operates three 
and a half miles of roads. Its line begins at 
Tulare and II streets, runs thence on Tulare to 
I, I to Ventura avenue and out Ventura avenue 
to the city limits. Thence the line ranges along 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



95 



east Fresno addition to the fair grounds, two 
and a half miles distant, passing many orchards 
and vineyards and the county hospital. 



■FRESNO FLOURING MILL. 



Fresno is the seat of many institutions which 
reflect credit upon their projectors, but none 
are more worthy of mention than the Fresno 
Flouring Mill. This is an institution of which 
every citizen of Fresno county should feel proud. 
It is in every way a representative institution. 

It has been the aim of the milling company 
to manufacture only a first-class article of flour, 
and to this end they have introduced the latest 
improved machinery. They have recently put 
in a complete patent roller system, by which 
process the grain is gradually reduced by a series 
of rollers. The new bolting process, the round, 
reel system complete, has also been added at 
great expense. In fact, there is nothing in the 
way of improved machinery essential to the 
manufacture of a high grade article that this 
mill is not supplied with. 

With a capacity of 275 barrels of flour per 
day, the mill is kept running at full speed day 
and night, and even then at times cannot supply 
the demand. During the past year the business 
of the mill has almost doubled, which is most 
certainly an indication of unqualified public 
satisfaction with the company's brand of flour. 
For years past, as well as at the present time, 
the Fresno Milling Company has been awarded 
Government contracts for supplying military 
posts in Arizona, New Mexico and southern 
California, which speaks much for the ability of 
our home industry in successfully competing 
with other mills. Much of the success of this 
institution is due to the energy and business 
ability of Harry Sherwood, the managing partner. 



The banking institutions of the city are per- 
haps the strongest and most substantial evidence 
of the stability of the country. Fresno has a 
clearing house which cleared for the year, up to 



last night, $4,800,029.78, —quite a respectable 
business for a city of twelve thousand people. 

The Fresno National Bank is located at the 
corner of Tulare and J streets, in a very hand- 
some building. It was organized in May, 1888, 
with a capital of $50,000. Since then — June 
22, 1889— it has been increased to $200,000, all 
paid up. The directors of the corporation are: 
James M. Cory, John D. Gray, Frank P. Wick- 
ersham. Daniel W. Parkhurst, John B. Smith, 
E. D. Merriam, Herbert D. Colson. The offi- 
cers are: Herbert D. Colson, president; James 
M. Cory, vice-president; John B. Smith, 
cashier. It has gained in popularity steadily, 
and to-day is one of the leading financial 
institutions of the city. Its deposits now 
aggregate nearly $300,000, and its loans and 
discounts $371,674.05. This is almost strictly 
a local institution, interested in the development 
of the country, to which it has steadily devoted 
itself. 

The First National Bank is one of the most 
substantial banking institutions in the State. It 
was incorporated on October 26, 1881, under 
the title of " The Fresno County Bank," with 
an authorized capital of $100,000, of which 
$25,000 was paid up. This capital was rapidly 
increased until $75,000 was reached, and March 
16, 1885, it became a national bank with $100,- 
000 capital, all paid up. There has been no 
increase of the capital stock since, but a surplus 
of $110,000 has been accumulated and the un- 
divided profits represent a comfortable dividend. 
The deposits are about $550,000 and the loans 
and discounts $500,000. The officers are: O. 
J. Woodward, president; W. H. Chance, vice- 
president; E. F. Oatman, cashier. Directors: 
O. J. Woodward, T. C. White, W. H. Chance, 
E. Kennedy, N. I. Walter. O. J. Woodward 
became president of the bank in 1888, and has 
since remained at the head of the institution, 
with infinite credit to himself and satisfaction to 
the stockholders. The bank owns its own build- 
ing, one of the handsomest in the city, being a 
three-story brick, with sandstone trimmings, 
Scotch granite pillars guarding either side of 



06 



IIISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the main entrance. The interior arrangements 
are exceedingly convenient and effective — every- 
thing being substantial and rich. 

The Fresno Loan and Savings Bank was 
incorporated in 1884, with a capital stock of 
$20,000, which was increased to $100,000 in 
1885, and again on December 20, 1886, to 
$300,000, which is now fully paid up. It occu- 
pies a handsome building of its own, one of the 
handsomest in the city, at the corner of Mari- 
posa and J streets, which cost $65,000. The 
officers of the company are as follows: J. G. 
James, president; W. H. Mclvenzie, cashier. 
Directors: J. G. James, J. R. White, P. D. 
Wigginton, H. C. Daulton, J. W. Ferguson, C. 
G. Sayle and L. J. Duncan. 

The Farmers' Bank of Fresno is located in 
a handsome three-story building of their own, 
tX the corner of Mariposa and J streets. It was 
organized in March, 1882, with a capital of 
$100,000, of which $50,000 was paid in. Since 
then the capital has been increased to $200,000, 
all paid up. The following figures indicate the 
financial condition of the institution at the close 
of business on December 24, 1890: Resources 
— Loans and discounts, $419,474.50; bank 
premises, $70,200; furniture and fixtures, $65,- 
769.06; cash, $64,485.75; total, $619,929.31. 
Liabilities— Capital stock (paid up) $200,000; 
undivided profits, $20,732.92; due depositors, 
$399,196.39; total, $619,929.31. The officers are: 
Lewis Leach, president; AY. AY. Phillips, vice- 
president and manager; John Reichman, cash- 
ier. Directors: A. Kutner, Lewis Leach, Alex. 
Gordon, W. AY. Phillips, Alex. Goldstein. 

The Bank of Central California, a State 
bank, transacts a general banking and exchange 
business, issues letters of credit and draws di- 
rect on over six hundred correspondents, in 
all the principal cities of the world. It was 
organized in 1887, with an authorized capital of 
$300,000, one-half of which is paid up. Mod- 
est in its conduct, located in an unobtrusive, but 
substantial building, it does a very large busi- 
ness, its volume of transactions for the year 
showing a cash total of nearly $5,000,000. The 



surplus is $30,000 and the undivided profits 
are of sufficient dimensions to make the stock- 
holders very happy with a 10 percent, dividend 
on New Year's day, 1891. The deposits of the 
bank have increased forty-five per cent, since 
the close of 1889, this tact being indicative of 
the growth of the country. The directors are: 
Louis Einstein, William Helm, II. B. Choice, 
Max Frankenan, Leopold Gundelfinger. The 
officers are: President, Louis Einstein; vice- 
president, William Helm; cashier, Leopold Gun- 
delfinger. 

People s Savings Bank of Fresno was in- 
corporated under the State laws with a capital 
of $100,000. Of this sum $20,000 is paid in. 
The directors are: Chester Rowell, F. K. Pres- 
cott, O. J. Woodward, W. D. Bowen and A. Y. 
Lisenby. The officers are: President, Chester 
Rowell; vice-president, F. K. Prescott; and 
secretary, A. Y. Lisenby. 



BOARD OF TRADE. 



The Fresno Board of Trade was organized in 
1885, with J. H. Braly as president, and George 
E. Freeman as secretary. It was an active and 
energetic body for a time, but during the seasou 
of excitement and activity in real estate which 
followed it snffered from carelessness on the 
part of those who were most prominent in large 
real-estate transactions. In 1887 the officers 
determined to resign, and the organization 
would have been abandoned had not the mem- 
bers of the Real Estate Exchange proffered aid 
and assistance, and it was reorganized. A few 
of the more energetic spirits had a very credit- 
able exhibit arranged at the State Board of 
Trade in San Francisco and also one at Los 
Angeles. When the fire consumed the display 
at the rooms of the State Board of Trade last 
November the Fresno exhibit was destroyed. 

On the first of October, 1890, the Fresno 
Board of Trade was again reorganized with 
Thomas E. Hughes as president, and S. H. Cole, 
secretary. Upon the election of Mr. Cole as 
secretary he went to work with that enthusiasm 
for which lie is noted, and upon investigation 



ElblORT OF CEMBAL CALIFORNIA. 



97 



be found the organization in debt to the amount 
of about $600. His first object and effort was 
to pay off this indebtedness, and he has so far 
succeeded that when all promises of assistance 
from new members and those who are most 
friendly by way of donations are fulfilled, he 
will be able to pay off the total indebtedness 
and have sufficient money in bank to replace the 
exhibit in the rooms of the State Board of Trade. 
He has been very successful in securing new 
members, and has on the roll 200 names and 
has issued 196 certificates during the two months 
he has had charge of the books. 

When the board secured Mr. Cole as secre- 
tary they found tbe right man for the emergency, 
and if he is properly sustained in his endeavors 
he will make the Board of Trade of Fresno City 
a power for good. He proposes to make it his 
individual business to arrange the exhibit of 
this county in the rooms of the State Board, 
and make it second to no county in the State 
in its general variety of products and its promi- 
nence. 

fresno's shipments. 

The following are the official returns of the 
railroad company relative to the shipments from 
this county: 

Wheat. Sacks. Weight- 
To Port Costa 227,999 31,643,572 

To Los Angeles 50,317 6,788,512 

To Stockton 11,728 1,640,160 

To Oak Market Street 1,883 274,270 

To San Francisco 1,107 150,550 

To Sacramento 325 44,009 

Local points 3,207 455,690 



Total 

Barley. Sacks. 

To Sacramento 7,600 

To San Francisco 450 

To Stockton 1,150 

T , . , ( Whole Barley 3,762 

Local points j Rolled Barle £ 3838 

Twenty thousand pounds to the carload. 

RAISIN SHIPMENTS. 

Eastern. Local. 

Points. Pounds. Pounds. 

Fresno 14,924,073 506,240 

Madera 112,710 

Borden 42,773 30,453 

3,118,900 340,340 



40,896,457 
Wright 
838,060 
61,050 
120,260 
348,535 
297,550 



Total 
Pounds. 

15,430,313 

112,710 

73,226 

3,459,240 



Eastern. Local. 

Points. Pounds. Pounds. 

Fowler 1,950,010 228,428 

Selma 307,765 61,981 

Kingsburg 67,945 

Total 20,443,521 1,348,097 

GREEN FRUIT SHIPMENTS. 

Eastern. Local. 

Points. Pounds. Pounds. . 

Fresno ■. 2,899,940 748,008 

Madera 70,154 

Borden 320 

Malaga 60,400 936,580 

Fowler 337,935 778,750 

Selma 154,910 

Kingsburg 41,730 

Total 3,298,275 2,730,452 

DKIED FRUIT SHIPMENTS. 

Eastern. Local. 

Points. Pounds. Pounds. 

Fresno 1,401,836 268,185 

Madera 9,180 

Borden 705 

Malaga 373,720 115,015 

Fowler 262,230 18,375 

Selma 223,743 66,340 

Kingsburg 3,090 

Total 2,261,529 480,890 

DRIED GRAPE SHIPMENTS. 

Eastern. Local. 

Points. Pounds. Pounds. 

Fresno 3,253,891 57,272 

Madera 314,210 

Borden 65,623 25,160 

Malaga 309,370 19,495 

Fowler 183,000 13,610 

Selma 44,150 

Kingsburg 6,265 

Total 3,856,034 436,012 

WINE SHIPMENTS. 

Eastern. Local. 

Points. Barrels. Barrels. 

Fresno 1,470 9,198 

Madera 25 

Total 1,470 9,223 

POST-OFFICE BUSINESS. 



Total 
Pounds. 

2,178,438 

469,746 

67,945 

21,791,618 



Total 
Pounds. 

3,647,948 

70,154 

320 

996,980 

1,116,685 

154,910 

41,730 

6,028,727 

Total 

Pounds. 

1,670,021 

9,180 

705 

483,736 

280,605 

290,083 

3,090 

2,742,419 



Total 
Pounds. 

3,311,163 

314,210 

90,783 

328,865 

196,610 

44,150 

6,265 

4,292,045 



Total 
Barrels. 

10,668 

25 



10,693 



The year 1890 brought considerable change 
in the postoffice, particularly in the matter of 
the increase of business in all departments. 
The office itself remains in the same location, 
at the corner of Fresno and J streets. 

April, 1890, the postmaster received his ap- 



08 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



pointment, and on the 3d of May he took pos- 
session of the office. 

At the beginning of the year there were four 
carriers at work, making three delivery and six 
collection trips daily. Soon after Mr. Moody 
took charge of the office he put on another 
carrier at his own expense. 

There lias been ample work for the carriers 
during the year, as is shown in the following 
tabulated forms of the amount of matter they 
are called upon to handle: 



MATTER DELIVERED. 

Keg. Postal Other 

Date. Letters. Letters. Cards. Matter. 

December, 1889 107 20,906 2,392 7,638 

January 51 20,795 2,327 8,709 

February 48 21,559 3,713 11,343 

March 55 23,491 8,475 10,902 

April 47 21,866 3,161 9,811 

May 56 22,383 3,199 10,838 

June 47 21,301 2,858 9,750 

July 48 24,138 3,467 5,887 

August 30 21,855 2,619 9,671 

September 38 21,855 2,479 8,781 

October 63 27,320 3,304 13,074 

November CO 24,748 3,470 12.020 

Total 650 272,217 36,464 118,424 

Monthly average 54 22,685 3,037 9,869 

MATTER COLLECTED. 

Local Mail Local Mail Other 

Letters. Letters. P. C. P. C. Mat. 

December, 1889 1,784 15,086 1.287 1,160 598 

January 1,101 15,100 842 950 486 

February 1 ,248 13,824 772 782 538 

March 1,061 16,114 95 3 1,099 709 

April 1,264 14,758 998 1,164 1,128 

May 983 15,274 1,234 785 820 

June 1,488 14,504 1,151 990 662 

July 4,830 14,829 1,896 799 817 

August 3,394 15,169 1,088 880 713 

September 4,851 17,609 1,853 1,106 1,870 

October 1,966 19,387 902 1,236 881 

November 1,999 19,166 1,577 1,354 563 

Total 25,988 190,820 14,552 12,505 9,779 

Monthly average . . . 2,164 16,735 1,212 1,025 815 

The total number of pieces handled during 
the year is shown below: also the amount of 
money collected by the carriers: 



Total Pieces Collected by 

Handled. Carriers. 

December, 1889 50,958 $ 98.00 

January 50.361 97.00 

February 53,819 86.00 

March 57,858 81.00 

April 54,203 81.66 

May 55,572 53.62 

June 52,461 38.84 

July 50,709 135 48 

August 55,419 84.74 

September 60,442 124.00 

October 08,132 181.78 

November 64,957 144.23 

Total 674,891 f 1,206.36 

Monthly average 56,241 109.53 

The clerks employed in the office are not less 
busy than those who work upon the outside. 
The drop-letter boxes are filled seven and eight 
times each day, and have to be stamped and dis- 
tributed. Nearly all second and thirdcl ass 
matter is mailed at the post office, and the bun- 
dle and package box is ready for emptying at 
almost any hour. Not all of the mail goes to 
places of residence by carrier, for over half a 
thousand dollars is paid each quarter by citizens 
for box rent, and all the mail they get therein 
has to be distributed by the office free. 

Registered letters, money orders, sales of 
stamps, and distribution and stamping of mail 
keeps the entire force as busy as they can be 
during the long hours of labor which Uncle 
Sam exacts from almost all of those who labor 
for him. 

In one of the above tables is shown the num- 
ber of registered letters and parcels delivered 
by carrier. More than as many more were de- 
livered at the post office. 

The registered letters sent out from the office 
is shown by the following: 

Domestic letters registered 2,613 

Domestic parcels registered 271 

Foreign letters registered 438 

Foreign parcels registered 27 

Official letters (free) 340 

Total 3,734 

These figures include those of the last quarter 
of last year, which was not finished up to the 
time of this report, but it shows incomplete an 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



99 



increase of more than 300 letters and parcels 
registered. 

The principal portion of the receipts of the 
office comes from the sale of stamps and en- 
velopes and from box rent. Given by months 
it is as follows: 

Stamps. Envelopes. 

December, 1889 $1,667.07 $257.61 

January, 1890 1,218.60 387.93 

February 1,132.72 239.71 

March 1,296.21 222.29 

April 1,229.93 226.33 

May 1,181.25 312.81 

June 1,204.42 161.24 

July 1,151.77 347.20 

August 1,304.76 208.94 

September 1,102.95 310.64 

October 1,621.06 384.35 

November .. 1,468.97 302.58 

Total $15,579.71 $3,361.63 

Monthly average 1 ,298.31 280.14 

Although the monthly sale of stamps in De- 
cember of last year is larger than the sale for 
any other single month, those of this past De- 
cember will overtop it largely. This is owing 
largely to the Christmas carrying business of 
the mails, wbich is also large. 

The receipts for box rent come in quarterly, 
and show for the past year, from November to 
December, as follows: 

Last quarter, 1889 , $554.00 

First quarter, 1S90 572.20 

Second quarter 511.85 

Third quarter 582.50 

Total $2,270 55 

.NEWSPAPERS. 

The first newspaper published in the county 
was the Fresno Times, Democratic. The first 
issue was January 28, 1865, at Millerton, by 
Samuel J. Garrison. The printing office was a 
rickety wood structure. The editor being short 
of help, citizens, and soldiers then stationed 
there, would turn in and run the press to get 
out the paper. Business would not sustain it, 
and in less than a year it ceased to appear, and 
press and material were moved to Visalia. 



THE EXPOSITOR. 

The first number of the Fresno Weekly Ex- 
positor was published at Millerton, April 27, 
1870. " It was not under the most auspicious 
circumstances that the Eaaposito?' c&me into ex- 
istence. Its birth was an humble one, and 
while it was not born in a manger, shortly after 
it came into the world its younger days were 
spent, and it was partially reared, in a stable." 

The first number of the Expositor was a six- 
column folio, justone-half the size of the present 
daily, printed in brevier and nonpareil. The 
subscription price was $5 per annum. Two 
hundred copies were worked off on one old 
Washington press at its first issue. 

The editor's salutatory outlived his policy, — 
that the paper would labor for the advancement 
of the interests of the county, encouraging immi- 
gration, and by urging forward the citizens of 
the county when found lagging, that the paper 
would support the Democratic cause on consti- 
tutional grounds, etc. Among the first to pat- 
ronize the paper was O. H. Bliss, whose adver- 
tisement reads as follows: " O. H. Bliss, Notary 
Public, postmaster, telegraph operator, and 
Wells Fargo Express Agent, Kingston Ferry, 
California. Mr. Bliss has a fine and commodi- 
ous livery stable." In the same issue D. B. 
McCarthy advertised his saddlery and harness 
shop. S. W. Henry also advertised his black- 
smith and wheelwright establishment; ako his 
hotel. He had set McCarthy up in business, 
who afterwards rewarded him by burning all 
his houses. It appears that McCarthy desired 
to celebrate the Fourth of July in due form, 
and with that object in view solicited contribu- 
tions to purchase fireworks, and received several 
hundred dollars. The money was sent to Stock- 
ton and invested in the necessary explosives, 
which were received by McCarthy at his store 
in Millerton on the evening of the third. Mc- 
Carthy was not familiar with the nature of a 
Koinan candle, and lighted one as an experiment. 
In an instant the entire lot of fireworks had ex- 
ploded, the result of which was the burning of 
Henry's hotel, saloon, blacksmith shop and resi- 



100 



HISTORY OF CENT HAL CALIFORNIA. 



dence. McCarthy left Millerton and never re- 
turned. 

The proprietors of the Expositor engaged the 
forwarding firm of Chicard & Co. of Stockton 
to convey their printing material to Millerton. 
The rate was supposed to be two cents per 
pound, but when the material arrived the charge 
was seven cents. The plant was mortgaged to 
pay the charges. Chicard inserted his adver- 
tisement in the first issue of the paper. The 
proprietors received notice that they must se- 
cure other printing quarters within three days, 
and buildings being scarce in Millerton, they 
secured a stable, had the stalls removed, and 
the holes through which the horses had poked 
their heads served as windows to throw light 
upon the leading editorials of the writers. Busi- 
ness would not justify boarding at hotels; so 
the proprietors secured a second-hand stove, 
ran the pipe through one of the holes in the 
stable wall and did their own cooking. Eight 
months were passed in those quarters, the paper 
never missing an issue. 

They next occupied a carpenter-shop. The 
working force at that time consisted of 
three persons, two proprietors and the roller 
boy. The proprietors wrote all matter for the 
paper, set the type, and performed all the other 
duties. The roller boy inked the type with a 
large composition roller. The Expositor plant 
then consisted of a folio post Washington hand- 
press, a Degener Liberty job press, an old plow 
paper cutter and a few fonts of type. 

The plant was moved to Fresno in 1874, the 
year the county seat was established there. 
April 22 of that year the Expositor was first 
issued from its new quarters in Fresno, which 
was a building constructed from lumber for- 
merly used in a building at Millerton. This 
building occupied the ground where the Fresno 
National Bank now stands. The paper was is- 
sued from these quarters until 1881, when it 
was moved into a two-story building which once 
stood on the site of the present Exposit<ir 
building. April 3, 1882, the Expositor issued 
the first daily, a five- coin mn folio, which was 



enlarged in April, 1883, to a six-column folio; 
April, 1384, to a seven-column folio, in Janu- 
ary, 1887, to an eight-column folio; and April. 
of the same year, it was again enlarged from an 
eight-column folio to a six-column eight-page. 

About this time the building now occupied 
was ordered erected, and a new revolving press 
was purchased at a cost of $3,000. The build- 
ing is a two-story brick and cost §12,000. 

September, 1888, the daily was changed to an 
eight-column folio; in December of the same 
year it was enlarged to a nine-column folio, and 
January, 1890, it was changed to a six-column 
folio, eight pages, its present size. The Exposi- 
tor is now the largest inland evening paper pub- 
lished on the Pacific coast. 

lion. J. W. Ferguson is editor and proprietor, 
has an able editorial staff, and employs more 
than fifty hands in various capacities connected 
with the paper. 

The Expositor Base Ball Club is composed 
entirely of young men employed on the paper. 
The Expositor Military Band was organized in 
April, 1887, at which time the proprietor of the 
paper, J. W. Ferguson, douated a handsome 
uniform to each member of the band. 

THE FRESNO REPUBLICAN. 

This wide-awake paper was first issued in 
Fresno, in September, 1876. Dr. Charles Row- 
ell, assisted by Messrs. McCollough and An- 
drews, M. J. Donahoo, Frank Dusy, A. Tombs, 
J. W. Williams, C. W. DeLong, Russel Flem- 
ing, Cottle & Luce, and others, were the found- 
ers of this now prosperous and popular journal. 
Emmit Curtis, but a mere boy in age, was en- 
gaged as the first editor. After the Presidential 
election. Dr. Rowell assumed the management 
of the paper, and it had a hard struggle to exist, 
yet never missed an issue. In September, 1878, 
Dr. Rowell gave the paper in charge of Clarence 
Hodges and Wm. Shauklin, who had been en- 
gaged on the typographical work, and they con- 
tinued it until April, 1879, when Dr. Rowell 
sold the paper to S. A. Miller, stipulating that 
the paper should continue under its first name. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



101 



and present strictly Republican doctrines, and 
that it should in no way, shape or manner, 
amalgamate with the Expositor, or in any man- 
ner depart from the attitude it had assumed. 

The first issue under Mr. Miller appeared 
May 10, 1879. He infused new life into the 
paper, enlarged its facilities, business came to 
it and it prospered and grew, as all products do 
in California when given proper care. The in- 
crease of business demanded more room, and in 
1882 Mr. Miller erected a splendid brick build- 
ing, 40 x 80 feet, with all the necessary rooms 
and facilities for producing a first-class paper, 
telephone communications with his office and 
the courthouse, Expositor office, hotels, etc. 

The Republican has never departed from its 
first principles, and has attained to a popularity 
and circulation second to none in the interior of 
the State. T. 0. Judkins, the present editor 
and proprietor, is an able, wide- awake newspaper 
man, and one of Fresno's very courteous gen- 
tlemen, who devotes much space to presenting 
to the public the valuable resources of Fresno 
County, and points with pride to the many at- 
tractive features of his adopted home, Fresno 
County and city. 

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA!*. 

In 1883 ~W. S. Moore began the issue of the 
Weekly Democrat, and in 1886 issued a daily 
edition, which was discontinued at the close of 
the year 1887, and revived again in November 
of that year. The paper was changed in name 
in March, 1889, and issued as the Weekly 
Enquirer, which was continued until February, 
1891, when it was consolidated with the Budget, 
a weekly paper of about three years' standing. 
The result of the union brought forth a weekly 
paper, the Central Californian, non-partisan 
or independent in politics. The paper is owned 
and edited by J. C. Hodge, a gentleman of long 
experience in the newspaper business. The 
paper is devoted to the agricultural, horticult- 
ural, viticnltural, as well as the general farming 
and other interests of the San Joaquin valley 
and Fresno County. 



THE CHURCHES. 

Fresno can boast of a number of fine church 
buildings and of a large percentage of church- 
goers in proportion to her population. The 
Advent church building is one of the most 
elegant and commodious to be found in any 
provincial city in the State. The new Presby- 
terian church is elegant in all its appointments. 
The Baptist church is one of the largest, most 
commodious and beautiful in the city. 

In the fall of 1879 St. James' Protestant 
Episcopal Church was organized by Rev. D. O. 
Kelly. They erected a substantial church 
structure in 1880. This was organized as a 
mission in December, 1879, Rev. Kelly in 
charge, with nine communicants, and in 1888 
was organized as a parish. It has now 140 
communicants, Rev. Kelly still in charge. 

There is a Roman Catholic, a Methodist Epis- 
copal, and a Methodist Episcopal Church South, 
all flourishing denominations. No particulars 
could be obtained as to many of them, their 
ministers never having time to give us the data 
desired. The colored citizens have more than 
one church organization, but no church building. 

The Congregational Church of Fresno was 
organized in 1882 by Rev. George Freeman, with 
a membership of fourteen. It has now a com- 
fortable church structure and is in a prosperous 
condition, with a membership of ninety. Rev. 
Ben. F. Sargent is the present pastor. 

There is also a Congregation of Swedes, who 
worship in this building, whose pastor, Rev. 
John F. Gilburg, resides, and is pastor of a 
Swedish Congregational church at Kingsburg, 
having a membership of forty. The Armenian 
Brethren affiliate with the Congregationalists in 
Fresno. 

Unity Society, Liberal and Independent,^^ 
organized October 27, 1889, with a membership 
of twenty. Rev. S. A. Gardner, the first and 
only pastor the society has had, began his labors 
October 1, 1890. Services are held every Sun- 
day in the Barton Opera House, and the at- 
tendance is large and enthusiastic. Present 
membership, 118. 



102 



DISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



SOCIETIES. 

Fresno Lodge, No. 138, Knights of Pythias, 
was instituted October 8, 1866, with twenty- 
one charter members. The first officers were: 
W. P. Justy, P. C; H. Buck, C. C; A. Hall, 
V. C; A. B. Ganyard, P.; Chas. Phipps, K. of 
R. & S.; 0. P. Tuller, M. of F.; R. K. Murray, 
M. of E.; J. W. Baume, M. at A.; F. W. 
Fischer, I. G.; and Mr. Borella, O. G. Officers 
for the year 1891: Joe Stothers, P. C; A. 
Mosely, C. C; A. Madsen, V. G; A. Madsen, 
P. P.; G. F. Alexander, K. of R. & S.; G. F. 
Alexander, M. of F.; J. E. Doolittle, M. of E.; 
and J. Grundahl, M. at A. Members, fifty- 
three. 

Pomona Council, No. 622, American 
Legion of LLonor, was organized in 1882, 
with sixteen charter members. Officers at the 
time cannot be given, as the records were 
destroyed. Officers for 1891 are as follows: 
Rev. D. O. Kelly, Commander; A. H. Cum- 
mings, Past Commander; P. Le Blanc, Vice 
Commander; R. Orman, Secretary; A. H. Cum- 
in ings, Collector; P. Le Blanc, Treasurer; 
Thomas E. Hughes, A. J. Wiener and S. H. 
Ross, Trustees; and Dr. A. J. Pedlar, Medical 
Examiner. Membership, twenty one. 

Woman's Christian Temperance Union. — 
Little can be given of this organization, Mrs. 
Dusenberry having no books showing the work 
of the organization. The officers for 1891 are: 
Mrs. M. H. Whitmore, President; Mrs. E. E. 
Dusenberry, Secretary; Mrs. J. F. Greeley, 
Treasurer. Membership, twenty. 

Ancient Order of United Workmen. — This 
order was instituted at Fresno in April, 1881, 
with thirty-three charter members, and is pros- 
perous throughout the county. The first offi- 
cers were: Rev. D. O. Kelly, Past Master 
Workman; Dr. A. J. Pedlar, Master Workman ; 
L. Burks, Foreman; J. Jonsen, Overseer; M. R. 
Madery, Guide; W. P. Litton, Recorder; B. W. 
Doyle, Financier; J. M. Donahoo, Receiver; J. 
O. Litton, Inside Watchman; Joseph Spinney, 
Outside Watchman. 

Officers for 1891: F. T. Hilton, Past Master 



Workman; L. P. Timmins, Master Workman; 
George Pickford, Foreman; A. F. Peter-. Over- 
seer; M. A. Blade, Guide; J. M. Collins, Re- 
corder; E. Combs, Financier; T. J. Kirk, 
Receiver; William Shaw, Inside Watchman, and 
M. Bilby, Outside Watchman. Membership in 
good standing, 134. 

Vineland Lodge, No. 67, K. of P., was in- 
stituted December 14, 1881, with thirty-tire 
charter members. 

Officers at the time were: C. L. Wainwright, 
P. C; M. K. Harris, C. C. ; L. F. Winchell, V. 
C; E. D. Carver, P.; T. M. Hughes, K. of B. 
& S.; Frank McDonough, M. of F. ; H. Gun- 
deltinger, M. at A ; George Kohler, I. G. ; Will- 
iam Hughes, O. G. 

Officers 1891 are H. Bishop, P. C; Charles 
Ashley, C. C; H. Doble, V. C; H. 0. Tapper, 
P.; Charles Becker, K. of R. & S.; Charles 
Becker, M. of F.; T. A. Bell, M. of E.; M. E. 
Sanford, M. at A.; P. LeBlauc, I. G.; M. K. 
Harris, O. G. 

Fresno Lodge, Good Templars, was instituted 
in January, 1875. Owing to their records hav- 
ing been destroyed by fire the number of charter 
members and first officers can not be obtained. 
C. A. Stephens was first Chief Templar. Mem- 
bership in 1891, 107, and officers as follows: 

A. C. Banta, Lodge Deputy: A. H. Greeley, 
P. C. T. ; C. G. Holdredge, C. C. ; Carrie Mann, 
V. T.; Bella White, Supt. Juvenile Templar; 
P. J. McDonald, Sec; George Lee, Fin. Soc; 
Alice Bowen, Treas.; William Harvey, Chap- 
lain; Albert Lofer, Marshal; Mamie Anderson, 
Deputy Marshal; Lillian Wilson, Guard, and I). 
S. Ewing, Sentinel. 

Fresno Lodge, No. 2^7, F. dc A. M.— A 
special dispensation granted April 12, 1877, to 
assemble as a lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. 
First regular meeting held April 22, 1877. The 
officers were: O. S. Putnam, W. M.; Samuel 
Goldstein, S. W.; A. M. Clark, J. W.; George 
Bernhard, Treasurer; C. G. Sayle, Sec; W. 
H. Creed, S. D.; A. Kutner, J. D., and R. H. 
Fleming, Tyler. Charter issued October 10, 
1878, by Grand Master John Mills Brown, at- 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



103 



test, Alexander G. Abell, Grand Secretary. At 
that time G. M. appointed W. H. A. Creed, W. 
M.; Samuel Goldstein, S. W., and A. M. Clark, 
J. W. The lodge has been ably presided over 
by the following Worshipful Masters: O. S. 
Putnam, W. H. A. Creed, A. M. Clark, E. D. 
Edwards, A. C. Williams, H. Levy, E. F. Sel- 
leck and S. B. Tombs. Total membership to 
date, degrees and affiliation, 197. 

Trigo Chapter, No. 69, R. A. M. — First pre- 
liminary meeting held April 30, 1886. Petition- 
ers, A. M. Clark, of Chapter No. 44, California; 

C. H. Norris, of Chapter No. 6, Rhode Island; 
H. P. Hedges, of Chapter No. 10, Iowa; J. II. 
Braly, of Chapter No. 14, California; E. D. 
Edwards, of Chapter No. 44, California; O. J. 
Woodward, of Chapter No. 59, Illinois; N. L. 
F. Bachman, of Chapter No. 229, New York; 
Ii. C. Warner, of Chapter No. 4, California; J. 

D. Collins, of Chapter No. 12, Tennessee; J. 
M. Sumner, of Chapter No. 8, Nevada; J. L. 
Gilbert, of Chapter No. 11, Wisconsin. The 
Chapter was named Trigo, and the officers 
elected were as follows: A. M. Clark, High 
Priest; J. H. Braly, King; H. C. Warner, 
Scribe; N. L. F. Bachman, Sec'y. 

First meeting under dispensation, September 
6, 1886. First officers elected were those 
named in the dispensation, and other offices 
were filled as follows: O. J. Woodward, C. H; 
N. L. F. Bachman, P. S., pro tern.; T. P. Nel- 
son, R. A. C; J. H. Waggoner, M. 3d V.; M. 
L. Schermerhorn, M. 2d V.; E. D. Edwards, 
M. 1st V.; C. H. Norris, Treas., and J. L. 
Gilbert, Guard. First petition for degrees re- 
ceived from Alex. Goldstein. First meeting 
under charter, held May 16, 1887, when the 
following named officers were installed by Act- 
ing Grand High Priest J. C. Ward, of Chapter 
No. 44, California: A. M. Clark, H. P.; J. H. 
Braly, King; H. C. Warner, Scribe; M. Web- 
ster, Treas.; N. L. F. Bachman, Sec; O. G. 
Woodward, C. H; M. L. Schermerhorn, P. S.; 
J. J. White, R. A.C.; T. P. Nelson, M. 3d V.; 
J. W. Smith, M. 2d. V.; J. A. Webster, M. 1st 
V.; W. Bradford, Guard, and C. Yager, Chaplain. 



On January 1, 1891, the chapter had on its 
rolls eighty-one members in good standing, 
with the following named officers: G. C. 
Grimes, H. P.; T. P. Nelson, K.; H. P. 
Hedges, S.; C. W. DeLong, Treas.; J. R Will- 
iams, Sec; J. A. Webster, C. H.; E. F. Sel- 
lick, P. S.; A. R. Comfort, R. A. C; F. B. 
Dexter, M. 3d V. ; A. D. Barling, M. 2d V. ; 
D. C. McDougal, M. 1st V.; John Dennis, 
Guard, and C. Yager, Chaplain. Chapter meets 
on first and third Tuesdays in each month. 

Raisina Chapter, No. 89, 0. E. 8., was or- 
ganized April 26, 1886, with seventeen charter 
members. First officers: Mrs. A. E. Hughes, 
Worthy Matron; G. T. Willis, Patron; Mrs. E. 
F. Sayle, Associate Matron; Miss J. Braley, 
Conductress; Miss Belle Clark, Associate Con- 
ductress; Miss Mamie White, Adah; Mrs. A. 
F. Edwards, Ruth; Miss Susie White. Esther; 
Mrs. A. E. Ferguson, Martha; Mrs. S. M. Clark, 
Electa; J. A. Webster, Secretary; E. D. Ed- 
wards, Warder; A. M. Clark, Sentinel; and 
T. E. Hughes, Treasurer. Officers for 1891: 
Mrs. T. B. Hughes, Worthy Matron; Mrs. G. 
C. Grimes, Worthy Patron; Mrs. M. A. Bed- 
ford, Associate Matron; Miss Ora Davidson, 
Conductress; Mrs. Meda Walters, Associate 
Conductress; Mrs. Goldie Levy, Treasurer; 
Mrs. J. A. Barker, Secretary; Miss Sadie Clark, 
Adah; Mrs. Mattie Williams, Ruth; Miss Lulu 
Maupin, Esther; Mrs. A. J. Jackson, Martha; 
Mrs. G. C. Grimes, Electa; Miss Emma Aus- 
tin, Warder; and A. J. Jackson, Sentinel. 
Membership, eighty-nine. 

Fr»,sno Lodge, No. 186, 1. 0. 0. F., was in- 
stituted at Millerton, February 13, 1871, and 
removed to Fresno on the removal of the 
county seat. Charter members and first offi- 
cers: A. G. Bradford, P. G. ; Samuel G. 
George, N. G.; Emory Wing, V. G.; J. W. 
Ferguson, Sec; Fritz Friedman, Treas.; Will- 
iam M. Coolidge and Frank Dusey. It imme- 
diately took rank among the leading lodges, and 
numbers among its members many who have 
attained to prominence in the State. A. G. 
Bradford became Grand Master of the State of 



104 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



California. Its present corps of officers are: 
C. Jacobson, J. P. G.; W. B. Green, N. G.; 
A. P. Darling, V. G.; E. M. Bishop, Sec; 
H. Lanz, Treas. ; A. M. Drew, District Deputy 
Grand Master. 

Rebekah Degree, No. 158, I. 0. 0. F., was 
organized in Fresno in July, 1890, with thirty 
charter members. Officers: Mrs. W. P. Miller, 
N. G.; Mrs. Ensey, V. G.; Miss Ada Morgan, 
Sec; Mrs. Morton, Treas. 

The Stat of Bethlehem Lodge was instituted 
in January, 1891, and officered as follows: 
Charles C. Crawford, P. C; E. R. Higgins, C; 
Mrs. L. E. Mead, V. C; C. W. Hartsough, 
Scribe; Dr. E. R. Freeman, F. S.j Mrs. J. L. 
Connor, Chaplain; R. B. Page, Treas.; C. G. 
Holdridge, Marshal, Lillian Bennett, Assistant 
Marshal; Lillian Wilson, I. S. ; A. C. Banta, 
Lodge Deputy; Dr. E. R. Freeman, Physician. 

Central California Lodge, No. 31f.3, I. 0. 
0. F., was instituted in Fresno, June 13, 1888, 
by George Matheson, D. D. G. M. Charter 
members: D. P. Barnett, J. M. Dickerson, 
C. S. Greenberg, W. B. Hall, John Parker, 
George W. Fuller, F. Knoblock, J. D. Banes 
and George Balch. Present membership, sixty. 
The present officers are: J. W. Shattuck, J. P. 
G.; J. A. Devlin, N.G.; H. O. McLane, V. G.; 
C. F. Ward, Sec; and M. A. Morgan, Treas. 

Mono Tribe, No. 68, I. 0. R. M.— The lodge 
was organized in April, 1890, with seventy 
charter members. First officers: A. Dilly, Sa- 
chem; G. G. Goucher, S. S.; and S. B. Waite, 
J. S. Term of officers, six months. Present 
officers: S. B. Waite, Prophet; Dr. W. P. Mil- 
ler, S.; F. F. Babcock, S. 8.; T. A. Beck, J. S.; 
M. Rorphuso, K. of W.; and F. S. Clark, K. 
of R. Present membership, eighty. 

Forest Grove, No. 79, Ancient Order of 
Druids, was instituted in April, 1890, with 
fourteen charter members. Officers: N. P. 
Justy, Noble Arch; S. R. Hart, V. A.; M. 
Rorphuso, F. and R. Sec; and F. W. Fisher, 
Treas. 

Fresno Parlor, No. 25, N S. G. W., was 
organized in December, 1883, with twenty-one 



charter members. Present membership, forty. 
Officers: Frank M. Lane, P. P.; Dante 11. 
Prince, P.; C. F. Dickenson, 1st V. P.; E. C. 
White, 2d V. P.; Charles Bonner, 3d V. P.; 
S. J. Ashman, Rec. Sec; Harry Burton, Fin. 
Sec; W. C. Guard, Treas.; and H. A. Krohn, 
Marshal. 

Atlanta Post, No. 92, G. A. R.. was organ- 
ized in Fresno, November 26, 1885, with a 
membership of twenty-four. C. A. Fuller was 
first commander. It has now a membership of 
seventy-five. There is also a Relief Corps con- 
nected therewith. The following are the present 
officers of the post: Fred Banta, P. C; Ivy 
Nichols, S. V. C; J. W. Adams, J. V. C; L. 
H. Owens, Q. M.; E. Freeman, Surgeon; T. R. 
Harmon, Chaplain; A. N. Calkins, O. D. ; J. 
H. Brookings, O. G.; and M. B. Kellogg, Adjt. 

Young Melt's Christian Association. — On 
the evening of August 20, 1886, some fifteen or 
sixteen men assembled in the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church on K street. Twelve of the number 
declared their wish to become active members 
of the Young Men's Christian Association, 
adopted the brief constitution furnished by the 
national committee, and immediately proceeded 
to elect officers as follows: Dr. J. L. McClel- 
land, President; J. A. Walton, Vice-President, 
and F. J. Haber, Treasurer. Several business 
meetings were held in the church until two 
rooms were secured on Mariposa street, opposite 
the Grand Central Hotel. The front room was 
used for an assembly hall, and the rear room 
was fitted up for a reading-room and supplied 
with literature. By the first of November the 
membership had increased to some fifty or sjxty, 
most of whom were of the active list, and the 
association thought itself able to keep a general 
secretary. Vice President J. A. Walton was 
elected to that position, which he filled credit- 
ably to himself and to the advantage of the so- 
ciety for five months. During this period the 
membership continued to increase, and public 
attention was favorably drawn to the work. 
During the summer of 1887 the office of general 
secretary was discontinued for six months. It 



HfSrORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



105 



' was not until October 22, 1887, that another 
secretary, in the person of E. A. Calkins, was 
obtained. He proved to be an efficient worker. 
About the first of January, 1888, larger and 
more commodious rooms were secured in the 
old city hall building, and fitted up especially 
for association work, and larger and better re- 
sults were accomplished. In December of that 
year the present general secretary, H. A. Deter- 
ing was called to take up the work, and began 
his labors on the building fund canvass, assisted 
by others. 

The present portion of the building was 
erected in the summer of 1889, and occupied by 
the association in August of the same year. 

CITY SCHOOLS. 

In 1874 the Central Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany donated eight lots near the present court- 
house square, for school purposes. Here was 
erec.ed a schoolhouse by J. L. Smith. The cost 
was $2,699, and was opened for school January 
3, 1875, with R. H. Bramlet as principal. In 
1879 a new school building was erected, at a 
cost of $7,500; including furnishings, $10,500. 

The exceptionally good schools of the city 
of Fresno are a source of pride to her citizens. 
Although there ar.e three large school buildings, 
one of which affords high-grade facilities, the 
demand for another is pressing, owing to the 
increase in the number of school children. The 
corps of teachers have been selected with a due 
regard to their proficiency, both as scholars and 
teachers. 

THE BAB OF THE COUNTY. 

In the biographical department of this work 
may be found by the index sketches of Judges 
Winchell and J. B. Campbell, and Messrs. 
C. G. Sayle, W. D. Grady, S. J. Hinds, S. A. 
Holmes, M. K. Harris, H. S. Dixon, G. G. 
Goucher, G. A. JSfourse, Frank H. Short, C. C. 
Merriam, L. L. Cory, L. B. McWhirter, M. 
Farley, Firman Church, — all of Fresno city; J. 
A. Burns and E. E. Calhoun, of Selma; and A. 
A. Smith, of Kingsburg. 

Besides the above there are now practicing: 



At Fresno city, Richard H. Daly, H. C. and W. 
D. Tupper, R. B. Terry (son of Hon. David S. 
Terry, deceased), J. P. Meux, E. D. Edwards, 
T. P. Ryan, S. F. Nourse, H. Z. Austin, George 
W. Jones, James H. Daly, S. R. Hart, 
George E. Church, Thomas E. Lynch, N. C. 
Caldwell. H. H. Welch, R. P. Davidson, 
Oliver Wolcott, E. F. Bernhard, Graham & 
Manson. Frank Laning, W. H. Cureton, E. W. 
Riley, A. J. Eledsoe and G. L. Hood; at Selma, 
W. H. Dwyer; and at Sanger, Miles Wallace. 

Charles A. Hart, the first county judge, is 
not now a resident of this county. David S. 
Terry, now deceased, practiced in Fresno two or 
three years before his death. R. L. Dixon, fa- 
ther of H. S. Dixon, was a lawyer in Fresno. 



PHYSICIANS. 



Fresno has an able corps of physicians and 
surgeons. Tire Fresno County Medical Society 
was organized December 22, 1883. The list of 
members, present officers, etc., are as follows: 

Honorary — C. M. Bates. 

Regular — F. R. Brown, Medical Department 
University of Michigan, 1869; J. F. Burns, 
Cooper Medical College. California, 1888; E. 
C. Dunn, Bachelor of Philosophy, Medical De- 
partment, University City of New York, 1881; 
A. G. Deardorff, College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons, Keokuk, Iowa, 1882; H. St. George L. 
Hopkins, Medical Department of University of 
Pennsylvania, 1855; T. M. Hayden, College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa, 1874; 
W. T. Maupin. Jefferson Medical College, 
Pennsylvania, 1864; T. R. Meux, Medical De- 
partment of University of Pennsylvania, 1860; 
J. L. Maupin, St. Louis College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, Missouri, 1890; A. J. Pedlar, 
Medical College of the Pacific, Cooper Medical 
College, California, 1877; J. R. Riley, Medical 
College of the Pacific, California, 1876; Ches- 
ter Rowell, Medical Department of the Univer- 
sity of the Pacific, Cooper Medical College, 
California, 1870; J. T. Surbaugh, Missouri 
Medical College, of Missouri, 1874; G. M. Sum- 
mers, Medical Department of University of 



106 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



California, 1876; F. M. Sponagle, Medical De- 
partment of University of Wooster, 0., 1876; 
Long Island College Hospital, New York, 1885; 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, 
1886; J. R. Sutton, College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa, 1884; W. P. Miller, 
University of Vermont, 1883; E. V. Janett, 
Atlanta Medical College, Georgia, 1874; Alice 
M. Woods, Woman's Medical College, New 
York, 1885; Mary J. Laird, Woman's Medical 
College, New York, 1885; A. D. McMasters, 
Missouri Medical College, Missouri, 1879. 

Deceased Members — C. D. Latimer, Uni- 
versity of Virginia; E. G. Camplin, College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa. 

List of presidents since organization in 1883: 
C. Rowell, C. D. Latimer (deceased), F. R. 
Brown, H. St. Geo. L. Hopkins, A. G. Dear- 
dorff, F. R. Brown and J. R. Reily. The name 
of the fifth president is missing from the fore- 
going list. 

Present officers: J. R. Reily, Pres. ; T. M. Hay- 
den, 1st V. P.; F.M. Sponagle, 2nd V. P.; E. C. 
Dunn, Sec; J. L. Maupin, Ass. Sec; Chester 
Rowell, Treas., — all of Fresno. 

Board of Censors: J. R. Reily, W. T. Mau- 
pin and Chester Rowell. 

Finance Committee: A. J. Pedlar, A. G. 
Deardorf and F. R. Brown. 

Committee on Medical Ethics: T. M. Hay- 
deii, T. R. Meux and J. F. Burns. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Fresno city has a population of 10,890, ac- 
cording to the census of 1890. She has a well 
organized fire department, is governed by a 
council elected by the people, and the council 
elects one of their number as presiding officer, 
who fills the position of mayor. The city is 
surrounded for a distance of many miles with 
fruit orchards and raisin and wine vineyards, 
ranging from ten up to 500 acres. Here are the 
largest raisin vineyards in the world. 

Fresno is situated 206 miles, by railroad, 
southeast of San Francisco, and is in many 
respects the most remarkable city in California. 



The business portion is built up solidly with 
brick and stone, and contains many elegant 
blocks, equal in stateliness and symmetry to 
those of many old cities. 

Hughes' Hotel, in style of architecture, ele- 
gance and completeness, it is sate to state, has 
no t-nperior on the Pacific Coast. It lias a 
frontage of 200 feet by a deptli of 150 feet. 
Materials used in its construction, pressed-brick 
and stone trimmings. It is four stories in 
height and surmounted by gables, towers and 
spires, while bay-windows and reliefs help to 
display the beauty of its architecture. The 
halls are wide, the parlors and reception rooms 
display taste and splendor. There are 200 
rooms, to most of which there are bath-rooms. 

There are a number of good hotels, among 
which are the Grand Central, the Pleasanton, 
the Tombs, Fahey's, etc. 

There are four large bank buildings which are 
notably attractive. The Barton Opera House 
is one of the finest on the Pacific Coast, 75 x 100 
feet in size, two stories high, in the Romanesque 
style externally, is constructed of brick, with 
pressed-brick pillars and corners, and sandstone 
and terra-cotta trimmings. 

The business streets are paved witli bitumi- 
nous rock, suppoited by a substantial concrete 
base, a good system of water-works, electric 
light, telephone, a fire department, — indeed all 
those improvements that belong to a metropol- 
itan city. A fine courthouse is located in the 
center of a beautiful park, planted with palms. 
shade-trees, grasses and flowers, a fair-ground 
embracing 100 acres, and lias a mile race-track. 
There are three lines of street cars, one of which 
reaches the fair-grounds. Two daily papers, the 
Daily Republican and the Daily Evening 
Expositor, both well edited and wielding a 
wide influence. There are also several weekly 
papers. The churches and public schools, as 
also the fraternal societies, of Fresno, bear evi- 
dence to the intellectual activity and piety of 
its people. The census of the city has been 
stated. That of the county is 31,158, a gain of 
230 per cent, over the census of 1880. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



107 



The future outlook for Fresno city is bright, 
indeed. The country around it is fast develop- 
ing, and the city can scarce keep pace with it. 
New industries are springing up all the time, 
which give employment to her people. She 
stands at the head of all the cities of the San 
Joaquin valley, and will always hold that 
position; it is truly the " Queen City" of the 
plains. Fresno is the center of the raisin, 
wine, wool and fruit industries of the great San 
Joaquin valley. The raisin industry has already 
assumed enormous proportions, as will be seen 
elsewhere in this work. 

CITY GOVERNMENT. 

For the purpose' of municipal government 
the city of Fresno is divided into five wards, 
represented by as many aldermen. The com- 
mon council thus formed selects from its own | 
number a president, who is thereby ex officio 
the mayor, which office is now filled by S. H. 
Cole. The city recorder is ex officio police 
magistrate, and the city marshal is ex officio 
chief of police. 

The city officers who have salaries are: City 
clerk, W. B. Dennett, per month, $100; city 
treasurer, W. H. McKenzie, commission, 1 per 



cent.; city marshal, John D. Morgan, per 
month, $100; city assessor, C. C. Lyons, per 
annum, $1,050; city recorder, Frank Lang, per 
month, $50; city attorney, C. C. Merriam, per 
month, $100; city superintendent of streets, S. 
H. Cummings, per month, $100; city inspector 
of sewers, R. A. Rose, per month, $75; city 
chief of fire department, E. R. Higgins, per 
month, $65. 

Policemen. — Gus Anderson, per month, $75; 
S. O. Zener, per month, $75; H. J. Hart, per 
month, $75; — Smith, per month, $75. 

Pound master. — D. Crow, fees. 

Fire Department. — Engineer No. 1, A. C. 
Cossman, per month, $100; engineer No. 2, 
W. H. Harris, per month, $75; driver engine 
No. 1, G. L. Adams, $65; driver engine No. 2, 
W. J. Wier, $65; driver hose cart No. 1, W. 
Roberts, $65; driver hose cart No. 2, W. Fa- 
vetts, $65; driver hook and ladder, J. B. Mc- 
Donald, $65. 

The school trustees elected April 13, 1891, 
are: O. G. Woodward, George E. Church and 
H. Z. Austin. The councilmen are: 1st ward, 
Firman Church; 2d, S. H. Cole, Mayor; 3d, 
J. C. Herrington; 4th, William Fahey; and 5th, 
B. T. Alford. 




108 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




SELMA. 

fHIS flourishing little city is located in the 
southern part of the county, about fifteen 
miles distant from Fresno city, on the 
main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. 

The origin of the town was the result of a 
soldier's warrant location in 1878, when J. E. 
Whitson, the father of the town, preempted 
160 acres of a sandy desert, as the present town 
site appeared at that time. The original town 
plat was surveyed in 1880, when the railroad 
company built a small switch to accommodate 
the farmers in that sparsely settled community. 
The station was christened Selma, but the de- 
rivation and application of the name is unknown 
to the writer. 

But a short titne elapsed before it became 
evident that Selma was destined to assume a 
position of importance in the county. It pos- 
sessed all the natural essential conditions that 
pushed Fresno to the fore, and there appeared 
to be no element to retard its development and 
prosperity, excepting the lack of water for irri- 
gation. Private capital was interested in this 
question, and a few years later a system of 
canals was applying the revivifying fluid to the 
parched plains, which were soon converted into 
green alfalfa fields, vineyards and orchards. 
The introduction of water produced its usual 
wonderful effect. The town grew up as if by 
magic. Elegant residences and substantial busi- 



ness blocks followed in its wake. The people 
were imbued with a spirit of energy and push, 
and Selma's future was assured. 

The town to-day has an actual population of 
about 2,000 souls. In 1882 it was the abiding 
place of barely 250 persons, and in 1887 had 
grown to 1,000. It can be observed by this 
that the increase was something extraordinary. 

The rapid growth in population, however, 
was not more marvelous than in the number 
and character of the residence and business 
structures and the extension of the various busi- 
ness interests. Selma's citizenswere also enter- 
prising in the matter of erecting and maintain- 
ing some of the best public buildings to be seen 
in any country town in the West. Among 
others may be mentioned the two large, well- 
appointed and handsome school buildings, and 
the eight commodious and in some instances 
costly and elegant edifices for divine worship. 
The town is also blessed with a good gas plant 
and a complete and serviceable system of water- 
works. 

Selma has no less than seven well-appointed 
stores of general merchandise and two family 
grocery stores, two clothing stores, one boot and 
shoe store, two drug stores, two large, well- 
stocked lumber yards, one planing- mill, one 
large raisin packing-house, one first-class flotir- 
ing-mill, five large blacksmith shops and agri- 
cultural implement repairing >li(ip>. two butcher 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



109 



shops, three hotels, four lodging-houses and five 
livery stables. Within the past year $50,000 
have been expended in the erection of needed 
brick structures. Among the number may be 
mentioned the Masonic Temple block, which is 
one of the most handsome and imposing struc- 
tures, outside of Fresno city, in the county. 

The Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union and Good Tem- 
plars all have large and growing memberships 
in Selma. There are no less than ten organized 
Christian churches, with a combined member- 
ship of over 450, and employing seven regular 
ministers of the gospel. There are about 420 
pupils in the Selma public schools, which are 
graded in such manner as to give employment 
to seven teachers and one principal. The corps 
of teachers employed rank with the most effi- 
cient in the State, and the grade and character 
of the schools are the best. 

Selma Parlor, No. 107, N S. G. W., was 
organized in June, 1887, with eighteen charter 
members and the following officers: W. A. 
Prat, Pres.; Joseph Brownstone, 1st V. P.; 
James McLaughlin, 2d V. P.; M. McCall, 3d 
V. P.; H. Brownstone, Fin. Sec; H. F. Berry, 
Kec. Sec; C. F. Huger, Treas. ; and George 
Fraber, Marshal. 

The K. of P. was organized in 1888 ; officers 
as follows: Dr. J. F. Burns, P. C; W. J. 
Berry, C. C; W. C. Borchus, V. C; L. Har- 
lem, K. of R. & S.; and F. Burkhart, Prelate. 

United Ancient Order of Druids, Grove 
Wo. 70, was organized in August, 1887, and 
officered as follows: Dr. E. E. Brown, Past 
Arch; Joseph Brownstone, N. A.; W. A. 
Clifford, V. A.; J. W. Sesnon, Sec; P. Rear- 
don, Treas.; and W. L. Jones, Cond. 

Island No. 10 Post, No. 109, G. A. B., 
was organized in March, 1886, by A, D. C. 
C. A. Fuller, of Fresno, with ten charter mem- 
bers. The first officers were: Rev. W. L. De- 
mumbaum, P. C; Marion Sides, S. V. C; 
J. E. Whitson, J. V. C; John All, Surgeon; 
O. H. Van Horn, Chaplain; Charles H. Robin- 



son, Q. M.; Walter Hobbs, O. D.; A. H. Graves, 
O. G.; and John Maltry, Adjt. The present 
officers are: John Maltry, C; William B. 
Sturges, S. V. C; T. L. Jones, J. V. C; B. S. 
Kirkland, Adjt.; William V. Cline, Q. M.; 
Charles McClanahan, Surgeon; J. E. Whitson, 
Chaplain; E. M. Russell, O. D.; C. I. James, 
O. G.; A. G. Brown, S. M.; William M. Evans, 
Q. M. S. The number of members has been as 
high as forty-two. 

Court Selma, I. O. of F., was organized in 
1890, with the followi ng officers : W. E. Knowles, 
C. R. ; George J. Nees, Sec; W. E. Jordan, 
Treas.; and W. L. Chappell, Court Deputy. 

The Ancient Order of United Workmen was 
organized here in 1881. Present officers: E. H. 
Tucker, Master Workman; J. E. Whitson, Fore- 
man; John Tuft, Recorder; W. L. Jones, Fin- 
ancier; A. Bariean, Receiver; A. E. Brooks, 
Guide. 

The Farmers' Alliance and the Grange have 
organizations in Selma. 

Probably one of the chief factors in the up- 
building of Selma is the press. The two papers 
there, the daily and weekly Irrigator, and the 
weekly Enterprise, have labored indefatigably 
to proclaim to the outside world the advanta- 
geous inducements offered to home-seekers in 
that locality, and their efforts have availed much 
good. The Irrigator is ably edited and suc- 
cessfully conducted by Walter T. Lyon and Wal- 
ter L. Chappell. 

The town is located about the center of the 
Selma irrigation district, organized under the 
Wright law over a year since. A synopsis of 
the object and provisions of this grand irriga- 
tion measure is given elsewhere in this volume. 

Like unto many other sections of the county 
the soil around Selma is " redlands" and " white 
ashy," and exceedingly prolific; fruit and grain 
are grown with great success. Many carloads of 
such products were shipped last year. 

Aside from the grapes shipped green, and the 
product of many vineyards sold on the vines, 
the Holton packing-house has shipped twenty- 
eight carloads, or 560,000 pounds of raisins. 



110 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Other produce to the amount of 1,789 carloads 
have been shipped from Selma during the past 
season. The latter was principally of wheat, 
with a few carloads of green fruit. Selma is 
not incorporated, but, with vineyard and orchards 
closing about her on all sides occupying the 
rich lands, the citizens will be compelled to 
protect their autonomy by incorporation as a 
city. 

Real estate in and about Selma is in demand 
at prices ranging from $75 to $200 per acre, 
and town lots at from $150 to $500, according 
to location. 

Selma's environments are such that the coun- 
try is capable of the grandest possibilities if the 
people manifest an adequate public spirit. 

In 1878 Mr. J. E. Whitson, a veteran of the 
late war, took his soldier's land warrant and 
located 160 acres of land on what some people 
considered at the time a sandy desert. In a 
short time the railroad was pushing southward 
and he concluded it was about the right distance 
from Fresno to locate a town and secure a depot, 
so in 1880 he laid out the town of Selma. A 
station was established by the railroad company, 
and from that time on there has been a scene of 
activity in building, and the country surround- 
ing has been developing more rapidly than any 
other section of the county save in the imme- 
diate vicinity of Fresno city. 

Selma has met with a series of the most dis- 
couraging reverses in the way of destructive 
tires, some of the most costly buildings having 
been consumed from time to time. In the de- 
velopment of the country adjoining it was 
found that the soil was rich and productive, and 
the construction of the Fowler Switch Canal and 
the Centerville and Kingsburg ditch opened up 
opportunities that have led to extraordinary re- 
sults. Fine vineyards and orchards have been 
planted and are now in fruitful bearing. The 
peach, prune, pear, fig and grapes grow to per- 
fection, while cereals thrive in the mellow, fer- 
tile soil. 

Following this discovery of the fruits of the 
soil, the town had a phenomenal growth which 



continued for three or four years, during which 
time a bank was established; Mr. Whitson 
erected a magnificent hotel building which 
would be a credit to any city; a large and com- 
modious public-school building was made a 
necessity, where eight teachers are employed 
and 420 school children attend for instruction; 
a large raisin-packing establishment was erected 
by Mr. Holton, with a dryer and all the neces- 
sary attachments; an extensive planingmill was 
established by Hall & Brown, and a costly and 
beautiful Masonic hall is just completed. There 
are numerous business houses to meet the mer- 
cantile demands of a town of 2,000 inhabitants. 

The State Bank of Selma was organized in 
1887, with a capital stoek of $100,000 Twenty 
per centum of this amount was at once paid up, 
and on the 14th day of June, 1887, it opened 
its doors in the east room of the then Matthews- 
McCartney block, for the transaction of business, 
with J. G. S. Arrants, president; J. E. Whitson, 
vice-president, and D. S. Suodgrass, cashier and 
secretary. It was not generally believed by 
even the friends and proprietors of the new 
venture that it could be made to pay more than 
expenses for the first year or so; but imagine 
their surprise when their deposits ran up into 
the thousands and their business at once proved 
to be all the bank's facilities would permit. It 
now has a fine brick 'structure, erected at a cost 
of $7,500, situated on the north side of Second 
street, between east Front and High. The 
business of the institution is now in a flattering 
condition. The present officers are: President, 
J. A. Stroud; vice-president, M. Sides; secre- 
tary and cashier, D. S. Snodgrass. 

The Selma packing-house, costing nearly 
$5,000, was built in 1889, by S. B. Holton, an 
enterprising old settler, ami it is doing an in- 
creasing business. 

From the day the town of Selma was laid oat 
it has enjoyed a steady growth. In ten short 
years she has leaped from a simple wheat field 
to a city of 2,000 inhabitants. Where ten 
years ago the traveler in passing the spot on 
which Selma now stands saw nothing but the 



HTSTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Ill 



plowman at his task or the " separator" driven 
by the straw-burning thresher engine, and cer- 
tainly no promise of the Seltna of to-day, now 
stands one of the most prosperous young cities 
in the San Joaqnin valley. When then the 
passer saw no sign of life other than that fur- 
nished him in the delving squirrel or reptile 
that crawled at his feet, now he sees a flourish- 
ing young city, with its elegant dwellings, coin- 
moJions and substantial business blocks and 
imposing public buildings, its streets jammed 
with the spirited teams and serviceable wagons 
of countrymen and its places of business filled 
with the choicest products of the best regulated 
modern farm, supervised by shrewd and enter- 
prising business men. Where ten years ago 
the observer witnessed only the '-springing of 
the grain" and heard only the rattle of the 
sickle and realized only a harvest of a few sarks 
of wheat, per acre, he now sees pouring from 
more than 200 dwellings a stream of youth and 
beauty 500 strong, and hears the laughing notes 
of hopeful youth singing on its way up the bill 
of knowledge, and realizes a harvest of wealth 
whose true riches can only be estimated or told 
by saying it is a " full crop" of intelligent and 
promising girls and boys. 

In and around Selma are many of Fresno 
County's most enterprising citizens. The Rogue 
& Sesnon raisin vineyard of 120 acres, four 
miles east of Selma, is almost without an equal 
in the county, for the intrinsic value of the land, 
for the facility with which it can be irrigated, 
for the exact workmanship in planting, for the 
beauty of the situation, and for the alluring 
promise it offers for the future. 

In looking around and near Selma, a number 
of farmers were interviewed, who have made a 
beginning in raising trees and vines, for nearly 
all of them have in years past chiefly engaged 
in growing wbeat. Mr. W. S. Staley, about 
one mile south of Selma, a native of West Vir- 
ginia, came to Fresno County with his wife and 
child, and $300 in money, in 1876. He pur- 
chased eight acres of land at $5.50 per acre. 
He grew wheat until 1883, when he planted 



some grapevines, all of which have done well, 
the crop of 1888, ranging from 100 to 150 
pounds to the vine, and the grapes being of un- 
usual size and flavor. His orchard of French 
prunes is giving great satisfaction. He has re- 
fused $200 an acre for his land. E. F. Hammers 
came to Fresno County in 1877, and bought his 
farm of 320 acres, one mile south of Selma, at 
$4 an acre. He has devoted a large area to 
growing alfalfa, realizing a good profit, and is 
putting out vines and trees. Without special- 
izing, we will say that all kinds of fruit flourish 
in the region of Selma. The peach, prune, fig, 
grape, etc., grow to perfection, and the prices of 
lands anywhere near the thriving town is con- 
clusive evidence as to the value of farms in that 
highly favored portion of Fresno County. 

SANGER, 

the "junction city," is one of the most sub- 
stantial and prosperous towns in the county, yet 
it came into existence only about three years 
since. In the spring of 1888 the first house 
was built there and during the following sum- 
mer the present town site was platted into lots 
and sold to intending settlers. 

It is situated fourteen miles east of Fresno 
on the branch railroad to Porterville, and will 
be made the junction of the Stockton, Oakdale 
& Merced branch line, the extension of which 
is now in prospect. 

People who have never seen Sanger are un- 
able to appreciate the rapidity with which a 
wheat field was transformed into a bustling, 
growing city of 1,200 souls, and adorned with 
beautiful cottages, well appointed stores, a 
stately school building, commodious churches, 
costly brick blocks and large manufacturing 
interests. 

In most new towns tbe first buildings as- 
sume a temporal appearance, but at Sanger 
there is an exception to this characteristic. 
The many structures there are artistically 
planned, well-built and would do credit to a 
much larger city. 

That the people of Sanger have advanced 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ideas and are progressive was illustrated in the 
construction of a school building the year fol- 
lowing the birth of the town. The taxpayers 
very correctly took steps to build a temple of 
learning sufficiently large to accommodate the 
attendance for several years to come. The 
proportion to bond the district in the sum of 
$10,000 for that purpose met with unanimous 
favor, and in May, 1889, the building was 
erected at that cost. It is an imposing struct 
ure, comprises several large and well ventilated 
rooms, and is located on a slight eminence in 
the picturesque west end of town. Three com- 
petent instructors are employed, and Sanger is 
to be congratulated on the thoroughness of her 
public school. 

Sanger is not behind her elder neighboring 
towns in the matter of morality and Christian- 
ity. Two large and handsome edifices accom- 
modate the church-goers of that city. The 
Baptist congregation first built a house of wor- 
ship with a seating capacity of 300, at a cost of 
about $2,500. The Methodists next organized 
and erected a fine church at a cost of about 
$3,000. The building will sat 350 people. 
These denominations have a large membership 
and there are two other church societies that 
have not as yet built temples of worship. 

The King's River Lumber Company repre- 
sent the chief manufacturing interests of the 
town. It has a capital stock of $1,000,000 and 
was formed for the purpose of manufacturing 
lumber in Fresno County on the head-waters of 
the King's river, where it owns extensive tim- 
ber interests and has two large sawmills. These 
mills, when running ten hours per day, have a 
combined capacity of about 3,000,000 feet of 
lumber per month and give employment to 
about 300 men. The lumber is transported to 
the yards at Sanger by means of a V-flume, 
which has a carrying capacity of 250,000 feet 
per day when taxed to its utmost. The flume, 
with its laterals, is about sixty miles long. The 
planing-mill at Sanger manufactures sash, doors, 
blinds, boxes, etc. The officers of the company 
are: A. D.Moore, President; H. C. Smith, Vice- 



president; John R. Hanify, Secretary; II. W. 
Chase, General Manager. 

The Sanger Herald chronicles the weekly 
happenings of the town and community and is 
industriously engaged in advertising the re- 
sources and advantages of that section abroad. 
The Herald is ably edited, neatly gotten up 
typographically and its well-filled advertising 
columns indicate that the citizens of Sanger 
recognize and appreciate the good work it has 
been doing. E. P. Dewey is the enterprising 
and experienced editor and proprietor. 

Among those who have been active in making 
Sanger prosperous as she is, we mention A. J. 
Elmore, the popular druggist; Frankenau Broth- 
ers, general merchants; I. Brownstone & Sons, 
W. A. Hurry, John N. Albin, of the Hotel de 
France, and many others. The vicinity of San- 
ger is destined at an early day to be one of 
the great fruit-producing regions of the San 
Joaquin valley. It is located near tha thermal 
belt of Fresno County, where the orange, tig, 
lemon, peach, pear, apple, grape and other fruits 
grow to perfection. The soil is exceedingly fer- 
tile and well adapted to the culture of horticult- 
ural, vitieultural and agricultural products. The 
land around Sanger is under a private system of 
irrigation and is embraced within the boundaries 
of the Selma irrigation district. Sanger has an 
obvious advantage that home-seekers should not 
pass by with indifference. We refer to the 
natural drainage of the country. The town is 
located within a short distance of King's river, 
the channel of which is some thirty to forty 
feet below the plains and affords a perfect sys- 
tem of sub-drainage for the country, which is 
conducive to the health of the community and 
the success of every farm enterprise. 



With an estimated population of 1,200, Madera 
is located in the northern portion of Fresno Coun- 
ty, on the main line of the Southern Pacific rail- 
road, twenty three miles north of Fresno city, 
and 187 miles south of San Francisco. It is 
the distributing or railroad point for a number 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



113 



of towns not located on the railroad, and a con- 
siderable business is transacted here. The busi- 
ness men are enterprising and progressive and 
are working harmoniously for the general im- 
provement of the town. Madera has many sub- 
stantial buildings, two large and commodious 
churches, an excellent public-school system, a 
bank with a capital stock of $100,000, a num- 
ber of fraternal societies, and several good hotels. 
The town has grown very rapidly during the 
past several years, on the merits of the pro- 
ductive agricultural country surrounding it, and 
the immediate prospect of an abundance of 
water for irrigation justifies the hope of the 
people that a prosperous era is dawning and 
the belief that a bright and auspicious future is 
before the town. 

The Madera Flume and Trading Company 
transacts the principal business in Madera. 
This corporation was organized in 1874 by a 
number of capitalists, associated under the cor- 
porate name of The California Lumber Com- 
pany, but in 1878 this business became the 
property of another company and the name was 
changed to the Madera Flume and Trading 
Company. The principal place of business is at 
Madera, where the company's extensive planing 
mill and sash, door and box factory are conven- 
iently located. There is also a business office 
at San Jose. The officers of the company now 
are: M. Malarin, President; Return Roberts, 
Vice-president and Superintendent; J. M. Shee- 
han, Secretary; E. McLaughlin, Treasurer. 
The annual product of the mills has an enor- 
mous value, and its business is the manufacture 
of lumber, doors, sash, blinds, mill-work and 
box material, which find a ready market from 
San Francisco on the north to El Paso, Texas, 
on the south and east. The Madera Flume and 
Trading Company, with a capital stock of 
$500,000, are the owners of two profitable 
steam sawmills, one situated on the head-waters 
of the Fresno river, and the second on the 
north fork of the San Joaquin, each being sixty 
miles distant from Madera. Both mills are 
connected with the yards here by a V-flume 



which, by the way, is the longest in the world. 
.This flume traverses the entire distance, and 
was built at an original cost of $460,000. The 
lumber, consisting of yellow pine, fir and sugar 
pine, — principally the latter — is conveyed from 
the mills in the mountains to the factory here 
through the medium of this flume, which thus 
serves the double purpose of cheap transporta- 
tion and the removal of sap from the lumber by 
the action of the water. The waste water from 
this flume is turned into the irrigating ditches. 
The two mills in the mountains now in opera- 
tion manufacture 130,000 feet of lumber per 
day. Owning 5,000 acres of choice timber land 
in the Sierra Nevadas, running two large mills 
in addition to the yards and factory, the Flume 
Company, under the local management of Re- 
turn Roberts, constitutes an enterprise of which 
any city might well feel proud. The sawmills 
give employment to some 300 men, and about 
twenty-five men are employed to attend the 
flume between here and the mountains, and 
assist the passage of lumber. In the yards and 
factory here about 125 men are at work, and the 
monthly pay-roll for the company's business 
here amounts to about $6,000. The timber re- 
sources of the Sierras are almost inexhaustible, 
and can be turned to account by only such 
business energy as prompted the inauguration 
and maintains the efficiency of the Madera 
Flume and Trading Company. 

In 1876 the California Lumber Company 
had in course of construction the present Mad- 
era flume. The exact terminus of the flume had 
not then been decided on, and Messrs. Chap- 
man and Friedlander, who owned the present 
town site, and nearly all the adjacent country, 
offered to the company the property on which 
Madera now stands provided it would terminate 
the flume here. The acceptance of the proposi- 
tion was in fact the birth of the town, although 
at that time there was not a sign of a dwelling 
here or any place this side of Borden. The lat- 
ter place was then quite a village, and the most 
promising town in Fresno County. This sec- 
tion was then a barren, dry waste, and with the 



114 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA, 



exception of a straggling growth of wild oats 
was entirely devoid of verdure. In those days 
a person could ride a hundred miles and not find 
any kind of habitation. The country was, in 
fact, a vast stock range, and the stockmen dis- 
couraged as much as possible any attempt to 
convert it into an agricultural region. 

The first house built in Madera was a rude 
shanty put up by the lumber company as a tem- 
porary boarding-house for the men working on 
the flume. During that year the town was laid 
out and an auction sale of lots took place in 
September. Captain Mace secured the first 
choice of this property, and soon thereafter he 
erected a very commodious hotel. Following 
this quite a number of buildings were, con- 
structed for the employes of the company. The 
pioneer general merchant of Madera was H. S. 
Williams. He opened the first store here in 
1877. The Madera post office was established 
in 1878, and, as there was no remuneration 
attached to the office and to maintain it was an 
expense, there were no aspirants to act as post- 
master. Finally, as a matter of accommodation 
to the people, E. Moore accepted the postmaster- 
ship, which he retained until about one year 
ago. 

The Alabama Settlement Company com- 
menced the improvement and cultivation of 
land here, and these settlers were the first to 
test the productiveness of the soil and its 
adaptability to agricultural purposes. The ter- 
mination of the flume at Madera was a death 
blow to Borden, and nearly all the houses there 
were subsequently moved to this place. One of 
the greatest drawbacks to the town's growth in 
its incipiency was the death of Mr. Friedlander. 
This necessitated the probating of his estate 
and rendered the issuance of titles to purchasers 
of town property an impossibility for a long 
period. This unfortunate circumstance retarded 
Madera's early prosperity quite seriously. The 
town has grown gradually in population and 
wealth, notwithstanding it has experienced 
several disastrous conflagrations which destroyed 
the principal business portion of the place. 



For many years following the first settlement 
of the country around Madera wheat farming 
and stock growing, such as cattle and sheep, 
were the only industries engaged in. A num- 
ber of years since, after it had been successfully 
demonstrated that Fresno County land was 
peculiarly suited to vineyard culture, a dam was 
built across the Fresno river (this stream flows 
along the northern and northwestern limits of 
Madera) and a canal constructed which carried 
a sufficient volume of water to irrigate a consid- 
erable area of fertile land. It was then that 
vineyard culture was inaugurated, and following 
the introduction of water on the lands several 
hundred acres were planted to vines which have 
since developed into thrifty, bearing and valu- 
able vineyards. However, tins irrigation sys- 
tem was the property of private individuals and 
the water supply was limited to their needs. 
This system has been enlarged during the past 
two years and irrigation has become more gen- 
eral. A gradual transformation has been taking 
place and Madera is now the most promising 
town in the San Joaquin valley. 

On November 3, 1888, an election was held 
for the formation of the Madera Irrigation Dis- 
trict, comprising an irrigable area of 305,000 
acres, under the Wright law. The vote was 
almost unanimously in favor of the district, and 
the following officers were elected: Assessor, 
W. C. Maze; Collector, E. S. Russell; Treasurer, 
N. Rosenthal. Directors — Division No. 1, J. 
H. Shedd; Division No. 2, G. W. Mordecai; 
Division No. 3, Return Roberts; Division No. 
4, J. F. Ward; Division No. 5, J. W. Minturn. 
Following the formation of the district a com- 
petent civil engineer was employed to make an 
estimate of the probable cost of necessary canals, 
dams and other works for the district. It was 
determined that bonds in the sum of $850,000 
must be issued, and on March 9, 1889, the bonds 
were voted. These bonds are of the denomina- 
tion of $500 each, negotiable in form and pay- 
able in installments. 

Following- the bond election the district tiled 

o 

a petition with the Superior Court asking it to 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



115 



declare all the proceedings of the district legal 
and in accordance with the provisions of the 
Wright law. The decision of the court was de- 
layed by the opposition of several large land- 
holders who own private systems of irrigation 
within the district. However, Judge Campbell 
decided on March 4, 1890, that the proceedings 
of the Board of Directors were proper and legal 
and the district valid. This renders it possible 
to proceed with the issuance and sale of bonds. 

The Madera Irrigation District possesses 
superior advantages over any other district in 
the State by which an adequate supply of water 
for irrigation can be secured, having, as it does, 
so many never-failing sources. 

Although irrigation has not been general in 
northern Fresno County, the country immedi- 
ately surrounding Madera, to the extent of 
about 20,000 acres, has been supplied with 
water sufficient to insure the thrifty growth and 
early maturity of vines, fruit trees and all hor- 
ticultural products, by the Madera Canal and 
Irrigation Company's system. This coinpauy 
owns seventy-eight miles of irrigating ditches, 
all in good condition and of considerable 
capacity. The water supply is received from 
the Fresno river, and in addition to the natural 
flow of this stream water is diverted from the 
north fork of the San Joaquin river and Big 
Dry creek, a tributary of the Merced river. 
The water is diverted by means of ditches in 
the mountains, near the source of the streams 
mentioned, connecting them with the Fresno. 
This system is the property of large land- 
owners in the vicinity of Madera. T. E. Hughes, 
of Fresno, is the president of the company, and 
R. M. Wilson, of Oakland, superintendent. 
L. C. Worthington, of Madera, is the active 
superintendent of the system, and his extensive 
experience with irrigation works enables him to 
distribute the water economically and to the 
best advantage. 

There is probably no other corporation in 
Fresno County that transacts such an enormous 
business, or places as much money in circula- 
tion through the employment of a large number 



of men, as the Madera Flume and Trading 
Company. It is, in fact, one of the most sub- 
stantial lumber firms in the West, and it ad- 
vertises Madera more extensively than any other 
one thing. 

A great many people have heard or read 
about the wonderful flume which transports 
lumber by water from mountain to plain, a dis- 
tance of sixty-two miles, yet but few under- 
stand how the lumber is shipped, or anything 
about it. The building of this flume was a 
gigantic undertaking, which required a vast 
amount of capital and considerable pluck. The 
flume is Y-shaped, and it winds like a great ser- 
pent down and around cannons and gulches, 
then at some places the strips of lumber floating 
along dash down the steep grades much more 
swiftly than the water, throwing the spray sev- 
eral feet in the air, but when the plain is 
reached it glides leisurely along as if weary of 
too much hurry. The lumber is not shipped 
piece by piece, as many imagine, but several 
planks are clamped together at the end and then 
a train is formed from several piles and con- 
nected by small ropes. Section stations, where 
from two to four men are found, are located 
about every six miles, to see that the lumber 
passes on all right. As high as 200,000 feet 
have been shipped in one day. 

The Bank of Madera was organized in Novem- 
ber, 1889, and has transacted a good business 
from its inception, and it may now be ranked 
among the solid financial institutions of Fresno 
County. The officers of the bank are some of 
the most substantial citizens. They are as fol- 
lows: President, Return Roberts; Cashier, John 
Brown; Assistant Cashier, W. F Eaird; Direct- 
ors, supplemental to the above, W. O. Breyfogle, 
G. W. Mordecai and A. J. Etter. 

Of Madera's many advantages there are nome 
that will recommend the town more highly to 
the consideration of the man of family than its 
excellent public-school system. About twelve 
years ago the first building was erected. It was 
not a very elegant structure, but it answered its 
intended purpose until destroyed by fire a num- 



110 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ber of years later. The large and commodious 
building that now stands an ornament to the 
town was then erected. The growth of the town 
and the increased attendance of pupils necessi- 
tated the employment of more teachers, and at 
this time the three young ladies who constitute 
the excellent corps of instructors have crowded 
schoolrooms, and all the work that should be 
allotted to them. The term of school is usually 
nine mouths. The people of Madera are justly 
proud of the town's educational facilities. 

Education is the most beneficial legacy that 
a parent could leave a child: hence it is not 
strange that intending settlers in a strange com- 
munity are particularly desirous of information 
relative to educational facilities. In this re- 
spect Madera will rank with many towns of 
twice the population. The school has been in 
existence about thirteen years and at this time 
four teachers are employed in the different de- 
partments. They are respectively: Misses 
Annie Nicholson, Stella Bagnelle, Nellie Brey- 
fogle and Mable Sharp. All of these young 
ladies are graduates from the State Normal and 
experienced and proficient instructors. Under 
their tutelage pupils of the Madera school have 
made rapid progress toward the perfection of 
an education. The term lasts nine months. 
Though the schoolhouse is large and commo- 
dions the great increase in attendance daring 
the present term has necessitated the enlarge- 
ment of the building, or erection of another, 
and the employment of two additional teachers 
for the ensuing year. 

From a standpoint of religion and education 
Madera has cause to feel proud of the evidence 
of enlightment and elevating influence that pre- 
vails in her midst. 

The Catholic Church was the first house of 
worship erected in Madera. The lot where it 
is located and the lumber for its construction 
was donated by the Madera Flume and Tradino- 
Company about eleven years ago. The congre- 
gation was rather small then, but it has grown 
to a considerable number at this time. Im- 
provements have been made as the community 



built up, and the Catholic Church is now a very 
substantial edifice. Rev. Father O'Reilly is the 
resident pastor, and services are held every 
Sunday at 10 o'clock a. m. and 7 o'clock 

P. M. 

The Centenary Church, so-called, is of the 
Methodist denomination, and the foundation 
was laid in July, 1884, the centenary year of 
organized Methodism in the United States: 
hence the name centenary. Its dedication took 
place in September, 1887, Bishop Hardgrove 
officiating The building occurred during Rev. 
J. rl. Neal's pastorate. The edifice cost about 
$3,000, and is complete inside and outside. 
Rev. J. C. Pundergrast, the resident pastor, is 
a veteran in the service of Christianity, and is 
doing good work for the cause in Madera. He 
holds services every Sundiy, both in the morn- 
ing and evening. The young people of this 
church have recently organized a society of 
Christian Endeavor. 

During the month of December, 1890, the 
people of the Presbyterian faith of this com- 
munity concluded to erect a house of worship. 
"With a zeal worthy of the cause they coin 
menced work, and on Sunday, January 18, 1891, 
a large congregation witnessed the dedication of 
the commodious new edifice. The services were 
conducted by the Rev. Dr. Seward, of Los An- 
geles, and Rev. Thomas F. Dewing, of Mary- 
land. The building is neatly furnished, and, in 
fact, a very complete and handsome church, re- 
flecting great credit on the highly deserving 
efforts of the people who undertook its con- 
struction. Rev. W. B. McElwee, late of St. 
Louis, Missouri, recently assumed the pastorate 
of the church. The ladies of the church have 
organized an aid society. 

The Protestant Episcopal people have an 
organized church and a very fair congregation. 
Rev. D. O. Kelly, of Fresno, holds services in 
the reading-room every Sunday morning. The 
ladies of this church have a society called the 
Trinity Guild. 

The Baptists, though they have no church 
building, hold services every Sunday. Rev. Z. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



117 



C Rush, late of Nebraska, is the resident min- 
ister. 

One of the handsomest church buildings in 
Fresno County is the edifice recently erected by 
the Christian denomination of Madera. The 
church has a corner entrance, through a neat 
vestibule, into the main auditorium, which is 
32 x 40 feet in dimension. The auditorium has 
an incline floor which slopes toward the pulpit, 
a design arranged tor the convenience of the 
audience in all parts of the building. In the 
front of the church, separated from the audito- 
rium by a large lifting door, is the lecture or 
class-room. The altar, which is eight feet deep 
and thirty-two feet long, occupies the rear of 
the main building. Directly behind the pulpit 
is a large baptistery, where candidates for mem- 
bership may be immersed. In the annex to the 
building there are two dressing rooms for the 
convenience of those who accept immersion. 
The ceiling to the auditorium is sixteen feet 
high, and the acoustic properties of the room 
should be perfect. 

Among the buildings that command the at- 
tention of visitors to Madera one of the most 
conspicuous is the Masonic Temple. It is a 
handsome brick edifice, consisting of basement, 
two stores, and halls above. It was erected 
some two years ago and has been occupied ever 
since. It was built by an incorporated joint- 
stock company, composed principally of Masons, 
and supplied a long felt want as a place for the 
meeting of fraternal societies. The main hall, 
banqueting hall and ante-rooms are handsomely 
furnished and never fail to attract the admira- 
tion of visitors from other lodges. The Temple 
cost, including furnishing, about $13,500. At 
present five societies, the Masons, Odd Fellows, 
Knights of Pythias, Native Sons of the Golden 
West and Order of Eastern Star, are holding 
regular meetings in the Temple. All the or- 
ders have a good membership and are prosperous 
financially. Following are the officers of the 
various lodges: 

Madera Lodge, No. 280, F. da A. M.— P. 
M., James M. Dunlap; M., W. C. Ring; S. W., 



F. R. Brown; J. W., J. E. Tozer; S. D., B. W. 
Child; J. D., E. H. Cox; Secretary, J. W. Wat- 
kins; Treasurer, N. Rosenthal; Tyler, T. A. 
Pulsifer. 

Madera Lodge, No. 237, L. 0. 0. F.—V. G., 
T. A. Pulsifer; 1ST. G., T. A. Ripperdan; V. G., 
W. R. Fox; Secretary, C. Saxe; Treasurer, F. R. 
Brown; I. G., B. Marks; 0. G., C. S. Payne; 
Warden, W. E. Duncan; Conductor, John Grif- 
fin. 

Madera Lodge, No. 131}.. E. of P.—V. C, 
J. Myer; C. C, W. C. Maze; V. C, W. E. 
Duncan; M. of A., W. F. Waddell; K. of R. 
and S., J. W. Watkins; M. of E., J. W. Rages- 
dale; Prelate, James Dunlap; I. G., M. Coffey; 
O. G., J. Ferguson. 

Madera Parlor, No. 130, N. S. G. W.—Y. 
P., G. W. Donahne; P., George B. Simpson; 
First Vice-President, John H. Grace; Second 
Vice-President, W. R. Breyfogle; Third Vice- 
President, W. H. Greeley; Financial and Re- 
cording Secretary, J. H. Stoutenborough, Jr.; 
Treasurer, G. W. Donahue; Marshal, James H. 
Edwards. 

Order of Eastern Star, No. 92. — Worthy 
Matron, Mrs. E. Moore; Worthy Patron, Mr. 
Speigle; Associate Matron, Mrs. James Hous- 
ton; Treasurer, Mrs. William Stahl; Secre- 
tary, Mrs. N. Rosenthal; Conductress, Mrs. E 
H. Cox; Associate Conductress, Miss Jennie 
Houston; Adah, Miss Lulu Houston; Ruth, 
Mrs. R. P. Mace; Esther, Mrs. J. F. Daulton; 
Martha, Miss Mamie Mace; Electa, Mrs. J. W. 
Watkins; Sentinel, E. Moore; Warden, Mrs. 
Pierce. 

The Masonic Temple is owned by the Madera 
Masonic Building Association, with a capital 
stock of $10,000. The officers of this associa- 
tion are as follows: President, F. R. Brown; 
Vice-President, J. M. Dnnlapj; Secretary, J. 
W. Watkins ; Treasurer, K Rosenthal. The 
board of trustees is composed of live mem- 
bers, com prising the above officers and J. E. 
Tozer. 

The town is ahead of most places of its popu- 
lation in the State in the matter of facilities for 



118 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



fighting fire. The Madera Fire Department 
was organized about three years ago and has a 
membership of forty volunteers. The depart- 
ment is equipped with a Land engine, hose cart, 
700 feet of hose, hooks, axes, etc., and it has 
performed efficient work on many occasions 
when valuable property was in danger of de- 
struction. The company has the following 
corps of officers: Foreman, E. E. Vincent; 
First Assistant Foreman, Abe Cohen ; Second 
Assistant Foreman, Thomas Bloker; Secre- 
tary, R. V. Croskey; Treasurer, W. O. Brey- 
fogle. 

The County Review at Madera is an eight- 
page weekly, cut and pasted, and all home- 
print. The date of its first issue was December 
12, 1890, and the paper has a phenomenally 
large and rapidly growing circulation. The Re- 
view is independent politically, and as a county 
paper is honestly representative of all sections. 
J. M. McClure, the editor and proprietor, though 
a young man, has had the benefit of many years' 
experience in journalism. Prior to founding 
The Review, he edited and managed the Ma- 
dera Mercury for a period of nearly three years. 
He formerly edited the Democrat and News at 
"Wellsville, Missouri, where as the youngest 
member of the Missouri Fress Association he 
earned the sobriquet of the " kid editor," hav- 
ing assumed charge of the Democrat at the age 
of sixteen years. 

The Madera Mercury, a weekly published 
north of the San Joaquin, is the pioneer of that 
region. It was founded by the present propri- 
tor, E. E. Vincent, March 21, 1885. The fol- 
lowing year, November 6, Mr. Vincent admitted 
G. L. Castle as a partner, and together the firm 
got out the paper until August 13, 1887, when 
Mr. Castle, becoming interested in mines at 
Hildreth, sold out to Mr. Vincent. The Mer- 
cury was then printed on a common Army hand 
press, but to-day by steam power. It holds 
away from the traces of party politics, criticis- 
ing those whom it believes to be in the wrong, 
and according due praise to those in the right. 
It seeks to upbuild the country and represent 



the best interests of those striving to accom- 
plish that end. 

It is but a plain statement of the truth, and 
no empty, meaningless compliment, to say that 
the life record of Thomas E. Hughes has been 
one which reflects only credit upon himself, 
upon the name he bears and apon the county in 
whose interest much of his time, means and 
best energies have been spent. There are few 
men in Fresno County who do not know him, 
and a great many have been the beneficiaries of 
his liberality and kindness of heart, and others, 
oft-times strangers, the poor and unfortunate, 
and every movement for the improvement of 
those around him, religious, moral, educational 
and otherwise, have shared his generosity. 
All public improvements have found in him one 
of their warmest and most liberal supporters. 
Indeed, it is but voicing the general sentiment 
of the people of Fresno city, where he has re- 
Bided for many years, to say that no one among 
them has done so much for the improvement, 
growth and prosperity of that place, has given 
so much of his time, means and personal atten- 
tion to public work and enterprise as he. The 
present position of prominence and affluence of 
which Fresno can boast was attained, in part, 
through the instrumentality of Mr. Hughes. 
He not only had the money, but the public 
spirit to push matters to a finality when once 
commenced. Mr. Hughes is one of the men 
who have pushed California to the front, and 
made her what she is to-day — the banner State 
of the Union. He is one of those enterprising, 
go-aheadative, pushing kind of men. who look 
on the bright side of everything and encourage 
others to do likewise. He leads in every do- 
nation to advertise California abroad, and he is 
identified with every movement made by the 
Board of Trade to induce Eastern people to lo- 
cate here. To Mr. Hughes' great energetic 
liberality, Madera owes her awakening and pros- 
pective boom. He bought the Chapman place 
and immediately converted it into town and 
colony lots. In fact, Mr. Hughes fired the 
first gun for Madera's boom, and the develop- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



119 



ment of some as fine country as there is in the 
State. 

There are within a radius of a few miles of 
Madera a number of large, improved, hearing 
and profitable vineyards, and many hundreds of 
acres are now being planted to raisin-grape 
vines. Fresno County is the raisin center of 
California, and is now credited with producing 
more than one-half of the entire crop of the 
State. In this connection it may be said that 
there is no section of the county better adapted 
to grape culture than the country adjacent to 
Madera. The soil is rich and especially favor- 
able for the quick and healthy maturity of vines. 
The vineyards in this section that have been 
favored with an adequate supply of water for 
irrigation produce heavily and richly compen- 
sate their owners. The following brief descrip- 
tion of several improved places near town will 
tend to illustrate the productive qualities of the 
soil and the possibilities of the country when 
more vineyards are planted. 

THE SAYRE RANCH AND VINEYARD 

lies about one and one-half miles southeast of 
Madera, and comprises 800 acres of the best 
and most productive land in Fresno County, all 
of which is exceedingly level and susceptible of 
easy irrigation and high grade cultivation. The 
Sayre ranch and vineyard is supplied with water 
for irrig tion from the Madera Irrigation and 
Canal Company's system, and the aggregate 
length of the ditches and levees on the place is 
forty miles. Of this large tract 225 acres are 
planted to vineyard. This comprises 160 acres 
of raisin-grape vines of the Muscat and Malaga 
variety, and 165 acres of wine and table-grape 
vines. The table varieties are the Flaming 
Tokay, Rose of Peru and Black Hamburg; the 
wine grapes are the Zinfandel, Feher Szagos, 
Rieslings and Chasselas. Twenty acres of this 
vineyard were put out during the season of 
1881, and the remainder in 1885. This vine- 
yard produces heavily every season, and the 
product from the Feher Szago and Malaga vines 



some years amounts to twelve tons per acre. 
For the Muscat raisins Mr. Sayre finds a ready 
market at $100 per ton. The crop from the 
Sayre vineyard is dried on the place and shipped 
to Fresno in the sweat boxes for packing. The 
wine grapes from this vineyard are also dried. 
The quality of the raisins dried by Mr. Sayre 
are inferior to none in the county, and they were 
so recommended by the Fresno packing-houses 
last season. Quite a little orchard adorns this 
place, and peaches, apricots, pears, figs and 
thin-shelled almonds are grown to great per- 
fection . 

Mr. Sayre devotes considerable attention to 
stock-raising, and he has some of the finest 
horses and cattle in this section. For the past- 
urage of his stock Mr. Sayre has 160 acres of 
alfalfa meadow. This provides an abundance of 
excellent feed, and his stock are always in the 
finest condition. The entire ranch is under 
cultivation, and the remaining 400 acres are 
planted to grain. This property is all fenced, 
and there is, altogether, eleven miles of fencing 
on the place. 

Of the several large vineyards in the vicinity 
of Madera there are none more profitable than 
the Madeira vineyard, located about three 
and a half miles southwest of town. This 
property is owned by a syndicate of San Fran- 
cisco capitalists, and it comprises 640 acres 
of good land, only 190 acres of which, how- 
ever, are planted to vineyard. Over 400 acres 
of this large tract are 7 at this time, devoted to 
grain -growing, and an immense crop of fine 
wheat is harvested annually. The initiatory im- 
provements on the Madeira vineyard were made 
in 1870 by ex-Judge Holmes, now a citizen of 
Fresno. Mr. Holmes erected the first buildings 
on the place and set out a number of fruit and 
nut trees and a few grape vines. After an elapse 
of twenty years these trees and vines have at- 
tained immense proportions, and are as thrifty 
and prolific as they wereat ten years of age. One 
of the old vines measured twelve inches in diam- 
eter. There are about seventy of these veterans 
in the garden, yielding over a ton annually. 



120 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



The almond trees of the same age are thirty 
inches in diameter and produce a bountiful crop. 
The main vineyard was put out about eight years 
ago, shortly after the Madeira Vineyard Com- 
pany, composed of San Francisco capitalists, 
purchased the place. At that time 140 acres of 
wine grapes were planted, and also thirty acres 
of Muscat vines, five acres of seedless Sultanas 
and fifteen acres of Feher Szagos. The product 
from the raisin-grape vines nets the company 
the neat income of $150 per acre, clear of ex- 
penses, every season. The wine vines produce 
seven tons of grapes to the acre, which is 
equivalent to 1,000 gallons of wine. There is 
a large winery on the place, the main building 
of which is 105 x 55 feet and two-stories high. 
There are also several side buildings. The 
winery has a cooperage of 140,000 gallons, and 
it is crowded with casks of various capacities. 
A distillery is within convenient distance of the 
winery, and considerable brandy is distilled. 
The wine product of this vineyard is excellent 
in quality and immense in quantity. There are 
also fifteen acres of olive trees on the Madeira 
vineyard. They were set out eight years ago, 
and have just commenced to bear. Olive trees 
seldom bear fruit under ten years of age. Last 
season's crop from these trees was pickled, and 
no fruit makes a finer pickle than does the olive. 
The pickles sell readily at $1 per gallon. The 
olive can be used in many ways, but the oil is 
preferable and more profitable than all other 
forms. The oil is always in demand at $5 and 
$7 per gallon. C. Waldschmidt, the experienced 
superintendent of this property, estimates the 
value of the crop from the olive orchard two 
years hence at $100 per tree. The orchard con- 
tains 1,500 trees. There is also a small orchard 
of different varieties of fruit trees, amoncr which 
can be found apricot, peach, pear, fig, nectar- 
ine, apple, almond, and French and Japanese 
prunes. 

The Madeira vineyard is one among the finest 
in Fresno County, and it is another apt illus- 
tration of the capabilities of (he soil and its 
adaptability to various products. 



E. II. t'OX S YOUNG VINEYARD 

was put out in February, 1889, and of the 25.- 
000 vines set out all started and grew with the 
exception of eight. Their enormous growth 
since that time is abundant evidence of the 
adaptability of the soil to vineyard culture. The 
vines have been regularly cultivated, and the 
benefit of thorough cultivation is noticeable in 
their magnificent growth. Last season, when 
the vines were less than eight months old, clus- 
ters of luscious grapes could be found through- 
out the vineyard. Experienced grape- growers 
predict that Mr. Cox's vineyard will bear heavily 
when three years old. We do not believe there 
is another vineyard in the State of its age that 
will compare favorably with this one. Mr. Cox 
is now engaged in putting out an additional 
forty acres in the vicinity of his vineyard 
planted last year. 

Of course, there are many very thrifty small 
vineyards in the vicinity of Madera. 

COLONIES, ETC. 

The John Brown Colony was organized and 
incorporated in September, 1889, and a syndi- 
cate was formed, principally of eastern capital- 
ists, the management of its affairs being placed 
in the hands of John Brown, who was chosen 
as the local manager of the corporation with 
headquarters at Madera. He immediately pur- 
chased 3,500 acres of land, situated seven miles 
south of the town of Madera, and subdivided it 
into five-acre lots, and in this the genius of the 
project was developed. 

To give a plain and comprehensive idea of the 
scheme; an extract is here taken from the plans 
and specifications of the manager of the syndi- 
cate: "We take a large tract and divide it 
into small lots, taking five acres as our unit, 
and dispose of the whole tract in such or larger 
quantities. The purchaser has only to pay a 
nominal sum, according to the number of acres 
bargained for, as an evidence of good faith at 
the time the contract is made, such payment to 
be credited to him at the time of final settle- 
ment, the other payment to be as fellows: One- 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



121 



third in one year, one-third in two years and the 
remainder at the expiration of three years, when 
he acquires a perfect title to his purchase. 

The colony will fence, cultivate and plant the 
land, receiving as a recompense therefor the 
proceeds of the third year's crop, as the second 
year's product rarely even amounts to anything; 
or else the purchaser can make special and dif- 
ferent arrangements; or, if one simply takes 
land in this colony as an investment, not intend- 
ing to make it his home, he will procure a prop- 
erty which will yield him each year as much as 
it has cost him in cash outlay. The idea is that 
of co-operation in all the expenses until the 
property is brought up to a producing condition 
and the land is paid for, when it becomes the 
individual property of the subscriber." 
And again — 

"We plant fruits and tend them for three 
years for the price named. At the end of that 
time, if the land has not been paid for, we will 
cultivate another year or two if necessary. We 
wish to be fully understood on this point. We 
are not making a proposition to just cultivate 
for three years and take what crops may be pro- 
duced upon the land in that time as our entire 
pay. We put this upon a business basis. The 
lands must be paid for. We will guarantee the 
best of cultivation and make all efforts to pro- 
duce their price as quickly as possible. As we 
have often explained, it is to our direct interest 
to do so, for we want our money as soon as we 
can gel it. This plan in l'act by identifying 
our interest with those of the colonists, gives 
them the best kind of guarantee that the land 
will have the highest cultivation. We explain 
this that everything may be understood clearly. 
We can plant and cultivate the lands for three 
years for the price named, but we cannot go any 
further than that, and no reasonable person will 
ask us to do so after this explanation." 

This, in brief, is the plan. Each individual 
who purchases a lot becomes a member of the 
association and an assistant in the development 
of the lands of the colony. The list of members 
compose many citizens of Eastern States who 



have never visited California, and who have con- 
fidence in the integrity of Manager Brown. 

Kingsburg is situated in the extreme south- 
ern portion of Fresno County, near the banks of 
King's river, on the main line of the Southern 
Pacific railroad, and 226 miles from San Fran- 
cisco by rail. The town has a population of 
400, according to the last census, and possesses 
the usual complement of business houses for a 
town of that number of inhabitants. The sur- 
rounding country is very fertile and is watered 
principally by the Centreville and Kingsburg 
irrigating canal, a corporation of the farmers 
owning the land in the vicinity. 

From the settlement of the county by the 
farmers to within four or five years ago the land 
was principally farmed to wheat and barley, but 
since that time wheat farmincr has to a con- 

o 

siderable extent been abandoned for the more 
lucrative business of raising fruit and grapes. 

The Kingsburg colony was founded in No- 
vember, 1886, and its growth to the present time 
lias been very encouraging both to the colonists 
and the founders themselves; and although the 
colony has been extended several times, the in- 
quiry for colony lands seems at the present time 
to be as brisk as ever, and bids fair to continue 
until all the valuable lands are colonized. The 
surveying and platting of a new colony, com- 
mencing about two miles southwest of Kings- 
burg and embracing some of the finest land on 
the river bottom, belonging to the owners of 
the Laguna de Tache grant, and containing 
about 3,000 acres, is certain to attract many 
new people to this vicinity and will materially 
add to the population of the town in the near 
future. This new colony is to be known as the 
Fairview colony, and lies on both sides of what 
is known as Cole slough. The company is at 
present engaged in driving piles in the slough 
to construct a large flume across it to lead 
water upon the colony lands from the Center- 
ville and Kingsburg ditch. 

At the present time the colonists are all set- 
tled on the east side of the railroad, but it is 
only a matter of a year or two when the west 



122 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



side will lie offered to settlers in snfall quanti- 
ties, as there is an abundance of good fruit and 
vine land yet farmed to wheat and owned by 
non-resident speculators. 

Land can be bought at the present time with 
water on it, or near to it, so it can be run upon 
the land, at prices ranging from $60 to $125, 
and lying from one mile to six miles from town, 
in tracts ranging from 5 to 160 acres. Lands 
when planted to raisin vines rise rapidly in 
value; and although less than half a dozen per- 
sons have sold farms already planted out (and 
none that have come into bearing), yet those 
who have sold have realized handsomely indeed 
from their investment. 

One party bought twenty acres, paying $75 
per acre therefor, planted the entire lot the first 
season,- and sold the same the second year for 
$200 per acre. He then bought another lot and 
is now at work improving it. Another party 
bought 100 acres, paying $30 per acre for it, 
getting it at such a low figure on account of its 
situation and because about twenty acres of the 
place were in the river and of no value. He 
planted forty acres to vines the past winter and 
has very recently sold out for $13,000. He 
will not leave the county, however, and those 
who bought from him are convinced that they 
have secured a bargain. 

Other instances could be named, but this is 
sufficient to show that labor is well paid for here 
when put out on the line of improvements on 
land, and no one need be afraid of not getting 
his money returned, with big interest, when he 
buys and improves land in this vicinity. 

Vines planted and well taken care of the first 
season have produced the second year as much 
as 450 pounds of raisins to the acre, worth about 
four cents per pound, or $18 per acre. One 
party gathered from nine and one-half acres of 
vines planted last year 900 trays the present 
season, the vines being about eighteen months 
old. Vines six and seven years old yield an 
average income of $150 per acre. There are 
only one or two small vineyards of this age in 
the vicinity. 



Fruits of various kinds are grown very ex- 
tensively in the neighborhood, but the orchards 
are all young and not in full bearing, and only 
a few of the older planted trees have yielded as 
yet. a full crop. Instances of this year's crop 
have been mentioned where peach trees planted 
five years have yielded as high as six boxes of 
fruit, or 300 pounds, to the tree. Plums, 
prunes, pears, quinces and apricots do equally 
well, and considering the ages of the orchards 
Kingsburg has made a handsome showing the 
past season in her shipments of both green and 
dried fruits. 

Irrigation in this vicinity promisee to be but 
a small item in the farm expenses of the future, 
as sub-irrigation is rapidly taking place; and 
where water ten years ago was twenty-five feet 
below the surface, to-day it is from seven to ten 
feet, and trees and vines need but one applica- 
tion of water each season after the first year's 
planting. 

The colonies are mainly settled by Swedes. 
yet there are about all nationalities represented, 
and a more thrifty and energetic people cannot 
be found anywhere in the State. Their love of 
home and its adornment is evident to every one 
who will take a drive through the colonies and 
observe the neatness about their homes and the 
mathematical accuracy with which the different 
varieties of trees and vines are planted, and the 
care expended on the trees planted along the 
roads and avenues leading to and from their 
homes. 

The morals of the people are presided over by 
five ministers, and four church buildings mark 
the different places of worship. 

The Kingsburg school employs three teachers 
and has an attendance of about 120 pupils. 
At the present rate of increase, however, KingS- 
burg will require another school building within 
two years, in order to accommodate the pupils. 

There are planted in this neighborhood at the 
present time about 3,000 acres to vines, and about 
1,50(1 acres of this amount will bear the coming 
year. It is estimated the yield will be about 
1,000 tons of raisins, and steps are being taken 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



123 



to build and equip a packing-house the coming- 
season. Heretofore the raisins produced in this 
section have been shipped elsewhere and packed, 
as the yield of the young vines up to the present 
time would not warrant and render profitable 
the building of a packing-house. 

During the coming spring there will be 
planted a greater area to vines than ever before, 
and it is estimated that this area will reach 2,000 
acres in the immediate neighborhood. It is 
predicted that within three years it will require 
as many as three packing houses to handle the 
raisins produced here, and this industry will 
bring a revenue to the town and vicinity from 
its fruit and grapes of $350,000 annually. 

Another industry at no distant day, which is 
destined to add greatly to the revenues of the 
town, is the manufacture of brick and tile from 
an immense bed of fine clay adjoining the river 
and about one and one- half miles from the rail- 
road. Several hundred thousand brick have- 
already been burned and shipped to various 
places, and they are pronounced by expert build, 
ers to be stiperior to anything produced in the 
San Joaquin valley in the line of brick. The 
owner of the property contemplates putting in 
a tile-making machine the coming year, and 
will run it in connection with the brick-making 
business. 

Towns like Kingsburg need some such indus_ 
tries to relieve the depression that must naturally 
exist at certain seasons of the year in all agri- 
cultural or fruit-growing communities. With 
the establishment of manufacturing industries, 
this period of non-productiveness among the 
farmers would not be noticed or felt in the 
community, and it would be self-sustaining in a 
measure. 

Real-estate sales have been unusually good 
of late. There are still some good bodies of 
land, however, that offer a fine investment for 
capitalists, who could subdivide it and sell it in 
small tracts at a good advantage. 

There have been some of the finest mineral 
prospects in the State discovered about thirty 
five miles to the southeast of here, and it is not 



impossible that a mining district may yet be 
developed. 

KAYMOND. 

Raymond is a small town in northern Fresno 
County, twenty-five miles north of Madera, and 
is the terminus of the Yo Semite branch of the 
Southern Pacific railroad. It is here that tour- 
ists take the stage for To Semite Valley, the 
great scenic wonder of America. In the vicin- 
ity of Raymond are unlimited deposits of fine 
stone, and the place is reputed to be the granite 
center of California. 

Prior to the building of the railroad from 
Berenda to Raymond, granite, suitable for build- 
ing purposes, was looked upon in that vicinity 
as a sort of "white elephant " The question of 
transportation being solved, but very little time 
elapsed before extensive developments were 
made and Raymond considered the granite cen- 
ter of the State. Raymond claims its quarries 
to be the best in the State. This claim is not 
based solely on the quantity of the granite, but 
on the quality and colors of the rock quarried, 
and, what is of the greatest importance in all 
granite, the regularity of the " seams." Larger 
stone than has been used in any building in 
San Francisco can be quarried there without the 
slightest difficulty. Three quarries are now in 
operation there. One ot them is owned by T. 
E. Knowles & Co., another by J. G. Day 
and the other by the Pacific Stone Company. 
Since the quarries were first opened about 750 
carloads of stone have been shipped. The 
stone is of different colors, some being the same 
as is usually used in cemetery work, the other 
of a lighter color and more suitable for building 
purposes than the dark stone. The rock in the 
quarries splits very easily, another important 
factor. These quarries differ from a great 
many others in the State, inasmuch as the stone 
is above the surface of the ground to a consider- 
able height. Others, or at least a majority of 
them, are below the surface, and to an inexperi- 
enced person would simply be termed "a hole in 
the ground," rather than a quarry. These 



124 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



quarries can be, and are, worked much cheaper 
than those of any other section of the State. 



TOLL HOUSE. 

This settlement is located within a circle of 
lofty mountains. Two miles north is a canon 
through which passes Dry creek in a series of 
cascades of 1,000 feet: distance from Fresno, 
thirty-two miles. 

Abe Yancey opened a hotel here in 1868, 
and Henry Glass started a blacksmith shop. 
Ten miles beyond the village are sawmills, 
reached by a heavy grade, which was a toll road 
for many years. Alexander Ball erected the 
first mill here in 1854. Humphrey and Mock 
established mills here in 1866, which became 
the property of M. J. Donahoo in 1870: he also 
purchased the toll road leading to the mills the 
same year and greatly improved the grade. In 
1878 the county purchased the road for $5,000 
and made it free. M. J. Donahoo built a plan- 
ing- mill at the Toll House in 1876. The lum- 
ber industry of Pine Ridge has been immense 
and Fresno County has been much benefited 
by such enterprising men as M. J. Donahoo, 
J. W. Humphrey, A. C. Yancey, Henry Glass, 
Moses Mock and others, who persisted, and were 
so suceessful in developing this portion of the 
county. 

A beautiful plateau, level as a floor, known as 
Markwood Meadows, is situated in the high 
mountains, fourteen miles east of Toll House, 
and is a delightful summer resort. 

firebaugh's ferry. 

In an early day A. D. Firebaugh established 
a ferry here. The place is noted now for the 
great Miller Lux ranch, situated in the vicinity. 
This immense ranch was noted in the past for 
the large number of cattle, horses, hogs, and 
sheep raised thereon. 

BUCHANAN 

was once a flourishing mining village, but, 
the copper not proving of sufficient quantity 
to pay working, the villagers turned their 
attention to agriculture and stock-raisins:. As 



this is in the foothills in the northern part 
of the county it will ere long be growing quan- 
tities of f rn it. 

White's Bridge is on the new line of rail- 
road and in a fine agricultural country, and will 
certainly be a good business center. 

KINGSTON AND CENTEKVILLE 

were early settled points and for a time prosper- 
ous villages, but after the railroad was opened 
for traffic, towns along its line grew up rapidly, 
and as they grew, the towns inland lost in 
proportion until their trade is gone, except a 
small local deal. 

FOWLER 

is on the main line of the Southern Pacific rail- 
road, ten miles southeast from Fresno city. 
Eight years ago there was scarcely anything 
here to indicate even the probability of a town 
except one or two shanties and a railroad side 
track; but time has wrought many changes, and 
now, instead of a side track and a couple of 
shanties, can be seen a thriving and pretty town 
of considerable commercial importance, the cen- 
ter of a very large and productive territory. 

Fowler represents nearly every branch of 
business, having two large general merchandise 
establishments — the firm of Kutner, Goldstein 
& Co., under the management of Louis Harlem, 
and the firm of Pratt & Man ley; a good drug 
store, Drs. Jarrett and Caiman, proprietors; a 
lumber yard, fruit packing-house, three grain 
warehouses, two hotels, two blacksmith shops, 
livery stable, meat market, etc. And in this 
connection it will scarcely be allowable to omit 
mention of E. W. Brtmton and P. W. Ilastie, 
who look after the real estate interests of Fow- 
ler and surrounding country. The past two 
years Fowler has grown very rapidly and many 
neat, costly buildings have been erected. If 
the town continues to improvo as it has for the 
past couple of years, and there is every reason 
to believe it will. Fowler will soon be advanced 
to the dignity of city hood. 

One thing especially flattering can lie said of 
Fowler's growth — that it has in no wise been 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



125 



the product of excitement or a boom. What- 
ever has been done here in the way of improve- 
ment has been substantially done, and those who 
have come here have come to stay. No empty 
buildings are here to indicate wliat has been 
in other and better days, for every available 
structure is in demand. And there is still an- 
other thing which bespeaks the future growth 
and prosperity of the town — the fact that it is 
not in advance of the country surrounding it 
and upon which it must largely depend for 
support. Viewed from a business standpoint 
Fowler is a good town, and offers much encour- 
agement to those who seek her favor and their 
own good. 

If there is one thing above another in which 
Fowler can especially pride herself it is in her 
society. Those who live here are a cultured and 
educated people and know how to appreciate the 
advantages of education. As a result of this 
class of settlement the citizens of Fowler have 
built one of the finest public school buildings in 
the county, at a cost of $10,000 — an ornament 
to the town and a monument of credit to the 
good sense and liberality of those who encour- 
aged by their efforts and means so worthy an 
object. The building is a large two-story frame 
structure, handsomely designed and conveniently 
arranged. The school is graded and two teach- 
ers are employed in the departments. The daily 
attendance now reaches fully 100 scholars, and 
another teacher will soon be necessary to care 
for the increase of new pupils. 

There are two church buildings in Fowler and 
three church organizations. The Presbyterians 
have a neat and comfortable building, and the 
United P^sbyterians are just completing their 
handsome house of worship, at a cost of $5,000. 
The other society, the Christians, conduct serv- 
ices in the Good Templars' Hall, a fine two- 
story frame structure recently built by the order. 

The Ladies' Improvement Society of Fowler 
is the name of an organization which has for its 
object the promotion of the moral interests of 
the young men of the place, and under their 
supervision is conducted a free public reading 



room, where newspapers, books, magazines and 
literature of a high order is furnished those who 
wish to avail themselves of the privilege. 

The Odd Fellows, G-ood Templars and Farm- 
ers' Alliance all have organizations in Fowler, 
with good enrollment and attendance, and have 
stated and regular times of meeting. 

For a number of years Fowler has been noted 
as a shipping point, being surrounded by a vast 
area of the finest wheat land in the State of 
California, and successive years of fruitful har- 
vest have been conducive to the establishment 
of grain warehouses at this point as invest- 
ments, until now there are three large grain 
storehouses, with a combined capacity of 7,600 
tons. And large as this storage capacity may 
seem to be to those who are not acquainted with 
the extent of the wheat harvests, still it is a fact 
that at times even the combined capacity of the 
three warehouses is taxed to the utmost to ac-* 
commodate the crop preparatory to shipment. 

But the cereal crop constitutes only a part of 
the product of this portion of the country; 
wheat is shipped to other markets for distribu- 
tion aud consumption. Fruit-growing is be- 
coming a great industry here, and it has been 
demonstrated to the entire satisfaction of all 
who have given it a trial that the quality of this 
laud and the climate here are alike conducive to 
the successful growth of the finest-flavored de- 
ciduous fruits. As far, then, as the growing 
of fruits here is concerned, it has ceased to be 
an experiment, and many broad acres of healthy 
trees in full bearing have time and again at- 
tested the wise policy of pursuing this branch 
of industry as a paying business. The past year 
here has been decidedly a successful one from a 
financial standpoint for the fruit-grower, and 
the man who had a few hundred trees bearing 
fruit has reaped a golden harvest. Both green 
and dried fruits the past season have demanded 
high prices, and people here are learning that 
it pays a larger revenue to grow fruits than it 
does to raise grain. As high a figure as $500 
per acre has been realized in this vicinity in 
1890 for peaches taken direct from the trees for 



120 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



shipment to the eastern market, and it has been 
no unusual thing to realize from ordinary or- 
chards from $300 to $400 per acre. The profits 
on apricots, prunes and figs have also been very 
large, and handsome returns indeed have been 
realized by all whose good fortune it is to own 
orchards. 

In consequence of the unusually early rains 
in 1890, and in order to facilitate drying and 
render more certain the successful ingathering 
and curing of the late fruit crop, the building of 
individual drying houses has been resorted to by 
many of the fruit-growers in the neighborhood, 
and by this means the second and even the third 
pickings were successfully preserved. Thus, 
whatever drawbacks have appeared at times to 
the successful growing and curing of the fruit 
and raisin crops, the genius of the growers has 
proved equal to meet. The building of those 
dryers will no doubt mark a new era in the suc- 
cess of the fruit industry here. 

As a result of the great profits from green 
and dried fruits the past year, ground is be- 
ing prepared and trees are everywhere being 
planted out, and the fruit output of this part of 
Fresno County will be constantly on the in- 
crease. 

In referring to Fowler as a shipping point the 
annual raisin pack must not be lost sight of, 
since it figures as quite an important factor. 
Most of the vineyards in this neighborhood are 
young, and but few are in full bearing. 

The Fowler Packing House has employed, 
during the entire season, over sixty hands in its 
various departments, and this fact alone will in- 
dicate something of the extent of the raisin 
pack and shipment from this locality. But in 
addition to the raisins packed and shipped by 
the home institution, many of the growers 
hauled the products of their vines to other pack- 
ing houses near at hand, which, when packed, 
were again brought here for shipment. For 
the year past the raisin pack foots up in high 
figures, and reflects great credit upon the pro- 
ductive character of Fowler's soil and the excel- 
lent drying qualities of her climate. 



The exact shipment from Fowler station for 

1889 is: 

Grain 688 car loads . 

Green and dried fruits 15 

Raisins 153 " 

The shipments of 1890 were much greater, as 
a result of many new vineyards just coining 
into bearing this year. 

The profits of the raisin yield in this section 
have been remarkable the past season, four-year- 
old vines having actually yielded as high as 
$300 worth of raisins to the acre. Such enor- 
mous profits have proved a thoroughly convinc- 
ing argument in favor of the vine, and a larger 
acreage of this paying product is being set out 
here than ever before. 

In the territory round about and tributary to 
Fowler the soil is of two kinds — sandy loam 
and white ash, both of which are regarded as be- 
ing very rich and producing fine crops. As to 
which soil is the better is merely a matter of 
individual choice, some claiming one and some 
the other: but both yield good crops. Where 
there does appear any difference in the relative 
size or quality of the products from these two 
kinds of soil, the reason can usually be traced 
to the care the vines or trees have received. 
The difference, then, is not so much in the soil 
as in the tiller of the soil. No part of Fresno 
County can boast a better or richer soil in any 
way than that adjacent to Fowler, and no place 
produces better crops or more delicious or highly 
flavored fruits. The raisins grown here are 
sweet, of reasonably good size and exceedingly 
pleasing to the taste. Peaches, pears, apricots, 
prunes, and tigs thrive and mature well. 
In fact, nowhere do they do better t«an here, 
and no better paying crops could be planted. 

In regard to wheat and barley, the soil is excel- 
lently adapted to them, and the climate is such 
as they need for the highest state of develop- 
ment. But wheat and barley-raising will soon 
be considered as something of the past in these 
parts, as they must give way to the more profit- 
able culture of the vine and fruit trees 

Water is everything in a country where irri- 



HISTORY OF OBNTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



127 



gation is practiced. No matter how tine the 
grade of soil, all possibilities lie dormant within 
it, and it is utterly useless without the life-giv- 
ing stream. Land in California without water 
is almost worthless; with water, its possibilities 
of product are unknown and unlimited. No 
where in the State of California is there a bet- 
ter, more reliable water supply for irrigation 
purposes than that which furnishes the lands in 
the vicinity of Fowler. The supply is never 
failing and absolutely certain. Three irrigation 
canal systems flow through these lands, and 
from these main canals smaller ones branch out 
in every direction. The three systems referred 
to above are the Fowler switch, Kingsbnrg and 
Centreville, and the Church. 

To those who once become accustomed to the 
methods of irrigation it is in every way prefer- 
able to the manner in which nature does her 
work, since there can be no possible disappoint- 
ment in the times and seasons, and drouth can- 
not steal away the hard-earned prize. 

HUEON AND COALINGO. 

These towns are situated in the southwestern 
portion of the county, on the branch railroad 
from Goshen to Hanford. Considerable grain 
is grown around Huron, but it is chiefly noted 
as a flne grazing country, and the sheepman's 
paradise. 

The most extensive coal fields in the San 
Joaquin valley are those at Coalingo. Two 
companies are now engaged in the work of min- 
ing the "black diamond." The veins are large 
and appear to be inexhaustible. These mines 
supply Fresno and other counties with fuel, 
and find a ready market in Los Angeles. 



a new, enterprising and very promising place, 
is situated in the great San Joaquin valley 
twenty-five miles southeast of Fresno, in the 
southeast part of Fresno County, and on a 
branch of the Southern Pacific railroad. It is 
also in a fine grain and fruit producing section 
of the State, and unsurpassed as a raisin produc- 



ing country. This great cash-producing busi- 
ness is only in its infancy, as is the develop- 
ment of the county; and the possibilities of this 
section are unsurpassed anywhere in the State. 

In 1888 the railroad was built, and Mr. 
Thomas L. Reed gave the company an undivided 
half interest in 360 acres of land. They platted 
the town site, and in honor of Mr. Reed named 
it Reedley. The first sale of town lots occurred 
April 25, 1889; one year previous to this date 
the town site was a vast wheat field. After the 
wheat crop of 1888 had been cut from the land 
the work of starting the town was commenced, 
and the next spring when the town lots were 
sold, a depot, a section house, a warehouse, a 
store and the post office had been built. The 
hotel was fully up, and there were two dwell- 
ing-houses, quite a distance from the town. On 
the morning of April 25, the sale of town lots 
commenced, and at auction that day $16,000 
worth of lots were sold. The town has since 
rapidly and steadily grown and few voung 
towns can boast of such costly brick buildings, 
and they are a most fitting monument to the 
enterprise of the citizens of the town. It is 
live men who make live, growing towns. 

Reedley now (1891) has forty dwellings, a 
fine two-story depot, a $15,000 brick school- 
house, two good church edifices, several general 
merchandise stores — one a fine one of brick, 
costing $17,000. The upper rooms are finished 
for offices and lodge rooms; and besides there 
are the drug store and meat market and all the 
shops usually found in such a town, and two 
large grain warehouses, one of which has a ca- 
pacity of about four thousand tons. Then it has 
a well equipped lumber yard; also a brick yard, 
two real-estate offices — and in fact everything 
is represented by intelligent and capable peo- 
ple, and other valuable improvements are under 
contemplation, with excellent prospects of 
speedy consummation. 

There is a Masonic lodge, just started by the 
best people in the town; they have an elegant 
lodge room. 

The United Brethren and the Baptists are the 



128 



HISTQRY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



cl lurch societies. There is a large Good Tem- 
plars organization and a Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union, 

The foregoing is enough to give some idea 
of this promising town, having now in the vicin- 
ity of 500 intelligent and enterprising inhab- 
itants. 

The water supply is all that could be desired, 
as the grand King's river goes flowing by ad- 
jacent to the town, and the whole of the lands 
in the vicinity are under the Alta irrigation 
district system, leaving nothing to be desired 
in that direction. 

The Exponent, a recent journalistic venture, 
weekly chronicles the happenings in the com- 
munity. 

HERNDON AND BORDEN. 

Of the many towns in the county none are 
located on a more desirable t-ite for a city than 
the little village of Herndon, on the southern 
bank of the San Joaquin river. Herndon is 
but ten miles distant from Fresno, and is a 
station on the Southern Pacific road. 

Borden was once the metropolis of Fresno 
County, but the birth of Madera, two and a half 
miles northwest, handicapped its further growth. 
The town is really surrounded by the richest 
farming land in the entire valley, and its possi- 
bilities, with the application of water for irri- 
gation, cannot be estimated with any degree of 
correctness. Borden has the advantage of rail- 
road facilities, a church, school-house, two 
hotels, warehouse and other business enter- 
prises. This is the nearest railroad point to the 
John Brown colony, and in the immediate 
vicinity of the town there are many large and 
well- improved farms. More extended notice of 
this section appears elsewhere. 



ISKKKNDA AND MINTURN. 



The junction town of Berenda has recently 
commenced extensive improvements. The coun- 
try surrounding is well adapted to agricultural 
pursuits, and will be irrigated by the Madera 
irrigation district system. Berenda is located 
seven miles northwest of Madera, and is the 



junction of the Yo Semite branch railroad divi- 
sion to Raymond. 

Mint urn is situated near the northwest bound- 
ary line of Fresno County. The place is 
simply a station and postofhee, and make- n<> 
pretensions as a town. Some of the largest and 
most remunerative vineyards in the valley are 
located near there, however, and a large vinery 
distils a part of the product of the vines. 

Fresno Flats is the metropolis of the moun- 
tain towns of the comity, fifty miles northeast 
of Madera. It was settled in early days l>y 
farmers and stockmen, and several good mines 
have been developed. Apple and peach orch- 
ards in that vicinity produce large and exquis- 
itely flavored fruit. Fresno Flats is the 
trading point of the mountaineers and sheep- 
men, who take their flocks to the mountain 
pastures during the dry season. 

SPECIAL INTERESTS. 



Certain specialties, touched upon in foregoing 
pages, probably deserve a mention of further 

details. 

THE COLONY SYSTEM. 

The most prominent feature of Fresno County 
and the one which has contributed most largely 
to her wealth and prosperity is the colony sys- 
tem of settlement. 

These colonies surround the city of Fresno 
in every direction, and have so grown into each 
other that there are no lines of distinction, the 
boundaries of each being now wholly imaginary. 
The whole country lias grown into one solid 
mass of settlements, of five, ten and t«'enty- 
acre lots, on which the owners are not only 
making a comfortable living, but many of them 
are annually laying up what an eastern tanner 
would consider a little fortune. 

Such an volume as this would not be com- 
plete without some notice of these large adjuncts 
to the upbuilding of the country. The follow- 
ing account of them, written for the San Fran- 
cisco Chronicle by its agricultural editor, 
George F. Weeks, is therefore republished here. 



H1S10RY OF CENTRAL OALIf OMNIA. 



129 



as from an unbiased source and one thoroughly 
competent to speak of them intelligently: 



THE CENTRAL COLONY. 



The first one settled, says Mr. Weeks, was 
the Central, which was laid out by W. S. Chap- 
man, in 1874, water being supplied by the 
Fresno canal from King's rive. Six sections of 
land a short distance southwest of the city of 
Fresno was laid out and sold in small tracts, 
twenty acres being the average. At first there 
was a great deal of ignorance as to the desira- 
bility and adaptability of many varietiesof fruit, 
and much experiment, some of it of a costly 
character, had to be undertaken. But the ex- 
perience has been valuable, and now the princi- 
pal production of the colony is raisins, though 
large quantities of other fruits, as well as al- 
falfa, etc., are produced. 

The entire colony is under cultivation, and 
the settlers are, without any exception, in the 
enjoyment of prosperity. The avenues that 
were laid out on section lines are broad and 
well-shaded, while the homes of the colonists 
are both handsome and comfortable. Being the 
oldest of the colonies, this may be taken as a type 
of all, and visitors are brought hither to see for 
themselves of what this region is capable. 

When the Central colony was first laid out a 
number of San Franciscans, under the leader- 
ship of Bernard Marks, of the Lincoln School, 
settled here, and the success achieved by one of 
tliem, Miss Austin, is one of the historical fea- 
tures ot the county. T. C. White was another 
Central colony settler who has been remarkably 
successful, and whose fine property is frequently 
visited and admired. His raisins have a wide 
reputation, and have made him wealthy. 

The Central colony affords a fair contrast be- 
tween the wheat-growing and horticultural era 
of the State's history. Before the colony settled 
here wheat was grown on the land and yielded 
an annual return of not more than $35,000 
from the entire six sections, while only one 
family made its home here. Now the same land 
yields an annnal cash return of $300,000 to 



$400,000, while 150 families have comfortable, 
happy homes, and many have realized a compe- 
tence. A stronger contrast could not well be 
presented. 

MALAGA COLONY. 

East of Central colony is Malaga colony, 
which was established by the pioneer raisin 
grower of the state, C G. Briggs, to whose en- 
terprise is due the introduction of an industry 
into Fresno County, which at present overshad- 
ows all others, viz.: the production of raisins. 
There are ten sections of land included in the 
Malaga, and some 250 families occupy the land, 
mostly in twenty-acre tracts. Some have more, 
but twenty acres is enough for any ordinary 
family, and is, indeed, all that can be prudently 
cared for. 

THE OTHER COLONIES. 

South of Malaga is the Washington colony of 
7,400 acres, and of the best developed of the 
settlements in the valley. There are over 300 
families settled here, and the value of the prod- 
ucts of these small farms is upward of $500,- 
000 annually. This is among the most noted 
of the Fresno colonies, and the handsome houses 
of the settlers, with their beautiful and attrac- 
tive surroundings, testify to the prosperity that 
has attended the intensive system of cultivation 
practiced. 

West of the Washington is the American 
colony, comprising 3,840 acres. There are 200 
families or more on this tract, which is pro- 
vided with abundance of water from the Fresno 
canal. Each year over $300,000 worth of fruit, 
alfalfa, butter, eggs, etc., is produced here, a 
fact which warrants the assertion that the set- 
tlers are uniformly prosperous. 

East of the Fresno are the Morris, the Pacific, 
the Church, the Nevada, the Scandinavian, the 
Walters and other colonies, covering thousands 
of acres of land and are settled, like the others, 
in tracts averaging twenty acres to the family. 

SOME NOTABLE VINEYARDS. 

The largest bearing raisin vineyard in the 
State is that of A. B. Butler, a short distance 



i:iO 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



from the Carton property. There are over 600 
acres in the vineyard, and the annual product 
two years ago was 110,000 twenty-pound boxes. 
This year it cannot be far from 50 per cent, 
greater, even if it be not nearly 100 per cent, 
higher. With Fresno raisins averaging $1.75 
to $2.25 a box, one can readily estimate the im- 
mense income from this vineyard. 

In the same neighborhood is the splendid 
160-acre property of Colonel William Forsyth, 
which is a typical raisin-producing enterprise 
in every detail. There are about 145 acres in 
Muscat vines on this place, and the owner be- 
stows his personal attention upon every detail. 
The utmost care is taken in pruning, cultivation 
and care of the vines, while in handling the 
fruit and packing the raisins nothing is left un- 
done that could tend to enhance the quality or 
appearance. The grapes are assorted as to the 
size and quality when first gathered, and are 
subsequently graded and packed in such a man- 
ner as to command the highest prices. The 
product is upward of 40,000 boxes of twenty 
pounds each, while the reputation of the pack 
of this vineyard is so high that the output is 
always engaged beforehand at top prices. One 
of the features of this vineyard is a drying- 
house constructed upon plans evolved by Mr. 
Forsyth himself. By it all danger of damage 
from rain is absolutely prevented, and the se- 
cured crop is prepared for market without loss. 
This dry-house is an immense affair, but the 
heat is regulated so perfectly and the operation 
conducted so carefully that no one but the best 
posted expert can detect the difference between 
the raisins so cured and those dried in the open 
air. There is not a difference in reality of half 
a cent a pound, so that all the assertions of 
would-be authorities upon this matter are thus 
disproved in the best manner. 

In the neighborhood are many other note- 
worthy places, including the Malters vineyard, 
the Denicke fig orchard and hundreds of other 
improved and profitable small and large farms. 

For the remarkable vineyard of George H. 
Eggers, see biographical sketch. 



THE WEST SIDE COLONIES. 

West and northwest of the city of Fresno are 
a number of enterprises which are worthy of 
notice. Among these are the Bank of Califor- 
nia colony, the Union colony, the Sierra Park 
colony, the Witham, the Houghton, the Mead 
and the Perrin colonies and the Fruitvale estate. 
This latter is especially prominent becanse of 
the introduction here of a novel method of 
planting vineyards and orchards, introduced by 
a well-known San Francisco house, the A. B. 
Briggs Company. The idea has been to induce 
the people to purchase small tracts and to im- 
prove it for them in their absence, with the de- 
sign of turning over possession to settlers when 
the vines and trees shall have become income- 
paying. The writer paid a visit to this portion 
of the county recently and was struck with the 
immense area that had been planted with vines 
during the past year, as well as with the re- 
markable growth shown in many cases. There 
are at present nearly a thousand acres of young 
vines growing, practically in one body, though 
subdivided under such attractive names as the 
Avellane, the Nestell, Climax, La Favorita, Par- 
agon, Poca Rica, etc. The adaptability of this 
locality to the vine is shown by the fact that 
less than 1 per cent, of the vines have failed to 
grow, while in one case (the La Favorita) every 
vine planted is thrifty and luxuriant. Though 
only set out last spring many of these vines 
have borne fruit already. Preparations are 
already under way to plant nearly three thou- 
sand acres more this winter, of which 1,280 
acres will be in one body, the Fruitvale vine- 
yard, which will be the largest single raisin 
vineyard in the State, and probablv in the world. 

A good feature of these enterprises is that 
the purchasers are largely eastern people, who 
have been induced to invest here by the remark- 
able showing made by the older colonies. They 
are given every inducement of long time to 
pay for their lands, while the cost of preparing, 
planting and cultivating the vineyard is put at 
the lowest possible terms. It is estimated that 
the entire outlay involved in taking the raw land 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



131 



and converting it into a paying vineyard will 
not exceed $75 an acre. 

An admirable feature of these enterprises is 
the planting of white Adriatic fig trees along 
all the avenues and about the subdivisions. 
This has been done in many of the older colo- 
nies, and is both picturesque and profitable. 
This fig produces immense crops of fine fruit 
and makes an admirable shade tree, as well as a 
dust and wind break. 

FEESNO's GREAT AVENUE. 

Leading from the city of Fresno westward is 
a magnificently laid out drive called the Cha- 
teau Fresno avenue. It has three distinctive 
driveways, separated and bordered by palms, 
magnolias and other trees, and in the course of 
half a dozen years will become one of the most 
attractive bits of road in the State, rivaling the 
Alameda of San Jose and Magnolia avenue at 
Riverside. 

As one passes over this drive and through 
these vineyards, whose growth of but six months 
almost covers the ground from sight, it seems 
impossible to realize that these lands, bought less 
than twenty years ago for a dollar or two an 
acre, are now selling readily for $150 to $250 
an acre, yet such is the fact: and by the road- 
side here as elsewhere in the county one sees the 
reason for this immense appreciation in values 
— bright streams of water conveying life to the 
erstwhile parched desert. And at the railroad 
stations one readily sees why such prices are 
justified, for there are solid trains by the dozen, 
yes, by hundreds, going out laden with the pro- 
duct of tree and vine. Over 1,200 cars were re- 
quired to move the raisin crop of Fresno Coun- 
ty alone this year, while the other products 
filled hundreds more. 

Besides the colonies immediately contiguous 
to Fresno city there are many others in differ- 
ent portions of the county, all with various de- 
grees of attractiveness. In those that are more 
remote from the centers of population and from 
the railroad the land is still offered at very 
moderate prices, so that no one need go away 



deterred from buying by what he may fancy 
are high figures. There are lands that can even 
be had without any cash payment, and upon 
which any man of enterprise and energy can 
achieve a competence. 

FARMING PAYS IN FRESNO. 

In 1890, George Boyd sold a twenty-acre tract 
in the Washington colony to H. F. Smith, of 
Oakland, for $5,500. This fruit farm in 1889 
yielded $2,000, and for the last year it paid over 
$3,000. Thus the purchaser is almost certain to 
receive back in products, the first year of his 
possession, more than one-half of the purchase 
money, which would indicate that it was a very 
good investment, as it is, indeed. The question 
naturally arises, " Why did Mr. Boyd sell ? " 
Persons not familiar with the state of affairs 
here will be unable to see why Mr. Boyd should 
sell a property that yields him $3,000 for $5,500 
or sell it at all. It was interesting to me, and 
it may be so to others, to hear Mr. Boyd speak 
on the subject himself. 

"I came here six years ago from old Ireland," 
he said. " When I landed in Fresno my capital 
all told wao $1,300 and a wife, who is better 
than all the capital any man can have. After I 
had been here a few days I bought this twenty 
acres and built the house and barn. My lum- 
ber bill was $450; most of the labor I did my- 
self. 

"With the balance of my capital I purchased 
horses and farm implements and made the first 
payment on my land. I have now on this twen- 
ty acres sixteen acres of raisin vines, the oldest 
of which realized me last year $170 an acre. 

" My wife, with her cows and chickens, al- 
ways adds from $15 to $25 a month to our in- 
come, according to the number of cows we have 
in milk. 

" We have invested our savings in a second 
twenty -acre lot in the new colony, and I have 
got it all planted to raisin vines. I calculate 
that I shall this year have an income from my 
two farms of $4,000 over and above my expen- 
ses for harvesting. For the first five years I 



132 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



did nearly all the work myself. And here I 
want to say, let no man with a small capital 
come to Fresno expecting to make money un- 
less he is prepared to work. The land is so 
rich that it' it is not constantly plowed and cul- 
tivated it brings forth weeds, and weeds and 
fruit never grow together. Now, I hire the 
greater part of my work done and content my- 
self with superintending and seeing it done 
properly. 

" Happy ?|" he asked. "Why, certainly; satis- 
fied, yes; but I will sell both farms and buy 
160 acres. I will then have enough capital to 
enable me to hire all the hard work to be done 
for me; and you know the profit on 160 acres at 
$170 an acre is enough to make an Irishman 
satisfied." 

This man had two tracts of twenty acres each, 
which he acquired in six years, on a capital of 
$1,300. He wants to own a quarter section. 
The sale of the smaller sections enables him to 
do this. Five years hence Mr. Boyd will have 
an income of $20,000 from his 160 acres instead 
of the $3,000 from the twenty acres which he 
sold to Mr. Smith. 



THE WINE PRODUCT. 

There are several extensive wine-growers in 
the county who have established a reputation 
for the excellent qualities of sweet wines, while 
the dry wines average with the productions 
of other portions of the State. The Sonoma 
and Los Angeles brands still retain popularity 
from the fact that they have been longer in 
the market, but the Fresno manufacturers are 
winning their way into the markets of the 
world as time moves on. 

At present the industry in this county is in a 
flourishing condition, and owing to the peculiar- 
ities of the climate in imparting the saccharine 
ingredient her sweet wines are not excelled in 
any locality in the state. The ports, angelicas 
and sherries manufactured in Fresno County are 
favorites wherever found, and there is a steady 
increase in quantity as the vines grow older and 



the producers become more accustomed to the 
qualities of the grape. 

There has been a good demand for Fresuo 
wines during the year 1890, and the prices real- 
ized have made the industry profitable. On 
account of a large per cent, of the grape product 
of 1890 being dried to meet the demand for 
dried fruit in the east the wine product was not 
increased over that of 1889, and the home 
market absorbed so largely that shipments east 
have not been very lars-e. 

The shipments from Fresno County for 1890 
were as follows: From Fresno, 254 carloads of 
10,668 barrels, or 533,400 gallons; from Ma- 
dera, twenty-five barrels, or 1,250 gallons, mak- 
ing a total of 10,693 barrels, or 534,650 gallons, 
valued at about $135,000. Of these shipments 
thirty-five carloads went to the Eastern markets, 
the balance finding a ready sale in the local 
markets of the State, which is a compliment to 
the Fresno wine-growers. 

Estimating from these figures, the vintage of 
1890 for Fresuo County was not less than 40,- 
000 barrels, or 2,500,000 gallons. This pro- 
duces an enormous revenue to the wine-grow- 
ers, and is no small item in the aggregate wealth 
of the products of Fresno County. 

RAISINS. 

The shipments of raisins during 1890 were 
distributed among the various points in the 
county as follows: 

Pounds. 

Fresno 15,430,313 

Kingsburg 67,945 

Madera 112,710 

Borden 73,226 

Malaga 3,459,240 

Fowler 2,178,438 

Selma 469,746 

Total 21,791,618 

It will be observed that more than two-thirds 
of the raisins of the county were shipped from 
Fresno city, the largest packing houses being 
located here. 

Asa matter of interest the shipments of fruits 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



133 



and its products from the Fresno station maybe 
here given in detail: 

Local shipments of raisins, dried grapes, 
fruit and wine during 1890: 

Raisins, 506,240 pounds, 22,010 twenty- 
pound boxes, or 22 carloads. 

Dried grapes, 57,272 pounds, 881 sacks, or 3 
carloads. 

Dried fruits, 268,185 pounds, or 13 carloads 
of 20,000 pounds. 

Green fruit, 748,008 pounds, or 37 carloads. 

Wine, 219 carloads, 9,198 barrels, or 459,900 
gallons. 

Raisin, fruit and wine shipments East from 
Fresno during 1890: 

Raisins— 14,924,073 pounds, 663,200 twenty- 
pound boxes, or 663 carloads. 

Dried grapes— 3,253,981 pounds, 50,060 
sacks, or 166 carloads. 

Dried fruits — 1,401,836 pounds, or 70 car- 
loads of 20,000 pounds. 

Green fruit — 2,899,940 pounds, or 140 car- 
loads. 

Wine— 35 carloads, 1,470 barrels or 73,500 
gallons. 

The total shipments, local and Eastern, are as 
follows: 

Total raisins— 15,430,313 pounds, 685,300 
20-pound boxes, or 685 carloads. 

Total dried grapes — 3,311,163 pounds, 50,041 
sacks, or 169 carloads. 

Total green fruit— 3,647.948 pounds, or 177 
carloads. 

Total wine — 254 carloads, 10,668 barrels, or 
533,400 gallons. 

It will thus be seen that of fruit and its prod- 
uct there were shipped from the Fresno station 
1,368 carloads, a business for which all the rail- 
roads of the country annually struggle. 

Early History of Fresno Raisins. — The 
raisin industry in California is not yet twenty 
years old. There is some dispute as to when 
the first raisin grapes were brought to Fresno, 
but by general consent the honor is accorded to 
F. F. Eisen, and the time fixed upon as 1873. 
In the fall of that year the Muscat vines were 



brought to this raisin district by Mr. Eisen and 
successfully set out in his vineyard. 

A few years later, or in 1876, W. S. Chap- 
man imported the best Muscatels from Spain 
for the Central California colony at this point. 
About the same time T. C. White planted the 
Raisina vineyard in that colony from Gordo 
Blanco Muscatels brought from R. B. Blower' 
vineyard at Woodland. 

Dr. Gustav Eisen, in his splendid book, " The 
Raisin Industry," carefully traces the history of 
the raisin industry, and from it many of the 
facts here stated are derived. He says that in 
1877-'78 Miss M. F. Austin began improving 
her Hedgerow vineyard, also in the Central 
colony, with Gordo Blanco Muscatels. 

Robert Barton had also planted some twenty- 
five acres of Muscat grapes, but did not make 
raisins until later. 

In 1879 the A. B. Butler vineyard, now the 
largest in the State, was planted. J. T. Good- 
man had begun to improve his place about the 
same time, and Colonel William Forsyth en- 
tered upon raisin-grape growing between 1881 
and 1882, most of his grapes, however, being 
planted a year or two later. Since that time 
the raisin vineyards have multiplied rapidly and 
about 1886 the raisin production became recog- 
nized as the principal industry of the district. 

It rapidly spread from the original center 
around Fresno, the country generally being 
splendidly adapted, by reason of the freedom 
from rain and the improved facilities for irriga- 
tion, to the growing and curing of raisin grapes. 
Indeed, nearly the whole of the San Joaquin 
valley is adapted to raisin culture, but the south- 
ern portion especially, because it is drier and 
there is less rainfall in the autumn of the year, 
both conditions favorable to the curing of the 
raisins. 

The vineyards are now located chiefly about 
Fresno, but more tha-n 10,000 acres will be set 
out in other sections of the county this winter. 

The Raisin Grape Acreage. — This district 
contains about 50,000 acres, of which about 
23,000 acres are in bearing, though not all in 



134 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



raisin grapes. From a list prepared by George 
W. Smith for the State Viticultural Commis- 
sion, it is learned that there are more than 
1,600 vineyards in Fresno County. The present 
increase is especially heavy, vines being put out 
in vineyards ranging lrom five to 1,200 acres 
and more, and they are distributed all over the 
county. The sections about Malaga, Sanger. 
Selma, Fowler, Borden, Madera and other points 
are growing into decided prominence. The 
varieties of grapes used are principally the 
Gordo Blanco Muscatels, much mixed with the 
Muscat of Alexandria. There are also some Sul- 
tanas and White Corinths, and of late many 
Malagas have been planted. 

The Vineyard. —The vines are now generally 
planted at a distance of ten by ten, though some 
are planted ten by twelve, twelve by twelve and 
eight by ten. The vines begin to bear the sec- 
ond year and begin to pay the third year, and 
thereafter yield an income. Some vines pay 
well in the third year, as will be seen by the 
experience of vine growers published else- 
where. 

Both cuttings and rooted vines are used. The 
ground is plowed in various ways, in the winter 
time, according to the ideas of the owner. 
Cross-plowing is sometimes practiced. The 
general rule is to first plow one way, and then 
to cross-cultivate repeatedly until the soil is 
level and the weeds are destroyed. 

The heads of the vines are kept low, from 
six to sixteen inches above the ground. The 
canes are cut to two or three eyes, and the num- 
ber of canes left vary from five to fifteen or 
more. The pruning is done between December 
and February. 

The grapes begin to ripen in the middle of 
August and will continue to the 1st of Septem- 
ber. At the latter date the first boxes of cured 
and packed raisins are heralded to the country. 
The first grapes dry iu from seven to ten days, 
but the later grapes require three weeks or more. 
The drying continues through September, and 
for the second crop through October and even 
in November, and in 1890 even into Decem- 



ber, the rains not having set in. The grapes 
are dried on trays measuring two by three or 
three by three feet. The sweat boxes are gen- 
erally two by three feet, and from six to eight 
inches high. 

When packed the product is labeled, each 
packing house having its own favorite brands, 
which is fully explained in a descriptive article 
on the packing of raisins in this work. The 
prevailing price for raisins the past season was 
5^ to 6 cents per pound in the sweat boxes. 
From 100 to 250 boxes of raisins are realized 
per acre, and the profits vary from $75 to $300 
per acre, according to location, soil, manage- 
ment and other conditions. The cost of pro- 
duction varies from $30 to $50 an acre. 

Good land for raisin purposes can be bad for 
$100 per acre, but. nearer the city the land is 
held higher. Bearing vineyards change hands 
at varying prices, some having sold for $1,000 
an acre. 

Soils and Climate. — In the Fresno district 
there are several different varieties of soils 
good for grapes, — the red or chocolate-colored 
sandy loam principally east of the railroad, the 
white, ashy soil west of the railroad, and the 
very sandy soil, generally occurring in elevated 
ridges; we have also the deep, gray-colored bot- 
tom land in the river bottoms or along the riv- 
ers and creeks. The best grades of the choco- 
late and redish loams, and of the river bottom 
soil, are considered the best for raisins. The very 
sandy soil and the alkali soil should not be used 
for raisin purposes. The climate is warm and 
dry during the summer, while the winters are 
not very rainy. From seven to ten inches ot 
rain are an average in Fresno. In no portion 
of the raisin-producing portion of the valley can 
raisin grapes be grown without irrigation, a as- 
tern which is fully explained in a special article 
in another portion of this volume. Before irri- 
gation was begun in the Fresno district the nat- 
ural water levels were under from fifty to sixty 
feet of dry soil. A few years of constant irri- 
gation has so changed this that now in places 
the land is sub-irrigated or moist to the surface, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



135 



while in places the soil has to be drained, and 
no other irrigation is now needed except to 
allow the water to flow in the main or secondary 
canals, from which it seeps and keeps the soil 
filled with water, the moisture rising from be- 
low. The irrigation when practiced is done by 
flooding or by irrigating in furrows. 

The climate has everything to do with the 
production of the best raisins. The inland val- 
leys of this State are the most successful. The 
San Joaquin valley is more than 100 miles from 
the coast, and the sea wind, before it reaches 
any of the vines, has been modified by passing 
over from 200 to 300 miles of dry country. Dr. 
Eisen, in his excellent work on " The Raisin 
Industry," gives the following as the condition 
of an ideal climate for the production of the 
grape: " A moderately dry air, a frostless spring, 
a rainy winter and rainless autumn. The tem- 
perature in the summer should vary between 90 
and 100 degrees, the fall months should now 
and then be visited by drying winds, while the 
winter frosts should be heavy and regular, but 
not below 12 degrees. Some have suggested 
that absolute freedom from any rain would be 
very desirable, as then no interference would be 
experienced with the cultivation of grapes; but 
I doubt if the soil in such districts would not 
be rapidly exhausted through the want of weeds, 
the plowing under of which enriches the ground 
and enables it better to preserve the moisture 
provided for it by irrigation." 

The Fresno district fills these conditions as 
nearly as they may be found on this whimsical 
earth. 

Many facts in relation with the culture of 
raisins will be found under the general article 
on irrigation in the county, and on the great 
industry of packing raisins. Those who want 
full and detailed information on the whole sub- 
ject should get a technical work. 

How to Grow, Pick, Dry and Pack Raisin 
Grapes. — Following is a very instructive paper 
on raisin growing, drying, packing and prepar- 
ing for market, written by Mr. T. C. White, 
County Supervisor and one of the most suc- 



cessful raisin-growers in Fresno County, which 
means in the State. That part of the article 
relating to picking, drying and packing was 
written for and read before the State Board of 
Viticulture, and its excellence was recognized 
by a prize being bestowed upon the author. 
The part pertaining to planting and the care of 
the vines was written especially for the Expos- 
itor. While Mr. White's methods tor packing 
are not generally followed, there can be no 
doubt that if this were the case the quality of 
the pack would be improved. More care is 
being taken year after year, however, and the 
time will soon come when improvement in this 
direction will be almost impossible. No one is 
better fitted than Mr. White to write on the 
subject, and having attained extraordinary suc- 
cess by following the advice he here gives 
others, that is no reason why others should not 
benefit likewise by it. 

Mr. White's Methods. — "Thirteen years ago 
I was among those seeking knowledge, and 
found a most efficient teacher in R. B. Blowers, 
Esq., of Yolo County, who kindly gave me the 
benefit of his experience in the then compara- 
tively new field of raisin-grape culture. 

" The success achieved in the past few years 
has outgrown a local interest, and is now at- 
tracting a world-wide attention. The follow- 
ing table shows the growth of the industry: 



Boxes of 20 
lbs. each. 

1873 6,000 

1874 9,000 

1875 11,000 

1876 19,000 

1877 32,000 

1878 48,000 

1879 64,000 

1880 75,000 

1881 90.000 



Boxes of 20 
lbB. each. 

1882 115,000 

1883 140,000 

1884 175,000 

1885 500,000 

1886 703,000 

1887 800,000 

1888 963,000 

1890 I,0u0,000 



" It has been demonstrated beyond question 
that the soil and climate of portions of this 
State will produce a grape equal in size and 
quality to those of the most favored districts of 
Europe. Permit me to make a few general 
remarks in reference to the soil, climate, cul- 
ture and varieties to be grown and the best 
manner to pick, dry, sort and pack raisins for 



136 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



market. In geographical distribution the yield 
is divided between the great San Joaquin val- 
ley and Southern California No raisins are 
produced in any quantity outside of these two 
regions. Fresno County alone produces more 
than the balance of the State combined. Wliile 
I have visited the raisin-producing sections of 
the State, north and south, my remarks are 
based upon the experience gained during the 
last few years in Fresno, in the San Joaquin 
Valley. 

"The following requisites are indispensable 
to the successful production of good raisins: 
Soil, climate and methods of packing and cur- 
ing. First, a selection of location with refer- 
ence to soil. This, in my judgment, is either 
the white ash or the red, sandy loam. If your 
'lines be cast' in the San Joaquin Valley, 
which I believe to be the best for the industry, 
be certain to obtain land which can be conveni- 
ently irrigated. My choice would be white ash, 
if not too strongly impregnated with alkali. 

"Much has been said and volumes written 
in reference to the best methods to be employed 
in ihe preparation of the soil, the proper dis- 
tances apart, manner of pruning and training 
of vines, etc., but no fixed rule as yet has been 
established. The preparation of the soil de- 
pends largely upon the method to be used in 
irrigation. If the soil is sub-irrigated so as not 
to require surface irrigation, and the ground is 
naturally level (as in most cases our best soils 
are), all that is necessary is to plow the land 
eight to ten inches deep, harrow it down finely, 
when it is ready to plant. If the land to be 
planted is not sufficiently sub-irrigated, so as to 
necessitate flooding, it has been found best to 
level the land to a water level, in checks or 
squares of one-half to one acre each, providing 
at the same time a system of ditches through- 
out the entire tract. The land thus prepared 
can be flooded, and the cost of irrigation is 
much less than when the land is not leveled. 

" As to the best distance apart, something 
depends upon the kind and strength of the soil. 
Most vineyards are planted eight by eight. 



Many, however, are planted differently, to-wit: 
Eight by ten, ten by ten, ten by twelve, twelve 
by twelve, eight by twelve, ei^ht by sixteen, 
six by twelve, etc., etc. In my opinion the 
last named distance is the best, planting the 
rows running north and south six feet apart, 
and the rows running east and west twelve feet 
apart. 

"The vines should be trained low and pruned 
short, and great care and judgment should be 
exercised in this matter, so as to have the vines 
balanced, not having more spurs on one Bide 
than the other, and also having top spurs with 
a view to growing wood for shade. Another 
important consideration is the removal of all 
suckers and non-fruit-producing growth, to 
avoid the diversion of the strength and vigor 
of the vine from the fruit and growth of wood 
for the succeeding year. The vineyard should 
be plowed and cross- plowed as soon as the 
vegetation starts in the spring, and cultivated 
thereafter continuously until prevented by the 
growth of the vines. 

"Couleur, or blasting or dropping of the 
bloom, is probably caused by sudden changes of 
temperature, strong winds and excessive moist- 
ure. When caused by the latter it can be 
largely overcome by the application of sulphur. 
As vines become older I think they are less 
susceptible to climatic influences. Irrigation 
at the blooming period should be avoided, and 
until the berry is well set. If summer irriga- 
tion is necessary it should be done by means of 
furrows, throucrh which the water is run. 
Plowing in these furrows will prevent the 
cracking and drying out of the lands. In Fres- 
no packing commences about the first of Sep- 
tember, although there have been seasons when 
it occurred as early as the twelfth of Augu.st. 

"The grapes under no circumstance should 
be picked for raisins until they are ripe. There 
are three ways by which to ascertain this fact: 
First, by the color, which should be a light am- 
ber; second, by the taste, and third, by the 
saccharometer, which is by far the most accu- 
rate. A grape may be ripe and not have the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



137 



proper color when grown entirely in the shade. 
The juice of the grape should contain at least 
25 per cent, of saccharine to produce a good 
raisin. 

" The most practical method of drying is by 
the use of trays placed upon the ground. The 
almost entire absence of dew in our locality 
greatly facilitates this method. The trays are 
usually twenty-four by thirty-six inches. Those 
of large dimensions are found inconvenient to 
handle when filled. Trays of the former size 
hold about twenty pounds of fruit, and should 
produce from six to seven pounds of raisins. 

" The product of a vineyard depends largely 
upon its age and favorable conditions, varying 
from two to nine tons per acre. 

" The trays or platforms are taken into the 

field and distributed along the sides of the roads, 

from which they are taken by the pickers when 

needed. As the grapes are picked from the 

vines all imperfect berries, sticks and dead leaves 

are removed from the bunches, which are then 

placed upon the trays, right side up. A cluster 

has what is called a right and a wrong side, the 

wrong side having more of the sterns exposed 

than the right side. Great care should be used 

in picking, so as to handle the bunches only by 

the stem. If the berries come in contact with 

the hands some of the bloom will be removed, 

which will injure the appearance of the raisin. 

The trays are placed, after filling, between the 

vines, one end being elevated so that the grapes 

may receive the more direct rays of the sun. 

" The length of time required depends much 

upon location and conditions, favorable or 

otherwise. I have known raisins to be dried in 

seven days, but they were not a good article, and 

too rapid drying is not desirable. The grapes are 

left upon the trays until about two-thirds dry, 

which, with us, will be from six to eight days. 

They are then turned. This is accomplished by 

placing an empty tray on top of the one tilled 

with partially dried raisins and turning them 

together. Then take off the upper or original 

tray and you have the raisins turned without 

handling or damage. After turning curing will 
9 



proceed more rapidly, and frequently is accom- 
plished in four or five days. 

" During this time they should be carefully 
watched to prevent any from becoming too dry. 
When it is found they are dry enough the trays 
are gathered and stacked one upon the other 
as high as convenient for the sorting which 
follows. This protects them from the sun and 
prevents overdrying. Stacking should be at- 
tended to early in the morning, when the 
stems and berries are slightly moist and cool 
from the night air, as they will retain this 
moisture after being transferred to the sweat 
boxes and assist in quickening the sweating 
process. The trays which have been stacke 1 are 
now ready for sorting and grading, and this re- 
quires care and judgment, and although a tedious 
process greatly facilitates rapid packing. 

" The sweat box is a little larger than the tray 
and about eight inches dejp. When filled these 
will contain about 125 pounds of raisins. Heavy 
manila paper is used in the boxes, one being 
placed in the bottom and three or four more at 
equal distances, as the filling progresses. The 
object of the paper is to prevent the tanglino-of 
the stems and consequently breaking of the 
bunches when removed for packing. 

" The sorters have three sweat boxes, one for 
for the first, second and third qualities as the 
grade will justify. The bunches should be 
handled by the stem and placed carefully in the 
sweat boxes to avoid breaking the stems, thereby 
destroying the symmetry of the clusters. Any 
found to be too damp are returned to the trays 
and left a day or two longer in the sun. To as- 
certain if they are perfectly cured place a raisin 
between the thumb and forefinger and roll it 
gently until softened, when either jelly or water 
will exude from the stem end. If water, it re- 
quires further drying. When the boxes are 
filled they are taken to the equalizer. This 
should be built of brick or adobe and as nearly 
air-tight as possible, but provided with windows 
to allow ventilation when necesssary. The win- 
dows should have shutters to keep it dark. The 
filled boxes are placed one exactly upon another 



138 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



to a convenient height, and should remain from 
ten to twenty days or more, when they will have 
passed through the sweating process. 

•' As the raisins are taken off the trays some 
of the berries on the bunches will be dry enough 
and a few will not be sufficiently cured. To 
remove the moist ones would destroy the ap- 
pearance of the cluster, and to leave it out 
longer would shrivel the dry ones: hence, the 
sweat box. The moisture is diffused through 
the box, some being absorbed by the dry raisins: 
and the stems also take their share and are thus 
rendered tough and pliable and easily manipula- 
ted when ready for packing. 

"When the raisins are sufficiently equalized 
the sweat boxes are removed to the packing 
room, which is provided with tables, presses, 
scales, etc. 

" My method of packing is substantially the 
Blowers style — face downward. The most con- 
venient mode of packing is by the use of a metal 
tray, corresponding in size to a layer of raisins, 
and having a loose bottom. The raisins are 
placed in the preliminary packing tray with the 
face of the cluster downward, which gives the 
surface a level appearance and prevents the expo- 
sure of the stems. When the bottom of the 
packing tray has been covered, which should 
always be with perfectly shaped berries and 
bunches, the tray is filled to the requisite weight 
of five pounds. The contents of the tray are 
then pressed sufficiently to pack the raisins 
firmly together, but not with such force as to 
break the skin, causing the jelly to exude and 
consequently easily sugaring. 

" After being pressed they are transferred to 
the boxes, during which process the paper is 
wrapped around each layer. The paper is placed 
on top of the tray of raisins and a sheet of steel 
exactly the width of the tray is placed above 
the paper and the whole reversed. The sheet 
of steel serves to hold the raisins in place until 
the layer is put into the box, when the steel is 
withdrawn and the layer drops into the box face 
up. The standard box of California raisins is 
twenty pounds in weight, containing four lay- 



ers of five pounds each. They are usually graded 
into Dehesa and London Layers, and one, two 
and three crown loose Muscatels. The Dehesa, 
or highest grade, is packed with a view to su- 
perseding the imported article, which sells at 
from $10 to $12 a box. Everyone has seen and 
admired the boxes of imported raisins, which 
have a top layer packed in rows, with uniform 
regularity; few, however, appreciate the diffi- 
culty of producing the handsome appearance by 
hand. The task is slow and tedious. 

" To simplify and expedite the process I 
have invented and received letters patent for a 
packing plate expressly adapted to producing 
this effect. This device will prove of great 
assistance to the raisin packer. I have U6ed it 
two seasons with perfect success. The inven- 
tion consists of a flat metal mold or plate hav- 
ing depressions made in its surface, which plate 
forms the bottom of the preliminary packing 
box and serves to hold the raisins in a fixed 
position until the parking is completed and the 
raisins are placed in the raisin box. 

" Loose Muscatels are prepared by being put 
through the stemmer and grader. The Btemmer 
removes the berries from the stem, and the 
grader, by separating according to size, deter- 
mines the grade. 

" By observing the foregoing remarks you 
will naturally conclude that the raisin business 
is eminently made up of details. None can be 
carelessly performed or overlooked if we expect 
to compete successfully with the nations who 
have made the subject and industry a study for 
centuries. Not only in the essentials of quality 
and quantity, but in this esthetic age a due re- 
gard to effect must be observed in the way of 
attractive wrappers and labels."' 

Three- year-old Vines. — It is sometimes dif- 
ficult to make people believe what returns raisin 
lands yield their owners. The Caledonia vine- 
yard, for instance, which is located only two 
miles from the city of Fresno, consists of 118 
acres, and was planted in 1888. This year it 
yielded to its owners, Messrs. Alexander Gor- 
don and Arch Grant, the sum of $13,902.25, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



139 



which amount would have been swelled to 
$16,000, but for the unexpected rains in Sep- 
tember. The average yield per acre was, never- 
theless, $118.32, not bad for three-year-old 
vines. 

That there might be no question about the 
matter, the Fresno Republican publishes the 
following affidavit: 

State of California, 
County of Fresno. 
We, Alexander Gordon and Arch (irant, be- 
ing duly sworn, depose and say that the Cale- 
donia vineyard owned by us, situated about 
two miles southeast of Fresno city, has produced 
the present year the sum of $12,660 worth of 
raisins and 113 tons of grapes which were sold 
to the winery for the sum of $1,302.25 making 
in all a total of $13,962.25. Said crop was 
gathered from 118 acres of vineyard, of the 
Muscat variety, and was planted in February 
and March, 1888. Besides the above amount, 
we estimate our loss by rains of October 1, 1890, 
at over $2,500. The most of this loss would 
have been averted could we have got drying 
trays, or had dry-house facilities at hand. The 
average per acre being $118.32. 

Alex. Gordon, 
[seal.] Arch Grant. 

Subscribed and sworn before me this 10th 
day of December, 1890. 

F. M. Chittenden, 
Notary Public. 

Mailer's Vineyard. — The Malter vineyard, 
three miles east of Fresno, consists of 240 
acres in grapes with two other small tracts. 
One hundred and sixty acres were planted to 
grapes in 1880, and eighty acres to raisin grapes 
in 1887. G. H. Malter, the owner, thinks it is 
probably the most productive vineyard in the 
world. The 160 acres of wine grapes began 
bearing in 1887. The crop has been steadily 
increasing since it first came into bearing, until 
it footed up over eleven tons to the acre in 1890. 
The raisin grapes are just beginning to produce. 

The pruning in this vineyard differs some- 
what from that in other vineyards. Mr. Mal- 
ter's plan with his vines, even Muscats, is to 
stake them. In pruning, the stems are gradu- 
Jly moved upward from year to year, so that 



the vines may attain their full development and 
bearing power. By this method the disease 
known as block knot, which is so prevalent in 
vineyards where vines are low-pruned, is en- 
tirely prevented, as the sap in the spring of the 
year finds sufficient outlet in the greater num- 
ber of buds and is not forced to burst through 
the bark of the trunk. 

Mr. Malter's experience proves to his satis- 
faction that the Muscat variety actually bears 
quite as large a berry when the vines are staked 
to a moderate liiglit as when they are cut low. 
When thus staked it produces a large amount 
of fruit that all matures at one time, there be- 
ing no second crop. One four-year-old row of 
staked Muscats produced this year $650 worth 
of raisins. These staked vines produced seventy- 
five pounds of grapes to the vine. 

TIMBER AND STONE. 

In a county as large as Fresno, larger than 
many Eastern States, stretching from the sum- 
mit of the Coast Range across the wide San 
Joaquin valley and up the vast slopes to the 
summit of the Sierra Nevadas, it cannot be ex- 
pected that the dwellers on her plains, engrossed 
as their minds are in that industry for which 
she is famous the world-over — that of raisin 
and fruit-growing — should realize the vast ex- 
tent of her natural resources, still undeveloped. 

The first habitations of man in this county 
were the brush-thatched huts of the Indians. 
Then the sheepherder came with his flocks and 
tents. Then the miners built their rude log 
huts. Then followed the pioneer of the plains 
and the rough-boarded, shake-roofed shanty, 
and with the advent of the railroad came the 
rustic box-house of the early towns, which, as 
they grew, called forth the better class of frame 
dwellings. Then came the plain brick building 
blocks, and finally the elegant business blocks 
of the present Fresno. 

But up to the present time there is not a 
building of the better class in the county built 
entirely of material produced in this county. 
In a frame house you will find the rafters, stud- 



HO 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ding and floors from Puget Sound, the wains- 
coting, rustic and shingles from Mendocino, the 
doors and sash from Shasta, the plaster from 
Santa Cruz; and in a brick structure, pressed 
brick and sandstone trimmings come from Santa 
Clara, lime from Tehachapi, slates from El 
Dorado, and timbers from Puget Sound. Yet 
all of these materials can be found within a 
radius of fifty miles from Fresno city. 

The reason for this failure to utilize home 
products may be found when it is said that 
there are but two places in the county where 
the railway line reach into the foothills. 

Within the borders of this county may be 
found everything necessary in raw material for 
the construction of a first-class building, and 
as the people of the valley are bound to be a 
very wealthy community, owing to the great 
value and certainty of their crops and will want 
houses to correspond with their circumstances, 
it will be of interest to them to know what 
there is in the line of building materials near 
by. There are here briefly described some of 
the more important ones. 

Among the timber trees, as in the vegetable 
kingdom of the earth, the Sequoia gigantea 
ranks first. As very little of this timber had 
reached the markets prior to the competition of 
the King's River Lumber Company's flume, its 
merits have not been known. It is lighter in 
color and weight than the coast redwood, con- 
tains no hard grain, and as it is free from the 
acid that darkens the coast redwood it retains 
its color when finished in oil. It is> an excellent 
timber for the whole of any house, except the 
floors and timbers, for which the yellow pine is 
better suited, being firm and even grained. 

The sugar pine, which is well known as the 
most valuable pine in California, is a fine- 
grained, soft, white wood, especially adapted to 
use in casings, doors, sash, etc. Besides .these 
there are the white cedar, a beautiful wood for 
finishing in oil, the fir, valuable for timber, 
the red oak, which makes an elegant hardwood 
finish, the red cedar and aberdeen pine, being 
still beyond the reach of the mills, but little is 



known of their qualities as timber trees. The 
valley oaks and mountain oaks are not valuable 
for timber, as they are too porous and cross- 
grained. The amount of timber in this county 
is almost beyond human conception, extending 
in a broad belt over twenty-five miles wide and 
sixty miles in length, or 1,500 square miles. 
This vast area, at an average of 8,000 feet per 
acre, contains 9,600,000,000 feet of lumber; and 
when it is considered that there are many single 
acres that contain a 1,000,000 feet, it will be 
seen that the average is by no means high. Its 
value at $10 per thousand would be 896,000,000. 

Fresno County is especially rich in good 
building stone. 

The granite, the rock of which the most 
of the Sierra Nevada range is composed, 
is to be found in all shades and textures, 
the Raymond quarries producing two kinds, 
which may be seen and compared in the court- 
house stairs. South of King's river is a gran- 
ite equal to the Scotch. Both light and red, 
and fine stone is to be found, from the dark 
steel-gray to almost white, in all parts of the 
range. 

Of the limestones and marbles, King's river 
canon contains fine marble in all shades, from 
the pure white to the dark mottled and mourn- 
ing vein, in immense quantities and of superior 
qualities. When developed, this stone will be 
preferred to granite for building, as it is in 
greater variety, works easier, and is quite as 
serviceable. When burned it makes an excel- 
lent quality of lime. In the Coast Range there 
are many varieties of sandstone, which range in 
color from drab to buff, and in almost inex- 
haustible quantities. The Alcalde lime quarry, 
situated a quarter of a mile from Alcalde sta- 
tion, is a buff limestone of excellent quality, 
susceptible of a high polish, and when burned 
produces a lime equal to the best Santa Cruz 
lime. 

Bordering on the King's river are found sev- 
eral large masses of marble and limestone. The 
main ledge is from 100 to 300 feet deep, and is 
composed mainly of white crystalline lime 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



141 



spar. Another ledge on Mill creek flat is especi- 
ally adapted for building stone. With moun- 
tain railroads already surveyed, all the material 
will be brought into a ready market. 



CLAYS FOE BRICK. 



Of clays for brick, the supply is varied from 
that producing the bright red brick of the foot- 
hill slopes to those almost white from the west- 
side clays. Any of the chocolate raisin lands 
make a good quality of brick when properly 
burned. 



The impression prevails that anything in the 
way of a shelter from the sun and wind is good 
enough for a dwelling in the mild climate of 
California; while on the contrary, in order to 
build for comfort, it is necessary to build with 
thick walls to keep out the heat of summer and 
to keep in the warmth in winter; and we are sure 
the near future will bring good, substantial build- 
ings of brick and stone, with interiors finished 
in the elegant hard and soft woods of Cali- 
fornia. 




142 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




• P CO j&\:R3J SD (I 




TULARE VALLEY. 

fllE word tulare is from the Mexican tidar, 
a tule swamp. 
The San Joaquin valley includes all the 
level country between the Sierra Nevada moun- 
tain on the east and the Coast Range on the 
west, extending south to the Tehachapi moun- 
tains. This has been fully treated in the chap- 
ter on the great San Joaquin valley. With due 
respect to the opinions of men, and with a 
desire to accord to all equal privileges and 
opinions, which we reserve to ourselves, we 
quote from a citizen, a local writer, his presen- 
tation of Tulare valley. Difference in opinion, 
however, will not change the climate, soil, rain- 
fall, nor productions of this deservedly famous 
region : 

■' This great Tulare valley is not so widely 
and favorably known abroad as its territorial 
extent and productive capacity warrant. It has 
been too long confounded with the San Joaquin 
valley, of which it no more forms a part than the 
valley of the Ohio, the Missouri, Platte, or Kan- 
sas forms a part of the Mississippi valley, and 
only in the same limited sense. Theoretically, 
the surplus waters of Tulare valley are supposed 
to find their way to San Francisco bay through 
Fresno slough and the San Joaquin river, but 



practically they never do;* and eo, lbc< litkally 
the valley of Tulare may be said to form a por- 
tion of the great San Joaquin valley; but prac- 
tically it does not. It is essentially different 
from the San Joaquin, and we therefore take 
this occasion to enter our formal protest against 
its being called the ' Upper San Joaquin,' or 
being connected with the San Joaquin in any way 
whatsoever. Tulare valley is better watered, 
better timbered, and has a more universally 
level surface than the San Joaquin. Its soil is 
more of an alluvial nature, and it is less afflicted 
with an underlying stratum of hardpan. The 
average rainfall is considerably less in the Tu- 
lare valley than in the San Joaquin; but, on the 
other hand, irrigation is more generally em- 
ployed, and a greater productive capacitv is 
thereby developed, and a larger degree of ma- 
terial prosperity enjoyed. All Tulareans should 
co-operate in giving the name of their great 
valley a wide and honorable notoriety, leaving 
the inhabitants of the San Joaquin to look out 
for the name and fortune of their portion of 

* Then will our local friend please state where and 
how the surplus is disposed of? There is no other outlet 
for the surplus waters of King's and Kern rivers, and the 
other snniller streams, than that of the San Joaquin. — 
The Author. 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



143 



the State. The valley of Tulare lafce should no 
longer be confounded with that of the San Joa- 
quin river. 

" Tulare valley, like the San Joaquin, has a 
trend from northwest to southeast, and lies be- 
tween the Sierra Nevada and Monte Diablo 
ranges of mountains, which converge at the 
southern extremity of the valley, and form also 
its southern boundary. The valley may be said 
to have its northern boundary at or near Fresno 
city, in Fresno County, and to include about 
one-half of the valley portion of Fresno County. 
The territory thus included in the Tulai-e valley 
has a length of 125 miles, and an average breadth 
of more than fifty miles, exclusive of the foot- 
hills, making a total area of 6,250 square miles, 
exceeding considerably the combined area of 
Rhode Island and Connecticut; but if we add 
to this the adjacent mountains and foothills, 
comprising the valley water-shed, we shall have 
a territory much richer, naturally, and much 
greater than Rhode Island, Connecticut and 
Massachusetts combined; and yet all this vast 
territory is embraced within Kern, Tulare, and 
less than half of Fresno counties. 

"The west side of this valley has a much 
smaller rainfall than the eastern side, is not so 
well supplied with streams, and will be slower 
in coming into general cultivation. It is now 
used chiefly as a range for stock; but as the soil 
is fertile and the land level, it will be cultivated 
in process of time. What the west side lacks 
in moisture it makes up in mineral wealth. 
Important coal deposits have been found there, 
and are now being developed, and also being 
connected with the outside world by railroad. 

" Tulare valley is abundantly watered; King's 
river enters it from the north, the Kaweah, Tule, 
White and Kern rivers, and many smaller 
streams from the east, and several creeks from 
the south and west. Through the trough of the 
valley, from end to end, run a chain of lakes 
and sloughs, which unitedly receive the cache- 
ment from the vast drainage areas on either 
side, and store it until evaporated by the sum- 
mer suns. All the basins advance and recede 



as each recurring season is wet or dry, and it 
is not impossible that all these lake? may be 
reclaimed and disappear entirely in process of 
time, leaving in their places large tracts of rich 
sedimentary soils. But this could not be looked 
upon as an unmixed blessing. The evaporation 
of so much water during the summer has an 
important beneficial effect upon the climate of 
the whole valley. 

" Tulare valley was first seen by white men 
in 1826, when Jedediah Smith of JMew York, 
entered it near its southern extremity at the 
head of twenty-five trappers, whom be brought 
with him from St. Louis. For many years 
thereafter the vicinity of Tulare lake was fre- 
quently visited by hunters and trappers, but 
such men, while ready enough to detail their 
adventures with wild beasts and wild men, were 
very reticent about the character of the country 
they visited. They viewed the advance of civil- 
ization with scarcely more favor than did the 
aboriginal red man. The Spaniards and Mexi- 
cans who settled the coast counties were even 
less curious about the great interior valleys of 
the State. It is said that a superstition was 
current among them that the great valley was 
the exclusive property of the devil, and that 
whosoever ventured within his territory was 
never permitted to return. So it was that the 
Spaniards contented themselves with the terri- 
tory lying westward of the Monte Diablo range 
of mountains, tacitly agreeing with Satan that 
the country bearing his name should be left to 
his possession. This state of affairs has proven 
most fortunate to the Americans who came to 
settle the country within the last few years, for 
they found it for the most part unincumbered 
by Spanish grants, the primal curse of other 
sections of the State. Only one grant, the La- 
guna de Tache, extends into the Tulare valley, 
and that is stoutly maintained to be fraudulent, 
located after California had passed into the pos- 
session of the United States. Hence, through- 
out the entire valley of Tulare, but little diffi- 
culty exists with land titles, nearly all land being 
derived from the United States as an original 



144 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



source. This is an important tact to be remem- 
bered. Fremont went through the valley in 
1844, and gave in his reports a very fair ac- 
count of what he saw, and this report was 
doubtless the first about this valley that ever 
got into print. Since then much has been 
written, and yet the half has not been told." 

TOPOGEAPHY, ETC., OF TULARE COUNTY. 

Tulare County is one of the largest, most im- 
portant and interesting counties in California. 
It is not as yet so well known abroad as some 
other counties, and not so well as it deserves to 
be; but of late it has been coming into notice 
very rapidly, and will soon be accorded that- 
high estimation in the public mind which its 
natural advantages so richly deseive. It is 
our purpose here to set forth such fundamental 
facts about Tulare County as every home-seeker 
will want to know about, hoping thereby to ex- 
cite in his mind such an interest as will provoke 
him to pursue the subject further and learn 
more about this great section of California. 
Much has been written about this great State 
in general, and local writers have exhausted 
themselves in an able manner attempting to 
portray with pen and pencil the wonders and 
beauties of their immediate locality or chosen 
county. These many writers have been ridi- 
culed by many who have never seen the possi- 
bilities of this great State as being engaged in 
advertising the State for selfish purposes; that 
everything is over-estimated, etc. Such is not 
the case; and no writer, be his ability ever so 
great, can convey an accurate idea of this won- 
derful country, and duly impress the same on 
the minds of those who have not spent some 
time in the State. Thus we only hope and ex- 
pect to so interest those who chance to peruse 
these pages to the extent that they will pursue 
the investigation further, — go and see, and thus 
be convinced, — that what has been written is 
true, and yet the half has not been told. 

Tulare County lies in the heart of the great 
Tulare valley, and generally, as well as properly, 
known as the '-upper" or southerly portion of 



the great S3n Joacpiin valley, and extends from 
the summit of the Monte Diablo range of 
mountains eastward to the summit of the 
third and loftiest range of the Sierra Nevadas. 
The northern boundary of the county is, by rail, 
228 miles southeast of San Francisco, and the 
southern boundary is 202 miles north of Los 
Angeles. 

The central and most thickly populated por- 
tion of the county is, in a direct line, about 100 
miles from the coast. It is bounded on the north 
by Fresno, on the east by Inyo, on the south by 
Kern, and on the west by Monterey County. 
The greatest length of Tulare county from east 
to west is 120 miles, its greatest breadth from 
north to south sixty miles, and it has an area 
of 6,406 square miles, exceeding that of Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island combined by about 
200 square miles. Reduced to acres, this gives 
4,100,000, and makes Tulare the sixth county 
in size in the State. California is noted for 
large measurements, and her counties, with di- 
mensions that would reflect credit upon States, 
and almost upon empires, are not the least 
among what sbe regards as her "big things." 

The surface of Tulare County is abundantly 
diversified. It has its full proportion of moun- 
tain, foothill and valley lands. As the form of 
the county is triangular, and only the apex of 
the triangle rests on Monte Diablo range, it has 
but little mountainous land upon its western 
border; but the base of the triangle extends so 
far into the Sierras that fully one-half of the 
county's area must be classed as mountainous or 
hilly; and when we say mountainous we mean 
mountainous in the fullest acceptance of the 
term. These mountains are, to use the phrase- 
ology of the school geographers, "vast eleva- 
tions of land," the highest in the United States. 
They rise abruptly from the valley to a height 
of 8,000 and 10,000 feet, and each successive 
range exceeds the first in altitude until Mount 
Whitney, in the third, lifts his head more than 
15,000 feet above the level of the sea. Tulare's 
foothills are irregular and angular in the ex- 
treme, but there are among them some very 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



145 



beautiful small valleys, and upon them some 
very considerable "flats" that will at an early 
day be brought under profitable cultivation. 
At present the foothill country is largely given 
over to bands of sheep and herds of horses and 
cattle. The mountains are heavily timbered, 
and the foothills are covered more or less 
thickly with stunted oaks. 

The valley portion of the county embraces a 
full cross- section of Tulare valley. This in- 
cludes an area nearly, if not quite, sixty miles 
square, as level apparently as a barn floor, and 
yet it all has an incline toward the trough of 
the valley of three to ten feet per mile. Writers 
sometimes speak of this great valley as a 
"plain," but the word "plain" conveys to the 
mind an image that improperly represents this 
valley. The valley of Tulare differs from other 
valleys inasmuch as it is sixty or seventy, in- 
stead of six or seven, miles wide, but not other- 
wise. Nor does it resemble the prairies of Illi- 
nois, bounded only by the horizon, for the 
mountains are here to wall it in and relieve it 
of that monotony which always attends a limit- 
less stretch of unbroken prairie or plain. It is 
more like a river bottom. Its altitude above 
the level of the sea ranges between 200 and 400 

o ■ 

feet. Of this valley land Tulare County pos- 
sesses about 2,000,000 acres, nearly all of which 
would rank as first-class in any country in the 
world. 

Tulare is one of the best watered counties in 
the State. It has water enough for all purposes 
when it shall have been properly husbanded and 
utilized. It has been derisively said that the 
rivers of California consisted in banks and a 
bed, but no water. This justly applies to some 
of Tulare's streams at certain seasons of the 
year, but at other times they are "bank full," 
and more, for loDg periods. The waters of such 
streams must either be impounded in the moun- 
tains and foothills in flood times by means of 
reservoirs, or they must be used for irrigation 
when they have water. But Tulare County is 
not without her rivers of pereunial flow. 

King's River. — This is one of the largest in- 



terior rivers of California. It takes its rise 
almost entirely in the eastern part of Fresno 
County, in fact drains all that portion of eastern 
Fresno lying south of the San Joaquin river. 
It has a drainage area of 1,855 square miles' 
mostly in the mountains of Fresno, and does 
not enter Tulare County until after it has left 
the foothills; and after it does make its entrance 
into Tulare it is not content to stay there, but 
winds back into Fresno again, and again back 
into Tulare, finding rest at last in Tulare lake. 
The waters of King's river are largely diverted 
into canals for irrigation in both Tulare and 
Fresno counties, but despite such losses it man- 
ages to discharge some water into the lake 
throughout most of the year. King's river fur- 
nishes water enough to irrigate more than 
1,000,000 acres of land. Its average flow from 
January to July is 8,715 cubic feet of water 
per second. 

Kaweah River. — This river is confined en- 
tirely to Tulare County, and is a perennial 
stream. Its tributaries head away back in the 
regions of perpetual snow, and at times it car- 
ries a very large volume of water. The Kaweah 
has a water-shed of 608 square miles of moun- 
tain territory, and from January to July dis- 
charges an average volume of water of 1,824 
cubic feet per second, sufficient to irrigate 291,- 
840 acres of laud if economically used. But 
much of the water of this river sinks into the 
sands before it fairly reaches the valley. Be- 
fore it leaves the mountains it begins to de- 
posit its burden of silt, creating there a swamp 
of considerable size that swallows up no small 
portion of its waters. In fact the delta of the 
Kaweah extends from the foothills to Tulare 
lake, and in reaching the lake the river divides 
into many independent channels, bearing sepa- 
rate names, but watering nearly one-fourth of 
the eastern side of the valley, and creating one 
of the most fertile bodies of land in the world. 

Tule River. — This stream enters the valley 
about thirty miles south of the Kaweah, has a 
smaller water-shed, and discharges not more 
than one-third as much water; but it furnishes 



14G 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



enough to irrigate about 100,000 acres of land, 
provided always that it be economically utilized, 
which is far from being the case now. Tule is 
not a perennial stream throughout all its course, 
the valley portion of its bed becoming dry early 
in the summer, and remaining so until after the 
fall rains have set in; but back in the moun- 
tains and foothills it maintains a considerable 
stream at all times. Like the Kaweah, much 
of the water of Tule river is allowed needlessly 
to sink in the sands before reaching the valley; 
but this will not long be permitted. 

Deer creek, and after it White river, enter 
the valley south of Tule, but lose themselves 
before reaching the lake, except in unusually 
wet times. They are not perennial, and have 
but small water-sheds; but being located as 
they are in the poorest watered section of the 
county, what water they do afford will come to 
be valued very highly in process of time, and 
will be taken out of its natural channel and be 
conducted in cement canals, or perhaps through 
iron pipes, so as to save and utilize all of it. 
The latter method would be the most econom- 
ical, as where conducted through pipes thou- 
sands of gallons would be saved that would be- 
lost by evaporation if conducted through cement 
canals. 

General Characteristics. — There are certain 
peculiarities which are common to all of the 
streams of Tulare Connty. Their mountain 
tributaries are crystal trout streams, rushing 
and splashing through rocky beds, over preci- 
pices and down cataracts with as much merri- 
ment as the "waters came down from Lodore." 
Ice-cold, pure and colorless, they add to their 
wild mountain homes all that fancy could de- 
sire to make them complete. JBut once in the 
valley they are overburdened with silt, move 
sluggishly, wander off in strange channels, are 
divided into canals, carried out upon the land 
and are seen no more. These streams have two 
high-water periods each year: one in the fall 
when the first heavy rains occur, and the second 
in the spring when the deposits of snow upon 
the lower mountain levels melt. The floods of 



1862 and 1868 were very severe and quite dis- 
astrous. King's, Kaweah and Tule rivers all 
started new channels when the drat flood oc- 
curred, and finished them when the second one 
came; but so many large canals have been con- 
structed for diverting the water from these 
streams since 1868 that it is barely probable, if 
any flood may hereafter occnr, that it can work 
such damaging results as in the past. 

Firewood. — Parts of Tulare County are 
bountifully provided with firewood for domestic 
purposes and parts are not. The Kaweah delta 
is rich in this particular, a large part of it being 
covered with oaks widespread ing and having 
trunks four to ten feet in diameter, as well as 
numerous smaller trees. Tule and other streams 
are reasonably well timbered, and among the 
foothills are considerable supplies of smaller oak 
timber, good for firewood but for little else. 
The higher mountains have, of course, an inex- 
haustible supply of firewood, but it will be 
something of a task to convey it to where it is 
most needed, and the need is not likely to be so 
pressing for some time to come, as to warrant a 
serious grappling now with the problem. In- 
deed, it looks now as though that vast supply 
might never be needed. Tre3S grow so rapidly 
in the valley that each rancher may not only 
grow his own firewood at small cost, but may 
grow it to sell, and therein find an important 
source of income. The higher ridges of the 
Sierra are clothed with extensive forests of pine, 
cedar, redwood, fir, tamarack and other trees. 
From the towns of the great interior valley 
camping parties usually seek the forest-clad 
slopes of the Sierra Nevada in summer, either 
selecting some inviting spot in which to remain 
for a time, or with pack-horses and guns push 
onward and upward among the higher peaks of 
the range, where snow lies in the deep canons 
throughout the year. To reach these high alti- 
tudes, forests of oak, pine, cedar, fir and other 
trees are passed through, among which countless 
streams dash onward to mingle with the rivers 
that flow into the valley below. In the moun- 
tains lying east of the San Joaquin Valley, and 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



147 



in no other part of the State, the big trees 
(Secjuoiagigantea) exist, several groves of which 
have become famous the world over. In the 
counties of Calaveras, Tuolumne, Mariposa, 
Fresno and Tulare only are these trees found. 
The largest that has been discovered is in Tulare 
County, and measures forty-six feet in diameter. 
Rising up amidst the tall pines, their lowest 
branches high above the topmost boughs of the 
surrounding forest, the immense trunks clothed 
in pale red bark, are the most striking feature 
of these regions. 

Beyond the upper limit of this monster 
growth, but higher among the granite crags, 
hardy varieties of pine, not encountered in the 
heavy forests, clinging about the base of the 
peaks, thrust themselves upward from crevices 
in the rock, or line small canons that pursue- 
their tortuous course upward to the snow fields 
It is such a region that is represented but 
meagerly when sketched by the , most expert 
artist or described by the ablest pen. Some of 
the wildest and grandest scenery in the world is 
to be met with in the region about Mounts 
Whitney, Tyndall and Kaweah and other grand 
and lofty piles rising above the summit line of 
the Sierra, and visible from every part of the 
valley. Several parties have ascended to the 
summit of the tirst-named peak, the highest 
point of land in the United States, and on two 
or three occasions ladies have made the ascent 
successfully, although it is not unaccompanied 
with danger. 

Near the upper limit of the timber belt the 
weather is always cool, and frost is visible every 
morning; and in the middle of summer ice often 
covers the still ponds of water. The deep gorges 
between beetling crags are tilled with drifted 
snow, and in some of them glaciers are to be 
seen. On the western slope of this great range 
any temperature from frigid to semi-tropical 
may be found, and summer locations to suit the 
desires of the individual are plentiful. Winter 
in the mountains hardly ever entirely sur- 
renders. As the season advances, slowly and 
obstinately it retreats up the slopes, slowly pur- 



sued even to the edge of the snow banks by 
blades of grass and flowers. Sometimes, at 
higher altitudes, the snow-plant in its glory of 
crimson, plants its victorious flag upon a white 
background before the snow has had time to 
beat its retreat to the summit beyond. Late in 
October there are torn and tattered white ban- 
ners to be seen here and there through the deep 
ravines; but winter has sought its last strong- 
hold at the summit, whence it has defied for 
thousands of years even the power of the sun. 
As twilight deepens into night, it sends its 
compliments down the range in the evening 
breeze. Then to the camps comes the sad 
song of the pines, "the air bites shrewdly." 
Wrapped warmly in double blankets, how re- 
freshing is sleep under the stars, which «6hine 
and twinkle with a brilliancy astonishing to 
those who have always lived in the hazy val- 
leys. Switzerland has become an English park. 
.Nature has given to California a grander and 
more magnificent one, not even yet more than 
half explored, and much of which is in the 
mountain region of Tulare County. 

CLIMATE. 

Tulareans are not given to boasting about the 
superb climate of their county. They will even 
hear people of other localities speak disrespect- 
fully of it without show of resentment, pre- 
sumably from the fact that Tulare is not building 
so much upon climate as upon soil, water and pro- 
duction. It does not matter so much, they think, 
what is said about her climate. As " they 
that are whole know not of their health, — only 
the sick;" so they who find themselves climati- 
cally comfortable so much of the time, are slow 
to realize that their climate is, upon the whole, 
among the most delightful in the world. Tulare, 
like all California, has but two seasons, the so- 
called "rainy season" and the "dry:" and as 
the rainfall is much less here than farther north, 
we will treat the two separately. 

THE DRY SEASON. 

The term "dry season" is self-explanatory; 
it " hits the nail squarely on the head." That 



148 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



particular season is of a truth unequivocally and 
unmitigatedly dry. The dryness thereof usually 
sets in the last of May or first of June, and 
stays with the country until the last of Septem- 
ber or October. During that period it never 
rains in the valley, though it has been known to 
sprinkle just enough to show the presence of 
moisture on the dry highways up as late as the 
Fourth of July, but that could scarcely be dig- 
nified with the term " rain." The sky is hazy, 
but cloudless, and if one day differs from an- 
other it is only in that it may be a little warmer, 
or cooler, or that the breeze that comes steadily 
out of the northwest may be a trifle stronger or 
weaker than upon some previous day. Friends 
never greet each other, as in the Eastern States 
with,*' Nice day," " Fine shower," " Is it going 
to rain?" " How did you like last night's storm?" 
etc. The only observation ever heard upon the 
time-honored topic of weather is an occassional 
" Warm enough for you? " The dry season is, 
it must be admitted, a " trifle warm " at times, 
but that is all that ever " gets the matter with" 
it, and the people generally make more "fuss" 
about it l^b<t than is necessary, or any sense in, 
as the temperature at 100° is not so oppressive 
as it is east of the mountains when at 85°. June, 
July and August are warm in the valley, but, 
all things considered, those months in the val- 
ley are preferable to the same months in any 
State in the far East or great Mississippi val- 
ley. There is no sweltering heat that saps the 
life out of one like a hot vapor bath. The sum- 
mer days are dry and invigorating, enabling 
men and animals to work all day in the harvest- 
fields with the mercury at or above 100° with- 
out loss of life or severe inconvenience. 

But not all the days in June, July and August 
are uncomfortably warm. Take all of the un- 
pleasant warm days out of those months, and 
there will be left two or more full months of as 
agreeable summer weather as may be found 
anywhere. Those counties that pride them 
selves most upon their climate, Los Angeles, 
San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc., have from one 
cause or another as many, if not more, unpleas- 



ant days in summer than has Tulare. Some 
days in each of those couuties will be rendered 
unpleasant by a chill wind off the sea or by 
mountains of fog tumbling into the interior, or 
by wind-storms, sand-storms, or an unusual de- 
gree of heat, from which they also sometimes 
suffer, while to be a " trifle " warm for comfort 
is all that can occur to mar the serenity of a 
Tulare summer day. But the nights are nearly 
always cool, and where one can rest well during 
the night he can stand a little torridity during 
the day. The first few warm days of the season 
are hardest to bear, but the system soon adapts 
itself to the new condition, and as that con- 
dition endures right along without those sudden 
changes which shock the system, the accli- 
mating process does not have to be gone through 
with again until the next season. The ever- 
present dust is one disagreeable feature of Cali- 
fornia summers the State over, one community 
having little advantage overjanother in that par- 
ticular: but the dust does not drive as it does 
in the East, except when disturbed by an oc- 
casional sand-storm. Such storms, however, 
occur usually only in spring or fall, before the 
dry season begins., or after it is over with, and 
usually do not last long, — not more than ten or 
fifteen minutes. " Unpleasant things they are 
in all countries, and not all the good things of 
earth can be found in one county, one State, or 
even in one-half the globe." " If Tulare had 
neither dust nor warm weather to contend with," 
says one, " her climate would be faultless, and 
all the people in the world want to live within 
her borders; and then how crowded would be 
the people! But if the dust and warmth get 
tiresome, why, there are the mountains." 

THE RAINY SEASON. 

This term is a very unfortunate one as to 
California. It not only does not create in the 
mind any sort of conception of the division of 
the year from October to May, but it sets the 
imagination to depicting a positively hideous 
image of what is in reality altogether lovely. 
There should be a new and more appropriate 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



149 



term, by which to express this season in Cali- 
fornia. " Spring" would do fairly well, but 
probably the term ''rain season" is more likely 
to be adopted. People imagine that during the 
rainy season it must either pour or drizzle all 
the time, as is the case in Oregon and Wash- 
ington, making the roads impassable and the 
whole face of the country a great dismal swamp. 
Nothing could be farther from the truth. The 
so-called rainy season is merely that portion of 
the year in which it sometijnes rains. Weeks 
and even whole months go by without rain, and 
when it does rain it makes very little fuss about 
it. Most ot the rains are like April showers 
unaccompanied by wind or lightning. Once in 
a great while the inhabitants of the valley are 
treated to a display of heaven's artillery, but 
the sound thereof more nearly resembles the 
rattle of musketry than that of the roar of heavy 
ordnance so frequently heard in the Eastern 
States. Lightning very seldom strikes in the 
valley, not oftener than once a year in the en- 
tire valley; and not a lightning rod is to be 
seen, and as yet not a lightning-rod agent has 
penetratedthe valley; and furthermore, the peo- 
ple say they are not anxious for their coming! 

The average rainfall is probably less than 
twelve inches, and that amount properly dis- 
tributed is an abundance. During 1884, six- 
teen inches of water fell, and it was more than 
the soil knew what to do with. Fairly good 
crops have been produced where the precipita- 
tion was but seven inches, which was the case 
in 1887. 

THE GENERAL HEALTH 

of the county is good. No general epidemics 
have ever visited this section, and there are no 
diseases peculiar to this section alone. People 
die here occasionally, it is true, but the death 
rate is among the very lowest in the State, in 
proportion to population. 

Malarial troubles and biliousness are not 
unknown, but are not worse than in many East- 
ern States regarded as healthful, and not nearly 
so bad as in some of the States. For those of 
weak lungs, Tulare is much preferable to the 



coast. The climate is subjected to fewer sud- 
den changes than that of the coast, and there is 
less difference between sunshine and shade than 
there. The sun is warm anywhere in Califor- 
nia, and it is the breeze only that is cool on the 
coast. Many invalids have, after walking in the 
sun along the coast, sat down in the shade to 
rest, and become chilled in a few moments and 
suffered the dire consequence. \ There is no 
danger of such mishap in Tulare. \ 

A grave apprehension has been expressed by 
some Eastern people that the climate of Cali- 
fornia might enervate and make them less 
ambitious than desirable. This fear has no 
foundation in fact, and yet it is not without 
some degree of plausibility. There are those 
who have but few wants, and having those sup- 
plied possess no further incentive to exertion. 
The rigors of climate north and east furnish an 
incentive to activity; necessity drives even the 
indolent to provide against the unrelenting 
frosts of winter; while in California no such 
master holds the whip over those who were 
born tired. Hence the impression that climate 
is the prime cause of indolence. 

Some have remarked the number of invalids 
met with in the State, never reasoning how 
that thousands linger in the States until the last 
resort is California or the grave, and to Califor- 
nia they come first, where some die soon, and 
others have their days prolonged into years. 
The reader of history will remember that it was 
wealth and luxury, and not enervating climate, 
that laid Rome low; and therein lies Calfornia's 
only danger of producing a less hardy and vig- 
orous people than the Dakotas or Minnesota. 



AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 



The valley of Tulare is destined in time to 
become one of the most populous sections on 
the globe. The richness of the soil, abundant 
water supply, and wonderful adaptation to nearly 
all kinds of agricultural production, assures 
this; but it will be a very busy community and 
will afford but little opportunity for relaxation, 
change of scene, or rest. Consequently a field 



150 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



for recreation near by a busy people, who have 
but short intervals to spend from business, is 
one great desideratum in selecting a location. 
Fortunately for those locating homes in Tulare, 
there are found near by everlasting pleasure 
grounds, abounding in great natural wonders, 
sublime scenery, mineral springs, and all else 
that can delight the eye or divert the mind. 
They lie immediately at hand, and extend a 
standing invitation to all who are weary and 
heavy-laden to come unto it and find rest. This 
great natural mountain park has, within the 
county, a length of sixty miles and a breadth of 
forty or fifty, and will always furnish ample 
room for all the people who may resort thereto. 
No finer region for camping, hunting, fishing 
and scientific research is to be found on the 
globe. Tulare's mountains have not been half 
explored except by sheep men who annually 
take their nocks far back in the mountains to 
summer among their meadows and on their 
grassy sides, and such men as a rule are not 
given to writing up their expeditions. But 
when in the fullness of time the mountain fast- 
nesses of Tulare, Fresno and Kern counties shall 
have been written up as Yo Semite has been, 
and shall be made more accessible by building 
some of the short lines of railroad already pro- 
posed, tourists will flock thither by thousands 
every summer, as they now do to the Alps of 
Switzerland or the famous Yo Semite. 

Among the sierras of Tulare and Fresno 
counties are a number ot' deeply cleft valleys 
that not only rival Yo Semite in grandeur but 
even far surpass it in the altitude of their granite 
walls and in territorial extent. Among the many 
attractive colossal wonders to be seen, are 
Mount Whitney and several other prominent 
peaks already mentioned, Kern River canon, 
Paradise and Tehipitee valleys, which have been 
elsewhere described. 

Besides what has been already described, the 
mountain scenery is profusely diversified with 
many mountain lakes of indescribable beauty; 
countless cascades and waterfalls, hundreds and 
even thousands of feet high, some of them; 



glaciers as old as the mountains themselves; 
lava beds; wide-yawning craters of extinct vol- 
canos; forests so dense that the sun scarcely 
penetrates them, and containing trees having 
not only the largest girth of all in the known 
world, but also trees that are taller than can be 
found elsewhere! and all this in a climate that, 
during the summer months, when recreation is 
most to be desired, is not only delightfully cool 
and invigorating, but also rainless and stormless, 
and where every day is just like every other day, 
with blue skies flaked here and there with bits 
of fleecy cloud; where the stillness is so intense 
that every twitter of bird and chirp of cricket 
is plainly audible at long distances; the air 
fragrant with the odor of pine and flowers, and 
the whole world seemingly at rest. 

Among these mountains are found many 
springs having marked medicinal features. The 
most common of these is the soda spring, though 
soda is only one among the several minerals 
their waters contain. One of the best soda 
springs known is on Middle Tule, at an elevation 
of 4,000 feet. The water issues from an orifice 
in the solid rock in intermittent jets and with a 
gurgling noise, resembling a wash-boiler full of 
clothes boiling very rapidly; but the water is 
ice-cold, and when mixed with lemon juice and 
sugar makes a beverage that defies competition 
from venders of so-called '■ Arctic Soda." Bat 
there are hundreds of soda springs in different 
parts of Tulare's mountains, some of which may 
surpass the one described. There are also hot 
springs as well as cold. The waters of most of 
the hot springs are strongly tinctured with sul- 
phur. The best known springs of this kind in 
the county are on Deer creek, in the mountains 
of Southern Tulare. These springs are held in 
great esteem by persons afflicted with rheumatic 
troubles, disorders of the blood, etc. If we may 
judge from evidence procurable from those who 
have used the waters of these mineral springs, 
and claim to have been cured by them, they are 
more efficacious than any or all patent medicines 
yet invented, and are certain " panaceas" for a 
much longer list of disorders. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



151 



Students of nature will find no lack of inter- 
est in these wonderful mountains. Every turn 
in the trail will bring to view some new subject 
for the pencil or camera, or some new forma- 
tion for geological investigation. Not half of 
these mountains have been adequately pros- 
pected for minerals. Botanists and entomolo- 
gists will find here a new and enlarged field for 
their studies. What an opportunity is here 
offered for care-worn men and women to retire 
to nature's own rugged but motherly arms and 
be nursed back into health and new life ! " Com- 
ing generations will learn to bless God that not 
all of Tulare was made rich and fertile, but that 
enough was made uninhabitable to make a big 
play ground for them all." 

SUBTERRANEAN WONDERS. 

Besides the grand forest and magnificent 
scenery in the Sierras within the borders of 
Tulare County, there are many caves in the 
mountains that are beautiful and romantic at- 
tractions. One of these beautiful subterranean 
wonders is situated about two miles and a half 
from Frazier's Mill. It has been known of for 
several years, but not explored to any extent 
until recently, owing to a beautiful, clear, cold 
stream of water flowing through the entrance. 
This stream has been changed so as to admit 
adventurers, and the cave has since been ex- 
plored to a depth of 600 feet. The entrance to 
the different chambers is peculiar, in each in- 
stance being through the roof; and it is often 
with difficulty that a man can crowd his body 
through these entrances, leading from one cham- 
ber to another. There are numerous chambers, 
of different sizes; many of them are from forty 
to ninety feet from floor to ceiling. Some of 
them contain immense boulders, weighing from 
five to ten tons, and are seemingly hanging sus- 
pended from the ceiling. Others contain stalact- 
ites that sparkle and gleam by the light of can- 
dles in indescribable beauty. Among other 
curiosities found is petrified wood. 

During the year 1880, Joe Palmer, while 
tracking a deer, found a very large cavern, 



which he afterwards explored and found the en- 
trance to be 25 x 30 feet, and the descent nearly 
vertical for eighty feet, and an incline at forty 
degrees for a distance of 100 feet, then running 
nearly level for some distance and expanding 
into a large chamber 100 x 200 feet, with walls 
more than 100 feet high. This chamber is 
gorgeously ornamented with crystals, large and 
small. Some of the stalagmites are in size com- 
parable with huge stumps of trees. Crystal 
columns two feet in diameter reach from base 
to. dome, while innumerable stalactites, like 
arctic icicles, hang from the upper walls. All 
the crystals are of rarest whiteness and clear- 
ness, and so brittle that they have to be handled 
with the greatest care when removed. A great 
portion of the base or floor is a magnificent 
mirror, startling in beauty, size and splendor. 
Some of the stalactites are of many tons' 
weight and would be worth a fabulous price if 
removed to a museum. Two of the passages 
which open into the large chamber, sixty to 
seventy-five feet from the base, have not been 
fully explored. The darkness in the cave is in- 
tense, described as almost painful, but a light 
reveals a picture unrivaled in beauty and 
grandeur — a million reflections dazzling the eyes. 
The location of this great natural wonder is 
about fifty miles east of Tulare city, at the head 
of the north branch of the south fork of the 
Kaweah. This cave is at the lower line of the 
great Sequoia grove. 

Another novel feature near by is the largest 
boulder in the world, being more than 100 feet 
in diameter and weighing perhaps 200,000 
tons. 

In this county is found the only chrysoprase 
in the State. Valuable gems are cut from this 
material. The locality where this semi-precious 
stone is found is only seven miles northeast 
from Visalia. 

Some fine specimens of rose quartz are found 
in upper Yokohl and on Tule river. 

There has been recently discovered in the 
mountains back of Mineral King a rich deposit 
of copper and silver, of which the assay gives 



152 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



about twenty-five per cent, pure copper and 
$107 in silver per ton. 

BIG TKEES OF TULAEE. 

More than half of the " big trees " in the 
world are in Tulare County. There are thou- 
sands of them, the largest and grandest in exist- 
ence, and are worth traveling hundreds of miles 
to see; and the time will come and almost now 
is, when thousands of people will visit Tulare 
every year for the purpose of seeing them and 
other natural wonders that can be seen nowhere 
else in such majesty. 

The Sequoia gigantea, or "California Big 
Trees,'' as they are familiary called, are found 
in this county at an altitude of between 6,000 
and 7,000 feet above the level of the sea. They 
are found at this altitude on the western sum- 
mits of the Sierras, all along from the northern 
boundary of the county nearly to the southern, 
but not further south; and they are usually in 
groves from twelve to fifty trees in a place. 

Like Niagara, Yo Semite Falls, or El Capi- 
tan, it is hard to realize how immense these 
trees are, at first sight. When anything once 
passes the bounds of one's comprehension, it 
may be doubled or quadrupled without appear- 
ing much the larger. Drop any one who has 
never seen or heard anything about Yo Semite 
or its altitudes, down in the midst of that valley 
of wonders some fine morning, and his esti- 
mates of distances and altitudes would be ridic- 
ulously low. He would not suppose that the 
many cliffs and granite walls about him were as 
many hundreds as they are actually thousands 
of feet high. In order to fully appreciate Cali- 
fornia's size and distances, an Easterner must 
educate his eyes anew. So with the big trees. 
They are likely to be disappointing at first 
acquaintance. Surrounded as they are by great 
sugar pines, yellow pines, and firs so large in 
diameter, and towering to such height that but 
for the Sequoias they themselves would be 
known as big trees, as they are now known 
as the tallest trees in the world. It is hardly 
possible to comprehend the proportions of trees 



even much larger. There is nothing at hand 
with which to compare the monster Sequoia- 
Their environments are all in harmony, all 
gigantic. Then, too, the atmosphere in which 
they live is so transparent as almost to annihi- 
late distance. But fuller acquaintance with 
these monsters of the forest is rewarded by 
correspondingly larger appreciation. They grow 
upon one until at last they rise before him out 
of the forest shadows in heroic majesty. If it 
be difficult to fully realize how large these are 
when standing at their base, how much harder 
it is for those who have never seen them to come 
to a realization of their immensity by reading 
descriptions of them. A good way to get an 
approximate idea of diameters is to take a cord, 
say fifteen feet in length, attach one end of the 
crod to a stake, drive the stake in the middle of 
a street and with the cord as a radius strike a 
circle on the ground. The circle thus described 
will have a diameter of thirty feet. Then stand 
off a short distance and imagine the trunk of a 
tree filling that entire space, and towering sky- 
ward nearly double the height of the tallest 
church spires. Then try another method. 
Even where they grow the fallen monarchs, the 
sentinels of thousands of ages, appear largest, 
and there are many prostrate trunks all through 
the woods in all stages of decay. Imagine one 
of them lying in the middle of the street upon 
which you live, leaving barely room enough on 
either side for a wagon to pass, and extending a 
full block, or 325 feet, and the upper edge nearly 
on a line with the tops of two-story buildings. 
Large as these trees are, some have practiced 
fraud in their measurement. To sustain them- 
selves in an upright position despite the storms 
that occasionally visit the higher Sierras, these 
trees have thrown out in every direction great 
buttresses that sink deep in the earth and brace 
them. This causes the trunks of the trees to 
bulge out at the base, and not nnfrequently 
these buttresses leave a considerable space be- 
tween them and the tree. Such is the case with 
the famous "Grizzly Giant" in the Mariposa 
grove. This tree is put down in guide books as 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



153 



being 109 feet in circumference; but to make of 
it such dimensions, the line must be drawn 
around outside of its buttresses, which is mani- 
festly unfair. An honest measurement of the 
tree makes it about ninety feet in circumfer- 
ence, and but few trees are larger. There is a 
tree on Bear creek in Tulare County, which is 
ninety-two feet in circumference five feet above 
ground. But as a rule a tree that is thirty feet 
through at the base, will not measure more 
than twenty-four feet at a point twenty feet 
above ground, though it may maintain that dia- 
meter for more than 100 feet, or even be larger 
yet fifty or sixty feet from the ground. 

There are but few of the larger trees, but bear 
evidence of having passed through a fiery or- 
deal. Some have been damaged but little, 
while others have been half consumed. These 
fires undoubtedly occurred long before the 
Americans, or even the Spaniards, came into 
the country. "Inside the cavity of a monster 
tree half burned off, but still alive and growing, 
a stalwart fir has grown up. By taking its girth 
and finding the stumps of other firs of like 
dimensions that had beed felled, and counting 
their ' rings,' it was found that this fir could not 
be less than 180 years old, and the big tree in 
which it grows must have been burned several 
years before the fir sprouted, or fully 200 years 
ago. This certainly relieves the white man 
from the suspicion of having committed this 
piece of vandalism and fixes it irrevocably on 
some earlier race." 

As to the age of these trees there is a diversity 
of opinion. Professor Asa Gray, in the first edi- 
tion of " Johnson's Cyclopedia," expressed the 
opinion that none of them could have a greater age 
than 1,200 years; but in the latest edition this 
opinion has been changed to 2,000. We are forced 
to the conclusion that this eminent Harvard 
professor would have been impelled to give 
these trees a further lease of life could he have 
examined some of the larger stumps and count 
the growths or rings. Three reliable citizens of 
Tulare County counted the rings of what is 
known as the " big stump " on Bear Creek. The 

10 



stump has a diameter of twenty -four feet. They 
estimated that this tree was 3,002 years old 
when cut, and were confident that their estimate 
was too low rather than too high. The heart of 
the stump had so decayed that an accurate 
count could not be made. On consulting two 
of the men who cut the tree they stated that at 
the time of cutting the entire tree was sound, 
and they counted the rings, and judging thereby 
the tree was 4,468 years old! A Sequoia cut 
for lumber twelve feet in diameter was found to 
be 1,443 years old. This log was 251 feet long, 
and made about 100,000 feet of sawed lumber.* 
At Comstock-'s mill, Tulare County, in 1890. 
one of the Sequoias was cut for lumber. The 
cost of cutting, hauling, and sawing was $1,500. 
The lumber was sold for $2,500, making a net 
profit of $1,000 from the one tree. In 1878 
Messrs. McKiernan, Hubbs and Manley, felled 
the tree belonging to the " big stump," and 
brought a section of it out of the mountains. 
They were at work upon it for thirteen months. 
This tree measured 111 feet in circumference 
at the gronnd. They first cut it off twenty-six 
feet above ground, and then chopped out the 
inside to a depth of fourteen feet, making of it 
a great tub. They then sawed down from top 
to bottom, making fifteen great staves, leaving 
a thickness of six inches of wood, and three to 
twelve inches of bark on each stave. These 
staves were taken out one by one, loaded upon 
wagons and hauled to the railroad, each stave 
making a load for eight horses, and the whole 
filling two flat cars. This section was first set 
up and exhibited in San Francisco, the staves 
being fastened together by bolts, and was after- 
ward taken to various Eastern cities, but it did 
not " draw: " Eastern people were "too smart 
to be taken in with that kind of an arrange- 
ment." "Could not make them believe that 
trees grew to be twenty-six feet six inches in 
diameter in California." " Any one could see 

*Tke botanists claim, however, that "rings" do not 
uniformly correspond to " years of growth," any more 
than rings on a cow's horn or buttons in a rattlesnake's 
tail. 



154 



HISTRY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



that it was made out of fifteen different trees 
but together to look like one." And so the en- 
terprise proved a financial failure, costing the 
exhibitors much more than it came to, and it 
was finally stored in New York, and later, sold 
to pay the storage. 

The immense profits to be derived from these 
trees when worked into lumber led lumbermen 
to slaughter these forests indiscriminately, un- 
til it appeared as though ere long not a repre- 
sentative of the famous Sequoia would be left 
as a monument perpetuating the memory of his 
lallen race. Like the Indian, the white man 
seemed to care little how soon he was entirely 
disposed of. However, once there is a neces- 
isty for a leader, a defender, the right man ap- 
pears on the scene. In all ages, under all 
circumstances, Nature has proven her capacity 
to guard and perpetuate her mighty works, and 
hao at all times reared up agencies to lead the 
masses on to victory, and to establish and main- 
tain the right. Such has proven true as regards 
these monster monarchs of the forest. As early 
as 1880 the United States surveyor for the State 
of California recommended that a large area 
containing the Sequoia growth in Tulare County 
be set apart as a national park. Lumbermen 
sought to get possession of this vast forest 
wealth, and a few citizens of Tulare County 
were watchful and vigilant, determined, if pos- 
sible, to preserve the "big trees;" and it ap- 
propriately fell to the lot of one of California's 
native sons to become the prime mover in this 
laudable undertaking. The same is George W. 
Stewart, editor of the Visalia Delta. George 
gives the credit to Messrs. Frank J. Walker, 
Tipton Lindsey and John Tuohy. Mr. Walker 
says that G. W. Stewart first called his atten- 
tion to the importance of petitioning Congress 
to set aside certain boundaries containing the 
Sequoias as a national park, and that the other 
gentlemen named cordially endorsed the meas- 
ure, and each at once began actively to work 
with that object in view. 

In November, 1890, the Hon. John Tuohy 
read a paper bearing on the Sequoia park, before 



the Patrons of Husbandry of Tulare County, of 
whom he was Worthy Master. In that paper, 
among other things he said, speaking of the 
National Park: " My attention was first called 
to the subject by a well written editorial in the 
Visalia Delta, for the preservation of township 
18 south, and range 30 east of Mount 
Diablo meridian and base, for a park, as it con- 
tains very many fine Sequoias. Next, F. J. 
Walker drew up and circulated a petition to 
Secretary of the Interior Noble, to retain the 
supervision of this township until Congres- 
sional action could be had; and next I noticed 
that General Vandever had introduced the bill 
setting aside this township for a park; and I 
am further credibly informed that General Vau- 
dever was induced to take the action through 
the representations of prominent men in this 
county, notably amongst whom should be men- 
tioned that old and patriotic Tularean, Tipton 
Lindsey." Thus it will be seen that Mr. Tuohy 
says that his attention was first called to this 
subject by an editorial in the Visalia Delta, the 
editor being none other than George W. Stewart. 

The several gentlemen referred to industri- 
ously agitated the subject by writing to Gover- 
nor Waterman and to members of the State 
Legislature, to members of Congress, the Secre- 
tary of the Interior, and to influential news- 
papers throughout the United States, as well as 
to members of the State Forestry Commissi) m. 
Equal industry and vigilance was man if* 
by those interested in possessing the forest. 

In June, 1890, timber land in township 17 
south, range 21 east, was restored to market, 
and within a few weeks all the timber land was 
tiled on. Eighteen townships were withdrawn 
from market by the Government, December 
24, 1885, and the one above-mentioned restorep 
at the date there stated, and a month thereafter 
it was rumored that a township adjoining was 
to be placed on the market. Hence the letters 
and telegrams by the gentlemen referred to to 
prevent said lands passing into the hands of 
those who sought to destroy the forest 

July 28, 1890, General William Vandever, 



HISTORY OB' CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



155 



Representative in Congress from the Sixth Con- 
gressional District, California, of which Tulare 
County is a part, introduced the following bill: 

Whekeas, The rapid destruction of timber 
and ornamental trees in various parts of the 
United States, some of which trees are the 
wonders of the world on account of their size 
and limited number growing, makes it a mat- 
ter of importance that at least some of said for- 
ests should be preserved; therefore, 

Be it enacted by the State and House of 
Representatives of the United States of Amer- 
ica, in Congress assembled, That the tract of 
land in the State of California, known and de- 
scribed as township 18 south, range 30 east, 
Mount Diablo meridian, is hereby reserved and 
withdrawn from settlement, occupancy or sale 
under the laws of the United States, and dedi- 
cated and set apart as a public park or a pleas- 
ure ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the 
people; and all persons who shall locate or 
settle upon or occupy the same, or any pari 
thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be 
considered trespassers and removed therefrom. 
Sec. 2. That said public park shall be un- 
der the exclusive control of the Secretary of the 
Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as prac- 
ticable, to make and publish rules and regula- 
tions as he may deem necessary or proper for 
the care and management of the same. Such 
regulations shall provide for the preservation 
from injury of all timber, mineral deposits, 
natural curiosities or wonders within said park 
and their retention in their natural condition. 
The secretary may, in his discretion, grant 
leases for building purposes for terms not ex- 
ceeding ten years, of small parcels of ground 

not exceeding acres, at such places in said 

park as shall require the erection of buildings 
for the accommodation of visitors, all of the 
proceeds of said leases and other revenues that 
may be derived from sources connected with 
said park to be expended under his direction in 
the management of the same, and the construc- 
tion of roads and paths therein. 

He shall provide against the wanton de- 
struction of fish and game found within said 
park, and against their capture or destruction 
for purposes of merchandise or profit. He shall 
also cause all persons trespassing upon the same 
after the passage of this act to be removed there- 
from, and generally shall be authorized to take 
all such measures as shall be necessary or proper 



to fully carry out the objects and purposes of 
this act. 

The bill was passed and approved September, 
1890, and the park designated as the Sequoia 
National Park. The following is the bill in 
full, as also that establishing a national park 
surrounding the Yo Semite valley and including 
the several "big tree" groves in that region: 

An act to set apart a certain tract of land in the 
State of California as a public park. 

Whereas, the rapid destruction of timber and 
ornamental trees in various parts of the United 
States, some of which trees are the wonders of 
tlie world on account of their size and the lim- 
ited number growing, makes it a matter of im- 
portance that at least some of said forests should 
be preserved ; therefore 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States of Amer- 
ica in Congress assembled, That the tract of 
land in the State of California known and de- 
scribed as township numbered eighteen south, 
of range numbered thirty east, also township 
eighteen south, range thirty-one east, and sec- 
tions thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three and 
thirty-four, township seventeen south, range 
thirty east, all east of Mount Diablo meridian, 
is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settle- 
ment, occupancy or sale uner the laws of thed 
United States, and dedicated and set apart as a 
public park, or pleasure ground, for the benefit 
and enjoyment of the people; and all persons 
who shall locate or settle upon or occupy the 
same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter 
provided, shall be considered trespassers and re- 
moved therefrom. 

Sec. 2. That said public park shall be under 
the exclusive control of the Secretary of the In- 
terior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as practi- 
cable, to make and publish such rules and regu- 
lations as he may deem necessary or proper for 
the care and management of the same. Such 
regulations shall provide for the preservation 
from injury of all timber, mineral deposits, 
natural curiosities or wonders within said park, 
and their retention- in their natural condition. 
The Secretary may, in his discretion, grant 
leases, for building purposes for terms not ex- 
ceeding ten years, of small parcels of ground 
not exceeding five acres, at such places in said 
park as shall require the erection of buildings 
for the accommodation of visitors; all of the 



106 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



proceeds of said leases and other revenues that 
may be derived from any source connected with 
said park to be expended under his direction in 
the management of the same and the construc- 
tion of roads and paths therein. 

He shall provide against the wanton destruc- 
tion of the fish and game found within said 
park, and against their capture or destruction, 
for the purposes of merchandise or profit. He 
shall also cause all persons trespassing upon the 
same after the passage of this act to be removed 
therefrom, and, generally, shall be authorized to 
take all such measures as shall be necessary or 
proper to fully carry out the objects and pur- 
poses of this act. 

Approved, September 25, 1890. 

An act to set apart certain tracts of land in the 
State of California as forest reservations. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States of Amer- 
ica in Congress assembled, That the tracts of 
land in the State of California known and de- 
scribed as follows: Commencing at the north- 
west corner of township two north, range 
nineteen east, Mount Diablo meridian, thence 
eastwardly on the line between townships two 
and three north, ranges twenty-four and twenty- 
live east; thence southwardly on the line be- 
tween ranges twenty-four and twenty-live east 
to the Mount Diablo base line; thence east- 
wardly on said base line to the corner to town- 
ship one south, ranges twenty five and twenty- 
six east; thence southwardly on the line between 
ranges twenty- live and twenty-six east to the 
southeast corner of township two south, range 
twenty-live east; thence eastwardly on the line 
between townships two and three south, range 
twenty-six east, to the corner to townships two 
and three south, ranges twenty-six and twenty- 
seven east; thence southward!}' on the line be- 
tween ranges twenty-six and twenty-seven east 
to the first standard parallel south; thence west- 
wardly on the first standard parallel south to the 
southwest corner of township four south, range 
nineteen east; thence northwardly on the line 
between ranges eighteen and nineteen east to 
the northwest corner of township two south, 
range nineteen east; thence westwardly on the 
lino between townships one and two south to 
the southwest corner of township one south, 
range nineteen east; thence northwardly on the 
line between ranges eighteen and nineteen cast 
to the northwest corner of township two north, 
range nineteen east, the place of beginning, are 



hereby reserved and withdrawn from settle- 
ment, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the 
United States, and set apart as reserved forest 
lands; and all persons who shall locate or settle 
upon or occupy the same or any part thereof, 
except as hereinafter provided, shall be con- 
sidered trespassers, and removed therefrom: 
Provided, however, that nothing in this act 
shall be construed as in anywise affecting the 
grant of lands made to the State of California 
by virtue ot the act entitled "An act author' 
izing a grant to the State of California of the 
Yo Semite Valley, and of the land embracing 
the Mariposa Big Tree Grove," approved June 
thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty four; or 
as affecting any bona-fide entry of land made 
within the limits above described under any law 
of the United States prior to the approval of 
this act. 

Sec. 2. That said reservation shall be under 
the exclusive control of the Secretary of the In- 
terior, whose duty it. shall be, as soon as practi- 
cable, to make and publish such rules and 
regulations as he may deem necessary or proper 
lor the care and management of the same. Such 
regulations shall provide for the preservation 
from injury of all timber, mineral deposits, 
natural curiosities, or wonders within said reser- 
vation, and their retention in their natural con- 
dition. The Secretary may, in his discretion, 
grant leases for building purposes for terms not 
exceeding ten years, of small parcels of ground 
not exceeding five acres, at such places in said 
reservation as shall require the erection of build- 
ings for the accommodation of visitors; all of 
the proceeds of said leases and other revenues 
that may be derived from any source connected 
with said reservation to be expended under his 
direction in the management of the same and 
the construction of roads and paths therein. 
He shall provide against the wanton destruc- 
tion of the fish and game found within said 
reservation, and against their capture or de- 
struction, for the purposes of merchandise or 
profit. He shall also cause all persons trespass- 
ing upon the same after the passage of this act 
to be removed therefrom, and, generally, shall 
be authorized to take all such measures as shall 
be necessary or proper to fully carry out the 
objects and purposes of this act. 

Sec. 3. There shall also be and is hereby re- 
served and withdrawn from settlement, occu- 
pancy or sale under the laws of the United 
States, and shall be set apart as reserved forest 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



157 



lands, as hereinbefore provided, and subject to 
all the limitations and provisions herein con- 
tained, the following, additional lands, to wit: 
Township seventeen south, range thirty east of 
the Mount Diablo meridian, excepting sections 
thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three and thirty- 
four of said township, included in a previous 
bill. And there is also reserved and withdrawn 
from settlement, occupancy or sale under the 
laws of the United States, and set apart as forest 
lands, subject to like limitations, conditions and 
provisions, all of townships fifteen and sixteen 
south, of ranges twenty-nine and thirty east of 
the Mount Diablo meridian. And there is also 
hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, 
occupancy or sale under the laws of the United 
States, and set apart as reserved forest lands 
under like limitations, restrictions and pro- 
visions, sections five and six in township four- 
teen south, range twenty-eight east, of Mount 
Diablo meridian, and also sections thirty-one 
andtliirty-two of township thirteen south, range 
twenty-eight east of the same meridian. Noth- 
ing in this act shall authorize rules or contracts 
touching the protection and improvement of 
said reservations, beyond the sums that may be 
received bj> the Secretary of the Interior under 
the foregoing provisions, or authorize any charge 
against the treasury of the United States. 
Approved October 1, 1890. 

July 18, 1890, Secretary Noble set aside four 
other sections of timber land in the Visalia land 
district. They were suspended from entry and 
sale in 1880, upon the recommendation of the 
Surveyor General, for the reason that they " are 
covered by trees of the Sequoia gigantea variety, 
some of which are reported to be forty feet in 
diameter, and from 300 to 400 feet high, con- 
stituting a remarkable rare curiosity, which 
should be preserved." The land in question is 
what is called the " Comstock Grove " of big 
trees, being situated just above Sweet's mills, 
near Camp Badger. The land is in sections 31 
and 32, township 14, range 28, Fresno County, 
and sections 5 and 6, township 14, range 28, 
Tulare County. It is in this grove that the 
gigantic redwood tree " General Grant " is lo- 
cated, which measures 104 feet in circumference. 
It is claimed that in one section or township 
about twenty miles north of Porter vi lie, Tulare 



County, township 18 south, of range 30 east, in 
which there is one of the finest groves of " big 
trees " yet discovered. 

In the Sequoia National Park is a prominent 
peak which Tulareans have given the name of 
Mount Vandever, in honor of their representa- 
tive who succeeded in getting the park bill 
through. This is proper and right, as the time 
will come when General Vandever's timely 
action will be regarded as a Godsend to the 

o 

nation. Other prominent landmarks in the 
park (large trees) should be named respectively 
George W. Stewart, Frank J. Walker, Tipton 
Lindsey and John Tuohy. 

Mr. John Tuohy, one of the gentlemen who 
labored with successful zeal to secure the park, 
says: "Well do I remember, when, twenty 
years ago in July, the vegetation of the valley 
being browned, the daily range of the thermom- 
eter in the shade as high as 110°, after six days 
driving sheep from the valley up steep, brushy 
mountain sides, with my flocks, I reached the 
meadows in our now beautiful park. I thought 
my eyes never beheld anything so lovely. 
Before me were open, grassy, flower-decked 
meadows bordered with fringes of fir and tam- 
arack, laved with clear, snow-cold turbulent 
streams; every nook with grass from ankle to 
shoulder high; every short distance springs so 
cold, clear and pure, with springs of effervescing 
soda equally as clear and cold, with an atmos- 
phere at that season of the year not surpassed 
in the world. I thought one day in that de- 
lightful climate and world compensated for all 
the labor I had in getting there; then when 
more by accident than design I ascended to the 
summit of some peak and looked over mountain 
and forest and beheld the valley and plain, 
timber and stream, with beautiful Tulare lake 
shining like burnished silver in the distance, a 
picture framed in the Sierra Nevada and Diablo 
ranges of mountains, I realized I had the grand 
and beautiful before me. 

"The mountain, cliff and crag; the spring, 
streamlet and river; the atmosphere and the 
view, are there still; the meadow itself is there, 



l.-)8 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



but its grass, its flower and its beauty under the 
hoof of the wandering herds of sheep have fled, 
but only for a few seasons. Preserve them 
from all wandering stock, and a few seasons 
will restore to them all their beauty of grass, 
of flower, of berry, herb and shrub, and we 
of Tulare will have a most delightful summer 
resort." 

The Government reservation, in which are 
groves of big trees, and known as the Sequoia 
National Park, contains 3,500 acres; owned 
by the Government, 5,500 acres; held by the 
Government and otherwise claimed, 4,500 acres; 
passed from Government ownership, 24,000 
acres. Groves of " big trees " are found in 
various places within this large area of 37,500 
acres. 

A second bill was passed, enlarging the park, 
which caused considerable bad feeling among 
many citizens of the county. This enlarging 
bill was not a measure introduced or pressed by 
the originators of the first bill; they had nothing 
whatever to do with it. Recently there has 
been discovered the largest tree in the world in 
Fresno County. This tree was discovered by 
Frank Loomis, of Sanger, who with a party 
were hunting bear. They wounded one, and in 
pursuing it ran across a big tree in the most 
rugged portion of the mountains, about two 
miles north of Kentucky meadows. No evi- 
dence was found that man had ever penetrated 
the dense jungle surrounding it. The tree was 
measured four feet from the ground, and a rope 
129 feet 5 inches was necessary to encircle it. 
it. It was christened by the discoverers the 
"Orejano." 

Captain J. II. Dorst, commanding Troop K 
of the Fourth United States Cavalry, with his 
troop, has charge of the Sequoia National Park. 
They have temporarily quartered near Atwell's 
mill. The intention is to establish permanent 
quarters near Mineral King. A road is being 
prepared through the park to the famous Min- 
eral King. This is one of the best fishing 
regions in the State, being near the head waters 
of King's river, and among the most wild and 



picturesque scenery in the world. This va>t 
mountain wild, when once made reasonably ac- 
cessible, will become as famous ss the \o 
Semite, if not more so. 

TULARE'S BIG TREE. 

Neal Van Doorman's great redwood tree, 
which was taken from a forest near Cramer, 
this county, has reached San Francisco. Three 
flat cars were required to haul it to the city, as 
it weighs about 70,000 pounds. It is designed 
as an exhibit at the World's Fair at Chicago. 

" The section of the tree was taken from Mam- 
moth Forest in Tulare County. It was cut 
from a forest giant 312 feet in height, growing 
at an altitude of 6,324 feet, and was severed 
from the parent tiee twenty-eight feet above 
the stump, at which point the tree measures 
sixty feet in circumference. Of course the 
tree was considerably larger at the stump, 
but a section from the base could not be cut for 
the purpose of transportation, for the simple 
reason that a solid cut was taken of twenty feet 
diametrically, and nine feet in height, and that 
was the maximum of the railway freight limit 
on flat cars. 

" The entire piece of wood consists of sixteen 
sections, as follows: The lower section is one 
foot in height by twenty feet in dameter, all in 
one solid cut. weighing 19,725 pounds. This 
will be arranged as a floor, placed on nine ele- 
gantly carved and enormous pedestals made of 
wood of the same tree. The next cut is seven 
feet in height by twenty feet in diameter, which 
is hollowed out and will be placed on the floor 
cut. The last and final cut is one foot high and 
similar in every respect to the floor cut. The 
whole of this remarkable curiosity will form a 
sort of hall, and will accommodate about 100 
people, and will be entered by a swinging door 
made out of one of the portions of the second 
section. Two hundred and fifty incandescent 
lights will illuminate the section inside and out 
and a number of skilled wood-carvers have been 
engaged to manufacture souvenir- For distribu- 
tion among the visitors." 



H18T0RT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



159 



THE BIG TREE TRAIN. 

Tulareans are resolved to show to those at- 
tending the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893 
what the resources of their county are. Their 
scheme is novel as well as wonderful. The plan 
is to cut two lengths, 45 feet long, from a 
gigantic redwood tree 26 feet in diameter and 
390 feet high. These sections will be constructed 
into railway coaches by hollowing them out and 
fittiug them up. The rough bark will form the 
roofs, and on the sides and ends the wood will 
be left in its natural condition. The interior 
will be fitted up in Pullman car style. One of 
the coaches will be used for dining, and will 
also have a bath, barber shop and kitchen. The 
other coach will be a sleeper with an observation 
room. The intention of the people of Tulare, 
who are actively interested in the scheme, is to 
journey to Chicago in these coaches and use 
them as a residence while visiting the fair. The 
coaches are to be placed on exhibition in the 
exposition grounds, and samples of redwood 
will be sold as mementos. There will be no 
greater novelty at the fair than the Tulare 
coaches. If every county in the State is as pro- 
lific of genius in preparing an exhibit for the 
fair as Tulare is, the attractions from California 
will give the world of visitors more entertain- 
ment than all the other exhibits combined. 

LUMBER. 

Tulare's mountains contain inexhaustible for- 
ests of the various pines most valuable for lum- 
ber, and the lumber milling business is now a 
prominent industry in the county, and will be 
second to none in the State when railroads 
penetrate those vast forest regions. 



" The foundation of all prosperity that shall 
endure must lie in the soil, and when the 
Creator made Tulare, he laid the foundation of 
an enduring prosperity safe and sure. Nearly 
the whole of Tulare valley is an alluvial forma- 
tion, but the deposits must have been made at 
different times and under a variety of circum- 



stances, for the soils are found 'all over in 
spots,' as the saying goes. It would not be 
very remarkable if an eighty-acre lot were found 
upon which nearly all the different kinds of soil 
that exists in the valley were located. This is 
advantageous, inasmuch as it permits a great 
variety of products; but the farmer must have 
due regard to the kinds of products that will do 
best upon his soils if he would obtain the most 
satisfactory ' retults. There are at least four 
general classes of soils in Tulare County, and 
each will be treated in turn." 

The Red Lands. — These lands lie adjacent to 
the foothills, and are, we believe, common to 
much of the Sierra Nevada range. They are 
composed of clay mixed with sand and vege- 
table matter, making a very strong soil and one 
that holds moisture exceedingly well. It is not 
a bad soil to work, and is growing in favor with 
wheat-raisers every year. It is underlaid by a 
stratum of hard pan at a depth of one to five 
feet, that keeps the moisture from going below 
it. We do not know that an analysis has been 
made of any of this character of soil found in 
the county, not having been able to find the 
record of one, but it certainly bears the test of 
steady cultivation well and satisfactorily. The 
only objections yet urged against the red lands 
are that they are in the " hog-wallow " belt. 
"Their surface appears as though, when in the 
process of formation, it had been brought to the 
boiling point, and on getting to bubbling all 
over nicely, it was suddenly thickened, to remain 
forever in that condition." Many theories have 
been introduced as to the cause of these so- 
called " hog- wallows," all of which have some 
plausibility, and yet none have beeu demon- 
strated as facts. Some claim it has been 
brought about in ages past by wind currents. 
To offset that theory it is claimed that such 
elevations are confined to the heavy soils, and 
not to those more susceptible to wind action. 
Others attribute the cause to large fishes, when 
the present great valley was a deep inland sea 
and the fishes resorted to certain localities as a 
play ground, whilst others claim they are the 



1(50 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA, 



work of perhaps the prairie dog, or an animal 
of similar habits. JS'one of the theories, how- 
ever, have been endorsed by scientists; neither 
have they given one of their own. 

Continued cultivation levels down these slight 
elevations, so that they do not seriously interfere 
with farming. Not all soils having a red tinge 
are of the same nature. If the sand be left out, 
it is then classed as red adobe lands, more diffi- 
cult to cultivate, but equally productive. 

Sandy Loam. — This soil is perhaps the most 
common throughout the valley portion of the 
county, and is found containing clay, sand, and 
decomposed vegetable matter in proportions 
varying from the light sandy to the heavy adobe 
soils. Most of this soil has enough of sand in 
its formation to make cultivation easy and 
pleasant, and enough of vegetable clayey matter 
to make it exceedingly productive and durable. 
This soil is adapted to nearly all products, and 
can be cultivated at all times. It is barely 
possible that it will not retain moisture as long 
without cultivation as will the red lands, but if 
cultivated frequently and thoroughly it will re- 
tain moisture indefinitely. 

The Pure Alluvial. — This is the soil most 
in favor in this county, and is found along the 
several streams, within the boundary of what 
once overflowed, or swamp lands. This soil is 
very light, — will almost float on the surface of 
water; and is full of small particles of mica, 
making it appear as though sprinkled with gold- 
dust, and is profusely enriched with vegetable 
matter. There is comfort and encouragement 
in cultivating this soil. Trees, vines, and in- 
deed everything else make rapid and tremen- 
dous growths in this soil. 

Black Adobe.- — This character of soil is not 
very abundant in the county. It has to be cul- 
tivated and dealt with patiently. If plowed 
when too wet it turns' up in large clods that are 
hard to subdue. It is a cold soil and does not 
start vegetation so early in the spring as other 
varieties, but is very strong, good for pasture, 
and makes line stock ranches. 

White Ash. — This is a soil not over abund- 



ant in the county, and yet there are large bodies 
of it mostly in the northern part of the county. 
It is almost as light in weight and color as an 
ash heap. It is not a very strong soil, but is 
readily irrigated, and easily cultivated. Its lack 
of strength and lightness makes it peculiarly 
adapted to the wine grape, most of the soils be- 
ing so rich as to make the wine product too 
strong in alcohol, or too >% heady," as it is termed, 
for light wines. This ash soil region is destined 
to become the great wine producing center of 
State. 

Dry Bog. — This is not common in the coun- 
ty, and is worthy of mention principally on 
account of its eccentricities. For years it was 
deemed incorrigible, but it has been subdued at 
last. When perfectly dry, in mid-summer, it 
flakes up in mere wafers, to a depth of a 
foot or more, and is so loose that a horse 
walking over it, sinks half-way to his knees at 
every step, and when wet it rolls upon wagon 
wheels to such an extent as to render travel 
well-nigh impossible. When properly handled, 
and sown to wheat, it produces heavy crops. 
Cultivation tends to pack, and make it tinner. 

Foothill Soils. — Most of the foothills are 
covered with a grayish soil, a decomposed gran- 
ite forming a large percentage of its composi- 
tion. This is the least fertile of all iu the coun- 
ty, but produces considerable wild feed. There 
is no question that small fruits would do well 
here, as also the cherry and olive. 

Lake Lands. — Owing to Tulare lake having 
receded several miles in past years, many thou- 
sand acres of land have emerged, and are now in 
market. 

The soil about the lake will doubtless improve 
as time passes. Air and light admitted by cul- 
tivation will make it readily respond to tillage. 
Such has been demonstrated; and yet there is 
no certainty that one's farm will not again be 
claimed by the waters, which has been found 
true in many iustances recently. When an ex- 
cessive snow or rainfall occurs in the mountains 
evaporation fails to cope with tin- excess water; 
hence the lake again encroaches on it* vacated 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



161 



shores. This can, and no doubt will, be reme- 
died by the State, as a movement is on foot look- 
ing to dredging the lake, deepening it and 
forming levees from the dredging, thus forming 
a beautiful pleasure resort, and safely guarding 
against overflow of lands immediatley surround- 
ing. 

Alkaline Soils. — Tulare, like many other 
counties in the State, has several thousand acres 
of land more or less tinctured with alkaline salts. 
These lands are not held in high esteem by the 
public generally, but the more people become 
acquainted with them, and the more scientific 
knowledge they obtain of them, the more they 
grow in favor. Alkaline lands do not now, 
and perhaps never will rank as first-class; but 
they are not valueless by a considerable. When 
a quarter section will furnish ample pasture for 
160 head of horses and cattle the year round it 
cannot be classed as waste land, and the ma- 
jority of so-called alkaline lands in the county 
will do that if properly managed. 

Alkaline lands are not all alkali, neither are 
they all alike. There are several kinds of alka- 
line soils, and it is generally known that lands 
entirely void of alkali are worthless as agri 
cultural lands. Some of Tulare's lands have too 
much of a " good thing," and that is all there is 
of it. There are what is commonly known as 
" white alkali " lands. The one forms a white 
deposit on the surface, the other an almost inky 
black, and forms black rings about pools of 
standing water. The -' black alkali " is carbon- 
ate of soda, and is readily neutralized by pul- 
verized gypsum, an inexhaustible deposit of 
which is near by in the Coast .Range mountains. 

TULARE COUNTY ORGANIZED. 

As we have already stated, the first whites who 
after the trappers were attracted to what is now 
Tulare County, were those who sought to traffic 
with the Indians. But hard upon their heels 
came others, attracted hither by the luxuriant 
vegetation that grew all over the valley, but 
more especially along the deltas of the large 
streams. Along the Kaweah from where Wood's 



trading post stood to the mountains, was in 
those days an almost impenetrable swamp, and 
out of that swamp, at points a short distance 
from each other, issued the four main channels 
of the Kaweah, now known as St. John's, Mill 
creek, Packwood, and Outside creek; and from 
this fact the whole Kaweah delta took the name 
of the " Four Creek'' country, and was the first 
settled portion of what is now Tulare County. 
This entire region at the time was in Mariposa 
County. 

The earliest settlements were made on King's 
river, at what is now Centerville, and which 
was at that time in Tulare County. It is said 
that the bona- fide settlers of Tulare County were 
easy going, quiet, respectable people, but ad- 
venturers were attracted here from time to time 
who were " tough," and they made society some- 
what rough for a time; but they either killed 
each other off or left for new fields as civiliza- 
tion grew and made it uncomfortable for such 
characters. It has been claimed that there were 
about sixty white settlers in the county at the 
time of organization. This is disputed by some 
of the oldest residents now in the county. Very 
few if any of the first actual settlers are now 
living. Some, who settled in the " Four Creek" 
country as early as 1853, — a few of whom are 
yet living,— say they do not believe there was 
an actual white resident in the county when or- 
ganized. Those who organized it did so to get 
the offices, and succeeded in electing themselves 
to places they sought, and the majority imme- 
diately returned to their homes in Mariposa 
County. 

In the winter of 1852 the California Legisla- 
ture provided for the organization of a new 
county, to be known as Tulare. The territory 
to be included within the boundaries of this 
county was almost precisely the same as that 
described as the Tulare valley, and adjacent 
water-sheds, with the addition of all the country 
to the east as far as the State line. Out of this 
has since been formed Inyo and a large portion 
of Fresno and Kern counties. In consequence 
of the Legislative act referred to, an expedition 



102 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



was fitted oat at Mariposa, then an important 
mining point, and tilled to overflowing with all 
kinds of adventurers, for the purpose of organ- 
izing the new county and " corraling" the offices. 
The expedition was headed by Major James D. 
Savage (whose tragical death has been described 
elsewhere in this volume), who as early as 1850 
kept a trading post on Fresno river, and who 
was one of the four commissioners appointed to 
hold the first election in the new county. The 
other commissioners were: M. B. Lewis, John 
Boling and W. H. McMillen. There were in 
all the territory, previous to the arrival of this 
Mariposa expedition, not more than sixty-live 
men and no women; but as^the expedition ex- 
ceeded that number somewhat, and not all the 
settlers were on hand to vote, the visitors chose 
whom they would to nil the county offices. 
Polling places were opened on the 10th day of 
July, at Pool's Ferry on King's river, and also 
under an oak tree between the St. John's and 
the foothills. Fifty-eight votes were cast at 
Pool's Ferry, and fifty-one under the oak tree. 
Walter H. Harvey was elected County Judge; 
F. H. Sanford, County Attorney; L. D. F. 
Edwards, Clerk; William Dill, Sheriff; A. B. 
Gordon, Recorder; Captain Joseph A. Tirey, 
Surveyor; A. B Davis, Assessor; J. C. Frank- 
enberger, Treasurer; and W. H. McMillen, 
Coroner. Davis failed to qualify as assessor, 
and Thomas McCormick was appointed to fill 
the vacancy. J. C. Frankenberger resigned the 
office of treasurer, and P. A. Rain bolt was ap- 
pointed in his stead. 

Of the foregoing officers elected, Edwards was 
killed by Bob Collins in a row, the next day 
after the expedition returned to Mariposa. 
Harvey killed Savage, the leader of the expe- 
dition, and there is not now living in the county 
a single man who took part in that election. 
Charley Wingfield, who was elected treas- 
urer in 1886, and who died a few months later, 
was the last. Harvey died miserably of re- 
morse and fear many years ago. He did not 
remain long in the county. Savage seems to 
have had many good qualities, and well thought 



of at the time. He was the Government Indian 
agent, and was succeeded by Colonel Thomas 
Baker, for whom Bakersfield was named. 

A few of the early settlers are yet living in 
the county and near Visalia. Among the few 
are A. II. Murray, who came from Missouri and 
settled on the south side of Mill creek, near 
Visalia, in 1852, where he has since resided. 
Judge S. C. Brown, of Visalia, settled there in 
1852. Dr. John Cutler came to the county 
about the same date; also Dick Chaton, Tom 

Willis, and a Hollander by the name of 

Stuefe. Wiley Watson was born in Georgia in 
1812, came to California from Illinois and 
erected the first brick residence in Visalia, in 
the fall of 1860. 

John A. Patterson and Jasper Harrell were 
among the early pioneers. The first actual set- 
tler in the county was William Campbell, who 

located on King's river. One Woods 

first located on the Kaweah river in 1850, about 
six miles from Visalia. He, with a number of 
others, attempted a settlement for the purpose 
of engaging in agricultural pursuits. He, with 
the majority of his party, were killed by the 
Indians before their buildings were all com- 
pleted, a full account of which is given else- 
where. The location was designated Wood- 
ville, and was the first county seat. 

AN IMPORTANT CASE. 

The first case of a civil nature that came up 
for trial in the new county was before a justice 
of the peace, but was quite important, aside 
from its being the first. A young Indian had 
shot an arrow into a work ox belonging to a 
white man, crippling the animal severely. The 
whites were disposed, at first, to make an ex- 
ample of the young culprit without process of 
law, and punish him severely. Charley Wing- 
field and Jim Hale were sent to arrest the 
offender and bring him into court. They found 
the Indians little disposed to recognize the juris- 
diction of the white man's court, — more partic- 
ularly until they ascertained what the nature of 
the punishment was likely to be. Fearing 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



163 



trouble, the chief volunteered to go and bring 
the offender to Wingfield, and for that purpose 
Wingfield let him have his horse. Very soon 
the braves of the tribe began to gather around 
in squads of twos and threes, fully prepared for 
war; and, when at last the chief made his appear- 
ance with the prisoner, the whole crowd started 
for the settlement, the Indians sullen, the whites 
apprehensive. There were eighteen of the lat- 
ter, and about forty of the former, and it looked 
to the whites as if they had " bitten off more 
than they could chew." But they could not 
back out without sacrificing their prestige with 
the Indians; so they assumed a bold attitude 
and saw it through. For two days and nights 
both sides maintained their position, neither 
disposed to yield anything. Finally the Indi- 
ans consented to have the young offender tried- 
The trial was conducted in due form, and judg- 
ment rendered that the offender pay the owner 
of the ox fifty buckskins as damages. The 
Indians had watched the progress of the trial 
with profound interest, and the nature of the 
verdict was an agreeable surprise to them, as 
they knew of none other than physical punish- 
ment; and they ever after cherished consider- 
able regard for the white man's law. Had a 
more severe punishment been attempted in this 
case, it is more than likely that the infant set- 
tlement would have been destroyed. 

COUNTY GOVERNMENT. 

Until 1853 the affairs of the county were 
managed by what was called the " Court of 
Sessions," composed of the county judge and 
two justices of the peace. This court held its 
first session October 4, 1852, and was composed 
of Judge Harvey, W. J. Campbell and Loomis 
St. John. About all they did was to fill vacan- 
cies in county offices, as previously stated. 

The first general election was held on the first 
Tuesday in November, 1852, but no record of 
its result can be found. The first grand jury 
was impaneled about the middle of 1853; no 
thorough record of its proceedings are to be 
found. Later in the year one Samuel Logo was 



tried, convicted, and sent to the penitentiary for 
two years, for assaulting an Indian with an in- 
tent to kill. This was the county's first repre- 
sentative at San Quentin. The first tax levy, 
fifty cents on the one hundred dollars, was made 
this year, 1853, and on September 7th of the 
same year a second general election was held. 
By this time there were a good many actual 
settlers in the county, and this election was con- 
ducted by actual settlers, and not by invaders 
from other counties. 

At this election John Cutler was elected 
County Judge; A. B. Gordon, Clerk; O. K. 
Smith, Sheriff; W. C. French, District Attor- 
ney; C. R. Wingfield, Treasurer; J. B. Hatch- 
Assessor; E. Lyons, Surveyor, and A. J. Law- 
rence, A. H. Fraser, John Pool, Harry Bor, 
roughs, and Warren Mathews, Supervisors. Of 
these Judge Cutler is the only one alive and 
residing in the county. One hundred and eleven 
votes were cast at this election, of which fifty- 
seven were Whig, the remainder Democratic, 
and at this election Visalia was chosen as the 
county seat by a vote of forty-four to forty-one. 
Sixteen voters failed to signify their preference 
for county seat. 

The Supreme Court of the State, having de- 
cided that the legislative functions of the " Court 
of Sessions " were unconstitutional, and as new 
officers had in consequence been elected under 
the new law providing for county government, 
the local government of the county had become 
thoroughly established at this time. 

The spoils of office were bv no means great at 
this period. At the close of 1853 taxes were 
collected, but they amounted to but few dollars, 
and when Treasurer Wingfield went to Benicia, 
the then State capital, to make settlement, he 
had some difficulty in making himself known 
in his official capacity. The State officers had 
actually forgotten that there was such a county 
in the State as Tulare. 

Among the many 

KEEN EIVEE MINING EXCITEMENTS 

that of 1854 attracted the greatest number of 



164 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



gold hunters. A party from Los Angeles in 
that year camped where Greenhorn mountain 
is deeply broken by a canon, and chancing to 
" pan out " a little dirt found gold. Quickly 
the news flew up and down the coast, and thou- 
sands of adventurous miners flocked to Kern 
river, but the majority flocked back again, foot- 
sore and out of luck. The excitement soon sub- 
sided, but broke out again in 1857, and this 
time it lasted longer, and increased daily for 
near two years. Then sprang into being many 
new and singular names since made classic in 
the literature of California by Twain, Harte and 
other literary lights of the period, such as " Hog 
Eye," " Whiskey Flat," " Bradshaw's " " Span- 
ish Gulch," etc. Stage lines were established: 
the roads were lined with freight wagons, and 
money was made and spent freely. The excite- 
ment would occasionally ebb, but again flow 
when a new find was reported, so that for sev- 
eral years the travel through the valley attained 
to large proportions. This redounded to the 
rapid settling of Tulare, and hundreds of min- 
ers, struck with the beauty of the valley and its 
abundant forage product, abandoned mining and 
embarked in stock-raising, farming, lumbering, 
milling, etc. Most of those who engaged in 
these pursuits struck it richest in the long run. 

During the war between the States, there was 
considerable bad blood aroused in Tulare County, 
and resulted in several deaths, mention of some 
of which will be found under head of "Miscel- 
laneous Items of Early Times." 

Some of the old Californians speak of the 
past regretfully as " the good old days," — the 
days when the country was wild and free, when 
money was plenty, and those who were in a 
position to make money made it in abundance, 
and used it with liberal hands. 



PASTORAL. 



The entire country was one vast pasture, and 
stock-raising was the chief industry. The cattle 
were rustlers and made their own living. Little 
fencing was done; every one's cattle mixed with 
those of others and all roamed the vast pasture 



at will the year round. A law was passed by 
the Legislature of 1851 for the regulation of 
rodeos, and under that law grew up a sponta- 
neous system of theft and robbery. A rodeo 
consisted in gathering up into compact herds 
all the cattle found upon a man's ranch, and the 
"cutting out" and separation of all branded 
cattle and calves. By virtue of this law all un- 
branded calves found whose mothers could not 
be identified, became the property of him who 
held the rodeo and then and there received his 
brand. These rodeos were great events, and 
occurred twice a year. The Government owned 
the land, but the stockmen agreed among them- 
selves and allotted each man his bounds; and 
yet none were compelled to confine his herds to 
that tract of land. Each, however, was careful 
to have all his stock on his own ranch for the 
first rodeo, and as many of the other fellows' as 
possible. To settle difficulties arising from this 
system, judges were appointed from their num- 
ber, who had jurisdiction to the amount of $50. 
Under this system cattle-stealing became a great 
industry. At first it was prosecuted on a scien- 
tific basis, and then as a fine art. Unscrupulous 
men engaged in the business with limited 
means and soon stole themselves rich. Vaqueros 
came to command a salary in accord with their 
proficiency as thieves, Bespect for law, prop- 
erty, and even human life, grew low, and many 
honest and well-to-do men were first stolen poor 
and then driven out of business. Many acts of 
violence and crimes of a heinous nature were 
enacted during this period. There were good 
men in the stock business, men who amassed 
great wealth. They were few, and men whom 
thieves stood in dread of, men who knew their 
rights, and dared to defend them. Those least 
able to defend themselves suffered most. 

The natural result of the ease with which stock 
was raised in this county, and the fortunes that 
were made in the business, was that the country 
became overstocked. More animals were de- 
pendent upon natural forage for life than there 
was forage to sustain. 

But the drought of 186-1 was severe all over 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



165 



California, and it blew a withering blast on the 
stock business in Tulare. The streams in the 
valley where the most feed was, was nearly all 
dried up, and thousands of cattle died of thirst, 
and thousands more of starvation. For years 
after, the valley was thickly marked with their 
bleached bones. The lake became the chief 
source of water supply, and to that region 
gathered herds numbering thousands. They 
would feed on the scant herbage back from the 
lake as far as they could go without water, then 
turn and rush for the lake. Arriving there 
famished for water, they plunged into the mud 
that lined the shores, where hundreds, too weak 
to extricate themselves after drinking their fill 
of hot alkali water, lay down and died. Not- 
withstanding this disastrous experience, the bus- 
iness was again overdone, and met with a like 
disaster in 1877. An important industry of the 
country that year consisted in stripping dead 
cattle of their hides and sheep of their pelts. 
But the county had developed very much agri- 
culturally since 1864. Irrigation had made 
some progress, fair crops were raised in Mussel 
slough and along the Kaweah, where irrigation 
had been employed east of Visalia. The people 
did not suffer, and there was plenty for domestic 
animals, but the large flocks and herds suffered 
appallingly. The stock business has never at- 
tained like proportions in the county since. 

THE " SANDLAPPEK. " 

It is uncertain where this term as applied to 
a class of people came from. Perhaps it orig- 
inated in Tulare, owing to conditions then and 
there existing. Be that as it may, it is said that 
the term was applied to a class who had the un- 
speakable "gall" to load his worldly effects into 
a wagon with his family, go out into the stock- 
man's "range" and there locate a quarter sec- 
tion of Government land. Up to this time it 
was an unsettled question as to whether the 
valley lands away from the moisture afforded 
by streams, could be farmed successfully without 
irrigation or not. The sandlapper was not 
sure of it, but resolved to risk his little all in 



solving the problem. The demand for cereal 
products in the county was greater than the 
amount produced up to this time. The wheat 
production in 1870 amounted to but 62,500 
bushels; those who had given attention to farm- 
ing did well, in consequence of which others 
were induced to engage in agriculture. Another 
incentive was, the railroad was coming, and that 
would insure transportation of the surplus wheat 
to market at seaboard, should a surplus be 
produced. 

The advent of the sandlapper was nearly con- 
temporaneous with that of the railroad. The 
prospect of the former was not a bright one; 
prospective dry seasons were bad, but the neces- 
sity for fencing was much worse. That neces- 
sity did not present itself to the sandlapper in 
the light that his crops would get away with the 
stockmen's cattle, but there was great danger 
that the latter's herds would destroy the farm- 
er's products. The sandlapper was willingly 
disposed to enter into an agreement with the 
stockmen, that if they would guarantee that 
their stock should not destroy the crops, he, the 
sandlapper, would guarantee that none of his 
wheat, etc., should enter into or damage the 
cattle! The sandlapper could not fence if he 
would, as it would cost all of $2,240 to fence a 
quarter section in those days, and once he got 
his "back up" he would not fence if he could, 
and he at once resolved through his mind a " no- 
fence "or "herd" law, that should make the 
stockmen take care of their stock. The contest 
was opened in 1870 and continued with much 
bitterness until 1874, when a "no-fence" law 
fur the county was procured. It was one thing, 
however, to have a law; another to enforce it. 
Frequently the owner of a fine field of wheat 
beheld in the morning a vast herd of cattle 
feeding thereon and all his prospective income 
destroyed. His appeal to the stock owners for 
damages were met with the reply that " if he 
wanted beef, help himself;" that the cattle 
could not be herded off his crops unless he did 
it himself. 

These difficulties continued and grew in pro- 



166 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



portion until 1878, when a heroic remedy was 
tried. One bright moonlight night in that 
year a large drove of cattle that were out on a 
marauding expedition were ranged up by the 
side of a fence, south of Tide river, and a 
large number of them shot. It was never known 
to the authorities who the guilty parties were, 
but it put an end to the violation of the no- 
fence law, and cleared the way for the new order 
of things in that neighborhood. The same 
remedy was applied in other localities and with 
like results. Stockmen decided it was to their 
interests to take care of their herds, and they 
did so. 

MUSSEL SLOUGH TROUBLES. 

The controversy between the "Mussel slough 
settlers" and the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company attracted attention and created great 
excitement for some time throughout the valley, 
and finally came to a tragical ending. 

On the 27th of July, 1866, Congress granted 
to the said railroad company the odd-numbered 
sections of land for thirty miles on each side of 
their proposed line for a railroad through Cali- 
fornia from north to south. In process of time 
this road was built as far north as Goshen, there 
connecting with the southern division of the 
Central Pacific, and the road was built as far 
south as Hollister, in San Benito County; but 
the road was not built into the Mussel slouo-h 

o 

country for more than ten years after the grant 
was made by Congress. In 1867 the railroad 
company filed its map, claiming a preferred 
right to the odd-numbered sections of this land. 
Settlers came the following year in considerable 
numbers and these lands were wanted, but the 
railroad company had not yet acqnired title to 
them and could not sell them. In a published 
pamphlet the company invited settlers to go 
upon land to which they had not as yet per- 
fected their title, assuring them that when in 
after time such title should become perfected 
the occupants of each tract of land should be 
notified to purchase, and should have a preferred 
right to do so; and that when the lands were 
graded, had a price set upon them, the value of 



such improvements as settlers had made should 
not be considered, but the land would lie graded 
as though it were in a raw anil uncultivated 
state. Relying upon this assurance, settlers 
went upon this land, improved it, brought in 
irrigation canals and ditches at an immense 
outlay of time, money and labor, and under 
all but insurmountable difficulties putting in 
jeopardy every dollar they had in the world; 
and with their own unaided labor out of a 
dreary waste created one of the most fertile and 
productive farming regions in California. But 
when at last this land was graded, it was not 
graded as other wild, uuirrigated lands upon the 
dry plains were graded, but very much higher. 
While it is true that the houses, barns, etc., put 
upon the lands by settlers were not taken into 
account in grading, the results accomplished 
through the instrumentality of canals and ditches 
were included, and these improvements were 
three times more valuable than were houses, 
barns, fences, orchards, etc. This the settlers 
justly considered a gross breach of faith on the 
part of the railroad company, and resolved to 
contest their action. The settlers united in 
common defense, formed a league, and resolved 
that come what might they would not purchase 
the lands they had made valuable at the price 
demanded, and, furthermore, would not permit 
others peaceably to possess them if there should 
be buyers. 

This contest began in earnest in 1874, and 
increased to bitterness as time passed. Con- 
gress was appealed to for relief, and Senator 
Bootb introduced a bill so amending the original 
act of grant which contained a provision that 
such might be "added to, amended, changed, or 
repealed at any time," so that the settlers might 
purchase their land at the Government price, 
$2.50 per acre, the money to go to the com- 
pany; but this bill, as well as others, failed to 
pass, and Congress granted no relief. The rail- 
road company then, as now. could gee all they 
called for, while the poor settler was being 
robbed of his just rights, ami all his app 
were in vain. Ejectment .-uit> were com- 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



107 



menced against the settlers in 1878, in the 
United States courts, and final judgment was 
rendered against them December 15, 1879. 
There were knotty legal problems connected 
with these suits, which it is not our purpose 
here to discuss, but it is evident that while 
equity was on the side of the settlers, the law 
was on the other side. 

By 1877 the railroad company had received 
its patent to all the lands not in dispute, some 
230,500 acres along the portion of the road then 
completed, and the court held that their right 
had attached thereto in 1870. All who had 
settled on land prior to that dafe were protected 
in their rights, but the others were adjudged to 
have no rights the railroad company were bound 
to respect, their piiblished pamphlet to settlers 
to the contrary notwithstanding. Meantime all 
the costs incurred by the railroad company in 
these suits were charged up against the lands, 
as also rents were annually charged, and the 
lands re-graded from time to time to cover all 
such items. 

On the 10th day of May, 1880, this contro- 
versy terminated in one of the most lamentable 
and shocking tragedies that ever occurred in 
California or elsewhere. A basket picnic was 
being held in a grove near Hanford, where hun- 
dreds had gathered to take a day off from their 
daily toil and spend it in social enjoyment. 
About noon word was brought that United 
States Marshal Boole, in company with Land- 
grader Clark, and in another conveyance Walter 
J. Crow and M. D. Hartt, were ejecting settlers 
from their homes, five or six miles north of 
Hanford, near Grangeville. A number of men 
at once repaired to the scene. The effects of 
W. B. Borden were set out in the road, after 
which the ejecting party proceeded to Brewer's 
ranch, and there, in a little green depression 
containing an acre or more, and in which stood 
two or three oak trees, the settlers and the offi- 
cers met. The former were most of them un- 
armed, and if Officer Poole and Grader Clark 
had arms they did not attempt to use them. 
But Crow and Hartt were heavily armed. These 



men were believed to be intent upon purchasing 
lands in dispute; hence their activity in assist- 
ing the Marshal to eject settlers. Crow was a 
man of iron nerve, a quick shot, and, when 
aroused, regardless of consequences. It is im- 
possible to say who began the firing, or the im- 
mediate cause which precipitated the direful 
results. All were excited, and but a spark was 
needed to start the destroying flame which 
speedily followed. That spark was struck, and 
almost in a moment all was over. Three of the 
settlers lay dead upon the field, two others were 
mortally wounded, and a third. E. Haymaker, 
was severely wounded in the head and afterward 
died. Hartt was mortally wounded, and Crow, 
who it was believed had shot all the settlers, 
was yet untouched and had made his escape. 
But he also tasted death that day. His team 
ran away during the fight, carrying with it his 
Winchester rifle. Had he retained possession 
of that, it is certain that many more would ha v e 
perished at his hand. Being now unarmed, 
having exhausted his revolver ammunition, he 
threaded his way homeward through canals and 
ditches, and, seeing that numbers of armed men 
were pursuing him, he secreted himself in an 
alfalfa field but a short distance from his home, 
and might have reached there had he not, just 
as the shadows of evening were gathering, raised 
himself up to look around, when he was shot 
through the body by some one on the watch for 
him in a tree-top, and was instantly killed. 
The names of the settlers who were killed that 
day were: James Harris, Iver Knutson, J. W. 
Henderson, Archibald McGregory and Daniel 
Kelley. As previously stated, Haymaker died 
from his wound. 

After this sad conflict the railroad company 
reduced the prices on these lands 12-| per cent., 
and permitted that season's rental to be applied 
on the purchase price. Many accepted this 
proposition, and from time to time others com- 
promised with the company, and soon all lands 
in dispute were settled, and the unfortunate 
Mussel slough troubles w 7 ere ended, and now it is 
one of the most prosperous regions in the State. 



168 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS. 

Tulare's range of industries is extensive. 
Almost anything that can be produced in any 
part of the world can be produced in this 
county, so far as natural conditions are con- 
cerned. Were these people cut off from the 
outside world they need not suffer any lasting 
inconvenience in consequence. Every farmer's 
table may be supplied with all the delicacies 
known to commerce, for he can produce them 
all. 

Silk culture can be made a profitable indus- 
try. The mulberry tree grows to perfection here, 
and the climate is well adapted to the silk- 
worm. This much has been actually demon- 
strated. Cotton of the finest texture can be 
produced here, and profitably, too. Such has 
been demonstrated by Messrs. Carr & Hao-gin, 
of Kern County. Tobacco can be grown here 
of the finest quality: this has been tested, and 
yet there are none growing it for market. It 
is the home of the olive, which is being made 
a profitable industry in other less favorable re- 
gions. The tree is of long life, many now 
growing and fruiting abundantly in the State 
that were planted by the mission fathers 
more than 100 years ago. This tree has few, 
if any, insect euemies, and the demand for 
olive oil is on the increase rapidly. Ramie is 
a native of the East Indies, and is valuable for 
its fiber, which is pure white, soft and glossy, 
and greatly resembles silk. The uses to which 
it may be put are thought to be illimitable, and 
it will surely become an important industry of 
this region at an early day. It is much stronger 
than flax, and readily receives the most diffi- 
cult dyes without injuring the strength of the 
liber. It is claimed that velvets and even laces 
made from ramie will last a lifetime, and are 
about as handsome as those made from silk. 
This also is the home of the sugar beet, and 
this product will undoubtedly be made a profit- 
able industry in the near future. The finest 
peaches in the world are grown here, and up to 
within a few years has been grown more than 
any other one fruit. They ripen early in the 



season, and many varieties grown extend the 
peach season to late in the fall. At the Delta 
farm owned and operated by Thomas Jacob & 
Bro. (and recently sold to G. E. Fleming of 
San Jose, fur $30,000) near Visalia are 800 
peach trees, aged four years, and 230, aged 
three years. From these trees 97,074 pounds 
of peaches were picked in one season, which 
was near fifty tons; this shows a handsome pro- 
fit. B. C. Anderson, living between Visalia 
and Farmersville, early in the season contracted 
his peach crop at 1^ cents per pound, at which 
price they netted him §400 per acre. Small 
fruits, such as strawberries and blackberries. 
yield enormously. Early apples bear well and 
ripen in advance of many other places in the 
State, but the late varieties are little grown in 
the valley, although in the high mountains, 
where the climate is cold, the product is large 
and excellent in quality. Figs grow luxuriant 
ly throughout this whole region, are not subject 
to disease, and with little attention bear heavily. 
Pears grow to perfection and produce well. 
The different varieties, both early and late, 
attain large size, and in flavor leave nothing to 
be desired. 

The stone fruits— apricots, peaches, nectarines, 
prunes, and plums — are grown more extensively 
than any other fruits; but all kinds of fruits are 
being planted rapidly. The landscape is being 
changed from that of a cereal (agricultural) to 
a fruit (horticultural) region; and there is no 
reason why as good wine and raisin grapes 
should not be grown here as elsewhere in the 
State. The soil and climate is not surpassed 
by any in the State for grape culture and raisin 
manufacture; and the fact has been demon- 
strated that wine and raisins of as good quality 
as any in the world can be produced in this 
county, and as profitably as anywhere else. 

Perhaps few localities equal, and none sur- 
pass, this county, in the capacity of prune pro- 
duction, both in quality and quantity per acre. 
The following are a few instances given: In 
some of the best known fruit regions in the 
State the prune does not produce well before it 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



169 



is five or six years old, but in the vicinity of 
Visalia it bears well when only three years old. 
Early in the season I. H. Thomas bought from 
J. C. Weaver, the crop growing on his prune 
trees, occupying a trifle more than an acre of 
land, for which he paid $200. This was thought 
to be a big price, but Mr. Thomas made from 
the trees a clear profit of $300. Thomas Jacob 
& Bro. had on their farm 135 prune trees four 
years old, from which they obtained a yield of 
46,400 pounds, and from 300 three-year-old 
trees they got over three tons of fruit. The 
fruit from these trees they sold for $2,500, and 
would have received a much larger sum had 
they not contracted for the sale of the fruit 
when prices were comparatively low. For the 
crop of prunes grown on 900 trees on the 
Briggs place, was paid $6,863.16. By plant- 
ing the trees twenty-five feet apart it takes six- 
ty-nine trees to plant an acre. Nine hundred 
trees would, therefore, plant thirteen acres, 
making an income of $527.93 per acre! 

Numerous other instances could be recited 
bad we space or deemed it necessary. One 
more, a sworn statement will be given, which is 
all we will devote to the prune. On Monday, 
September 1, 1890, a number of gentlemen 
were discussing the heavy yield of prunes at 
the Briggs orchard, and, to satisfy themselves 
as to the correctness of the report, visited the 
orchard for that purpose. In the portion of 
the orchard where grew the oldest trees, a num- 
ber were selected as representing an average of 
the orchard, and the fruit from one of them 
was shaken off upon a canvas. The prunes 
were put into a fanning-mill used for the pur- 
pose, and the leaves, sticks, etc., removed from 
the fruit, which was then taken to the scales 
and weighed, and exceeded the expectations of 
nearly all present, being 1,102 pounds. Some 
of the best known of those present, all respons- 
ible citizens, have sworn to an affidavit stating 
the facts herein given. The names subscribed 
to the affidavit are: C. W. Clark, Sacramento, 
California; Jasper Harrell, president of Harrell 
& Son's Bank. Visalia;C.J. Giddings, cashier of 



Bank of Visalia; I. H. Thomas, member of 
the State Board of Agriculture; and J. W. 
Davis, Tulare County representative of the 
State Board of Trade. These gentlemen, be- 
ing duly sworn, each for himself, says: 

I have read the affidavit of C. W. Clark. I 
was present with the said C. W. Clark at said 
Briggs orchard at the time the product of said 
French prune tree was gathered and weighed, 
and know of my own knowledge that all the 
statements made in said affidavit are true. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me this fourth 
day of September, 1890. 

G. A. Botsfoed, Notary Public. 

Among several others present were E. M. 
Davidson, J. B. Agnew, Claude Hunt, John 
Erwin, M. J. Rouse, Walter Rouse and Maurice 
Jones. This yield is enormous, and the profit 
per acre is really wonderful. The fruit of the 
orchard was bought at two and a half cents per 
pound, and nine and three quarter cents per 
pound was offered for the same dried. The 
product of this tree at said prices would bring 
green, $27.50 or $42.98 when dried. Say 
seventy trees to the acre, and all fruited equal 
to the one described, the value of the product of 
an acre would be $1,938.50 green, or $3,008 
dried! 

GRAINS AND FRUITS. 

Tulare County is one of the foremost wheat 
producers in the State. We give the figures 
for 1886 and 1890. The former year there 
were harvested in the county 5,100,000 bushels 
of wheat, and 680,000 bushels of barley. The 
acreage of wheat cut for feed was 357,000; of 
barley 20,000 

This, like most of California counties, has 
had what might be termed four distinct periods 
or transitions: First, the mining period; secondly, 
the stock period; thirdly, the grain period; and 
fourthly, the fruit period. The stock business 
in this county held sway up to about 1880, 
when the growing of grain threatened to sup- 
plant that of stock. In 1880 the population of 
the county was 11,281; in 1890 it was 24,875. 
At the present time there are more than 540,- 
000 acres in cultivation in the county, included 



170 



SISTORF OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



in which are several of the once large stock 
ranches. 

Some of these grain fields are immense. The 
Jones ranch, thirteen miles southeast of Tulare 
city, and four miles northeast of "VVoodville, is 
one of the largest grain farms in the county. 
In 1887, there were more than 11,000 acres of 
grain harvested on this ranch; fifty-five men 
were employed. The yield was estimated at 
90,000 sacks. Ten years ago there were 1,125 
farms in the county; now there are 2,135. 
During the decade just closed, irrigating canals 
have been multiplied, enlarged and extended. 
Within the present decade the county has become 
the banner grain-grower in the State, the yield 
in 1890 exceeding 5,000,000 bushels of wheat, 
65,000 of barley, and about a like amount of 
other small grains. The hay crop (grain and 
alfalfa) amounted to 60,000 tons. Alfalfa is a 
valuable product in the county, both for pasture 
and hay: as many as four cuttings are made in 
one season. Tulare's fruit crop this year, 1890, 
gave encouragement to extend this industry. 
The fruit yield was far in excess of that of any 
previous year. The shipments as given from 
Visalia, Tulare and Hanford, were twenty car- 
loads of raisins, three cars of dried grapes, 118 
car-loads of green fruits, and forty-two cars of 
dried fruits. 

The prospects of the county were never 
brighter. Although much lias been done in the 
last ten years, the county's development has 
just commenced. Most is expected from the 
growth of the fruit industry, to which no sec- 
tion of the State is better adapted. 

THE THERMAL BELT. 

Within the foothill region of the Sierra line 
is a warm belt where the temperature is several 
degrees warmer than on the plains; where the 
frosts commence later in the fall and cease ear- 
lier in the latter part of winter or first of spring; 
and where the sheltered nooks and valleys are 
protected from all the winds. In Tulare County 
this belt is wider and warmer than in the coun- 
ties farther north, ami it is within its limits that 



the earliest fruit is grown. This region is 
naturally adapted to fruits, especially to those 
ripening early as well as those ripening late in 
the season, like citrus fruit, which are too ten- 
der for the open plain, except in sheltered po- 
sitions. Here the orange, the lemon and the 
lime, sensitive to the slightest frost, thrive and 
do well. These fruits have been grown in the 
county on a small scale for several years. 
They bear early, and the atmosphere is bo 
pure and dry that the black smut and other 
fungus growths, and insect pests with which 
they are affected in the southerly counties near 
the sea, having a more humid air, do not trouble 
here. Within a few years it has been demon- 
strated that this large thermal belt produces the 
finest grade of oranges in the State, and now 
there are many fine orchards bearing and thou- 
sands of trees being set. and soon the orange 
industry will be among the profitable ones in 
the county. 

GENERAL HISTORY RESUMED. 

Resuming the early historical period, it may 
be said that the county did not make a rapid 
growth in population for several years after it 
was organized, as the population of the State 
at the time consisted principally of roving gold- 
hunters. It has been previously stated that at 
the fall election of 1853, the county seat was 
changed from the village of Woodville to that 
of Visalia, and that the first settlers about Vi- 
salia were in 1852. It is also claimed that all ex- 
cept two of the first county officers met tragic or 
violent deaths in personal rencounters. The 
first courthouse was a log cabin surrounded by 
a cheap fence, and the jail consisted of four 
stumps of trees. Within this enclosure, each 
stump had an iron ring attached to it by a 
staple, to which culprits were chained. The 
several county officials carried the county records 
and public documents in their hats and pockets. 

There are various versions of the county 
seat question. The files of the Delta give Wood- 
ville as the first. Mr. Pillsbnrv, in his inter- 
esting little volume issued in 1888, says that 
at the fall election in 1853, Visalia won the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



171 



county seat by a vote of forty-four, to forty-one 
for Woodville. In the same work, when de- 
scribing Visalia, he says: " When the county 
was organized in 1852, an effort was made to 
have the county seat located at Woodville, and 
that in 1854 the county was surveyed and Vi- 
salia's town site was laid out.' 1 The old files of 
the Delta state that the town was laid out in 
1856. Elliott's history of the county states 
that the election was held in 1854, at which the 
county seat was established at Visalia. Two 
facts are indisputable. First, that the county 
seat was for a time at Woodville; secondly, that 
there was an election, which established the 
county seat at Visalia, where the buildings were 
made ample for the transaction of public busi- 
ness at the time and for several years, until the 
growing population demanded more commodi- 
ous quarters. 

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS OF EARLY TIMES. 

1856. 
This year Visalia was laid out as a town, and 
derived its name from Nathaniel Vise, one of 
the first settlers. Visalia soon became a place 
of some importance, owing much to the over- 
land stage line started about the time the town 
was laid out. The richer portions of the valley 
were covered with vast herds of stock, marking 
and marketing being about all the labor re- 
quired, and fabulous prices were obtained. 
Consequently men accumulated great wealth 
with little effort. Hogs flourished here, as in 
no other region; nutritious grasses and im- 
mense crops of acorns were at their disposal. 
The swine business, under such conditions, was 
a mine of wealth of itself. In those days, 'tis 
said that all the capital a young man needed 
was a half dozen pigs of the feminine gender, 
and he might confidently expect to retire from 
business with a competency in a few years. The 
crop of acorns were so immense as to seemingly 
surpass the bounds of the probable. To repeat 
some of the many wonderful stories of acorns 
we would be accused of romancing, if not of 
downright falsehood; yet reliable old settlers 
a-sert that from 50 to 100 bushels of acorns 



from a tree was too common to be considered 
remarkable. 

During this year the question of organizing 
a new county from a portion of Tulare and Los 
Angeles counties was agitated, to be known as 
Buena Vista County. This failed to material- 
ize, but the continued agitation of county 
division resulted in the formation of Kern and 
Inyo counties in 1866. 

During the year the Indians were committing 
depredations on the property and people in the 
Owen's river country. 

1859. 

July 2d, T. J. Goodale presented the editor 
of the Visalia Delta with some very fine apri- 
cots. The same issue of the paper speaks of 
having received by Wells-Fargo Express a batch 
of Eastern mail, which had been nearly one 
month in transit. This was about one month 
after the Delta was first issued, which was in 
June of that year. 

Independence day of that year was celebrated 
in a patriotic manner. E. E. Calhoun was 
master of ceremonies. "Gem of the Ocean" 
was well rendered, Messrs. Barrows and Kline 
receiving special mention as fine singers. The 
Declaration of Independence was read by Hon. 
J. W. Freeman. S. C. Brown delivered a fine 
oration. 

There were in the county that year the fol- 
lowing post offices and postmasters : Visalia, H. 
A. Bostwick, postmaster ; King's River, James 
Smith; Kinneysburg (White River), A. Reid; 
Keysville, J. Caldwell ; Petersburg, A. D. 
Hight; Goodhue's Crossins;, H. G. McLean. 

The overland stage from San Francisco to St. 
Louis arrived at Visalia Sunday and Wednes- 
day mornings; from Visalia to Los Angeles, 
via Kinneysburg, Petersburg and Keysville, 
arrived on the 8th and 23d of each month, and 
departed on the 1st and loth. Three cents was 
the postage on a letter weighing half an ounce, 
from San Francisco to St. Louis, points in Ar- 
kansas and Texas ; all points east of that region 
required ten cents postage on half ounce letters. 

The editor of the Delta in July of this year, 



172 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



offered to wager si No. 1 watermelon that Tulare 
County could show more fat and furious babies 
than any other county in the State in proportion 
to population. 

T. J. Goodale comes to the front again with 
fine fruit — this time an apple of the Summer 
Queen variety; thirteen and one-half inches in 
circumference. 

About the same time, a Mr. Mead, engaged 
in freighting, arrived in Visalia with a twelve- 
mule team and three wagons. He started from 
Stockton with 21,000 pounds of freight for 
Visalia, and 7,000 of feed for his team, making 
a total of 28,000 pounds. This was considered 
the largest load drawn such distance in Califor- 
nia up to that time. Mead offered to take one 
of his mules, and in two weeks' time, for a 
wager of $2,000, beat the winning horse at the 
race to come off in a few days, and that he would 
put up a forfeit of $1,000 with any one dis- 
posed to accept his proposition. No mention is 
made of his offer being taken. 

There was organized in Visalia this year a 
temperance society known as the Dashaway As- 
sociation; James D. Travis, President. This 
order flourished for a time. 

The editor of the Delta mentions having re- 
ceived in Augusta delicious watermelon weigh- 
ing eighty-seven pounds. 

At the general election that year, T. M. Hes- 
ton was elected to the Assembly; W. M. Boring, 
County Judge; John C. Reid, Sheriff; John S. 
McGahey, Clerk; E. Johnson, Treasurer; S. C. 
Brown, District Attorney; T. C. Hayes, Asses- 
sor; H. C. Townsend, L'ublic Administrator; 
O. K. Smith, Superintendent of Schools. J. E. 
Scott, Surveyor; J. D. P. Thompson, Coroner; 
A. S. Worthly, J. T. Pembertou and E. Van 
Valkenburg, Supervisors. There were 908 
votes cast at this election. 

This year a gentleman in the county who had 
a large acreage of land under fence, which had 
a heavy growth of oak timber, sold the acorn 
crop for $1,800, to be gathered by the pur- 
chaser. 

Mention is also made of the arrival of the 



stage with overland mail, being only eighteen 
days and twenty hours out of St. Louis, the 
cpiiekest trip made up to that date. 
1860. 
January 21, the steamboat Visalia was com- 
pleted, and designed to navigate the San Joaquin 
river between Stockton and Fresno city. 

The Delta seems to have been dishing up 
Democratic food at this time, and in its columns 
March 31 we find it speaks as follows: " Friends 
of Seward and Greeley are talking of starting a 
black Republican paper in Visalia, and that 
there were some recent importations of office- 
seekers in the count}', silly enough to think the? 
could be elected to the State Senate and other 
offices on the Republican ticket." 

April, the same year, is the announcement : 
"Good news for bachelors. A short time since 
there arrived in this county, from Texas, a fam- 
ily composed of the father, mother, twenty-one 
daughters and one son ! " During the same 
week, and from the same State, another family 
arrived, in which were fourteen unmarried 
daughters. 

June 16, the paper states that "the hall' dozen 
Black Republicans in this county, aided and as- 
sisted byt he bulkheaders and pork inspectors 
of San Francisco, and their agents in this county 
and senatorial district, are determined to have 
an organ in Visalia, and for that purpose have 
dispatched an agent to San Francisco to pur- 
chase the material necessary to carry out their 
schemes in the coming election; so they think." 
After a tirade of unpleasant epithets applied to 
Republicans in general, the editor bids them 
pitch in, that they will not get more than one 
vote to seventy-five for Democracy. He then 
mentions the " Lone Republican " of Fresno 
County; that he had gone to a more congenial 
clime; that his portrait could be seen in the 
hotel at Millerton, where Mr. McCray, at great 
expense, had placed it, that the passer-by might 
look at the " Lone Republican." 

The Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph line was 
completed to Visalia June 18. 

About this time. Judge Burins resigned 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



173 



the position of County Judge, and engaged in 
the miniDg business, and E. E. Calhoun was ap- 
pointed to fill the vacancy. 

This year, Henry Hartley produced 1,000 
pounds of onions on eight square rods of ground, 
some of which weighed one and a half pounds. 

In September a newspaper was started at 
Visalia, The Sun, which was intended to unite 
the Democratic factions, as well as gather to one 
fold the disgruntled of all parties. 

Efforts were made during this year to organ- 
ize a fire department in Visalia. 

Dr. Mathews raised a single cluster of grapes 
weighing nine pounds. 

In October, at a public meeting in Visalia, 
E. C. Winchell, candidate for the Assembly on 
the Democratic ticket, spoke on the issues of the 
day, and the Delta editor said " Dr. McCaffery 
appeared on the part of 'old Abe' and did his 
best to bolster up the cause of Republicanism." 

In November culminated the difficulty which 
had for some time been pending between Wm. 
Gouverneur Morris and Editor Shannon, which 
resulted in the death of the latter. We quote 
the Delta's statement of the trouble at the 
time: -'On Thursday evening Shannon entered 
the law office of W. P. Gill, where Morris was 
sitting. Shannon held in his hand a cocked 
pistol, and on entering raised it, at the same 
time saying, 'Morris, are you armed '? Morris 
at once sprang to his feet and grappled with his 
opponent. Shannon being much the taller, 
Morris was unable to disarm him, and Shannon 
beat him severely over the head with the pistol, 
inflicting nine severe scalp wounds. At the first 
or second blow Shannon's pistol was discharged 
accidentally. After receiving the blows, Mor- 
ris fell to the floor covered with blood, where- 
upon Shannon gazed upon him several seconds, 
then turned and left the room. Morris, how- 
ever, sprang to his feet and drawing his revolver 
rushed out of the south door of the building 
so as to intercept Shannon before reaching his 
office. The parties here exchanged shots inef- 
fectually. Morris then left his position and pro- 
ceeding to the north side of the building climbed 



upon the fence, Shannon meantime retaining 
his position. Morris took deliberate aim and 
fired the ball, striking Shannon in the abdomen. 
At this instant Shannon had raised his pistol, 
but lowered it without firing, and putting his 
hand on the wound turned and walked to his 
office, where he died in about an hour and 
eighteen minutes." 

During this year the question of a new 
county was agitated, to be formed from Tulare 
and Los Angeles territory. The name to be 
Tejon, and Eort Tejon to be the county seat. 
It failed to materialize. 

The first settlement in Tulare County was at 
Woodville, six miles east of Visalia, on the 
south bank of Kaweah River, where, in Decem- 
ber, 1850, fourteen men, under guidance of one 

Mr. Woods (whence the village gets its 

name), attempted to found a settlement. But 
one of the five houses which they began to 
build was completed when Francisco, the chief 
of a large tribe of Kaweah Indians, warned 
the party that they must leave within ten days, 
which they agreed to do. See a full history of 
this elsewhere. 

The wheat threshed in the county in 1860 
amounted to 8,850,000 pounds. 

In November W. G. Morris was arraigned 
for the killing of John Shannon. Morris was 
acquitted on the ground of justifiable homicide. 

Shannon's administrator, G. W. Rogers, 
managed the Delta for a time, which was ed- 
ited by L. O. Sterns. November 1 the total 
debt of the county was $33,262.46. 

The Delta was purchased in December by 
L. A. Holmes, of the Mariposa Gazette. 

The school census of the county this year 
shows 465 children of school age, which en- 
titled the county to $548 of State school funds. 

The families who were announced as having 
recently arrived in the county with such unusual 
numbers of daughters failed to fill the demand 
for wives. 

1861. 

The Delta in February says: "The business 
of marrying will come to an end about here 



174 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



suon, resources are failing, marriageable vir- 
gins all taken, only a few now in short clothes, 
and several juveniles near 50 years old are 
around prospecting for these.'' 

In March it was stated that there were strong 
indications that the rising waters would inun- 
date Visalia. 

In April is the following: " Briggs, who 
has been appointed to the Visalia land office, is 
a black Republican, but is said to be otherwise 
a nice man. But the Delta was a strong 
Unionist. In the 30th of May issue is the fol- 
lowing: '• With the blessings of Almighty 
God we expect to call things by their right 
names and shall continue to denounce treason 
whether it comes from the North or the South, 
and shall speak of the John Browns and Jeff. 
Davises as they deserve, regardless of conse- 
quences. While our hair holds on and the 
stars of heaven shine in their accustomed 
places, we will recognize no flag but the stars 
and stripes of our country." 

John G. Parker was appointed postmaster at 
Visalia this year. 

Grasshoppers in legions invaded portions of 
the valley and destroved all vegetation where 
they went. 

A disposition is manifested among a portion 
of the Democratic party to oppose the war 
measures. They are known as Anti-Coereion- 
ists. The editor of the Delta in his paper of 
August. 29th said that the Los Angeles News 
stated they had heard a story about an armed 
body of men camped in the neighborhood of 
Visalia, and that fifty of them had torn down 
an American flag. The Delta man said: "Our 
American flag still waves, Mr. News. One of 
them flutters from the Delta office; it hasn't 
come down — not muchly; the halyards won't 
let it. There was a party encamped here, bound 
for Texas, whether to join Jeff. Davis or not 
we don't know. They behaved themselves like 
gentlemen and are 'done gone away.'" 

At the general election this year Thomas 
Maker was elected to the State Senate; Pem- 
berton to the Assembly; S. W. Beckham, Dis- 



trict Attorney; W. 0. Owens. Sheriff; E. E. 
Calhoun, Clerk; L. L. Bequette, Recorder; J. 
C. Reid, Treasurer; R. B. Sagely, Assessor; 
M. G. Davenport, Public Administrator; B. W. 
Taylor, Superintendent of Schools; J. D. P. 
Thompson, Coroner; J. £. Scott, Surveyor. 

This year splendid deer-skins, dressed, sold 
for $19 per dozen. 

In October the newspaper Sun was discon- 
tinued, the proprietor joining with L. A. 
Holmes of the Delta. 

During this year the Board of Supervisors 
appointed to fill vacancies — T. O. Ellis, Super- 
intendent of Schools; S. Sweet, Coroner; and 
John Cutler, Public Administrator. 

One Dan Showalter attempted with a com- 
pany to reinforce the .Confederates. He was 
arrested and treasonable papers found on him. 
Another party is mentioned passing through 
Visalia headed south; they were from Mariposa 
County. They were not so well equipped as 
were the Showalter party, owing to the fact 
that Southern sympathizers were getting a 
little frightened at, as well as disgusted with. 
Uncle Samuel's unceremonious method in con- 
fiscating the effects of the Showalter company. 
It is said that the prominent •' seceshers " in 
Tulare County positively refused to contribute 
one dollar to the Mariposa column. Some 
small contributions are said to have been made) 
consisting principally in poor whisky. 

1862. 

January 23 the editor says: "Owing to the 
flood, and being short of paper, we issue but 
a half sheet this week. During the flood a 
thief broke into the Delta office, supposedly 
to take a rifle usually kept there. A vigilant 
Newfoundland dog on watch objected to in- 
truders at that hour and bit the would-be thief, 
who left near a pint of his blood on the lloor. 
The dog was alone, but knew his business, and 
well did be perform his duty." 

In January the water was so deep on the 
streets "f Vasalia that travel from bouse to 
bouse was by row-boats. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



175 



One Captain Powell headed a company from 
this region bound for Dixie about the first of 
the year. 

The floods washed away large tracts of 
heavily timbered land along the streams in the 
county. Some of the trees, from their size, 
were estimated to be 200 years old. 

April, Warren Wasen, writing of the Indian 
war on Owen's river, said: " Being unable on 
my arrival at Aurora to obtain provisions or 
transportation for the company organized there 
to receive the arms sent in my charge by Gov- 
ernor Nye, 1 was compelled to leave them and 
proceed, accompanied by Lieutenant Noble and 
his company of fifty mounted men. They ar- 
rived at the upper crossing of Owen's river on 
the evening of April 6, and the following morn- 
ing met Colonel G. Evans with Lieutenants 
French and Oliver, Captain Winne of his com- 
mand, having been left with seven men to gar- 
rison the stone fort forty miles below. These 
were under Colonel Mayfield from Visalia. 
The Indians, during the previous winter had 
been in the habit of killing cattle, which led to 
the killing of some Indians, and this caused the 
Indians to begin a retaliatory warfare. The 
whites finally collected their cattle about thirty 
miles above the lake, where they fortified them- 
selves and dispatched messengers to Visalia and 
Carson for relief. They were reinforced by 
eighteen men from Aurora on March 28, when 
sixty men under Colonel Mayfield followed the 
Indian trail fifty miles up the valley to a creek 
opposite the upper crossing, where they en- 
camped. 

About noon on the 6th of April the Indians 
appeared in considerable force toward the moun- 
tains on the southwest. A detachment was left 
in charge of the camp, and the main force ad- 
vanced in two columns against the Indians. 
The firing began as soon as they approached 
within range, at which time C. J. Pleasanton of 
Aurora was killed, and the columns fell back in 
confusion, and would no doubt have continued 
their flight had not some of their officers com- 
pelled them to make a stand in a ditch which bad 



been dug and used by the Indians for irrigating 
purposes. Here they kept up a desultory firing 
with the Indians at long range until night, few 
shots taking effect. Sheriff Scott of Mono 
County received a ball in the head, killing him 
instantly. Mr. Morris, formerly of Visalia, was 
shot in the bowels and died the following day. 
The whites retreated that night, leaving behind 
some eighteen horses, considerable ammunition 
and provisions. 

The following day they met Colonel Evans 
and his command, who persuaded some forty-five 
men to return with him in pursuit of the In- 
dians; the remainder continued the retreat to 
the fort. Colonel Evans now took command 
of the entire expedition, and that night camped 
on the battle ground of the previous day, and 
the next morning buried the bodies of Scott 
and Pleasants. Scouts sent out reported the 
Indians miles above at the head of the valley. 
The command was soon on the move and about 
noon arrived at the mouth of the canon where 
the Indians were reported to be. Lieutenant 
Noble was ordered to advance with his command 
up the mountain to the right of the canon, while 
Colonel Evans with his force advanced on the 
left, and Colonel Mayfield to push forward be- 
tween the two. They proceeded up the moun- 
tain threw miles, facing a terrific snow-storm, 
which prevented them seeing objects three 
yards in advance. Not finding the Indians, 
they returned to the valley and encamped on 
the creek. Soon after dark they discovered In- 
dian fires in a canon one mile north of the one 
previously searched. 

Next morning Sergeant Gillispie, of Lieu- 
tenant Noble's command, with nine men, was 
sent to reconnoiter the cation where the fires 
were seen; and after proceeding up the rocky 
canon 300 yards they were fired upon. Sergeant 
Gillispie was instantly killed, and Corporal 
Harris wounded. They retreated, leaving Gil- 
lispie's body. 

Lieutenant Noble was now instructed to take 
position on the mountain to the left of the 
canon. Colonel Evans was to have occupied 



17G 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the right. Colonel Mayfield and four men ac- 
companied Lieutenant Noble, the rest of May- 
field's command remaining below. Noble's 
command succeeded in gaining their position 
under a brisk tire on both sides from concealed 
Indians. Here Colonel Mayfield was killed. 
Lieutenant Noble, seeing it impossible to main- 
tain 1) is position, or proceed up the mountain 
without great loss, owing to its precipitous 
nature, or to return the fire from the concealed 
foe with effect, retreated in good order down to 
Colonel Evans' command, carrying with them 
Sergeant Gillispie's body. Colonel Evans then 
retreated with the entire command down the 
valley, followed by the Indians. The command 
camped that night twelve miles below at the 
place where Scott had been buried. Colonel 
Evans continued the retreat back to Los An- 
geles, and the Indians were for a time master of 
the situation, and were troublesome at times for 
several years; many battles of more or less 
magnitude were fought, lives were sacrificed, and 
considerable money expended by the citizens 
and Government, when finally the Indians were 
gathered up and placed on a reservation, and 
Owen's river people began to sow and reap in 
peace. 

During this year an Indian on Kaweah 
creek died. Two medicine men of the tribe 
had pledged that he should recover. One of 
these made his escape; the other was attacked 
by the relatives of the deceased, armed with 
guns, pistols and bows and sent to the happy 
hunting-ground in short order. 

This year a Mr. Jefferds grew afield of wheat 
estimated to yield sixty bushels to the acre. 

In September Messrs. Hall and Garrison com- 
menced the publication of a weekly paper called 
the Equal Rights Expositor, with the material 
which had been used for printing the Tulare 
Post. The latter had but a brief existence. 

L. A. Holmes of the Delta died in Stockton, 
September 8, 1862. Although he had long been 
an active newspaper man. ably and fearlessly 
advocating the cause ,,f his country, he had no 
enemies. 



This year a Mr. Bliss reports that in the 
spring he had eight stands of bees. They 
increased by swarming during the season to 
forty stands. He took from the hives that year 
1,000 pounds of honey. 

A military camp was established near Visalia, 
which was christened Camp Babbitt, in honor of 
Lieutenant-Colonel E. B. Babbitt, deputy quarter- 
master general of the department of the Pacific. 
Troops were stationed here during the war, — 
two companies of Second United States Cavalry. 
Colonel George S. Evans was the first to com- 
mand the post. 

There were 822 school children in the county 
this year, entitling the county to $739 of the 
State school fund. 

Colonel Evans was transferred to Salt Lake 
and Major O'Neal placed in charge of Camp 
Babbitt. 

There was raised in the county this year 
150,000 bushels of wheat and 90,000 of barley. 

1863. 

One evening in March, the town of Visalia 
was aroused by the sound of crashing and 
smashing, which was soon ascertained to pro- 
ceed from the building occupied by the printing 
office of the Equal Rights Expositor. A 
crowd at once rushed toward the spot, but did 
not get far, for on each street and alley inter- 
secting the block were found sentinels with 
cocked pistols who informed them that "no 
citizens were allowed inside the lines, and the 
orders were enforced to the letter. In a short 
time the establishment was a total wreck; the 
type was thrown into the streets, and the cases, 
press, etc.. smashed to pieces. Their work done, 
the rioters departed. On entering, Mr. (Harri- 
son, the junior partner, was found at work and 
a guard was placed over him. with the assurance 
that no harm was intended him. The immediate 
cause of the outbreak is said to have been the 
publication of an article on the " California Cos- 
sacks," which teemed with abuse; but the starting 
of it is attributed to the almost unintermitted 
publication tor several months of such as the 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



177 



following: " We have said Abraham Lincoln 
has perjured himself and we have proved it. 
We now tell those who support this detestable 
war, to the extent of their support they partici- 
pate with Lincoln in the crime of perjury." 
" Much has been said and written about the 
spirit of Americans, but that portion of them 
who sustain the administration are base cowards. 
They have hearts only of does and rabbits, not 
of men; they are an incumbrance and disgrace 
to any free country, and are constitutionally 
fitted only for serfs to some despot. They 
would cringe and lick the rod as often as it 
smote them." These insults had been keenly 
felt, and great patience and forbearance exer- 
cised; but forbearance ceased to be a virtue and 
the office was destroyed. The good citizens 
irrespective of party rejoiced at the destruction 
of this vile press. The senior editor had used 
more vile epithets in regard to good citizens of 
the county, and persisted in publishing more 
seditious, treasonable matter than any other two 
papers of secession proclivities in the State ; 
and it is but natural in times of war excite- 
ment that some men will excite deeds of vio- 
lence. 

On the Tule river Indian reservation there 
was grown, harvested and threshed, all by In- 
dian labor, 600,000 pounds of wheat, 50,000 of 
barley, 10,000 of rye, 175 of seeds, and 300 
pounds of peas. 

During this year the soldiers from Camp 
Independence had a battle with the Indians on 
the east side of Owen's lake, killed several and 
took five prisoners. While crossing the river 
en route to camp the prisoners attempted to 
escape by plunging into the water; two were 
shot, and the other retaken. In October, Will- 
iam H. Grubbs was returning from Stein- 
more's about eleven o'clock at night, when he 
was attacked by a number of drunken Indians, 
who attempted to stop him, and take some 
liquor which he had.. Failing to escape by the 
speed of his horse, he used his knife freely, 
killing one Indian, mortally wounding another, 
was organized in and cutting a third badly. 



December 9, the First Presbyterian Church 
Visalia by liev. Edwards. 

During this month high water prevailed in 
the streams throughout the county. 

In August, Sergeant Charles C. Stroble, of 
Company I, Second Cavalry, was killed by a 
notorious Secessionist, James L. Wells. It 
appears that Wells and one Donahue had been 
quarreling, after which Wells remarked to 
George Kraft, " You'll see some fun in a few 
minutes," and passing into a store took a posi- 
tion close to a pillar supporting the front of the 
building. Donahue and Stroble came out of an 
adjoining building together, when Wells and 
Donahue renewed their angry conversation, 
Stroble taking no part in the quarrel. At this 
time Wells put his hand to his side, when Don- 
ahue drew his pistol and covered him. Wells 
raised both hands and said he had no arms, — 
only a pocket-knife. Donahue turned to walk 
away, when Wells sprang behind the pillar, 
drew his pistol and fired at Donahue, and then 
at Stroble. The shot fired at Stroble entered 
the right breast and passed out at the left side. 
In less than ten minutes he was dead. Mean- 
while, Wells, from his sheltered position, was 
exchanging shots with Donahue, who stood in 
the open street. About this time other parties 
began firing at Donahue, and a soldier came to 
his assistance. The parties emptied their pis- 
tols at Wells without effect, owing to his pro- 
tected position. Wells finally withdrew by way 
of the rear of the building, ran to a livery 
stable, where he procured a horse and was gone 
before a half dozen men in town knew that he 
had been engaged in the shooting. He suc- 
ceeded in eluding his pursuers, and made his 
way to Mexico, where he was joined later by his 
family, and where it is said that he died a few 
years since. 

The election in the county this year gave 
strong Union encouragement, and secession be- 
gan to wane. 

Total amount of taxable property in the 
county this year, $1,200,418; total tax levied, 
$29,919. There were 836 school children in 



178 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the county, for which was received from the 
State school fund $484.88. 

1864. 

Visalia elected her first town officers in May, 
viz.: Trustees — D. R. Douglas, Daniel Woods, 
Jr., J. H. Thomas, J. E. DeDny and Nathan 
Baker; John Gill, Assessor; J. W. Kennedy, 
Marshal; and Horace Thomas, Treasurer. Tip- 
ton Lindsey was elected clerk for one year, and 
the salary for that official was fixed at $3 per 
day when employed, the assessor $5, the mar- 
shal same fees as are allowed constables, and for 
collections same percentage as is paid the sheriff. 
Treasurer to receive the same pay as the county 
treasurer for like service. At the fall election 
the Democratic ticket was successful, with one 
exception, that of Tipton Lindsey, who was 
elected Supervisor. 

The first legal execution for crime in Tulare 
County was that of Jose Jesus Stanner, less than 
eighteen years of age. The crime was the kill- 
ing of two men by the name of Williams, sheep 
grazers, and an Indian boy, knocking out their 
brains with an ax while they were asleep! He 
was executed early in December. 

On the night of December 31, on the Ka- 
weah meadows, the Indians killed Mrs. Mc- 
Guire and her son about six years of age. Mr. 
McGuire was immediately informed of the 
tragedy by a messenger, who found him at Fort 
Independence. A party of twenty men, under 
Captain Gran by, started at once for the scene, 
and succeeded in killing several Indians. 

1865. 

February, the newspapers have an article on 
the immense oil springs discovered along the 
eastern base of the Coast Eange, from the 
Pacheco to Buena Vista lake. A Mr. Hamilton 
and party had made the discovery several 
months previous. This is the oil region since 
famous, and now covered by Kern County. 

In March the Summer Mining Company at 
Kernville were doing a good business, running 
two mills, and averaging $1,000 per week. 

Joseph II. Thomas, J. W. Freeman and 



McKinney & Co. erected quartz mills in the 
Clear Creek mining region. 

Mining this year was profitable. Messrs. 
Livermore, Jewett & Co., put in 200 acres of 
cotton on Kern river. 

Colonel Thomas Baker built a dam 160 feet 
long across the slough, severing the connection 
between Buena Vista and Tulare lakes, by 
which the waters were diverted for irrigating 
purposes. 

The assassination of President Lincoln was 
denounced in strong terms by men of all par- 
ties in Visalia. Immediately on receipt of the 
news of the President's assassination a mass 
meeting assembled in the courthouse, which 
was addressed in a feeling and appropriate man- 
ner by S. C. Brown, Hon. Nathan Baker, A. J. 
Atwell, George Palmer, Father Dade and Dr. 
James Webb. A number of appropriate reso- 
lutions were passed, among which was: "That 
the history of the world does not furnish a 
parallel to this damnable deed of darkness, 
whereby the freely chosen head of a great, in- 
telligent aud Christianized people has fallen a 
sacrifice to the frenzied hatred of the adherents 
of a rebellion whose wickedness has fully cul- 
minated in the deed of infamy." 

July 18, Colonel L. W. Ransom, of the 
Delta, started on a tour through the Eastern 
States. 

The question of two new counties to be 
formed from Tulare was agitated this year. 

There were in the county live stock of all 
kinds 95,685 head, valued at $1,212,381. 

The population of the county in 1860 was 
4,500; in 1865,6,500. 

1867. 

Early in March all the streams in the county 
got on a tear, and "there was much water 
there, doing considerable damage in Visalia as 
well as the country adjacent to the several 
streams. 

Some time in this month a successful opera- 
tion in tracheotomy was performed by Drs. Ben 
and George upon the child of Wm. T. Cole, of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



179 



King's river, who had swallowed a grain of 
corn, which was extracted. The corn had 
sprouted, having been two weeks in the larynx. 
The child recovered. 

In the same month Messrs. Kramel and Slo- 
cum killed in the foothills, near the Kaweah, a 
California lion, which weighed, after being well 
bled and lying out all night, 140 pounds, and 
measured from tip to tip nine feet four inches. 

Charles W. Bowman became associated with 
the publication of the Delta in May. Also T. 
J. Brundage was appointed Superintendent of 
Schools, to fill the vacancy caused by the resig- 
nation of M. S. Merrill. Rev. Edwards pre- 
sents the editor of the Delta peaches three 
inches in diameter, picked from trees in his 
garden. 

At the September election J. C. Brown was 
chosen Assemblyman; W. F. Thomas, Sheriff; 
A. J. Atwell, District Attorney; T. J. Shackle- 
ford, Clerk; J. E. Scott, Treasurer; T. J. Haw- 
kins, Assessor; J. M. Johnson, Surveyor; 
Joseph Lively, Coroner. The Delta man 
wailed over defeat as follows : " Ye that 
have tears prepare to shed them now; yes, 
and you that haven't tears get an onion and 
make some; for we are beaten, — not only 
beaten, but demoralized, destroyed, demolished, 
subjugated, squelched, wiped out, gone up the 
spout, gone to grass, pulverized, cleaned out, 
kerflummnxed, knocked into 'pi,' upset and 
totally annihilated. We acknowledge the corn, 
we own tip, throw up the sponge, capitulate, 
cry peccavi, take him off, we feel bad, don't 
think we're well, and want to go home. ' But 
there's no use in crying over spilled milk;' 
we can't help ourselves, for the present, and 
there's no use making any fuss about it. We 
shan't make a war, as the Democrats would if 
they had been beaten; we don't want to hurt 
anybody that we know of in particular, and 
after the experience of the 4th we don't feel 
quite certain we could do it; in fact we don't 
feel quite certain about anything. Rather 
think we weren't at the election; don't know 
what Pinto means; don't think we are voters; 



are not quite certain whether we live in the 
United States or Dixie, but have a faint recol- 
lection that on the 4th something fell on us. 
What was it?" 

W. Owen exhibited some pears measuring 
15J by 17J in circumference, and weighing 2J 
pounds. 

1868. 

In March there was shipped from Visalia at 
one time, by one man, two tons of honey and 
1,000 dozen eggs. The month previous he 
shipped 10,000 dozen eggs. 

The Board of Supervisors at a meeting this 
month granted Hugh Hamilton, W. S. Powell 
and others, the exclusive right to float saw-logs 
down the Kaweah river. This act was so ridic- 
ulous that it was treated as a huge joke. 

During this year A. O. Thomas started a 
rapid transit stage line between San Francisco 
and Visalia. Three trips a week were made; 
time between the two points, 36 hours; and 
from Yisalia to Havilah in one day. In May a 
severe hailstorm and waterspout visited the 
country along White river, which came near 
drowning the residents. The storm extended 
nearly to Poso creek, a distance of twenty 
miles. Many of the hailstones were as large 
as quail's eggs. In many places the trees were 
completely shorn of foliage. Visalia was incor- 
porated in 1868. At the election held for city 
officials there were chosen for Trustees — E. 
Jacob, William Harlan, J. A. Samstag, J. A. 
Patterson and W. A. Russell; W. F. Thomas, 
Marshal; R. E. Hyde, Treasurer; O. H.Glass- 
cock, Assessor. 

This brings us down to the modern period 
of the country's development, which will be 
more fully reviewed. 

THE INDIAN WAE ON TULE RIVER. 

It is impossible at this late day to determine 
the real cause that led to the war on Tule river 
in the spring of 1856, since the events were not 
noted in detail at the time, and but few of the 
prominent actors are now living; and after the 
lapse of years it is the most important items 



180 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



concerning troubles of this kind, the causes 
that led to them, that are soonest forgotten, 
only the more vivid pictures remaining distinct 
on memory's page. The Indians, of course, 
were credited at the time with the full blame 
of forcing the conflict; but there is much to 
lead to the belief that the exercise of a little 
moderation on the part of the white settlers 
would have prevented any great amount of 
bloodshed. Before entering upon the account 
of this war it may be of interest to make brief 
allusion to former Indian troubles and to say a 
word concerning affairs prior to the outbreak. 
Large numbers of Indians were living at that 
time about the eastern shore of Tulare lake and 
along the several streams issuing from the 
Sierra Nevada mountains, King's river, Kaweah 
river, Tule river, Deer creek, White river, 
Poso creek, Kern river and smaller streams. 
It was estimated that among the several tribes, 
speaking the same language, with only the var- 
iance of an occasional word, there were in the 
neighborhood of two thousand warriors. Game 
and fish, upon which they subsisted princi- 
pally, acorns and the plants and roots and 
other articles that varied their diet, were plen- 
tiful, and before becoming acquainted with the 
fatal vices of civilized man they were a healthy 
and contented people. Petty jealousies existed 
among the different tribes and occasional rup- 
tures occurred, but they were never so warlike 
nor so bloodthirsty as the large tribes farther 
east, that have maintained the struggle 
against civilization since the advent of the 
first white man among them. The first hun- 
ters and trappers who entered the valley found 
the Indians hospitable and friendly. A few 
parties of white men, Fremont's exploring 
party among others, passed through the valley 
but were not molested until they encountered 
the tribes farther north, who had had more in- 
tercourse with Americans. The first blood was 
shed on the 13th of December, 1850, when a 
small party of settlers were cruelly massacred 
by the Kaweah Indians. This party, fifteen in 
number, was conducted by a Mr. Wood to a 



beautiful spot about six miles east of the pres- 
ent town of Visalia, on the bank of the Kaweah 
river, where they intended to form a settle- 
ment, and immediately began the construction 
of a house from the oak timber growing 
plentifully thereabouts. Shortly after their first 
dwelling was finished the chief of the Kaweahs, 
an influential personage known by the Spanish 
name of " Francisco," visited these pioneer 
settlers accompanied b} T a number of armed 
followers, and gave them notice to depart 
within ten days, at the same time informing 
them that death would be the penalty for re- 
maining longer. They consented to leave 
within the specified time, and secreted many 
of the articles they had brought with them, 
intending to return to the place at some future 
day. 

For some reason they were not prepared to 
leave until the eleventh day after receiving their 
warning; and while the men were separated 
in the morning, gathering up their horses and 
making other necessary preparations for the 
start, a large force of Indians armed with bows 
and arrows, fell upon them suddenly, and in a 
very short time killed eleven of their number. 
Two succeeded in making their escape, one of 
them however, seriously wounded. The Indians 
then surrounded the house where they found 
Wood and one other. Wood's companion was 
given a mark to hold for the savages to shoot at, 
but at the first fire his body was filled full of 
arrows. The leader of the little colony, finding 
himself alone, sought refuge in the house and 
tired upon the Indians from the inside, killincr 
seven before his ammunition was expended. 
After making an ineffectual attempt to <--ain 
entrance through the roof, the Indians forced 
the door and were faced by Wood, who fought 
bravely until overpowered. Holding a brief 
consultation, they determined to skin their cap- 
tive alive as a punishment for having killed so 
many of their braves, and, tying him to a tree 
mar by, performed the fiendish deed. 

The reason for notifying Wood and his party 
to leave is not known. Had there been any 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



181 



natural feeling of hostility toward the white 
men, they would not have been allowed to re. 
main long enough to erect a dwelling, nor is it 
likely that they would have been given so many 
days' grace to prepare lor their departure. It is 
probable that their action was influenced by 
northern Indians, who were in constant commu- 
nication with them, and felt less friendly toward 
the whites; and it is not improbable that some 
member of the party was responsible for the 
estrangement. Shortly after this, General Pat 
ten arrived from Fort Miller with a detachment 
of United States troops and began to build a 
fort near Woodville, the site of the unfortunate 
and unsuccessful attempt to make a settlement, 
but did not remain to complete it. Settlers con- 
tinued to arrive in small bodies from time to 
time, but there was no further difficulty with 
the Indians until four years later. The whites 
were generally disposed to be overbearing in their 
intercourse with the tribes among whom they 
settled, and a few trivial quarrels resulted in 
threats of extermination being made by the 
Indians, who greatly outnumbered the settlers, 
and naturally looked upon them as intruders. 
Lieutenant Nugent was sent from Fort Miller 
with a small force of soldiers and attacked the 
Indians near General Patten's unfinished fort, 
and brought them to terms. Only one Indian 
was killed in this skirmish, which lasted but a 
short time. Lieutenant Nugent remained in 
the vicinity several months, when he was re- 
called to Fort Miller. A short time after the 
departure of the troops, threats were again heard 
from the Indians, and tor several months affairs 
were in a very unsettled state. The Americans 
were prone to magnify the hostile actions of the 
Indians, but to forget their own. The Indians, 
also, were regarded as inferior beings, and 
treated as such; this they naturally resented, 
and became quite insolent. Private difficulties 
led to either side's espousing the cause of its 
friends, and affairs began to bear a most serious 
aspect. 

The county of Tulare had been organized in 
the meantime, the town of Visalia established, 



and newly arrived settlers were scattered 
through the valley, engaged principally in the 
raising of cattle and hogs. The first penalty 
inflicted by law was the imposition of a fine of 
fifty deer-skins upon a young Indian, who 
had maliciously shot an arrow into an ox be- 
longing to one of the settlers. The sentence 
was regarded as a just one by the Indians, who 
awaited with interest the judgment of the 
court, and the fine was promptly paid. 

Shortly after, cattle running on the plains 
were found to have been shot with arrows, and 
three Indians, supposed to be the offenders, 
were taken by the whites (without legal proc- 
ess) and severely whipped, and warned that a 
repetition of the offense would result in the 
death of the guilty party. 

It was not long until more cattle were shot 
and the whites went to the chief of the tribe 
with their complaints. Two Indians were turned 
over to them; one of these in attempting to es- 
cape was shot, and the other feigned death, 
and by so doing escaped with his life, and was 
afterward pardoned. These summary punish-, 
ments did not have a tendency to pacify mat- 
ters, but on the contrary had a diametrically 
opposite effect; and affairs continued in this 
effervescent state for a considerable time, grad- 
ually growing from bad to worse. A Mexican 
vaquero employed by an American cattle owner 
was killed by Indians, and about the same time 
an Indian boy was shot a short distance east of 
Visalia. The demeanor of the Indians became 
more hostile, and several of the whites favored 
an immediate attack on the rancherias in the 
neighborhood, but others were strongly opposed 
to any such action. Both races became mutually 
suspicious; preparations were quietly made for 
the worst. In the spring of 1856 a collision 
was considered to be inevitable, and not a few, 
particularly among the young men, were anxious 
for hostilities to commence. At this time a party 
of Americans attacked one of the rancherias 
under cover of darkness, and without losing any 
of their own number killed or wounded several 
of the Indians. This cowardly and reprehensible 



182 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



act received, as it merited, the condemnation of 
the people in the settlement. 

A Government sub-agent visited the Indians 
for the purpose of restoring harmony, but he 
was too late; they would listen to no concilia- 
tory terms, probably believing that he repre- 
sented the views of only a minority of the set- 
tlers. Warriors from all the tribes between the 
Kaweah river and Fort Tejon now began to 
concentrate in the mountains on Tule river, and 
the old men, women and children moved away 
from the valley, except a few that remained in 
the vicinity of Visalia and refused to join the 
hostiles. It was thought that there were a few 
Indians from the valley tribes to the north, but 
they did not come in large numbers from any 
point beyond the present limit of Tulare County. 
The " opportunity " long wished for soon ar- 
rived. 

A report reached Yisalia that 500 head of 
cattle had been stolen from what is now Frasier 
valley, and driven to the mountains; another 
report placed the number at 100, with the ad- 
ditional information that they had been recov- 
ered from the Indians by the owners; and later 
it was stated that the Indians took only one calf 
from a band of cattle. At that time the first 
report was most willingly believed to be the 
true one, and it was resolved to punish the 
marauders immediately. The movements of 
the hostile band were made known to the whites 
by the friendly Indians in the settlement, and a 
company of some fifty or sixty men, hastily 
gathered from all parts of the Four Creeks 
country, as this section was known, under com- 
mand of Captain Demastus, started in pursuit 
of the Indians. The same day a party of nine 
mounted men followed the trail of sixty Te- 
jon Indians, who, they had been informed, 
were traveling southward in the direction of 
White river Captain Demastus's company, 
who were looking for the larger body of Indi- 
ans, after reaching Tule river continued up the 
fork several miles, where columns of smoke 
arising in the distance discovered to them the 
location of the camp. The command moved 



forward and found the Indians occupying a 
strong position, which, to their surprise, was 
well fortified. The location was admirably 
chosen, and the defenses would have done credit 
to an experienced military engineer. Aline of 
breast works from two tofourfeet high, composed 
of bowlders and brush, extended a distance of 
eighty rods along the face of a hill at the 
head of a little cove or plain. 

Immediately in the front of the position the 
ground was rough and broken, but to reach it 
it was necessary to traverse the open plain men- 
tioned, exposed to a fire from behind the forti- 
fication. At either end, and in the rear of the 
line of defenses, was a dense thicket of chapar- 
ral and scrnb brush, extremely difficult to pene- 
trate. This position was defended by a large 
force, numbering in the neighborhood of 700 
warriors, armed with bows and arrows. A few 
had pistols. Had theybeen well provided with 
firearms, all the white settlers in the valley 
could not have dislodged them. 

Demastus, confident of the superiority of his 
men, small as their number were, ordered an 
attack. A shower of arrows tipped with heads 
of flint and hard wood met his command as 
they neared the breastwork. The fire was re- 
turned, but with no appreciable effect, and, real- 
izing the strength of the Indian stronghold 
and the inefficiency of his small force, Demas- 
tus retired about a mile and went into camp to 
await reinforcements. The little party of nine 
men previously spoken of, on the trail of the 
Tejon Indians, kept in their saddles all day and 
night; and about daylight on the following 
morning, when near White river, a short dis- 
tance above where the little village of Tailholt 
is now situated, heard the barking of a dog. 
This they rightly judged to come from the Te- 
jon encampment, and, tying their horses, ad- 
vanced cautiously on foot in the direction 
whence the sound proceeded. Discovering the 
camp, they succeeded in making their way to 
within titty yards of it, when the dogs began 
barking and growling furiously. One of the 
Indians, painted and decked with feathers, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



183 



stepped forward to a little knoll tbat command- 
ed a view in all directions, to ascertain the 
cause of the alarm. There was no one in com- 
mand of the whites, but John W. Williams, 
afterward city marshal of Visalia for several 
years, seemed to be the recognized leader, and 
directed the man nearest to him, who had a 
rifle, to shoot. He fired, and the Indian 
dropped dead. A charge was then made, and 
the Americans rushed into the camp, firing 
rapidly at the Indians, who scattered precipi- 
tately, not knowing the number of their assail- 
ants. Five Indians were found dead, but none 
of the whites were injured. Not feeling strong 
enough to continue the pursuit in the wooded 
country they were in, or to remain where they 
were after daylight, they returned to their 
horses and rode back to Tule river to join the 
larger party. 

It was the supposition at the time that this 
party of Tejon Indians had been implicated in 
the cattle-stealing in Frasier valley, and had 
gone on a marauding expedition to White river 
to massacre the few Americans then living 
along the stream; but nothing was heard of 
them afterward, and as they had a few women 
with them, they were probably only returning 
home to their own tribe. 

When the party of whites rejoined the com- 
mand under Demastus, it was decided to dis- 
patch Williams to Keysville, in the Kern river 
valley, for assistance, it being impossible to ac- 
complish anything against the strongly fortified 
position held by the Indians with the handful 
of men before it. 

Williams set out immediately, going by way 
of Lynn's valley, Poso flat, and Greenhorn 
mountain. At the firsl -named place he changed 
horses, and William Lynn, after whom the val- 
ley was named, agreed to accompany him to 
where he had some men at work in the moun- 
tain, from which place the trail could be more 
rapidly followed. During their ride after dark, 
through a heavily- timbered region where bears 
were plentiful, an incident occurred that is 
worthy of note. Both were on the lookout for 



bruin, and after riding a short distance into the 
forest heard a noise behind, and turning ob- 
served a large black animal following them. 
Lynn raised his gun to fire, but Williams, who 
was mounted on a fractious mustang, thought 
it was not advisable to shoot at the bear in such 
close quarters, in a narrow trail leading through 
a dense thicket, particularly at night, when it 
would have been impossible to make a sure 
aim. 

They hastened on, and the animal behind 
also quickened his steps, which they could hear 
indistinctly on the soft earth. Williams's horse 
became frightened and darted up the steep 
moutain side, but floundered back into the trail 
again. Soon they reached a small opening, 
and here they determined to try the effect of a 
shot at the brute, which followed them persist- 
ently. Lynn discharged a load of buckshot, 
and the bear fell at the first fire, greatly to 
their relief, and they proceeded on their way, 
not caring to learn whether it was dead or not. 
Williams reached Keysville the next day, the 
miners along Kern river assembled, and a party 
of about sixty men consented to assist the 
Americans before the Indian camp on Tule 
river. Hastily arming themselves, they im- 
mediately set out by the way of Lynn's valley, 
where they were joined by Lynn and a few 
others. On the return the bear killed by Lynn 
was found, and proved to be a large black mule 
belonging to a settler in the valley below. The 
owner was found, and received from the two 
men the sum of $90, which amount he had re- 
cently paid for the animal. It was a long time 
before the young men heard the last of it; the 
mere mention of "bear's oil" was ^ sufficient to 
cause either one of them to stand treat, and be- 
fore the joke wore out it had cost them in the 
neighborhood of $500. When the Keysville 
party reached the scene of action, the number 
of whites there had already been increased by 
scattering settlers who had arrived from all 
parts of the surrounding country. 

W. G. Poindexter, sheriff of Tulare County, 
was chosen commander, and with a force of 140 



184 



HI STOUT OF CENT UAL CALIFORNIA. 



men made a second advance upon the Indians. 
The breastwork was attacked from the front, 
the Americans shielding themselves as well as 
the nature of the ground permitted, and pour- 
ing a continuous fire into the interstices through 
which the Indians were discharging their ar- 
rows. The Indians fought bravely, but their 
arrows proved to be comparatively harmless 
missiles; and every one that exposed any por- 
tion of his body became a target for a number 
of excellent marksmen. 

It was an impossibility to drive the Indians 
from their position by attacking them from the. 
front without a charge, which was not deemed 
advisable then, and Poindexter did not consider 
his force strong enough to spare an effective 
number for a flank movement; besides it was 
thought the arrows of the Indiaus would be 
more etf'tctual at short range in the brush than 
at the long distance they were compelled to fire 
in front. I3y attacking from either flank it is 
quite probable that some of the whites might 
have been killed, but this was the most feasible 
plan of dispersing the Indians, and it was sup- 
posed the expedition was undertaken for that 
purpose. During the attack two young Ameri- 
cans, Danielson and St. John by name, were 
severely wounded. The former crawled quite 
near to the breastwork, but was discovered by 
the Indians and became the mark for scores of 
arrows. Three or four men rushed forward and 
carried him from his perilous position. He 
was dangerously hurt, and for a time it was 
thought fatally, but he eventually recovered. 
One other young man, Thomas Talbert, was 
shot in the thigh by an arrow, but coolly broke 
it off and continued loading and firing his piece 
as if nothing had happened. These are the 
only whites known to have been injured. Some 
of the Indians were quite reckless, a few stand- 
ing fearlessly before their fortification, heedless 
of the leaden rain from the guns of the assault- 
ing party. One of these, struck down by a 
bullet, raised himself with difficulty and tired 
at the whites until his last arrow was gone. 
He and two others were killed in front of the 



line. What execution was done behind the 
breastwork was not ascertained, but it must 
have been considerable. Failing to accomplish 
anything of importance by this attack, Poin- 
dexter ordered his command to fall back. The 
Indians left their position and followed then), 
yelling like fiends, and keeping up a steady fire 
with their bows and arrows; but as soon as they 
got clear of the brush, on the open ground, a 
volley of bullets sent them back to their strong- 
hold. Sentries were posted during the night to 
prevent a surprise by the Indians, should they 
feel emboldened to make the attempt. It would 
not have been difficult to have thrown the camp 
into disorder by a sudden and vigorous charge, 
as a false alarm proved in the night; but the 
Indians considered themselves safer behind their 
defenses. One of the men who had passed be- 
yond the lines unobserved was seen when re- 
turning by a sentry, who, supposing him to be 
an Indian, opened tire. The man lay close to 
the ground and escaped uuhurt. The whole 
camp, however, was immediately in an uproar, 
all supposing the Indians were about to fall 
upon them, and not knowing from what point 
the attack would be made. Men picked up the 
wrong guns, knew not which way to turn, and 
several minutes passed before anything like 
order was restored. This was the effect of a 
total lack of discipline, and served as a good 
lesson. The Americans remained at their ren- 
dezvous several days without making any effort 
in force against the Indians. It was realized 
that a charge would be necessary to dislodge 
them, and William Lynn, before spoken of, in- 
vented a padded armor impervious to the ar- 
rows, to be worn by the van of the attacking 
party. This armor protected the vital parts, 
leaving only the face and limbs uncovered. 
About a dozen men were thus provided, and 
were known as the "petticoat" or "cotton bag 
brigade." They were among the most fearless 
and intrepid young men in the camp, but pre- 
sented anything but a warlike appearance in 
their ridiculous habiliments. As the sequel 
will show, they never had an opportunity of 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



185 



trying their armor in the proposed grand 
charge. For several day6, while awaiting fur- 
ther reinforcements, nothing of importance was 
attempted. 

Frequent skirmishes took place, but little 
was known of the results except that an 
occasional Indian was seen to fall dead or 
wounded. Small parties of whites also sought 
and destroyed the caches of provisions made by 
the Indians at different points about the foot- 
hills, as was their custom. There was little 
trouble in finding them, as they were usually 
made among the branches of tbe oak trees. A 
portion of the command returned to Visalia for 
a few days, and while there insisted that the 
Indians who had remained among the whites, 
and who had been disarmed, should leave the 
settlement forthwith. They had taken no part 
in the hostilities, and several of the leading 
citizens protested against the unnecessary 
measure. But they were Indians, and that was 
considered sufficient cause for driving them 
away. They were assisted by a few of the 
whites to remove to King's river, until quieter 
times. Most of the Americans who had en- 
gaged in this war were young men, and to them 
the excitement of the times was only a source 
of enjoyment, and owing to the inferior weap- 
ons of the Indians they were in no imminent 
danger of losing their lives. They would 
gladly have seen a war of extermination inau- 
gurated, and would have forced the peaceable 
Indians to assume a hostile, attitude, that they 
might have had an excuse for attacking them. 
While in the settlement it was proposed by 
them to surround a rancheria of non-combatant 
Indians — men, women and children — in the 
night, and exterminate the last one of them; 
before their scheme was consummated, however, 
the Indians were notified of their intentions and 
decamped. It was thought advisable that a 
place of refuge be prepared for the people in 
the valley to resort to in case an attack should 
be made by the Indians while the men were 
" off to the war," and the erection of a small 
fort was begun in the town of Visalia, on the 

12 



bank of Mill creek, but it was never needed 
and never completed. 

Small parties of men now began to arrive 
from the upper country, some of them coming 
from as far north as Merced and Mariposa. 

Companies arrived from Millerton and Coarse 
Gold Gulch, now included within the limits of 
Fresno County, those from the first-named 
place under the command of Ira Stroud, those 
from the second commanded by John L. Hunt. 
There also arrived from Fort Miller a detach- 
ment of twenty-five soldiers under Captain 
Livingston, bringing with them a small howit- 
zer for throwing shells into the Indian camp; 
and from Fort Tejon half as many mounted 
cavalry under the command of Alonzo Hidley, 
an Indian sub-agent. When all of these had 
congregated at the rendezvous on Tule river, the 
total strength of the force was about 400, and 
comprised nearly all of the able-bodied men in 
the valley. Captain Livingston assumed the 
chief command. The citizen volunteers were 
armed with every style of firearms known, each 
one providing his own accoutrements. They 
were not well organized or drilled, of course, 
but what they lacked in discipline was made up 
in marksmanship, all being familiar with the 
use of firearms. After all had reached camp a 
consultation was held, and it was agreed to 
divide the command into four divisions, and at- 
tack the Indians at daybreak the following 
morning from the front, rear and both flanks, 
and thus hem in and annihilate the entire force 
if possible. Parties were sent out to view the 
country that the several divisions might be 
guided to their respective positions during the 
night without confusion or loss of time; and 
Captain Livingston with his soldiers and about 
sixty volunteers ascended an eminence com- 
manding the Indian fortification from the side, 
to select the most advantageous position for 
mounting their howitzer, that all might be in 
readiness for the battle en the morrow. The 
Indians unexpectedly made a vigorous attack on 
this party, forcing them to a fight, and thus 
precipitating the engagement. 



18G 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Livingston ordered a charge, and with his 
officers led the men in. They forced their way 
through the brush, at the same time firing upon 
the Indians, who, not having their breastworks 
to shield them, fled from their position into the 
mountains among the pine forests, where they 
had left their women and children. The Amer- 
icans continued the pursuit two or three days, 
but, failing to discover another camp or any 
large body of Indians, retired to the valley. 
After the Indians had been driven from their 
position several dead braves were found inside 
the fortification, and there was evidence of many 
having been borne off through the brush. 
Nothing definite is known of the loss they sus 
tained, but it was estimated that from the break- 
ing out of hostilities up to this, the last real 
engagement, the total number of killed and 
wounded was not far from 100. No whites 
were killed during the charge, and none se- 
riously injured. The little army now broke up, 
and small detachments were posted at intervals 
along the edge of the foothills to prevent the 
Indians from descending into the valley; the 
the major portion returned to their homes. 

Notwithstanding the blockade, small parties 
of mounted Indians succeeded in reaching the 
plains at night, and did a considerable amount 
of damage. Most of the cattle had been driven 
in near the settlement, when there were closely 
herded and guarded; but the Indians succeeded 
in killing or driving off quite a number. They 
also burned a few houses in the foothills, and 
all but one along Tule river and Deer creek — 
thirteen in number — their owners having de- 
serted them for the time being. 

o 

The only one on Tnle river that escaped de- 
struction was occupied by John "Williams, and 
was constantly guarded. One night, while him- 
self on guard, he observed two mounted Indians 
riding toward a cow that was feeding near the 
house. 

Waking one of the three young men who 
were with him that night that the Indians 
might be confronted by an equal number, he 
awaited their near approach. When the Indians 



were within range both advanced toward them 
and fired; and they scampered off without their 
expected booty, not stopping to return the tire 
until they had placed a quarter of a mile be- 
tween them and the house, when a single pistol 
shot and a yell of defiance were sent back. 

The following morning one of their horses 
was found dead a short distance off, having been 
ridden apparently until it fell. 

These night raids were ceutinned for several 
weeks, until William Campbell, the sub-agent 
at King's river, sought the Indians out in the 
mountains and found them willing to come to 
terms. The war had lasted six weeks when the 
Indians returned to the valley, and they have 
remained friendly from that time to the present 
day; although a little more than a decade later, 
a few murders committed on Tule river caused 
the Government to send a company of troops 
from San Francisco, and force the Indians of 
that section upon a reservation set apart for 
them. There was no difficulty with them col- 
lectively, however, and their liberties are in no 
way more restricted than those of other tribes. 
Throughout the valley their numbers are rapidly 
decreasing, only a handful now remaining to 
preserve the language and traditions of a once 
numerous and happy people. Thus ended the 
Tule river war of 1856, — a war that might have 
been prevented had there been an honest desire 
on the part of the white settlers to do so, and 
one that brought little glory to those who par- 
ticipated therein. The responsibility cannot 
now be fixed where it properly belongs. Possibly 
the Indians were to blame. 

Certainly the whites were not blameless; and 
it is too seldom, indeed, that they have been, 
in the many struggles with the aboriginal in- 
habitants of this continent. By George W. 
Stewart in January Overland Monthly, 1884. 

THE POPULATION 

of the county in 1860 was 4,368. In 1870, 
it was as follows: Farmersville, 807. of which 
755 were natives; King's River, 166, 148 of 
whom were natives; Pack wood, 214, of whom 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



187 



172 were natives; Tule River, 1,098, of whom 
953 were natives; Tule River Reservation, 124, 
natives, 2; Venice, 490, of whom 475 were na- 
tives; Yisalia District, 1,626, of whom 1,377 
were natives; Yisalia town, 913, of whom 707 
were natives; "White River, 120, of whom 87 
were natives. Total, 5,446, of whom 4,684 
were natives. The census of 1880 gave a total 
population of 11,280, and in 1890, 24,574. 

COUETHOTJSE AND JAIL. 

The Board of County Supervisors met in 
special session on Monday, April 10, 1876, for 
the purpose of receiving and adopting plans for 
building a new courthouse and jail. A. A. 
Bennett of San Francisco was awarded the 
prize, and his plan was adopted. There was 
$20,000 in county bonds, denomination $500 
each, for such building purposes. Notice was 
published that on May 6, 1876, the old court- 
house and jail would be offered for sale to the 
highest bidder. In accordance with said notice, 
on the day stated the courthouse was sold by 
Sheriff ^Wingfield to A. H. Glasscock for 
$682.50, and the jail to R. E. Hyde for $225. 
Among the several bidders to construct the 
new building were Stephen and Ghilders, 
whose bid being the lowest — $59,700 — was 
accepted. 

During the erection of the new buildings the 
county officials occupied a town hall. 

The new courthouse corner-stone was laid and 
formally dedicated October 27, 1876. Various 
civic organizations participated in the ceremo- 
nies, which were conducted by the Most Worthy 
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Masons of 
the State of California, John Mills Browne, 
who was presented by the citizens of Visalia 
with a handsome and elegantly engraved silver 
trowel as a token of respect and appreciation of 
his highly honored position and services. A 
very interesting address was delivered by E. 
Jacobs. The following were the articles de- 
posited in the corner stone: Roll of officers and 
members of Visalia Lodge, No. 128, F. & A. 



M., and a copy of their by-laws; proceedings of 
Grand Lodo-e of F. & A. M. of California; list 
of officers and copy of by-laws of Damascus En- 
campment, No. 44, I. O. O. F. ; list of officers 
and members of Four Creeks Lodge, No. 94, I. 
O. O. F.; Holy Bible, presented by I. N. Mat- 
lick; by-laws and members of Visalia Chapter, 
No. 44, R. A. M.; one trade dollar, one half 
dollar, one twenty-cent piece; constitution of 
the United States in manuscript by A. Beyer; 
copy of regulations of school laws and of school 
libraries, by W. A. "Wash; copy of California 
revised school laws, by W. J. Ellis; announce- 
ment of Visalia Normal School, September 4, 
1876, by McPhail & Orr; copy of Tulare 
Weekly Times of October 28, 1876, containing 
a tine picture of the courthouse as it will appear 
when completed, and a description of the several 
rooms; copy of Visalia Weekly Delta of Octo- 
ber 28, 1876; copy of Visalia Iron Age of Oc- 
tober 25, 1876; copy of the great register of 
Tulare County for the Year 1876; poster and 
programme of the Centennial celebration on 
the 4th day of July, 1876, at Tulare City; one 
redwood knot from the largest redwood tree in 
Tulare County, 43 feet in diameter and 300 
feet in height, by George Kraft; a piece of 
silver ore from the Emma mine of Tulare 
County, by George Kraft; he also deposited one 
ten dollar note of the late Confederate States of 
America; one Prussian silver dollar, by R. 
Broder and Le,on Jacob; two vials of wheat 
grown in 1876, by E. Jacob, and one $20 gold 
coin by same, date 1873; also one five dollar 
gold note, First National San Francisco Gold 
Bank, 1870; one dollar currency note; one 
twenty-five cent United States currency; nine 
foreign coins, and San Francisco Journal of 
Commerce, October 26, all by E. Jacob; one 
trade dollar and a number of foreign coins by 
Dr. Davenport; copy of the Ulster County 
(New York) Gazette of 1800, January 9, con- 
taining an account of the death of Gen. George 
Washington, by P. H. Martin. 

The courthouse is a handsome brick structure 
with granite sills and steps, is 60 x 95 feet, with 



BISTORT OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



two wings 12x31 feet. Basement story, 12 
feet; main story, 15 feet; district court room, 
22 x 22 feet; county court room, same size; and 
rooms in upper story, all 17x17 feet. The 
jail and some of the county offices are in the 
basement. In 1890 there was completed anew, 
handsome and substantial jail building, second 
to none in the State. 

By the courthouse act, the Board of Supervi- 
sors were authorized to issue bonds of the county 
to an amount not to exceed $75,000; all bonds 
payable twenty years after issue, with interest 
at ten per cent, per annum, payable annually on 
the second Monday in January eacli year, both 
principal and interest to be payable in United 
States gold coin only; the bonds to be issued in 
denominations of $500 each and signed by the 
Board of Supervisors and the County Clerk; and 
the interest coupons to lie attached and signed 
in like manner. The Supervisors had authority 
to issue such bonds, in such sums, and at such 
times as was necessary to meet demands as the 
courthouse structure progressed toward comple- 
tion. Bonds could be redeemed at the pleasure 
of the county after ten years from date of each. 
Supervisors were also authorized to levy a tax 
annually for paying interest on bonds. 

TULARE LAKE. 

This is one feature of the county which we 
do not feel inclined to praise, and yet it serves 
an important purpose, no doubt. There is 
nothing beautiful about it, and yet it serves to 
hold the surplus waters at flood tide of the sev- 
eral streams flowing into it, and to cool some- 
what the summer breezes as they sweep over its 
surface; is a home for myriads of fresh water 
fish ; and makes an excellent resort for ducks and 
geese. The lake is now about eighteen miles 
square, and has a possible area of 324 square 
miles. It has a depth of perhaps forty feet in 
the deepest places, but in most places one can 
wade out for two miles or more from shore. 
A strip of tides two or three miles wide and ten 
feet high grows in the shallow water encirclino- 
the lake. 



IRRIGATION. 

Irrigation is perhaps older than history, and 
possibly as old as the human race. In ancient 
Babylon the country's prosperity and the build- 
ing up of the great city was by means of irri- 
gation. Peru and Mexico builded their civili- 
zation upon irrigation. It is one of the most 
beneficial arts known to man. California, des- 
tined to be the great, if not the greatest, State 
of the whole Union, could never attain such 
rank without irrigation. Tulare County is 
blessed with the water to irrigate every 
foot of her tillable lands, and her citizens 
are rapidly availing themselves of this valuable 
legacy, as is shown by the many miles of canals 
and ditches now conveying water throughout 
the county, whilst hardly a month passes but 
new companies are organized and new canals 
are started. 

The growth and population in California 
during the past decade will illustrate, not alone 
the economic importance of the cultivation of 
the soil by irrigation, but the social significance 
of the changes which such methods of cultiva- 
tion tend rapidly to produce in farm life and 
habits. Under its influence striking changes 
are going on in the character of the State. 
During the past ten years California has gained 
at the rate of 39 per cent, in population. The 
cause of that gain can be seen when it is known 
that thirteen counties of the State have lost in 
population from 1 to 73 per cent., while fifteen, 
including the most important irrigating areas, 
have grown more rapidly than the State at large. 
In the counties that have fallen back, mining, 
stock-raising and lumber industries have been 
the principal support. In the fifteen counties 
that have grown so largely farming pursuits 
under irrigation have become the chief feature 
of their development. Tlfe total population of 
the State in 1880 was 864,552. In 1890 it was 
1,203,969. The gain in the eleven counties 
most deeply interested in irrigation has been 
over 753 per cent. The percentage is as fol- 
lows: 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



1S9 



County. 
Fresno . . 
Kern 



Per Cent. 

228 

79 



Los Angeles 234 

Merced 36 

Orange 244 

San Bernardino 227 

San Diego 295 

San Luis Obispo 77 

Santa Barbara 66 

Tulare 120 

Ventura 98 

The principal irrigation centers of the State 
are the counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, San 
Bernardino, Kern, Tulare, Fresno and Merced. 
In the twenty years from 1870 to 1890 the pop- 
ulation of these counties will be seen to have 
increased at a far greater rate than any other 
of the interior counties. These figures are 
well worth studying: 

1870. 1S90. 

Los Angeles 15,309 101,410 

San Diego 4,951 34,878 

San Bernardino 3,988 25,486 

Kern 2,925 10,031 

Tulare 4.533 24,875 

Fresno 6,336 31,877 

Merced 2,807 8,162 

The seven leading irrigation counties showed 

the following remarkable increase in wealth for 

the twenty years covered: 

1870. 1890. 

Los Angeles $6,918,074 $67,121,610 

San Diego 2,539,957 27,703,520 

San Bernardino 1,202,482 22,490,440 

Kern 1,974,856 10,389,154 

Tulare 3,456,766 21,742,827 

Fresno 3,219,230 35,539,655 

Merced. 3,202,455 13,368,921 

It is safe to say that nine-tenths of this re- 
markable increase in wealth is due to the irri- 
gation enterprises that have been carried out in 
the counties referred to. 

The " Wright " law, which is familiar to all, 
has given a new impetus to irrigation in Cali- 
fornia. We have already alluded to the water 
supply in other pages, but a few more words 
here will not be out of place. 

King's river pours into the valley, from the 
first of January to the first of July, an average 
of 8,715 cubic feet of water per second, or 
enough to irrigate more than one million acres. 



The Kaweah river discharges an average of 
1,824 cubic feet per second, during the same 
period, which will supply water for 291,840 
acres. Tule river will irrigate 93,900 acres. 
The following are the miles of irrigating ditches 
(main canals) in the county, and their valuation 
in March, 1891: 

COMPANIES. MILES. VALUE. 

Kaweah C. & I. Co 25 $ 7,500 

Can People Ditch Co. 4 8,000 

Last Chance Ditch Co 10 10,000 

Kaweah & M. C. W. Co 5 5,000 

Tulare Irrigation Co 10 30,000 

People's Ditch Co 7 8,000 

Pioneer Ditch Co 15 7,000 

Lakeside Ditch Co 10 20,000 

"Watchumna 16 32,000 

Alta Irrigation Co 10 10,000 

Totals 102 $137,500 

The valuation of irrigation ditches was placed 
at $72,500 last year. This year the ditch com- 
panies were assessed at $137,500, an increase of 
$64,550. There are in fact about 500 miles of 
main ditches in Tulare County. 

THE ARTESIAN BELT. 

The territory known as the Artesian Belt is 
constantly growing in dimensions, or 'more 
properly it may be said that it covers a greater 
area than at first thought. The region in which 
artesian wells are obtained lies along the north- 
ern, eastern and southern boundaries of Tulare 
lake. Its northern limits do not extend far 
north of Lemoore; its eastern limits approach 
near Tulare city; but its southern border seems 
as yet unbounded ; its limits in that direction 
have not been ascertained. Though the full ex- 
tent of this territory is not known, there is one 
thing certain, — there is as fine a body of land 
as can be found in the entire State, or elsewhere, 
not less than forty miles in length and from 
twelve to eighteen in breadth, upon which no 
one has failed to get artesian water who has 
made the effort; and it is very likely that as ad- 
ditional wells are bored in other localities the 
limits of this tract will be still further extended. 

The irrigation of this artesian belt is by no 



190 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



means confined to artesian wells. Several large 
canals from the Kaweali and Tule rivers and 
their tributaries penetrate this tract in all direc- 
tions, and much of it is now under a good 
system of irrigation. " The northern limits of 
the artesian belt extend into Mussel slough 
and the eastern into the Kaweah delta, but 
where that is the case the term ' Artesian 
Belt' is preferable from a geographical stand- 
point.'' There are now within this belt several 
hundred artesian wells, and a few words de- 
scriptive of them will be of interest. 

An artesian well consists in a hole bored in 
the earth through which water lises from sub- 
terranean sources to a point near or above the 
surface of the earth. Those in which the water 
rises above the surface and flows over in a con- 
tinuous stream are termed "flowing wells," 
and it is of these we will treat. An iron 
casing is forced into the earth as fast as the 
well is bored, and when the water rises above 
the edge of the casing and flows over it to 
the depth of five inches, the well is said to 
have a five-inch "flow." Wells in this belt 
have flows ranging from half an inch at the 
extreme outer limit of the belt to twenty inches 
in the best wells. A well having a flow of six 
inches over an eight-inch casing will cover an 
acre of ground to a depth of more than five feet 
in twenty-four hours, and closely attended will 
furnish water enough to iirigate 320 acres of 
land, if the crops grown be so arranged as to 
require water at different times and in different 
quantities. Thus it will be seen that the artesian 
wells in this belt contribute largely to the coun- 
ty's water supply for irrigating purposes. The 
cost of a well is in proportion to depth, and 
ranges between $500 for the shallowest to $2,000 
and the extreme, $3,000, fur the deepest. The 
average may be safely stated as being not more 
than $1,500. Many water bearing strata are 
penetrated in sinking a well, some affbrdino- 
more and some less flow of water. The casing 
i.- continued downward until the owner is satis- 
fied with the volume of water, he having made 
careful notes of the depth at which each stratum 



was passed through, the flow of each, etc. Thus 
he accurately computes the entire flow when all 
are united, perforates the casing at each stratum 
and gets the full benefit of all. 

The first flowing well obtained in Tulare 
County was by the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company in 1879, at their tree ranch south of 
Tipton. At a depth of 310 feet they obtained 
a half-inch flow. Five years later Messrs. Paige 
& Morton sunk a well on their ranch four miles 
west of Tulare city, and at a depth of 330 feet 
obtained a flow of three and a half inches. 
Prom this period the artesian boom may be said 
to have started, and continues to grow. It 
would require more space than at our command 
to give the flow of each of the many wells in 
this belt. We give the figures of those of E. 
Jacob, from which an idea can be formed. He 
has eight wells, whose united flow is 280,000 
gallons every twenty-four hours. 

PROPERTY ASSESSMENT. 

The total value of all property assessed this 
year, as returned by the assessor, is $23,290,934. 
The total in 1890 was $21,748,847, an increase 
this year of $1,542,U87. 

Last year the assessment of all real estate, 
exclusive of city and town lots, amounted to 
$15,775,724. The same property this year is 
assessed for $17,059,354, making an increased 
assessment on farming lauds of $1,284,130. 
The value of city and town lots last year was 
placed at $1,114,738, and this year the total as- 
sessment of such property is $1,097,914, show- 
ing a decreased valuation of city property this 
year amounting to $16,824. 

The following totals for 1890 and 1891 are 
given for the purpose of comparison: 

Totals for lsyt): 

Keal estate other than city and town lots $15,775,734 

Improvements on same 1,017.874 

City and town lots 1,114,788 

Improvements on same 994.-J13 

Money 73,9!U 

Solvent credits 125,669 

< Mher personal property 9,646,488 

Total value of all property $21,74S,st7 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



191 



Totals for 1S91 : 

Real estate other than city and town lots $17,059,854 

Improvements on same 1,209,900 

City and town lots 1,097,914 

Improvements on same 1,071,873 

Money 104,652 

Solvent credits 106,575 

Other personal property 2,640,166 



Total value of all property $23,290,934 

It is noticeable in the above tables that the 
assessment on city property has been lowered 
$16,824. The increased valuation of farm prop- 
erty was made in a general equalization of values, 
which amounts to $1,284,130. 

The State Board of Equalization did not ask 
assessors this year to return statistics on the 
grain acreage, and no request was made for a 
viticultural report: hence no statements of sucli 
crops were taken by the field deputies in this 
county. The total number of acres under cul- 
tivation last year was 455,216. 

The State Board only wanted this year a re- 
port of the number of bearing and non-bearing 
trees in the county, and the following statement 
has been made from the returns sent in by 
deputies under Mr. Coffee: 



FRUIT TREKS. 



BEARING. NON-BEARING. 



Apricots 77,520 

Cherry 750 

Fig 2,168 

Olive 1,700 

Peach 94,324 

Pear - 41,550 

Prunes 60,620 

Lemon 1,430 

Orange 1,580 

Almond 765 

Walnut 175 



63,420 

735 

8,120 

7,800 

30,116 
1,800 

65,728 

750 



Totals 282,582 178,469 

The above table shows that there are 104,113 
more bearing trees than non-bearing. As no 
statistics of bearing and non-bearing trees were 
taken last year, it is impossible to state in this 
article how many trees were planted during the 
last assessment year. Out of a total of 178,469 
non- bearing trees it is safe to assume that two- 
thirds, or about 119,000, were planted this year, 
which is a remarkable showing for a grain rais- 
ins: section of the State. 



The greatest proportionate increase was in 
olives, the number of non-bearing trees being 
7,800, an increase of 6,100. There has been 
also a laroje increase in fig trees, the number of 
non-bearing trees being 8,120, an increase of 
5,952. There has been an increase in the num- 
ber of prune trees planted. The number of 
non-bearing trees aggregates 65,728, an increase 
over bearing trees of 4,108. 

The assessor returned the number of growing 
fruit trees in 1890 as 400,300, which included 
all ages. The total number of trees in the 
county this year is 461,051, an increase in one 
year of 60,731. 

In 1890 the total assessed value of mortgages 
on Tulare County real estate was $4,464,685, 
and the property pledged to secure the payment 
of the loans was valued at $17,441,140. 

The total assessed value of mortgages in this 
county for the present year is $5,144,225, an 
increase of $679,540. The assessed value of 
the property affected by the mortgages this 
year, or, in other words, the value of the securi- 
ties for the above mortgages, is $5,144,225, the 
same sum as the total amount of the mortgages. 

Assessment of irrigating canals will be found 
under the head of irrigation. 

PERSONAL PROPERTY. 

Following are the valuations of personal 
property in this county on the first Monday in 
March : 

No. Value. 

Beehives 1,664 $ 2,012 

Brandies and other liquor.. . . 7,670 

Cattle, heef ' 550 7,175 

Cattle, stock 29,509 215,255 

Colts 7,248 127,020 

Cows, thoroughbred 78 2,975 

Cows, common 6,228 98,702 

Farming utensils 36,509 

Firearms 594 5,715 

Fixtures 37,085 

Furniture 115,560 

Goats, common 1,076 

Wheat 55,150 

Barley 269 5,005 

Harness 43,370 

Hay . f 2,695 



192 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



No. Value. 

18,258 42,384 

Miscellaneous 25,115 

Calves 5,470 27,401 

Horses, thoroughbred 60 23,675 

Horses, common 13,906 455,407 

Horses, American 1,982 129,465 

Jacks and Jennies.... 49 8,060 

Jewelry or plate 1,465 

Libraries 17,610 

Lumber 16,100 

Machinery 101,007 

Mules 1.S00 83,386 

Musical instruments 781 46,366 

Oxen 20 360 

Poultry 1,138 3,259 

Sewing mechines 1,417 16,013 

Sheep, graded and common. 177,233 348,094 

Wagons and vehicles 4,205 144,665 

Watches 810 12,350 

Wines 6,000 gals. 1,500 

Wood 4,974 cords. 8,033 

Total $2,640,166 

The personal property last year was assessed 
at $2,646,438. This year the amount is $2,- 
640,166, a decrease of $6,272. 

Following are the valuations of railroads, 
telegraph and telephone companies in this 
county on the first Monday in March, 1891: 

Miles. Value. 

Western Union Telegraph Co 60 $12,000 

Sunset Telephone Co 44 1,370 

Pacific Postal Telegraph Co 55 5,675 

Vasalia & Tulare KailToad 11 22,000 

American Bell Tel. Co 44 4,020 

Visalia and Goshen Railroad 7 24,500 

Totals . : 221 $68,565 

RAXLBOADS. 

The main line of the Southern Pacific passes 
through the county from north to south. From 
Goshen on the main line, a branch road passes 
through the he: rt of the western portion of the 
county. On this line, sixteen miles from 
Goshen, another road branches out in a north- 
westerly direction, and co, nect with the Cen- 
tral Pacific railroad at Tracy, 140 miles away. 
A road running east from Goshen seven miles 
connects Visalia with the main line; another 
road of e^en mile, connects Visalia with the 
main line at Tulare City. The two last named 



are controlled by Visalia capitalists. On the 
east side of the valley is a new line of road con- 
structed by the Southern Pacific Company. 
This road leaves the main line a f Fresno, F esno 
County, passes entirely through Tulare County 
from north to south, hugging closely the foot- 
hills, and connects with the main line again at 
Poso, Kern County. There are 177 miles of 
railroad in the county. 

EDUCATIONAL MATTERS. 

The first school taught in the county was in 
the winter of 1853-54, and was a select school 
taught by Rev. Kennedy, a Presbyterian min- 
ister, in Visalia, in a private house. 

The first public school taught in the county 
was by a Mr. Carpenter, in the winter of 
1854-'55. 

An academy was founded by Rev. W. B. 
Taylor in Visalia in 1860, and flourished under 
his able management for four years, the num- 
ber of students ranging from 100 to 175. 

A change of management caused it to decline 
as rapidly as it had grown, and it soon ceased 
to be. 

H. McLean and J. D. Travis were among 
the pioneer teachers during the first school 
decade, when there were but three school dis- 
tricts. The entire county was one district, 
which had been divided into three during 
the first ten years of public schools. The 
second decade increased the school districts 
from three to twenty-seven. The third decade 
increased the number to eighty three districts, 
with ninety-nine schools. In 1880 the total 
number of census children in the county be- 
tween the ages of five and seventeen years was 
3.417; number of schools, 75; number of 
teachers employed, 88; money appropriated for 
the year, $44,481.93. In 1883 there were 
3,646 children in the county between the ages 
of five and seventeen years, and 1,671 under 
five years; number of school age attending 
school, 2,758; nnmberof school age not attend- 
ing, 7-42; number of school districts, S3: nnm- 
berof months taugh teach year, 6A; average daily 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



193 



attendance, 1,784; average monthly salary paid 
teachers, $69; amount of State funds received, 
$31,123; amount of county funds received, 
$14,657; amount of special funds received, 
$2,693; total expenses incurred, $53,814; and 
valuation of school property, $33,000. 

In 1890 there were: school children, 6,270; 
number of schools, 120; number of teachers, 
152; total money paid for school purposes, 
$114,742.40. The school census for 1891 gives 
the total number of children in the county of 
school age, 6,768; of whom there are boys, 
3,391; and girls, 3,377. Of these there are 
three Indian boys and three girls in the Excel- 
sior district, and two Chinese girls in Tulare 
city, and one Chinese boy in Yisalia. Totals 
in 1890: Boys, 3,281; girls, 2,987; total boys 
and girls, 6,270. Increase for 1891: boys, 110; 
girls, 388; total of boys and girls, 498. No 
figures could be obtained as to the average sal- 
ary paid teachers in 1890. 

The following figures regarding the census 
of the Visalia school district will be found in- 
teresting: Number of white boys between five 
and seventeen years of age, 355; girls, 359; 16 
negroes and 1 Mongolian; total, 731. Number 
of white children under five years of age, 200; 
Indians, 3; total, 203. Number of white chil- 
dren between five and seventeen years of age 
who have attended public school at any time 
duriug the school year, 510; negroes, 9; total, 
519. Number of white children between five 
and seventeen years who have attended private 
schools, 2. Number of white children who 
have not attended school during school year, 
199; negroes, 10; Mongolians 1; total, 210. 

Number of children in the county under five 
years of age, 2,730; number who have attended 
school during school year, 5,289; number who 
have not attended school, 1,479; number of 
foreign born children, 40; Mongolians, natives, 
3; Indians, 10. 

Advance school district has lapsed, and Rocky 
Hill district has been consolidated with the 
Yokohl school district. 

There are few counties in the State that have 



made as great advancement in public education 
in the past year as Tulare County. Visalia has 
erected a new school building that would be a 
credit to any city in the State, at a cost of 
nearly $30,000. Lindsay school district has a 
new brick building just completed at a cost of 
$10,000, and Orosi district one that cost 
$6,000. There are eleven school buildings in 
the county that have cost a sum exceeding 
$6,000, several of these having cost $30,000. 
The pioneer schoolhouse jin every district in 
the county is giving way to the modern struc- 
ture, and the people are taking a special pride 
in their schools, as is shown not only by their 
schoolhouses but by the well selected libraries 
found in the schoolrooms. 

Number of grammar schools in the county, 
60. Number of primary schools, 94. 

Number of new districts organized, 4. 

Number of trustees appointed by county su- 
perintendent, 65. 

Number of schoolhouses built of brick, 5. 

Number built of wood, 113. 

Number of schoolhouses erected during the 
year, 6. Total number of schoolhouses in 
county, 118. 

Number of male teachers, 58; female 
teachers, 96. Total number of teachers, 154. 

Average monthly wages paid to male teach- 
ers, $85.60. Paid to female teachers, $72.39. 

Number of teacheis who are graduates of 
California State Normal school, 28. 

Number of graduates of other State normal 
schools, 14. 

Number of teachers who hold life diplomas, 
48. 

Number of teachers who hold State Educa- 
tional diplomas, 35. 

Number of teachers who hold high -school 
certificates, 9. Number who hold county cer- 
tificates, first grade, 117. Second grade, 25. 

Number of certificates granted to male teach- 
ers, 19. To female teachers, 43. 

Number of certificates renewed, 18. Number 
of applicants rejected, 60. 

Number of schools maintained less than six 



VJl 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 



months, 1. Number maintaining schools six 
months or over and less than eight months, 54. 

Number of districts maintaining schools eight 
months and over, 65. 

Number of teachers who attend county in- 
stitutes, 153. 

Number of teachers who subscribe for edu- 
cational journals, 135. 

Salary of county superintendent, $1,800. 

Number of schools visited, 128. Number 
not visited, 34. 

Rate of school tax levied in 1890, 25 cents. 

County assessment roll of taxable property 
for 1890, $21,740,817. 

Number of private schools in county, 2, em- 
ploying two teachers. Number of children 
attending private schools, 92. 

Amount expended in construction of new 
schoolhouses during the year and purchasing 
sites, etc., $54,875.23. 

COUNTY OFFICIALS. 

Like most of the counties in the State, Tu- 
lare's records are imperfect in many respects as 
to the earlier events, elections, etc. We have 
gathered from all sources the officials to date as 
nearly as possible. The two first elections are 
given under the head of County Organization, 
and other election data will be found under head 
of Miscellaneous Items of Early Times. 

The records show that in September, 1854 > 
the Board of Supervisors were: Warren Math- 
ews, A. H. Murray and Loomis St. John. 
Mathews was Chairman of the Board. John 
Cutler was County Judge. Records do not 
show result of elections from 1854 to 1857 in- 
clusive. 

Elected in September, 1858: Robert C. Redd, 
County Judge. 

At the September election in 1859 William 
Boring was elected County Judge; S. C. Brown, 
District Attorney; John C. Reid, Sheriff; Ewen 
Johnson, Treasurer; H. C. Townsend, Public 
Administrator; J. D. P. Thompson Coroner, 
ami ( ). K. Smith, Superintendent of Schools. 

At the meeting of the Board of Supervisors 



February 4, 1861, there were present: Robert 
K. Nichols and H. W. Niles. 

Elected in September, 1861: James C. Pem- 
berton, Assemblyman; Samuel W. Becker, Dis- 
trict Attorney; William C. Owen, Sheriff; E. 
E. Calhoun, County Clerk; Louis Bequette, 
County Recorder; John C. Reid, County Treas- 
urer; R. B. Sagely, County Assessor; M. G. 
Davenport, Public Administrator; B. W. Tay- 
lor, Superintendent of Schools; J. D. P Thomp- 
son, Coroner; J. E. Scott, County Surveyor; 
Pleasant Byrd, Supervisor of the Third District, 
and R. K. Nichols, Supervisor of the Second 
District. 

Election in September, 1862: J. W. Free- 
man, Assemblyman; T. O. Ellis, Superintend- 
ent of Schools; H. A. Bpstwick, Public Admin- 
istrator; W. A. Russell, Coroner; A. M. Don- 
nelson, Supervisor District No. 1. 

At the general election in September, 1863: 
J. C. Brown, State Assemblyman; S. A. Shep- 
pard, District Attorney; John M. Meadows, 
Sheriff; F. J. Shackelford, Recorder; J. T. 
Holmes, Clerk; E. H. Dumble, Assessor; T. T. 
Hathaway, Treasurer; J. E. Scott, Surveyor; 
W. A. Russell, Coroner, and M. S. Merrill, 
Superintendent of Schools. 

J. W. Freeman was State Senator from the 
district of which Tulare County was a part. At 
this time politics was warm in the county, and 
it is said that H. N. Carroll, who ran against 
Baker for County Judge, and Meadows, who 
was pitted against Gill for Sheriti, were both 
really elected. Both were warm sympathizers 
with the South and had been free in expressing 
themselves, incurring the ill-will of the soldiery 
and more loyal citizens, and Meadows declined 
to qualify as sheriff, fearing violence, and John 
Gill, his opponent, was confirmed sheriff and 
filled the position. The courts decided in favor 
of Nathan Baker against Carroll, and Baker was 
made County Judge. A. J. Atwell was ap- 
pointed, by the Board of Supervisors, County 
Superintendent of Schools, in December, 1863. 

General election, 1865: J. W. Freeman, State 
Senator; J. C. Brown, State Vssemlilyman ; T. 



Hi STORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



195 



Reed, County Sheriff; S. A. Sheppard, District 
Attorney; T. J. Shackelford, Recorder; John 
G. Knox, Clerk; J. E. Scott, Treasurer; M. S. 
Merrill, Superintendent Schools; A. H. Glass- 
cock, Assessor; Hamilton, Coroner; Joshua 

Lewis, Surveyor, and — — - Jordan, Supervisor 
of District No. 1. 

Elected in September, 1867: J. C. Brown, 
Assemblyman; W. F. Thomas, Sheriff; A. J. 
Atwell, District Attorney; T. J. Shackelford, 
County Clerk; J. E. Scott, County Treasurer; 
T. H. Hawkins, County Assessor; W.Williams, 
Superintendent of Schools; J. M. Johnson, Sur- 
veyor; Joseph Lively, Coroner, and W. F. 
Markham, Supervisor of District. No. 2. 

Elected in September, 1869: S. A. Sheppard, 
County Judge; R. C. Redd, District Attorney; 
W. F. Thomas, County Clerk, and A. H.Glass- 
cock, County Sheriff. 

Elected in September, 1871: A. C. Bradford, 
District Judge; S. A. Sheppard, County Judge; 
A. J. Atwell, District Attorney; A. H. Glass- 
cock, Sheriff and Tax Collector; W. F. Thomas, 
County Clerk; Pleasant By rd, Treasurer; F. G. 
Jefferds, Assessor; George Smith, Surveyor; S. 
G. Creighton, Superintendent of Schools; D. L. 
Pickett, Coroner and Public Administrator; 
and Board of Supervisors: James Barton, 
W. C. Owens, David Strong and C. R. Wing- 
field. 

Elected in September, 1873: W. Canfield, 
Assemblyman; C. R. Wingfield, Sheriff; J. E. 
Denny, County Clerk; John W. Crowley, 
County Treasurer; R. P. Merrill, County Su- 
perintendent of Schools; George W. Smith, 
County Surveyor; George S. Palmer, District 
Attorney; F. G. Jefferds, Assessor; R. P. Mar- 
tin, Coroner, and W. C. Owen, Supervisor of 
District No. 3. 

Elected in September, 1874: Alexander 
Dearing, District Judge; John Clark, County 
Judge; C. R. Wingfield, Sheriff; J. E. Denny, 
County Clerk; W. W. Cross, District Attorney ; 
J. W. Crowley, Treasurer; F. G. Jefferd, As- 
sessor; G. W. Smith, Surveyor; R. P. Merrill, 
Superintendent of Schools; and Board of Super- 



visors: James Barton, W. C. Owens, and F. H. 
Baker. 

Elected in September, 1875: C. R. Wing- 
field, Sheriff; J. E. Denny, Recorder; J. W. 
Crowley, Treasurer; J. S. McGahey, Clerk; W. 
W. Cross, District Attorney; F. G. Jefferd, 
Assessor; T. J. Vivian, Surveyor; R. P. Merrill, 
Superintendent of Schools; J. M. Montgomery, 
Road Commissioner; W. A. Russell, Coroner; 
and Samuel Hunting, Supervisor of District 
No. 2. 

General election in the fall of 1877: J. C. 
Campbell, Sheriff; John G. Knox, Clerk; E. J. 
Edwards, District Attorney; Philip Wagy, 
Treasurer; C. S. O'Bannon, Recorder; W. P. 
Kirkland, Auditor; Seth Smith, Surveyor; L. D. 
Murphy, Coroner; and J. H. Grimsley, Super- 
visor of District No. 1. 

T. Osborn was elected Supervisor District 
No. 2, in 1878. 

General election, 1879: W. W. Cross, Super- 
ior Judge; H. A. Keener, County Treasurer; 
John G. Knot, County Clerk; J. F. Gordan, 
County Auditor; M. J. Wells, County Sheriff; 
E. J. Edwards, District Attorney; C. S. O'Ban- 
non, Recorder; F. G. Jefferd, Assessor; Seth 
Smith, Surveyor; W. J. Ellis, Superintendent of 
Schools; L. M. Lovelace, Coroner; and J. H. 
Shore, Supervisor of District No. 2. 

General election, 1882: P. Redely, State 
Senator; W. L. Martin,* State Assemblyman; 
W. C. Coughran, County Treasurer; L. Gilroy, 
County Clerk; John F. Jordan, County Audi- 
tor; William F. Martin, County Sheriff; O. 
Sanders, District Attorney; J. E. Denny, Re- 
corder; Seth Smith, Assessor; Thomas Creigh- 
ton, Surveyor; C. H. Murphy, Superintendent 
of Schools; L. M. Lovelace, Coroner; and Board 
of Supervisors: S. M. Gilliam, W. H. Ham- 
mond, J. W. C. Pogue, 0. Talbot and S. E. 
Biddle. 

General election, 1884: E. De Witt, As- 
semblyman; W. W. Cross, Superior Judge; W. 



* Martin died while the Legislature was in session, and 
A. J. Atwell was elected to fill the unexpired term. 



196 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



B. Wallace, District Attorney; L. Gilroy, 
County Clerk; A. Balaam, Sheriff and Tax Col- 
lector; W. F.Thomas, Recorder; W. W. Cough- 
ran, Treasurer; Ben. Parker, Auditor; Thomas 
Creighton, Surveyor; T. W. Pendergrass, Coro- 
ner; and Board of Supervisors: T. E. Hender- 
son, M. Premo, J. W. C. Pogue, D. "V. Robin- 
son and G. E. Shore. 

General election, 1886: Tipton Lindsey, State 
Senator; A. B. Butler, Assemblyman; C. G. 
Lamberson, District Attorney; George D. Parker, 
Sheriff; L. Gilroy, Clerk; W. F. Thomas, Re- 
corder; Seth Smith, Assessor; C. R. Wingh'eld, 
Treasurer; C. H. Murphy, Superintendent of 
Schools; Dan G. Overall, Auditor; T. W. Pen- 
dergrass, Coroner; and J. S. Qrton, Surveyor. 

General election, 1888: John Roth, State 
Senator; G. Stockton Berry, Assemblyman; W. 
W. Cross, Superior Judge; John G. Knox, 
County Clerk; Duke S. Lipscomb, Treasurer; 
J. M. Johnston, Recorder; Dan G. Overall, 
Sheriff; W. R. Jacobs, District Attorney; Seth 
Smith, Assessor; C. H. Murphy, Superintend- 
ent of Schools; C. T. Buckman, Auditor; T.W. 
Pendergrass, Coroner; A. T. Fowler, Surveyor; 
and Board of Supervisors: D. V. Robinson, 
Thomas E. Henderson, James Barton, John H. 
Woody, and J. B. Newport. 

General election, 1890: G. Stockton Berry, 
State Senator; W. S. Cunningham, Assembly- 
man; W. W. Cross, Superior Judge; E. W. 
Kay, Sheriff; John G. Knox, Clerk; D. F. Cof- 
fee, Assessor; Duke S. Lipscomb, Treasurer; M. 
E. Power, District Attorney; C. F. Buckman, 
Auditor: C. E. Evans, Recorder; T. W. Pender- 
grass, Coroner; Samuel A. Crookshank, Super- 
intendent of Schools; A. T. Fowler, Surveyor; 
S. L. N. Ellis, Supervisor District No. 4, and J. 
H. Fox, Supervisor District No. 5. 

A. Wheaton Gray was appointed Judge of the 
Supreme Court of the county in 1891, under an 
act of the Legislature allowing an additional judge 
for the county. 

TRAIN ROBBERS. 

The southern portion of the county has been 
sorely afflicted in the past by train robbers. 



These bands have not been citizens of the 
county, but have made the rather isolated re- 
gion from Goshen to Alila, seeming to give 
the highwaymen better opportunity to secure 
their plunder and escape to the mountains be- 
fore any organized pursuit could be made. 

The first train " held up " in the county was 
at Pixley, on the evening of February 22, 
1889. The next successful effort was at or near 
Goshen, on the morning of January 21, 1890. 
In the first case two men were killed, and at 
Goshen a tramp was shot in the face and lost 
an eye. The last attempt to rob a train occurred 
on Friday evening, February 6, 1891, near 
Alila about 8 o'clock, in which George Rad- 
liff, a fireman, was shot; he died the following 
morning. Suspicion strongly pointed to the 
Dalton brothers, some of whom reside in San 
Luis Obispo County. Other brothers from 
Oklahoma were known to be at the time visit- 
ing these brothers. Sheriff E. W. Kay arrested 
William and G rattan Dalton, and circum- 
stantial evidence whs strong enough to jus- 
tify the grand jury in finding a bill against 
them. 

The sheriff then went to Oklahoma in search 
for the other two brothers (supposed accom- 
plices), Robert and Emmett Dalton. 

The officers did not succeed in capturing 
the outlaws. The two arrested were brought 
to trial, and Grattan Dalton was found guilty 
and sentenced to a term of years in the peni- 
tentiary. No proof being produced that Will- 
iam was a direct accomplice, he escaped the 
penalty of the law. This it is believed will 
put a final end to these robberies. 

A BRAVE DEED. 

Conrad Alles, a young man seventeen years 
of age, is the hero of the day in the vicinity 
of Three Rivers. One morning in 1890 he 
took his rifle and thought that he would kill a 
deer for breakfast. He had gone about a mile 
from home when he noticed that his dog was 
acting queer and smelling along a track of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



197 



some kind. Knowing from the dog's actions 
that it was not a deer, he hissed him onward, 
and in glancing around spied a large animal of 
some kind across the river from him. The dogs 
discovered it about the same time and away 
they went. They soon treed the animal and 
when Conrad came up to about fifty yards he 
saw the creature standing on the limb of a 
large oak. It proved to be a good-sized Cali- 
fornia lion. Undaunted by this discovery he 
took rest off" of the side of a tree and shot. 
The beast tumbled out into a hollow place, where, 
to get sight of it, Conrad had to surmount a 
rock near where the lion Jell. He did so, and 
as soon as the wounded lion saw him it made a 
spring for the lad. He shot unerringly, as the 
beast fell dead at his feet. 

It was a courageous deed for a boy, for in or- 
der to get to the lion he had to crawl through 
thick brush for a long distance and had only a 
narrow opening to maneuver in after he got 
there. The lion measured six and one quarter 
feet from tip to tip. 



MEXICAN WAR VETERANS REPRESENTING TULARE 
COUNTY. 

Daniel Rhoades and wife arrived in 1846. 
Mr. Rhoades was one of the relief party of seven 
who first reached the ill-fated Donner party. 
Mrs. Mary A. Clark, w>.e Graves, arrived in 1846. 
She was one of the seven first rescued members of 
the Donner party who arrived at Johnson's ranch. 

George W. Williams arrived in 1846. He 
was a member of the " Bear Flag " party, and 
gave his red shirt to make the border of the 
original bear flag. C. Bur»ell arrived in 1846. 

A. C. Neill, Green B. Catron, John A. Pat- 
terson, A. J. Lafever and wife, John Cutler, W. 
D. James, John B. Hockett and wife, C. Van 
Loan, Joshua Lewis, John A. Hart, R. L. Free- 
man, Samuel Fowler, A. Tyner, J. Richardson, 
R. C. Redd, Dr. F. A. Combs, Dr. D. Ray, J . T. 
Clark, T. Lindsey, W. B. Wallace and C. H. 
Smith arrived in 1849. 

John B. Hamilton, L. B. Ruggles, Charles 
Rose, George W. Smith, J. B. Zumwalt and 
Daniel Wood arrived in 1850. 




198 



IIISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 





"SSP: 



tMdjddd Sf'P'r' BSSS.: 



"6 







ISALIA, the county seat of Tulare 
County, is a charming little city of 3,000 
inhabitants, pleasantly located at an 
elevation of 300 feet above sea level, and in the 
midst of a magnificent oak grove so extensive 
that it is entitled to be called a forest. 

The first settlement was made here early in 
the " fifties," and the first schoolhouse and 
newspaper were established at a time when 
houses of learning and weekly journals were 
few and far between in California. 

The town has always been the most import- 
ant in Tulare County — and, in fact, in the 
southern San Joaquin valley and mountain re- 
gions surrounding. The United States land of- 
fice for the Visalia district is located in this 
city. The Southern Pacific company also have 
here an agency for the sale of their lands in 
this and adjoining counties. There are some 
attractive public buildings, among which are a 
splendid courthouse, a fine schoolhouse, which 
cost $30,000, and the Armory hall. The city 
has two engine houses, which are also fitted up 
for the meetings of the city council and for the 
city court. 

Handsome private residences are numerous, 
many of them being surrounded by green lawns 
and by a wealth of shrubbery and flowers. Shade 
trees of all kinds are numerous, and many of 
the streets are lined with them. 

Visalia is one of the most beautiful of all 



the beautiful towns of the State, a village amid 
trees, through which runs a river, and on the 
banks of this the vegetation is semi tropical; 
a city of health and beauty, a village whose 
streets are thronged with business, and in the 
suburbs of this are vine-covered trees, em- 
bowered cottage homes, and homes of greater 
pretensions and architectural attractions; a vil- 
lage surrounded by the best and best improved 
lands of Tulare County. 

The valley or plain in which Visalia is situ- 
ated is practically level. The foothills of the 
Sierra Nevada are about twelve miles distant, 
but on a clear, cool winter day, seem to be 
scarcely more than a mile or two away. The 
Kaweah river enters the broad plain east of 
Visalia, and dividing into four branches, forms 
a delta, which was known in earlier days as the 
" Four Creeks country." The view of the 
great oak forest, with its many openings, and 
of the grand old Sierra, reaching an altitude of 
15,000 feet, never loses its charms. 

The soil in the Kaweah delta is as rich as 
the best in the State, and pro luces abundantly. 
Alfalfa grows luxuriantly, and vegetables of all 
kinds yield remarkable returns to the gardener. 
Two crops of potatoes are taken from the 
ground each year, and the total yield is enor- 
mous, while the quality of the product ranks 
with the best the State produces. The rasion 
was at one time subject to overflow, ami the sue- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



199 



cessive deposits made through a long series of 
years have formed a soil that is fertile in the 
extreme and will not require renewing for many 
years. 

All of the land in the vicinity of Vis'alia is 
abundantly supplied with water for irrigation, 
©r so situated that water can be furnished to it 
when needed, from an unfailing supply. The 
Kaweah river, from which the several large irri- 
gating canals are diverted, has a drainage area 
of 600 square miles. The maximum amount 
of water discharged into the valley by tbis 
stream, — that is, during the winter season and 
the "snow rise" in the spring, — is 6,840 cubic 
feet per second. The mean rate of discharge is 
627 cubic feet; and the average during the ir- 
rigating season is about 1,800 cubic feet per 
second, or "second feet," enough to irrigate, by 
the wasteful methods employed in the San Joa- 
quin valley, an area of 288,000 acres. The 
same amount of water, if used as economically 
as in the fruit districts of Southern California, 
would irrigate 500,000 to 700,000 acres. So it 
will readily be seen that the supply of water for 
irrigation is amply sufficient. The means of 
conducting it to the lands in the vicinity of Vis- 
alia are also ample. 

The canals that supply the country about 
Visalia were among the first constructed in 
Tulare County, and, being the "first appropri- 
ators," the waters of the river cannot be so 
diverted as to deprive them of the portion to 
which they are entitled. There is no litigation 
over the rights of these canals to the water they 
carry, and as the supply is more than sufficient, 
the owners of land have -no occasion to fear an 
insufficient quantity in any year. In nearly 
every case where land is for sale water rights go 
with it, thus insuring the permanence of the 
amount necessary for irrigation. The land re- 
quires very little artificial application of moisture, 
owing to the fact that it has been irrigated regu- 
larly for a long term of years. The surface water 
isencounteredatadepth of onlyeight to fourteen 
feet, and fruit trees and vines, after being once 
• well started, need little or no further irrigation. 



Visalia derived its name from Nat. Vise, a 
hunter who settled where the town now is in 
1852. A store was kept in the place by Nathan 
Baker in 1854. A man named Turner carried 
on a blacksmith shop about the same time. 
John P. Majors kept a boarding-house, and 
there was one saloon in the place. A corral, or 
fort, was made by setting timber in the ground 
which stood about nine feet high. Inside this 
enclosure were several cabins, into which the 
few citizens could seek shelter in case an attack 
was made by the Indians, who were sometimes 
troublesome. Sometimes for weeks people had 
to subsist on grain ground in coffee mills. Two 
grist mills were erected in 185^, — one by Phil. 
Wagy, the other by Dr. Mathew3 and Bro. 

Visalia was settled by an excellent class of 
pioneers, and she can well boast of her excellent 
citizens of to-day. The morals of the city are 
good, and her citizens are courteous and 
hospitable. There are few manufacturing in- 
dustries as yet to employ labor, but several are 
contemplated in the near future. Many labor- 
ers who reside in the city find steady employ- 
ment during summer in the lumber regions in 
the mountains near by. There are a fine flour 
mill, and a large creamery in operation here, 
and a large canning factory will soon be in 
operation. There is a railroad from the city to 
Goshen, on the main line of the Southern Pa- 
cific, seven miles west. Also a motor road, 
eleven and one-half miles, to Tulare City, on the 
Southern Pacific. The latter road was built 
and is operated by private capital, the parties 
residing in Visalia and Tulare city. The com- 
pany was organized in 1887. Jasper Harrell is 
President; J. Goldman, Vice-President; A. J. 
Harrell, General Superintendent; and T. H. 
Thompson, General Passenger Agent. Cost of 
construction and equipment, $114,817. 

Visalia is an incorporated city. The council 
is elected by the people, and they elect from 
their number a mayor. All violations of city 
ordinances are tried before the city recorder, 
who is ex officio justice of the peace. 

The city officers for 1890 were; W. F. 



200 



IIISTUBT OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Thomas, Mayor; B. Greenbaum, George Berk- 
enhauer, S. Mitchell and W. W. Barnes, Counci- 
men; A. C. Neill, Eecorder; E. A. Gilliam, 
Marshal; C. J. GiddiDgs, Treasurer; John T. 
Brown, Assessor; W. W. Wallace, School 
Superintendent; N. O. Bradley, T. W. Pender- 
grass and 1. T. Bell, School Directors. The 
council employ one city watchman. 

FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

The beginning of the agitation of some 
method of protection from tire was by the 
Delta of May 19, 1869. On June 29 of that 
year the Eureka Fire Company was organized. 
The first officers were: Foreman, 0. L. Thomas; 
First Assistant, CM. Vallee: Second Assistant, 
E. Wing; Secretary, W. H. Clarke; Treasurer. 
J. A. Samstag; Finance Committee, C. C. 
Strong, John Beard and R. H. Shearer. The 
citizens subscribed liberally for equipping the 
company. 

The first engine was purchased at Marysville, 
where it had been in use, of the Button and 
Blake make, the best made at that time. The 
price paid for engine, cart and 650 feet of hose, 
was $1,000. 

The department to-day is equipped with a 
Silsby engine, a hook and ladder truck, and two 
hose reels. The department is divided into 
four companies, with proper officers. The en- 
gine-house is a substantial brick structure, 
constructed especially for convenience, and rapid 
manoeuvering when the alarm of fire is sounded. 
There is also an electric fire-alarm system. In 
fact, with the ample supply of water, and the 
conveniences at hand, no large city is better 
prepared successfully to battle with tire than is 
Visalia. 

The officers of the department are: Chief 
Engineer, Thomas Hall; First Assistant Engi- 
neer, Harry Levison; Second Assistant Engineer, 
Michael Togni; President, E. M. Jefferds; 
Vice-President, I. H. Thomas; Secretary, Fred 
W. Ward ; and Treasurer, Fred Kern. 

The religious denominations are well repre- 
sented,— Catholic, Christian, Methodist, South 



Methodist, Presbyterian, Cumberland Presby- 
terian, Episcopal and Baptist. 

Of the Methodist Church, South, the pastors 
have been : T. A. Adkinson, 1875; F. M. Staton, 
1876 ; S. A. Whipple, 1877 ; P. F. Page, 1878-'79 ; 
M. J. Gough, 1880; P. F. Page, 1881; J. C. 
Harris, 1882; J. W. Folsom, 1883-84; A. R. 
Reams, 1885-'86: A. P. Few, 1886-'89; and B. 
F. Burris, 1890. 

NEWSPAPERS. 

The Weekly Visalia Delta was the first paper 
published in Tulare County, and was first is- 
sued October 8, 1859, by John Shannon and C. 
Kliner. Shannon was the editor, and soon ob- 
tained a good circulation for the paper, and very 
soon became sole proprietor. Although a 
Southerner he hesitated for a time to support 
Breckenridge. He got into trouble with one 
William Gouverneur Morris, then a citizen of 
Visalia, which resulted in the killing of Shan- 
non by Morris. For a short time after his 
death the paper was edited by L. O. Sterns. 
The paper soon passed into the hands of Law- 
rence and Holmes: L. A. Holmes, editor and 
proprietor. 

The Post and Sun was started in 1861, and 
Holmes was its editor. This paper was merged 
with the Delta when Holmes became its owner, 
October 24, 1861. H. G. McLean purchased 
an interest in the paper, and the firm name be- 
came Holmes & Co.: L. A. Holmes, editor. 
September 8, 1862, Holmes died and McLean 
became editor. James Lawrence had been fill- 
ing the editorial chair for some time during the 
sickness of Holmes. 

The history of the secession sheet started by 
Garrison and Hall in 1862, called the Equal 
Rights Expositor, which was destroyed by a 
mob, is given elsewhere. Hall was known the 
State over as "Long Primer Hall." 

October 15, 1863, H. G. McLean became 
editor and proprietor of the Delta. L. W. Ran- 
som became editor in April, 1864, and also 
publisher in May following. March 1, 1865, 
the firm name was E. R. Ransom & Co., namely,- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



301 



Elijah R. & W. L. Ransom, sons of L. W. Ran- 
som, who continued as editor. May 1, 1865, H. 
M. Briggs was admitted as a member of the firm ; 
in December, 1866, Briggs became sole pro- 
prietor, and in May, 1867, Briggs and Charles 
W. Bowman. September, 1869, H. M. Briggs 
was again sole proprietor, and in February, 
1871, E. M. Dewey became proprietor and edi- 
tor, and in 1874 sold to the Delta Publishing 
Company. The firm were E. M. Dewey, 
Stephen Barton and Green Majors. In Janu- 
ary, 1875, J. A. Ford became a partner, and in 
September of that year Dewey and Ford were 
the "Co." In October Dewey became sole 
proprietor. March 8, 1878, George W. Stewart, 
present editor, began as local editor of the 
Delta. March 14, 1879, Walker and Barnes 
became proprietors of the paper (F. J. Walker 
and W. W. Barnes). The latter withdrew from 
the firm in June, 1883. April, 1884, the firm 
were Walker & Griswold, and in June, 1884, 
Walker became sole proprietor. August, 1884, 
the paper passed into the hands of J. 0. Blake- 
ly. E. H. Wilcomb became an associate owner 
in January, 1886, under the name of J. O. 
Blakely & Co. Prior to this date George W. 
Stewart had edited the paper, and at this time 
became an interested partner. June 2, 1887, 
the paper passed into the hands of the Delta 
Publishing Company, who were George W. 
Stewart, Joseph M. Oat and J. J. McMillan. 
January 1, 1888, Mr. Oat sold his interest to 
Mr. Stewart, who with Mr. McMillan continues 
the paper, under the name of the Delta Publish- 
ing Company: George W. Stewart, editor and 
business manager. 

The Delta has a complete file of papers from 
the first issue, the oldest paper in the lower San 
Joaquin valley. 

The Delta office was destroyed by fire on 
Friday night, July 31, 1891, and the pub- 
lishers sustained a loss of $7,000, partly covered 
by insurance. Fortunately their valuable files 
were saved. The Times extended a cordial in- 
vitation to the Delta to make their office head- 
quarters until new quarters could be secured, 

13 



and the Delta was issued from the Times office 
on regular time. This is proper fraternity. 
Ben Maddox has a large heart, and George 
Stewart would do likewise under like circum- 
stances. 

GEORGE W. STEWART 

was born near Placerville, California, April 29, 
1857; attended public school in El Dorado and 
Santa Cruz counties until the tall of 1872, when 
at the age of fifteen years he removed with his 
folks to Tulare County. He first wrote for the 
Delta in June, 1876. Occasionally he contrib- 
uted to the San Francisco Bulletin.. Was first 
connected with the Delta as local editor March 
4, 1878, and continued to April 27, 1880. In 
May of that year he was engaged on the Min- 
ing and Scientific Press in San Francisco as 
associate editor. In September, same year, he 
went to the Hawaiian Islands. In November 
was employed as local editor of the Honolulu 
Saturday Press. A year later he became editor, 
and remained till February, 1883; he assisted 
each year while there in preparation of the 
Hawaiian Annual. He contributed to a num- 
ber of publications in Honolulu and elsewhere. 

Returning to California in February, 1883, 
for several months he was engaged in literary 
work at home, and occasionally assisted in the 
editorial department of the Delta. In 1885 he 
was in Arizona several months. Returned to 
the Deltaixi October. 1885, and in the following 
February became interested in the paper as one 
of the firm of J. O. Blakely & Co. June 1, 
1887, the office became the property of the 
Delta Publishing Co. (George W. Stewart, 
Joseph M. Oat and J. J. McMillan). Jan- 
uary 1, 1888, he purchased Mr. Oat's interest, 
and is still editor and business manager. From 
March, 1886, to February, 1888, he was editor of 
the Sari, Joaquin Valley Resources, issued 
monthly by the Delta Publishing Company. 
During 1887 the Goshen Herald, a small 
weekly, was printed in the Delta office for the 
publishers, and for a few months he did the 
editorial work on that paper. 

Mr. Stewart has contributed to more than 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



forty publications in different parts of the 
world, — among others, Harpers' Weekly, 
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, London 
(graphic, < 'urrent (Chicago). Overland Monthly, 
Golden Era, Argonaut, Hawaiian Annual, 
etc., and has written a number of volumes on 
different matters. He has also written for the 
Delta regularly since 1876, and has been local 
or managing editor a total of about nine years. 
He was employed by E. M. Dewey, Walker & 
Barnes, Walker & Co.,Walker & Griswold, F. J. 
Walker, J. O. Blakely and Blakely & Wilcomb, 
before becoming interested in the paper as a 
publisher. 

Mr. J. J. McMillan, joint owner of the Delta 
and secretary of Visalia's Board of Trade, is an 
obliging gentleman; he has an estimable wife 
and one child, a son. Mr. McMillan is an en- 
ergetic, capable newspaper man, and superin- 
tends the press department. He takes an active 
interest in all matters tending to advance the 
interests of Visalia and Tulare counties. He 
was born in Selina, Alabama, October, 1865; was 
reared in Tennessee; entered a printing office at 
the age of sixteen years; came to Los Angeles 
in 1875, and became associate owner of the Delta 
in 1887. He was married to Sarah E. Haines, of 
Los Angeles, in 1889, a daughter of R. R. Haines, 
manager of the Postal Telegraph Company. 

Tulare County Times. This paper was es- 
tablished it) Visalia in November, 1864, by W. 
C. Russell, and passed into the hands of R. H. 
Shearrer and D. M. Adams in 1868, then a six- 
column quarto. It was conducted by Matlick 
and Butz in 1876. and by Butz Bros, in 1877. 
The paper was owned and published by various 
firms and individuals during its long career. 
Matlick & Stroke, E. D. Edwards, A. J. Atwell, 
Given & Patrick. Patrick sold to the present 
proprietor, Ben M. Maddox. 

The Times has always been, as it is now. a 
wide-awake, newsy paper, and, like the Delta, 
has been a prime factor in developing the re- 
sources of the county. The two papers arc in 
opposition politically, but their rivalry is cor- 
dial and friendly, and is advantageous to the 



proprietors of the papers as well as to their 
patrons, as it stimulates each to keep their 
paper in the fore- front of progress. They are 
two of the best inland papers in the State, 
through the energy of the proprietors, aided by 
their able lieutenants. The circulation of each 
is kept nearly the same. 

Ben M. Maddox, present owner and editor of 
the Times, was born in Summerville, Chattooga 
County, Georgia, October 18, 1859. His an- 
cestry were from Virginia, and of English 
origin. His father is a prominent physician. 
His brother, John W. Maddox, is Judge of the 
Circuit Court at Rome, Georgia. Ben M. Mad- 
dox was educated at private schools in his na- 
tive county. He had a desire for the printing 
business at an early age, and at the age of 
twelve years engaged as an apprentice in the 
office of the first paper published in his native 
town. This was opposed by his father, who 
removed him and put him to studying medicine, 
which was not in accord with young Ben's bent 
of mind. He accordingly left his native State 
in 1877, and spent several months in Texas. 
Thence he went to Arizona, where he worked 
several months in the mines. From there he 
crossed the mountains into California aud first 
located at Bodie. where he again engaged in a 
newspaper office, and soon thereafter engaged 
with the Mammoth City Tines. Mono County, 
where he completed his tradeasa newspaperman. 
He published the Herald at Mariposa from 
1882 to 1886. In October, 1886, without solicit- 
ation on his part, he was appointed Chief Dep- 
uty Clerk of the State Supreme Court. This 
position he filleduntil January 5, 1891. Antici- 
pating a change in his business, he purchased 
the Times in November, 1890. Since he has 
taken control of the paper it has made wonder- 
ful improvements, and he spares neither time 
nor money to make the paper second to none in 
the State. 

Mr. Maddox was married March 15, 1883, at 
Mariposa. California, to Miss Evalina Farns- 
worth, daughter of Calvin Eldridge an Ann 
[sabel Farnsworth, and their children are: 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



20-J 



Morley Moyers, aged seven years; Hazel Claire, 
six years ; and Ruth Evalina, two years. 

W. W. Barnes, local editor of the Times, is 
one of the wide-awake newspaper men of the 
San Joaquin valley. Born in Kenton County, 
Ohio, May 31, 1837, and reared in Boone Coun- 
ty, Kentucky, he learned the printing business 
in the office of the Commercial, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
He located in California in 1855, and first 
worked for the Oroville Mercury, later at Marys- 
ville, and was with the Sacramento Union when 
the overland telegraph line was completed, and 
set up a portion of the first message sent over 
that line. He spent several years with the 
papers in Stockton, where he was for a time as- 
sociated with the Republican, also with the 
Independent. He worked on the Visalia 
Delta in 1859, and later became part owner of 
that paper. He is one of the most energetic 
news-gatherers in the State. The citizens of 
Tulare County are fortunate that he has cast his 
lot among them. He has served Visalia faith- 
fully as a councilman, and is active in pushing 
improvements, conducive to the health and 
beauty of the city. 

Visalia has three solid banking institutions, 
and a number of as fine, well-stocked general 
stores as are to be found in any inland town in 
the State. She has also a well organized, active 
board of trade, the United States Land office, 
and the office of the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company for the sale of their lands. 

THE SEASON'S RAINFALL. 

Below we give the rainfall for the season of 
1889 and 1890, which has just closed. It is an 
interesting record of the wettest season ever ex- 
perienced in the history of this State. The 
figures are from the carefully -kept daily weather 
memoranda of L. V. Nanscawen, and are in 
hundredths of an inch. 



1889— 




1890— 




Oct. 7 


74 




70 


17 


16 


4 


11 


20 


37 


10 


.. .. 03 


21 


.... 54 


12 


17 


23 


2 11 


17 


33 



1889— 




1890— 




26 


16 


18 

21 

27 


33 


Nov.18 


20 


03 


19 


06K 


1 64 


22 


13M 


Feb. 16 


41 


29 


22 


17 


35 


30 


04 


21 


22 


Dec. 1 


27 

05 


22 


08 


3 


23 


02 


6 


23 


27 


04 


8 


21 


43 


11 


20 


8 


10 


12 


17 


18 


07 


13 


06 


19 


15 


14 


12 


26 


20 


15 


07 


30 


15 


16 


01 


Apr. 18 


17 


17 


12 


19 


08 


18 .. .... 


09 


May 6 

7 


29 


20 


07 


16 


22 


20 
11 


8 


01 


23 






24 


70 


Total 


14 23 


25 


10 






26 


28 






30 


15 













The average rainfall for the county for 1888 
was 9.405 inches; for 1889, 14.18; and for 
1890, 9.87. 

SOCIETIES. 

Visalia Lodge, No. 128, F. and A. M., was 
organized December 19, 1857. Officers: E. F. 
Storey, W. M.; J. N. Thomas, S. W.; A. H. 
Clark, J. W. ; N. B. Johnson, Treasurer; and 
Thomas Baker, Secretary. There were twenty- 
two charter members. Present Officers: E. H. 
Miles, W. M.; F. A. Combs, S. W.; M. A. Cal- 
houn, J. W.; J. E. Denny, Treasurer; D. A. 
Anderson, Secretary. Present membership, 100. 

Visalia Chapter, No. 44, R. A. M., was organ- 
ized February 19, 1871, with the following 
officers: C. C. Strong, H. P.; R. C. Broder, K.; 
B. G. Parker, S.; A. H. Murray, Sr., Treasurer; 
and M. Baker, Secretary. Members at first, 
ten. The following are the present officers: 
W. B. Wallace, H. P.; C. Hansel), K.; E. Mc- 
D. Graham, S. ; J. E. Denny, Treasurer; and 
D. O. Anderson, Secretary. Present member- 
ship, sixty-two. 

Visalia Commandery, No. 26, K. T., was 
organized November 24, 1885, with these offi- 
cers: R. C. Broder, E. O; J. C. Ward, G.; 
Thomas Rockford, C. G. ; John Tuohy, P. ; J. E. 
Denny, T.: and J. E. Denny, R. The number 
of members at first was fifteen. Present offi- 



304 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



cers: J. C. Ward, E. C; A. P. Hall, G.; E. H. 
Miles, C. G.; John Tuohy, P.; A. H. Glasscock, 
T. ; and J. E. Denny, P. Present number of 
members, thirty- eight. 

The Order of Chosen Friends was organized 
at Visalia June 10, 1881, with twenty-four 
charter members, and these officers: Chief Coun- 
selor, W. A. Ward; Vice Counselor, J .W. Oaks; 
Recorder, Julius Levy; Financier, F. A. Web- 
ster; Treasurer, C. Harriott; Medical Examiner, 

A. E. Hall; Prelate, R. Chatten; Marshal, J. B. 
O'Connor; Warden, A. Balaam; Guard, S. Hen- 
derson; and Sentry, E. F. Warren. The officers 
for 1891 are: Counselor, S Mitchell; Vice- 
Counselor, C. T. Lindsey; Secretary, Julius 
Levy; Treasurer, W. E. Wild; Prelate, Tipton 
Lindsey; Marshal, Mrs. M. Hunt; Warden, Mrs. 
R. Sorrels; Guard, J. D. Patrick; Sentry, Theo- 
dore Loventhal; and Medical Examiner, A. E. 
Hall. Present membership, 30, 

Four Creek Lodge. No. 94, I. O. O. F., was 
instituted at Visalia December 19, 1859, by 
Grand Master L. L. Alexander, assisted by Ju- 
lius Levy. The charter members were: John 

B. Hackett, John Thomas, John Shannon, L. O. 
Preston and Levi Lamb. The first officers 
were: H. A. McLane, N. G,; John Thomas, V. 
G.; John Shannon, Sec; M. Baker, Treas.; A. 
Kline, Warden; J. P. Dennison, Conductor; 
Levi Lamb, I. G.; J. B. Hackett, R. S. to N. 
G.; I. S. Clapp, L. S. to N. G.; L. O. Preston, 
R. S. S.; John Haupe, L. S. S.; Levi Mitchell, 
R. S. to V. G.; and Henry Rex, L. S. to V. G. 
The present officers are: J. C. Williams, N. G.; 

D. L. Clatfelter, V. G.; Julius Levy, Sec; S. 
Mitchell, Treas.; George T. Wing, Warden; C. 
Togni, G; E. O. Larkins, R. S. to N. G.; Geo. 
Berkenhauer, L. S. to V. G.; W. B. Wallace, K. 
S. S.; F. M. Nell, L. S. S. Present member- 
ship, ninety-three. 

Visalia Lodge, No. 79, A. O. U. W., organ- 
gauized February 4, 1879, with forty eight 
charter members. Present membership, 104. 
Present officers: J. J. McMillan, P. M. \\\; K. 

E. Johnston, M. W.; S. A. Crookshanks, Fore- 
man; Harry G. Stuart, Overseer; A. R. Orr, 



Recorder; E. M. Jefferds, Financier; C. J. Gid- 
dings, Receiver; It. P. Grant, Guide; J. D. Pat- 
rick, Inside Watchman; Frank Duran, Outside 
Watchman. 

General George Wright Post, No. Ill, G. A. 
R., was mustered in May 12, 1886, by Theodore 
Loventhal, Mustering Officer. First number of 
members, thirty; and first officers: Jacob L. 
L. Asay, Commander; II. White, Senior Vice- 
Commander; James O. Blakelj, Junior Vice- 
Commander; Claude J. Giddigs, Adjutant; 
John Edwards, Quartermaster; Wm. H. Harris, 
Surgeon; W. G. Pennebaker, Chaplain; Augus- 
tus Weishar, Officer of the Day; H. H. Denney, 
Officer of the Guard; and George Anderson, 
Sergeant Major. The officers for 1891 are: A. 
Weishar, Commander; D. M. Adams, Senior 
Vice Commander; D. M. Lacy, Junior Vice- 
Commander; D. P. Shippey, Chaplain; L. T. 
Holland, Surgeon; C. J. Giddings, Adjutant; 
A. T. Griffin, Officer of the Day; Fred. Spies, 
Officer of the Guard. 

There is also a strong, active W. R. C. in 
working with this post. 

Visalia is the headquarters of Company E, 
Sixth Infantry, California National Guards, who 
were mustered into service December 9. 1887. 
Captain, V. Nanscawen; 1st Lieutenant, Mathew 
J. Byrnes; 2nd Lieutenant. George W. Stewart. 
The present officers are: Captain, Mathew J. 
Byrnes; 1st Lieutenant, George W. Stewart; 
and 2nd Lieutenant, Charles S. Richardson. 

Visalia Parlor, No. 19, N. S. G. W.. was first 
instituted in September, 1883. The first offi- 
cers were: P. P., F. T. Kimball; P., George W. 
Stewart; 1st V. P., E. M. Jefferds; 2nd V. P., 
F. A. Warner; 3rd V. P., C. A. Spier; Rec 
Sec, A. Crowley; Fin. Sec, S. Mitchell; 
Treasurer, C. L. Johnson; Marshal, II. Levin- 
son; Trustees, W. II. Hammond, J. W. Baker 
and P. M. Narboe. Present officers: P. P., 
M. J. Pascoe; P.. Frank T.Kimball; 1st V. 
P., W. D. Wilcox; 2nd V. P.. F. M. Pease; 
3rd V. P., J. O.Thomas; Sec, S. Mitchell; In- 
side Sentinel, M. E. Power; Outside Sentinel, 
A. L. Harris; Treasurer, E. M. Jefferds; Mar- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



205 



shal, S. Levy; Surgeon, Dr. T. J. Patterson; 
Trustees, Geo. W. Stewart, Chas. T. Lindsey 
and Harry Levinson. 

There are several other social and fraternal 
societies, of which we could not procure data. 

TULARE COUNTY LEGAL LIGHTS. 

At Visalia — J. W. Freeman (deceased), Wm. 
G. Morris (deceased), Wm. Stafford (moved 
away), S. A. Sheppard (moved away), S. C. 

Brown, A. J. Atwell (deceased), Forsythe, 

George S. Palmer, 1ST. O. Bradley, Alfred Dag- 
gett, D. M. Adams, A.W Gray (now superior 
judge), C. G. Lamberson, O. Sanders, E. O. 

Larkins, Tipton Lindsey, J. H. Hannah, 

Farnsworth, T. M. McNamara (moved away), W. 
D. Grady (moved away), Judges Campbell and 
Sayle (moved away), F. L. B. Goodwin (moved 
away), and M. E. Power. 

At Tulare City— W. H. Alfred, E. L. Casper, 
Frank Taylor, Davis & Allen, and J. F. Boiler. 

At Lemoore — Justin Jacobs. 

At Porterville — Wilson Witt and Robert 
Eedd. 

At Hanford— D. L. Phillips, R. Irwin, Por- 
ter Mitchell and R. Abbott. 

The names of lawyers mentioned have all at 
some period resided in the county and prac- 
ticed their profession. Judge S. C. Brown, 
the first to locate at Visalia, still resides there. 



Judge Campbell is one of the superior judges 
in Fresno, where Judge Sayle and W. D. 
Grady reside. Judge Gray is one of the pres- 
ent superior judges. Several have died; others 
have moved away. Many of the dead, as also 
the living, have filled prominent judicial as 
well as political positions, which have been 
mentioned elsewhere. Visalia and Tulare 
County may well be proud of her part in fur- 
nishing prominent public men. 

MEDICAL PROFESSION. 

The names are given of a number of phy- 
sicians who have resided and practiced medicine 
in Yisalia and the county. They were given 
by an old citizen of the county; if any are 
omitted it was from lack of memory. 

At Visalia — W. A. Russell, Roberts, Baker, 
Peak, J. E. Ben and Mehring, all deceased; P. 
Thompson, D. Ray, W. S. Henrahan and S. G. 
George, moved away; and A. E. Hall, L. J. 
King" T. J. Patterson, L. T. Holland, T. W. 
Pendergrass, H. E. Bernard, F. A. Combs and 
S. S. Grey, now practicing here. 

At Porterville— S. G. George and W. S. 
Henrahan. 

Tulare County has furnished her share of 
those who have cared for the sick. Many have 
passed away, while others reside here still and 
are equal to any in the country. 



206 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




HOTHERTOWNS.^i &■ 

*■ *- ' V ; ._-._■■■■_ ; , -_--■... _,, ...,. --- t-.,.- - „ - , , , , , ." ( '■ >' 




TULARE CITY. 

I^ULARE CITY is at an elevation of 282 
feet above the sea, and is the geographi- 

f^-> cal center of Tulare County. It is beau- 
tifully located midway between the foothills 
and the lake, distant from San Francisco 251 
miles and 231 miles from Los Angeles, and is 
surrounded by oak trees in sight, but not near 
enough to shut out or seriously obstruct the 
summer breezes. Here are located the repair 
shops of the Southern Pacific railroad, as are 
also the offices for the railroad officials of this 
division. This is a great help to the town, as 
the railroad company pays out annually here 
nearly $300,000 to its employes, who reside in 
the town. Furthermore, by this means the 
town has secured near 150 families of desirable 
citizens, who have pleasant homes and who con- 
tribute in a large degree to the social attractions 
of the place. 

The city dates from the building of the 
railroad through the valley in 1872. For sev- 
eral years its growth was slow. In 1873 there 
were but 25 inhabitants; in June, 1874, there 
were 85, and in June, 1875, 145. January, 
1876, the population numbered 393. Sixty 
buildings, including the railroad roundhouse 
and repair shops, were erected that year, the 
population reached 690, and the volume of 
business, exclusive of the railroad shops, 
amounted to a half million dollars. The mer- 
chants sold goods to the amount of $420,000, 



and the flour mill manufactured $100,000 
worth of flour. 

The same year the railroad company paid 
out in the town $91,276.68. 

The surrounding country began to fill up 
with sturdy farmers, and several small irrigat- 
ing enterprises were started. The year 1877 
was a dry one, and the town, in consequence, 
grew hut little. The mill burned down this 
year and was not rebuilt for about ten years. 
During the years intervening between 1877 
and 1884 the town grew slowly. But little en- 
terprise seemed to exist in the county during 
that time. In June, 1883, the population was 
1,020, a gain of only 320 in more than five 
years. May 28, 1883 the first "immigration 
edition " of a Tulare County newspaper was 
issued by the proprietors of the Tulare Regis- 
ter. It contained an extensive description of 
the county's resources, which was copied far 
and wide. The edition numbered 12,000 
copies. The publishers deserve great credit 
for their untiring energy in that undertaking. 
One of them says he rode 600 miles on horse- 
back gathering information for that issue. 
There is no question but that much is due that 
enterprise for the beginning of more pros- 
perous times, both in the county and towns. It 
not only brought numbers of settlers to the 
count}', but spurred its contemporaries on to 
joining in the work of writing up the comity, 
and set everybody to talking and makine 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



207 



known abroad its many valuable, undeveloped 
resources; and the good work has been going 
on ever since. 

The city has been a favorite with the fire ele- 
ment. The first of these devastations occurred 
on the night of July 5, 1875. Though several 
small fires had previously visited the place, this 
one consumed nearly the entire business portion 
of the town. Twenty-five business houses, with 
their entire contents, were consumed; only two 
general stores, one small grocery, one dry-goods 
store, a hotel and a blacksmith shop were left to 
represent the business interests of the town. 
The loss was $180,000, about half covered by 
insurance. The business men did not sit down 
and mourn, but laid off their coats, rolled up 
their sleeves and began rebuilding the town, 
and by the 1st of January had the burnt dis- 
trict all rebuilt. Buildings valued at $131,274 
were erected in 1883. 

The next ordeal by fire began on the night of 
August 16, 1886. This fire consumed $350,- 
000 worth of property in less than two hours, 
including sixty-three business houses. This for 
a time stunned the business men, but only for 
a few days, when they resolved to build better 
and wiser, and soon there sprang, as it were 
from the ashes of the former frame structures, 
elegant, brick buildings, two and three stories 
in height, some of which are fire-proof. At the 
close of the year there had been 228 buildings 
erected, at a cost of $348,910. Fifty-eight of 
these buildings were for business purposes. 

Tnlare has a population of nearly 300 less 
than it had some few years since, which is ac- 
counted for on the grounds that many have 
gone to the surrounding country, purchased 
small tracts of land and gone into the fruit 
business. 

Tulare has been noted for the efficiency of her 
public schools, which have attracted people from 
all parts of the county to come here and educate 
their children. In 1887 a large two-story school 
building containing ten rooms was erected, at a 
cost of $20,000. The Tulare Library Associa- 
tion is an institution of which the town is justly 



proud. It was established by the railroad em- 
ployes in connection with the railroad company. 
The library building is a neat edifice near the 
depot. The library has more than 1,000 vol- 
umes, many of the choice works as well as the 
best current literature. The city is lighted by 
gas, and has a fine system of water-works, the 
water being pumped from an artesian well 400 
feet deep. 

Tulare has a fine flouring-mill which cost 
$32,000, and has a capacity of 100 barrels per 
day; a good-sized pork- packing establishment, 
planing mill and box factory, foundry and car- 
riage factory. The stores are large and carry 
heavy stocks of goods. The grain shipments 
from this point are heavy; the warehouses are 
large and usually well filled. Tnlare has many 
large and prosperous colonies surrounding near 
by, which are no small factor connected with 
the business of the town. About one and a half 
miles southeast of town is the Government Ex- 
perimental Station, where there is an experienced 
man, paid by the Government, to experiment 
with and ascertain the products, grasses, grains 
and fruits best adapted to the valley. As has 
already been stated, Tnlare is directly connected 
with Visalia by the motor railway. 

Tulare has two solid banks. The Bank of 
Tulare has a capital stock of $100,000. Presi- 
dent, E. Lathrop; Vice-President, Joseph Gold- 
man; Cashier a'nd Secretary, John A. Goble; 
and Directors — E. Lathrop, J. Goldman, H. 
Mabury, J. A. Goble, S. Richardson. The Tu- 
lare County Bank has for its officers: D. W. 
Madden, President; M. M. Burnett, Vice-Presi- 
dent; E. J. Cox, Cashier; and Directors — M. 
M. Burnett, R. Linder, E. W. Root and P. F. 
Wood. 

The various denominations are well repre- 
sented and amply provided for here. There are 
Congregational, Christian, Methodist Episcopal, 
Baptist, Episcopal, Catholic, South Methodist, 
etc., and a prosperous Y. M. C. association. 

The W. C. T. U. have a flourishing society 
here, with thirty-one members. The present 
officers are: President, Mrs. M. A. Sanders; 



208 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



1st Vice-President, Mrs. Martha Goble; 2d 
Vice President, Mrs. Lucinda Faust; 3d* Vice- 
President, Mrs. Farnliam; Corresponding 

and Recording Secretary, Mrs. L. D. Hawkins; 
and Treasurer. Mrs. Bertha Ingara. 

Y. W. C. T. U.: President, Mrs. M. A. San- 
ders; 1st Vice-President, Mrs. Lizzie Elda; 2d 
Vice President, Mrs. Alma Barber; Rec. Sec, 
Miss Belle Moore; Cor. Sec, Miss Annie 
Woody; and Treasurer, Miss Laura A. Sanders. 

Gettysburg Post, No. 59, G. A. R., was mus- 
tered in in April, 1876, with seventeen mem- 
bers. Present membership, forty -five. Com- 
mander, A. E. Lee; Senior Vice Commander, 
James Scoon; Junior Vice-Commander, Isaac 
Roberts; Chaplain, W. II. II. Baxter; Quarter- 
master, James R. Jackson; Officer of the Day, 
William Sanders; Adjutant, Captain Ed. Oak- 
ford. 

Gettysburg W. R. C, No. 19, was organized 
in November, 1885, with sixteen members. 
First officers: Victoria W. Neff, President; 
Hattie Hall, Senior Vice-President; Sophia E. 
Main, Junior Vice-President; Augusta Shaver 
Chaplain; Lucinda C. Faust, Treas. ; Anna B. 
Jackson, Conductor; Hattie Birch, Guard; and 
Rachel Bartholomew, Assistant Conductor. 
Present officers: Ellen B. Oakford, President; 
Julia Adler, Senior Vice-President; Lizzie N. 
Rnndell, Junior Vice-President; L. Foster, 
Treasurer; M. S. Tarkington, Secretary; M. L. 
Alvinson, Chaplain; Hattie Birch, Guard; Anna 
B. Jackson, Conductor; Lucinda C. Faust, As- 
sistant Conductor; and Flora M. Stone, Assist- 
ant Guard. Mrs. Anna B. Jackson was for 
fifteen months Junior Vice-President of the 
State of California, and Assistant Inspector of 
a portion of the Southern California District. 

McPherson Camp, No. 35, Sons of Veterans, 
was organized in December, 1889, with twenty- 
three members. Officers: Geoi-ge J. Reading, 
Captain; Benjamin Oakford, 1st Lieutenant; 
and Anson Roberts, 2d Lieutenant. 

Tulare City Lodge, No. 306, I. O. O. F., was 
instituted April 30, 1883, with twelve charter 
members; present membership, 14-5. Present \ 



officers: Jesse Hoover, N. G.; F. M. Carter, 
V. G.; H S. Backman, Rec. Sec; C. L. Smith, 
Per. Sec; and F. M. Shultz, Treasurer. 

Enterprise (R. D.) Lodge, No. 118, I. O. O. F. 
was instituted April 2, 1887, with thirty-one 
charter members. Present membership, eighty. 
Officers: Sarah A. Fry. N.C.; Julia E. Hoover, 
V. G. ; Jesse Hoover, Sec; Helen Hough, 
Treasurer. 

Lake Lodge, No. 333,1. O. O. F., was insti- 
tuted in June. 1887, with thirty-four charter 
members. Present officers: G. J. Reading, N. 
G.; J. S. Doyle, V. G.; and A. Worms, Sec. 
Present membership, eighty-two. 

Mount Whitney Encampment, No. 82, I. O. 
O. F., was instituted in January, 1888, with 
eleven charter members. Present membership 
eighty-seven. Present officers: W. J. Langdon, 
C. P.; and J. T. Doran, Scribe. 

Tulare City Canton, No. 26, I. O. O. F., was 
instituted with fifteen charter members, in July, 
1889. Officers: M. P. Lesher, Captain; and J. 
T. Doran, Clerk. Present membership, twenty- 
nine. 

Mystic Lodge, No. 14, O. S. B. (Order of the 
Star of Bethlehem), was instituted in Decem- 
ber, 1890, with seventeen charter members. 
Present membership, twenty. Officers: Julia 
E. Hoover, Commander; W. S. Johnson, Vice- 
Commander; C. L. Smith, Scribe; and Elsie 
Carter, Treasurer. 

Tulare Lodge, No. 68, K. of P., was insti- 
tuted in January, 1882, with seventeen charter 
members. Present members, fifty. Officers: 
E. W. Holland, C. C. ; and E. T. Buckman, 
K. of R. & S. 

Valley Oak Camp, No. 75, Woodmen of the 
World, was instituted in February, 1891, with 
fifty members. Officers: M. C. Hamlin, V. ('.; 
W.W. Ray, W. A.; E. De Witt, E. B.; T. Dor- 
gen, E.; E. M. Brown. S.; G. B. Fairbanks, 
W. O; P. F. Wood, W.: 0. F. Taggart and 
E. W. Dutcher, Physicians; A. Borders, G. T. 
Casper and Samuel Richards in, Managers, 

Olive Branch Lodge, No. 369, K. & A. M.— 
Date of institution could not be obtained. Pros- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



209 



ent officers: J. F. Boiler, W. M.; W. P. Ratliff, 
S. W., J. W. Davis, J. W.; R. L. Reed, Sec; 
A. P. Hall, Treas. ; C. W. Harter, S. D. ; S. A. 
Blythe, J. D.; J. G. Eekles, Chaplain; William 
Carpenter. Tyler; and C. C. Brock, J. Wolf sera, 
Stewards. Membership ninety-eight. 

R. A. M., No. 71.— Officers: G. W. Gartman, 
H. P.; J. F. Boiler, K.; B. G. Parker, S.; E. 
Oakford, Treas. ; R. C. McMillan, Sec; J. A. 
Gohle, Capt. of H.; D. S. Woodruff, P. S.; R. 
Ray, R. A. C; R. L. Reid, M. of 1st V.; A. P. 
Hall, M. of 2d V; W. P. Bailiff, M. of 3d V.; 
and William Carpenter, Guard. 

Tulare Chapter, Eastern Star, No. 94, was 
instituted in October, 1887, with fourteen char- 
ter members. Present membership, seventy. 

Officers: Ella Hall, M.; John A. Goble, P.; 
Mattie Taggart, Associate Matron; Mamie 
Bachelder, Sec; KateSchoenemann, Treas. ; Ju- 
lia Reid, Conductor; Nettie Anderson, Associate 
Conductor; Hattie Bachelder, Chaplain; Rachel 
Bartholomew, Adah; Libbie Zartman, Ruth; 
May Piper, Esther; Josephine Wooten, Martha; 
Alice Ratliff, Electa; Martha Goble, Warder; 
R. L. Reid, Sentinel; and Nettie Treadwell, 
Organist. 

Tulare Parlor, No. 43, N. S. G. W.— Present 
officers: Geo. Milligan, Past President; M. C. 
Hunt, President; F. L. Alford, 1st Vice-Presi- 
dent; L. J. Whyers, 2d Vice-President; Samuel 
Richardson, 3d Vice-President; Geo. Milligan, 
Sec; M. C. Znmwalt, Treas.; and H. Holthouse, 
Marshal. Membership twenty-one. 

The A. O. U. W. Lodge, was institued in 
January, 1879, with forty-nine charter mem- 
bers. Present membership, seventy-six; and 
officers: G. G. Claws, Master Workman; C. F. 
Hall, Recorder; E. Buckman, Financier; and 
D. O. Hamraan, Treasurer. 

Tulare City is well represented by the legal 
profession, and some of the leading medical 
talent resic'e here, sketches of whom will be 
found in this work. 

The Weekly Register was established here in 
December, 1882, and the Daily Evening Reg- 
ister in August, 1887, — both by the enterpris- 



ing firm of Pillsbury & Ellsworth. These are the 
only papers that have survived the storms and 
ups and downs through which the city has passed. 

The Democratic Free Dress, a weekly paper, 
published for a time by John La Fontaine, 
flourished for a time, but ceased to be profitable 
and passed away. The same may be said of 
the Weekly Standard. 

Not so, however, with the Register/ it came 
to stay and grow, and a very large part of its 
business has been, and is, to promote the growth 
of its native city and attract attention to the vast 
undeveloped resources of the county, and thereby 
induce settlers to come, locate, grow wealthy 
and live happily; and right well have the pro- 
prietors of the paper succeeded. Their pluck, 
energy, and " hang-on-ativeness," gave confi- 
dence that they were men who meant business, 
had come to stay and to help others to come 
and stay The Weekly Register attained such 
circulation as to convince the publishers that a 
daily would be sustained. They accordingly 
prepared for business in earnest. Messrs. Pills- 
bury & Ellsworth have a neat, commodious brick 
building of their own, have the only steam estab- 
lishment for printing, and issue the only daily 
paper in the county. Such men at the head of 
newspapers are a prime factor in building up the 
many needed industries in their county and 
towns. These gentlemen are ever ready to give 
the stranger all needed information in regard to 
the county, and none are more thoroughly posted. 
They have incurred large expense in gathering 
facts which the stranger will wish to know re- 
garding the county. These facts they have pub- 
lished in detail and distributed free of charge. 
Messrs. Pillsbury & Ellsworth deserve their 
present prosperity and merit all that promises 
in the future. 

Tulare is an incorporated city. The officers 
for 1890 were: C. F. Hall, Mayor; J. F. Boiler, 
City Attorney; H. M. Shreve, Clerk; P. H. 
Murray, Marshal; W. H. Alford, City Recor- 
der and ex officio Justice of the Peace; L. E. 
Schoenemann. Treasurer. Councilmen: F. M. 
Shultz, G. W. Zartman and A. T. Colton. 



210 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



The taxable property, etc., of Tulare City in 
1890 was as follows : 

Real estate other than city and town lots. ... $ 79,295 

Improvements thereon 24,065 

City and town lots 391.320 

Improvements thereon 307,395 

Improvements on real estate assessed to per- 
sons other than the owners 2,500 

Personal property exclusive of money 173,070 

Amount of money . 1,200 

Interest of the mortgages, trust deeds, con- 
tracts or other obligations by which a 
debt is secured in the property affected 

thereby 222,452 

Total value of all property $ 1,202,197 

Deductions on account of mortages, deeds of 
trust, contracts or other obligations by which 

a debt is secured by lien on property $ 189,135 

Total value of all property for taxation after 

deductions 1,013,0)2 

Total tax 8,104,47 

Rate of taxation, 80 cents on the $100. 

TULARE IRRIGATION DISTRICT. 

The city of Tulare is the headquarters of the 
new irrigation enterprise, which will give the 
city and . urrounding country a new impetus in 
the line of progress. The work for constructing 
the canal and ditches, reservoirs, etc., has been let 
and the work is well under way. Bonds to the 
amount of $500,000 have been voted. The ap- 
proximate cost of the canal outside of the reser- 
voirs to be constructed in the foothills will be 
between $200,000 and $300,000. The reservoirs 
will cost enough to consume the remainder of 
the sum voted. 

Total number of acres in the district including 
the city of Tulare 36,719 

Total assessed value of property in district for 

1890-'91 $1,468,153 

Rate of levy, 85 cents on $100. Total levy 
1890-'91 $12,479 30 

Total cash value of real estate and improve- 
ments thereon is fully $3,000,000 

At the election held August 21, 1809, for the 
organization of the district, were cast 48S votes. 

"Irrigation District — Yes" (Irrigationists) re- 
ceived 477 votea . 

"Irrigation District— No " (Non-Irrigationists) 
received 7 votes. 

At the election held June 7, 1890, for th« issu- 
ance of bonds of the district in the sum of 
$500,000, were cast 398 votes. 

_' Bonds— Yes " (Irrigationists) received 348 votes 



" Bonds — No " (Non-Irrigationists) received. . . 50 votes. 
At the election held April 2, 1890, for the 
election of district officers, were cast 198 votes. 

All officers are irrigationists and elected unan- 

o 

imously except director in one division where 
former incumbent was re-elected by one major- 
ity, both candidates being irrigationists. 

An estimate of five inhabitants to each voter 
at the last general election indicates a population 
of at least 3,800 for the entire district. Tbe 
population is largely American. 

As a body the land is of tine quality, and 
adapted to the production of fruits and vines 
(especially the raisin grape) and cereals. 

The district bonds are issued for twenty 
years, dated July 1, 1890, and bear interest at 
the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, payable semi- 
annually. 

The present board of directors consists of J. 
W. Mackie, president; E. Oakford, secretary; 
P. J. Flynn, engineer; A. P. Merritt, J. F. 
Gipson, W. B. Cartmill and E. De Witt. 

PORTERVILLE 

is a historical town, and one that must be known 
to be appreciated. By the census of 1890 it 
had a population of 606, which is increasing 
rapidly. This prosperous town is situated about 
twenty-two miles southeast of Tulare city, and 
on the new line of railroad recently constructed 
by the Southern Pacific Company, running 
from Fresno city on the main line and connect- 
ing again therewith at Poso, Kern County. 
While Porterville is at the base of the foot hills, 
the hills are not near enough to cramp the 
place, but just enough to give beauty and pic- 
turesqueness to the view, and makes the town 
one of the handsomest locations in the State. 
The town is about one mile from Tule river, 
and upon the edge of a series of undulations 
which are becoming highly appreciated. 

Porterville took its name from the given 
name of R. Porter Putnam, who located there 
in 1859 and opened an eating house for the ac- 
commodation of travelers on the overland staoje. 
then plying between San Francisco and Los 
Angeles. The surrounding country was at that 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



211 



time entirely devoted to stock- grazing, and 
houses were few and far between. At a later 
date Mr. Putnam established a store at that 
point for the benefit of stock raisers. There 
was little or no farming in that section until 
about 1874, when people began to settle on the 
Government land for that purpose. At the 
latter date there were three general merchandise 
stores in Porterville, one hotel, two restaurants, 
two blacksmith shops and several saloons, and 
the population of the town did not exceed 300, 
if that. Like other portions of Tulare County, 
it was believed that the annual rainfall here was 
too light to insure the germination of cereals 
planted in the ground, though the growth of 
filaree and other grasses was something wonder- 
ful to behold for a dry country. 

The settlement of the surrounding country in 
1874 added somewhat to the business of the 
town, as it was the depot for lumber supplies, 
but the growth of the place was not materially 
affected. Then, too, the succeeding four or five 
years were exceedingly dry ones, and there was 
a total failure of crops for those seasons. But 
the country swarmed with sheep, and the sup- 
plying of sheep camps with provisions proved a 
lucrative business for the mercantile houses. 

However, it was not until the advent of the 
East Side railroad that Porterville began to as- 
sume a material growth. Then town lots that 
before could not be disposed of for any sum 
began to advance in price, and front street 
property commanded figures almost equal to 
those asked for lots on Kearny street, San 
Francisco. Substantial business houses and 
neat cottages were soon being erected in every 
direction. A Mr. Taylor of San Francisco pur- 
chased lots on Main street, on which he erected 
a large, substantial and elegant two-story brick 
building, and it was soon occupied by stores. 
Lawrence Barrett, the actor, erected a similar 
building, and it, too, found tenants. The Pio- 
neer Land Company built a large and com- 
modious hotel, equal in appointments to any to 
be found in the interior of the State. J. B. 
Kessing of San Francisco erected another sub- 



stantial two-story brick building, a portion of 
which is devoted to hotel purposes. J. A. Kin- 
cade, who owned the property where the orig- 
inal hotel of the town stood, removed the old 
hotel from its moorings and has built in its 
stead a fine two-story hotel. The neatest and 
best arranged mercantile house in the Tulare 
valley occupies the Putnam block, a large two- 
story brick building lately completed. P. P. 
Davis, who owns an extensive frontage on Main 
street, is making preparations for the erection 
of a substential one-story brick building. 

The residences erected of late years, and 
there are many of them, are of a modern style 
of architecture, and are all surrounded with well- 
kept grounds, that are ornamented with palms, 
orange and lemon trees and flowering shrub- 
bery. The people building these homes have 
evidently come to stay, and have determined to 
not only live under their own vine and fig tree, 
but to enjoy all the luxuries pertaining to a 
semi-tropical climate. And they are not reck- 
oning without their host, for, be it known, 
oranges, lemons, vines, olives and even bananas 
are grown here, and there are those who believe 
that pineapples will grow on the river bottom 
lands, and will attempt their cultivation. 

The fact that citrus fruits can be grown here 
with profit has had much to do with the up- 
building of the town, and maintaining property 
values. There are not less than 300 acres of 
land, within a raidius of one mile of the town, 
devoted to orange culture. 

The oldest orange orchard in the immediate 
vicinity of Porterville is that planted out sev- 
eral years ago by A. K. Henry, now deceased, 
and is about one mile east of the town. These 
trees have been in bearing for several years, and 
are to day loaded with golden fruit, which can 
be seen glittering in the sun long before the 
orchard is reached. It was the fruit of this or- 
chard that gave an impetus to orange growing 
in this vicinity. This property is now owned 
by Mr. Pettyman, who has erected substantial 
improvements on the place and added to the 
acreage of the orange orchard. Mr. Henry, 



212 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



having disposed of the above named property, 
moved to a twenty-acre tract nearer town, which 
he had planted to oranges. 

North and a little west of the original Henry 
orange grove is the Riverside orange grove, 
under the superintendency of George Frost, 
formerly of Riverside. This property consists 
of 100 acres, ninety acres of which is now 
planted to orange trees. The owners feel con- 
fident that as good oranges can be produced 
here as are grown at Riverside, and they are 
showing their faith by their works. Mr. Frost 
also owns an individual ten-acre tract, which he 
has planted to orange trees. 

Dr. W. S. Henrahan has a five-acre orange 
grove only a short walk from the business 
portion of the town. These trees are now two 
years of age and have this year yielded a good 
crop of fruit. 

It was impossile, during a short stay in Por- 
terville, to obtain the names of all of those 
engaged in orange culture, but among those 
thus employed are E. Newman of the Pioneer 
Bank, D. C. Kline, Oliver Henry, Joseph Car- 
ter, J. M. Jones, Matthias Woodley, Mark A. 
Burgess, Mrs. Mary Hathaway, Charles J. 
Meloy, James Kinsella. Joseph P. Black, Mrs. 
Mary NcNulty and John Tyler. 

In almost all of these orange orchards a few 
lemon trees have been planted. There are a 
number of bearing lemon trees in the vicinity, 
and the fruit is generally of an extra size, line 
flavor and high color. The trees are proving 
steady bearers, and those who have gathered and 
sold their fruit report a profit of from $20 to 
$23 per tree. 

Porter ville and vicinity, however, is not given 
ever entirely to orange culture. There are exten- 
sive raisin vineyards already set out and now 
being planted. Probably 1,500 acres of land 
is now devoted to raisin grapes. There are 
several small vineyards that have been in bear- 
ing for two or three years. Oliver Henry last 
season and the year previous put up a number 
of boxes of raisins for which he found a ready 
sale at the going market price. The grapes 



grown here are of an extraordinary size, and 
contain a large percentage of sugar. When the 
vineyards now planted come into bearing and 
the manufacture of raisins becomes a permanent 
industry, those boxes containing the Porterville 
brand will win a name second to none on the 
market. 

Peaches, apricots and prunes are also being 
extensively planted, and the acreage devoted to 
these fruits will soon equal that devoted to 
grapes, if it does not exceed it. 

COUNTRY TRIBUTARY TO PORTERVILLE. 

From the above given fact« it will be seen 
that Porterville already has substantial backing 
right at her doors, which will maintain the 
present business of the town. But there is a 
very productive country, not here mentioned, 
that will contribute to her future advancement. 
The town lies at the base of the Sierra Nevada 
mountains, and in them are to be found many 
valleys that are now being devoted to orange, 
apple and other fruit trees. Some of these 
valley lands have changed hands within the last 
year at prices ranging from $100 to $150 per 
acre. Oranges are grown in these mountains 
as high up as within three miles of the pine 
belt, and grapes planted on the side hills yield 
abundantly. 

About the only timber belt in this county 
that is not in the hands of monopolists or de- 
voted to National Park purposes, lies only a few 
miles east of Porterville, and some day in the 
near future lumber will come out of these 
mountains by rail for the supply of a large ex- 
tent of country. 

Then there are the rich bottom lands of Tule 
river, a stream that courses through the bor- 
ders of the town, much of which is now covered 
with a growth of oak and cottonwood trees, with 
dense underbrush. These lands must soon be 
cleared, that they may be made to yield a profit 
to their owners. Then will follow the planting 
of vineyards, orchards and nutbearing trees. 
This property once cleared will soon pass into 
the hands of those desiring small holdings, and 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



213 



will be capable o/ sustaining, and will sustain, 
a dense population. 

The outlook for the future growth of Porter- 
ville is very assuring, and the prophecy of one 
of her most enterprising citizens — that " Porter- 
ville will yet be the second city of San Joaquin 
valley" — may not fall far short of a truthful 
prediction. 

Porterville improves so rapidly that were we 
to itemize buildings and fix figures of popula- 
tion, there would be radical changes before 
the facts could be gotten before readers. In 
less than twelve months thirty -eight new stores 
have been added. During the time $90,000 
was expended in erecting frame buildings and 
$110,000 in brick structures. There are four 
hotels, the Pioneer, Palace, Arlington and Cen- 
tral. The town has a well equipped fire com- 
pany. There are the usual number of frater- 
nal societies, all in a prosperous condition ; one 
Methodist and one Presbyterian church, and 
also a Cumberland Presbyterian church, and 
an organization of Native Song, and also one of 
Ancient Order United Workmen. The legal 
profession, as also tbe medical, who reside here 
are mentioned in the list of each elsewhere in 
this work. 

Very few towns can boast of such a school 
building as has just been completed by Porter- 
ville at a cost of $10,000. It is situated at the 
north end of Main street, which it immediately 
faces. It is a two-story brick, 42 x 63 x 32 
feet, of modern colonial architecture and rec- 
tangular shape, having a tower for belfry for 
observatory purposes twenty-two feet high. 
There is a hall 12x40 feet the entire length of 
the building. On each side of this hall are 
class rooms, each 24 x 30 x 14 feet. The second 
story is reached by stairs five feet in width. The 
rails and balustrade of this stairway are of 
neatly carved redwood. 

Porterville is well supplied with water. The 
water works are situated neai- the flour mill. The 
water is taken out of the main irrigating ditch 
by a pump of 500,000 gallons capacity in 
twenty-four hours, and is first filtered through 



white sea sand, after which it enters a large air 
chamber, from which again part of it goes to the 
main pipe, which furnishes the domestic sup- 
ply. This main pipe is six inches in diameter, 
with three-inch branches. Another part of the 
water is pumped up into an elevated tank of 
30,000 gallons capacity, which stands elevated 
sixty-seven feet above the main street in town. 
The charges for water are said to be the lowest 
in the State. The water is clear, pure and 
healthy. 

Porterville is surrounded by as fine lands as 
are to be found in the State, and has one of the 
best systems of irrigation. The water system 
is now owned by the Pioneer Water Company, 
a reorganization of the old Tule River Pioneer 
Water Ditch Company. It was organized in 
1887, and owns the vested rights in the old 
ditch which was begun in 1860 and finished in 
1867. The ditch is twelve feet on the bottom, 
two feet deep, and the water runs three feet per 
second. By measurement the actual flow is 
seventy-two cubic feet per second, equal to 3,600 
miners' inches. The company is organized 
with as many shares as there are inches of 
water. Of these 3,600 shares the Pioneer Land 
Company control 2,424 shares; the remainder 
are owned by settlers in the district. There is 
water enough to irrigate 15,000 acres, or fifteen 
times as much land as is now under cultivation. 
The main ditch heads eight miles from Porter- 
ville, and is there taken out of the Tule river. 
The main canals aggregate twenty-two miles in 
length. There are two main branches. The 
first of these is the Patterson and Redfield 
ditch, which carried 600 inches and irrigates 
the orange lands along the hills. The other 
branch is the Raisin Company's ditch, which 
carries 1,500 inches. It irrigates the Pioneer 
Raisin Company's vineyard, as well as the north 
half of the lands belonging to the Pioneer Land 
Company. The main ditch irrigates all the 
rest of the land now under cultivation. It runs 
1,500 inches of water. Besides these mains 
there is a perfect network of small branch 
ditches all through the land. Adjoining the 



214 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



town the maiu caual drops thirty feet, with a 
possible increase to forty-four feet. The power 
thus developed at the mill is equal to 177- 
horse power, and can be increased to 270-horse 
power. This power now runs a flour mill, 
established in 1867, which produces flour of the 
finest quality, and in quantity sufficient to sup- 
ply the whole com in unity. The same machin- 
ery which in day-time pumps and filters the 
water for the town, is during the night-time em- 
ployed in running the plant which furnishes 
Porterville with electric lights. This plant 
consists of a Western dynamo, worked by a 
thirty-horse power engine. A Leff'ell horizon- 
tal mining wheel is used, which produces 
twenty-five lights, each of which has 2,000- 
candle power. The charges are $9 per month 
for each light. Five lights on the main street 
are furnished free. 

Porterville has two enterprising weekly pa- 
pers. The Farm View, published by E. M. 
Dewey, is now in its third volume, having the 
largest circulation of all papers of its size in 
the connty. Its name indicates it to be an ad- 
vocate of the farmers' movement, an industrial 
union well known throughout the United States. 
The publisher was raised a farmer in the State 
of Massachusetts, but has been connected with 
newspaper publishing in different parts of 
California for thirty years. He came to Tulare 
County in 1871, and published the Visalia 
Delta for ten years, being the first publisher in 
the San Joaquin valley to advocate the no-fence 
law — a law which compelled stockmen to herd 
their stock, and thus protect the crops of the 
farmer, who had no fences. The agitation of 
this measure was crowned by success in the 
Legislature of 1872-'73. The farmers came in 
rapidly and settled in Tulare, Kern and San 
Joaquin counties. 

Mr. Dewey evidently belongs to a family of 
printers, his brother being the publisher of the 
Rural Press in San Francisco, the leading 
agricultural journal of the State, and two sons, 
F. V. and E. P. Dewey, publishing the Han- 
ford Journal and Sanger Herald respectively. 



The Enterprise was established April 21, 

1888. On February 16, 1889, the first issue 
appeared, under the supervision of the present 
publisher, Mr. J. O'Clancy, who has worked 
the journal up to such an extent that it now 
lays claim to being one of the leading papers 
in the county, both in circulation and influence. 

Mr. O'Clancy is a native of Cork, Ireland. 
He spent the most of his youth traveling, 
came to the United States in 1886, and traveled 
through Canada to the Pacific coast. He first 
entered into the newspaper business on the San 
Jose Mercury at San Jose as a reporter. After 
five months' experience he took charge of the 
Fresno Daily Democrat. That journal going 
under after the last Presidential campaign, he 
came to Porterville, purchased the Enterprise, 
and runs a pretty radical kind of paper, al- 
though Democratic in politics. 

The Pioneer Bank, incorporated April 19, 

1889, began business May 9, 1889, with a sub- 
scribed capital of $70,000. P. N. Lillienthal, 
of San Francisco, cashier of the Anglo-Cali- 
foria Bank of San Francisco, President; E. 
Newman, Manager; and E. W. Beebe, Cashier. 
Deposits, $60,000. 

Porterville Lodge, No. 199, A. O. U. W.— 
Present membership, forty-five. O. E. Gibbons, 
P M. W.; J. T. Manter, M. W.; S. J. W. Tyler, 
Foreman; A. Leslie, Overseer; A. Treager, 
Recorder; L. J. Red field, Financier; W. A. 
Hall, Receiver; A. Ross, Guide; J. P. Murry, 
Inside Watchman; C. H. Gibbons, Outside 
Watchman. It was instituted in June, 1888, 
with seventeen charter members. 

The Porterville Reading-room was established 
November 4, 1890, by the ladies, twenty-one in 
number, each agreeing to attend to the duties 
of the room on successive days. First officers — 
Mrs. M. C. K. Shuey, President; Mrs. John 
Tyler, Vice-President; Mrs. W. W. Brow, Sec- 
retary; Mrs. Erail Newman, Treasurer. Present 
officers: Mrs. J. I*. Murry, President; Mrs. J. 
Trefry, Vice-President; Mrs. John Tyler, Secre- 
tary; Mrs Emil Newman, Treasurer. They 
hold two socials every four weeks, — one free 



HI STOUT OF CENTRAL UALIFOUNIA. 



215 



and one with admission fee for running ex- 
penses. 

Porterville Lodge, No. 303, F. & A. M., was 
instituted in November, 1890, with twelve 
charter members, and A. G. Schulz, W. M.; J. 
H. Hughes, S. W.; H. F. Brey, J. W.; E. W. 
Beebe, Secretary, J. B. Hockett, Treasurer. 
Present membership, twenty-six; and officers: 
A. G. Schulz, W. M,; H. F. Brey, S. W.; J. H. 
Williams, J. W.; A. S. V. Schmittau, Secretary; 
J. B. Hockett, Treasurer. 

Porterville Lodge, No. 359, I. O. O. F., was 
instituted May 9, 1890, with eleven charter 
members, and E. W. Beebe, N. G.; H. E. Ford, 
V. G. ; Hobert Webster, Secretary; Q. S. Shey, 
Treasurer. Present membership, forty-seven; 
A. S. Gilliam, N. G.; R. A. Brown, V. G.; Lee 
Robinson, Secretary; and J. H. James, Treas- 
urer. 

Porterville Lodge, No. 93, K. of. P., was insti- 
tuted April 11, 1884, with the following charter 
members: Guy Gilmer, S. M. Gilliam, J. E. Kin- 
kade, C. N. Young, 0. C. Higgins, J B. Hock- 
ett, William Traeger, J. I. Twitchell, Spencer 
Fay, Fred Montawin, G. A. Richardson, W. M. 
Howeth, G. E. Brown, and P. F. Chapman. The 
present officers are: H. L. Mauter, P. C. ; I. N. 
Jersey, C. C; O. A. Routh, V. C; B. S. Wilson, 
P.; H. L. Mauter, M. of Ex.; Wilks Mentz, M. 
of F.; R. A. Brown, K. of R. & S.; Eli Blod- 
gett, M. of A.; Andrew Ross, I. G.; and E. E. 
Sullivan, O. G. Total members in good stand- 
ing, forty-nine. Lodge meets every Friday 
night. 

Porterville Horticultural Society was organ- 
ized in February, 1891, with ten members, and 
R. H. McDonald, President; Mr. McAllister, 
Vice-President; Fred Kessing, Secretary; Emil 
Newman, Treasurer. Present membership, fifty. 

Parlor No. 73, N. S. G. W., was organized in 
March, 1891, with these officers: W. P. Put- 
nam, Past President; R. L. Hockett, President; 
F. O. Putnam, First Vice-President; E. B. 
Hockett, Second Vice-President; H. McCown, 
Third Vice-President; George G. Murry, Re- 
cording and Financial Secretary; Kilbreath, 



Treasurer; W. M. Gardner, Marshal; F. J. 
Howeth, J. A. Gardner, T. S. Rickey, Trustees; 
J. A. Gardner, T. A. Howeth, Sentinels. 



HANFORD. 



Hanford is the metropolis of the Mussel 
Slough country, the region spoken of where the 
citizens had such an unpleasant and tragically 
ending controversy in regard to lands. The 
citizens of to-day boast of their country as the 
beautiful " Lucerne Valley," and the term is 
well applied. 

This beautiful city of Hanford, incorporated 
as such August 8, 1891, is located fifteen miles 
due west from Goshen, on the Huron branch of 
the Southern Pacific system, and is in the heart 
of this great and important Mussel Slough coun- 
try. The town site was laid out in March, 1877, 
and it grew rapidly from the first. Men of 
enterprise settled there; and while the town has 
had no special boom, it has always enjoyed a 
fair degree of prosperity and a lucrative trade. 
The population in 1890 was 942. The town is 
well supplied with church edifices, social and 
fraternal societies, a good banking establish- 
ment, and an excellent newspaper, a weekly, the 
Hanford Sentinel. This is a wide-awake paper, 
and is the only journal published in Mussel 
Slough, and is doing good work for that sec- 
tion of country. Hanford has a fine system of 
water works. From the platform above the tanks 
at the pump works a splendid view is obtained 
of the beautiful country surrounding. 

Hanford has several times been subjected to 
devastating fires, but each time came up out of 
its ashes neater and more substantial than before. 
During the year 1883 Hanford was the victim 
of five different fires, one of which wiped out 
most of the business part of the town. The 
fiery ordeal was again experienced in July, 
1888, which was even more destructive than 
ever before. More than half the business blocks 
in the town, some of them fine two-story bricks, 
were wiped out of existence. Again Hanford 
sprang up finer and more substantial than before, 
and yet the fiery elements were not satiated. 



212 



HISTORY OF CENTUAL CALIFORNIA. 



Again, J une 19, 1891, she suffered to the extent 
of $300,000 by fire. Among the many excellent 
buildings burned was the new and magnificent 
Hotel Artesia. 

But Hanford's enterprising citizens are not 
those who repine UDder calamities, and are 
again rapidly rebuilding, determined to keep 
their little city in the fore-front of progress. 
The resources of the country tributary to Han- 
ford are second to none in the great San Joaquin 
valley. 

The churches represented in Hanford are the 
Methodisl, Presbyterian, Christian, Episcopal 
and Catholic. The fraternal societies, etc., are: 
Hanford Lodge, No. 189, A. O. U. W.; Han- 
ford Lodge, No. 296, I. O. G. T.; Hanford 
Lodge, No. 279, F. & A. M.; Mussel Slough 
Lodge, No. 66, K. of P.; Hanford Council, No. 
87, O. C. F.; Hanford Parlor, No. 37, N. S. G. 
W.; Hanford Lodge, No. 264, I. O. O. F.; and 
McPherson Post, No. 51, G. A. R. There are 
also a Sons of Veteran Camp, American Legion 
of Honor, Lady of the Lake (Rebekah Degree) 
Lodge, 1. (). O. F., and Ladies' Aid Society of 
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 

Seventeen years ago that section of the coun- 
try now known as Lucerne valley, but more 
generally termed Mussel Slough, was a country 
inhabited solely by herds of cattle and bauds of 
mustang horses, the owners of which lived along 
the banks of King's river. There was a lively 
little trading post on King's river, north of 
Hanford, known as Kingston; which derived the 
majority of its trade from travelers, being 
located on a stage route leading from Visalia to 
Gilroy. Lands lying away from the river pos- 
sessed little money value, as at the date given 
above they could have been covered with land 
scrip costing forty-five cents per acre. There 
are a number of residents now in this county 
who at that time were offered land scrip at the 
price named, to place on these lands, who re- 
jected the offer with the remark that the coun- 
try was uninhabitable except by coyotes and 
long-eared rabbits. 

Rut about this time there were a number of 



hardy pioneers who were looking out for homes, 
and they spied out this land. They came in 
bands of fives and tens, and soon little cottages 
began to spring up all over the plains, and 
finally pretentious neighborhoods were formed. 
These pioneers were quick to learn that little 
could be accomplished in farming on these 
lands without the aid of water; hence companies 
were formed to build ditches that would lead the 
waters of King's river out to the plains. This 
was a giant undertaking for these early settlers, 
for they possessed little of this world's goods. 
Rut they were people of brawn and muscle, and 
to will was to do. Some of the families of the 
settlers actually lived on parched corn while the 
ditches were being constructed, while others 
were happy over a diet of beans. Women and 
children camped on the river bottoms in the 
spring, that they might raise " garden truck,"' 
and thus add something to their depleted 
larders. Rut the ground-work was finally ac- 
complished ; water began to flow through the 
ditches, and then was soon demonstrated what 
a wonderfully fertile section existed here. The 
news soon spread far and near that a country 
more fertile than the wondrous Nile valley ex- 
isted in Tnlare County, and emigration toward 
that section commenced. 

The Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 
originally organized to build through this sec- 
tion, were quick to see that the lands granted 
them by Congress were becoming valuable, 
and, that they might retain their hold on them, 
in 1876 built a line of road from Goshen to 
where Lemoore now stands, ami commenced the 
sale of lots at the towns of Lemoore and Han- 
ford. 

THE FIRST SALE OF TOWN LOTS 

was at auction, and excursion trains were 
run from San Francisco, bringing to the sale 
people from all the stations along the railroad. 
Many comments were made on the possibilities 
of a town located on a railroad that •• commenced 
nowhere, and ended in a desert." The sale was not 
the success expected by the railroad company, 
though a number of lots were disposed of at 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



217 



figures then considered extremely beyond their 
value. For several years it seemed as though 
the estimate placed on this section of the coun- 
try by these early visitors was about correct. 
The town made slow progress, and disastrous 
fires visited the place on several occasions, with 
a seeming desire to wipe it fro n the face- of 
the earth. But the fertile soil was in the coun- 
try surrounding, and its possessors had to have 
a mart of trade and barter for their products. 
Water continued to be brought out on the plains 
for the irrigation of lands, and the wheat prod- 
uct of that section became so great that six or 

o 

eight large warehouses were unable to contain 
it, and the railroad was unable to furnish cars 
to convey it to tide water. 

The country was found to possess an ad- 
vautao-e over other sections of the State, too, in 
the cultivation of cereals, which guaranteed a 
crop in seasons of drouth, and that was the fact 
that the soil was irrigated by percolation, in- 
stead of flooding — the latter method being con- 
sidered injurious to growing crops. Besides in- 
suring a crop each season, it also insured profit- 
able prices in seasons of drouth. Water in 
ditches constructed on a section line was known 
to percolate, or seep, over the entire 6-tO acres. 
Farmers took advantage of this by raising two 
crops on the same piece of land in one season — 
that is, when the wheat crop was harvested the 
land was again plowed and planted to corn, 
beans, pumpkins, etc. 

The soil and water system proved this sec- 
tion particulary adapted to the growth of alfalfa, 
and ten and twelve tons to the acre per annum 
was no uncommon product. Every farmer had 
his alfalfa field. But the yield finally be- 
came so great that the market was over-sup- 
plied, and prices for hay ruled so low that the 
cr p seemed as though it would soon become 
an unprofitable one. This was averted by the 
farmers engaging in stock raising, and thus 
consuming at home the surplus product. This 
again accounts for the fact that no lean, lank, 
scrawny horses or cattle are found in Lucerne 
valley. Those engaging in stock raising sought 

14 



to procure the best breeds of animals to be had, 
and no finer horses or cattle are to be seen than 
are found on the alfalfa pastures of N. W. 
Motheral, George A. Dodge, D. C. Hayward 
and many others living in the vicinity of Han- 
ford. This section will soon be to California, 
so far as horses are concerned, what Lexington 
has been to Kentucky. 

This section will not be known alone, how- 
ever, for its alfalfa fields and fine horses. 
Wheat raising is now a thing of the past, and 
two of the large wheat warehouses have already 
given way to the industry. Peter Saazig'uini 
of Grangeville, a Mr. Maschmayer of Lemoore, 
Gash Blowers and others, several years since 
demonstrated the fact that this soil was pecu- 
liarly adapted to the raisin grape, as well as to 
the cultivation of peaches, prunes, apricots and 
other fruits. The people generally were slow 
to believe what profits might be realized from 
these sources, and the statement that the 
pioneers in the raisin industry had derived $300 
an acre from their grapevines was taken with 
many grains of allowance. But by degrees the 
peeple came to realize the profits of the industry 
and to-day little else is heard on the streets of 
Hanford than the number of acres this or that 
land owner is devoting to vines. Those well 
informed in the matter state that no less than 
7,000 acres in the vicinity of Hanford has been 
planted to vines this season, and the work of 
setting them out is still in progress. Raisins 
grown here are much sought after while in the 
sweat box, to be used as top layers by growers 
in other parts of the State. They are exceed- 
ingly large and have a fine flavor. This fact 
will make this country known the world over 
when the product shall be increased to the ex- 
tent that the raisins can be placed in all the 
markets, and that date is not far hence. Such a 
reputation has already been gained that people 
from the Atlantic coast are making invest- 
ments in Lucerne soil, and S. H. Biglaud repre- 
sents an English colonization company that has 
an office in London. 

Dr. A. P. Peck represents a Chicago syndi- 



218 



HISTORY OF CENT UAL CALIFORNIA. 



cate that lias purchased 640 acres of land, known 
as the Diss ranch. It is now known as the 
" Solano Fruit Farm," and a portion of it is 
being planted to trees and vines this season. 
The owners are expected to arrive here next 
season, erect houses on their property and put 
the entire tract in cultivation. 

J. C. Kimball, of Oakland, owns a line body 
ot land North of Hanford, on which he has this 
year planted out 66,000 prune trees. The 
orchard will be extended next season. 

The Ballyhooly ranch of 160 acres, Gordon 
ranch of 160 acres, and Harvie ranch of 30 acres, 
south of Hanford, were planted in vines this 
season. Those properties are under the super- 
vision of S. H. Bigland, who represents a 
colonization association with offices in London 
and San Francisco. 

B. L. Barney, Fred Foster and G .J. Lockie 
are new arrivals from the State of New York. 
They have purchased land, which is spoken of 
as the New York colony, and have this season 
planted out forty acres to vines, and will extend 
the vineyard next season. Mr. Barney has a 
line residence in course of construction in Han- 
ford now. 

S. E. Biddle & Bros, are planting 320 acres 
to vines; E. E. Bush, 150 acres to trees and 350 
to vines; J. J. Harlow, 140 acres to vines; J. T. 
McJunking, 30 in trees and 35 in vines; L. C. 
Lillis, 340 acres in vines; S. H. Bigland, 180 
acres; D. C Hay ward, 150 acres; Frank Sharp- 
ies, 40 acres; Ben Mickle, 40 acres; Mr. Wilson, 
40 acres; J. O. Hickman, SO acres; W. S. Por- 
ter of San Francisco, 100 acres; A. F. Frasier, 
70 acres; S. A. Deardorff 40 acres; Win. Viney, 
20 in trees and 30 in vines; Mr. P. Troxler, 19 
acres in vines; John Benedict, 30 acres; Joseph 
Rogers, 40 acres; Manuel Silva, 75 acres; M. M. 
Johnson, 50 acres; Harry Newport, 40 acres; 
Kainey Bros., 60 acres; Richland Colony, 160 
aces; S. W. Lane, 40 acres; Porter Mickle, 20 
acres; C. J. Cressy, 40 acres; A. F. Jewett, 40 
acres; W. H. Henderson, 40 acres; John Rice, 
60 acres; J. H. Melone, 20 acres in trees; A. V". 
Taylor, 150 acres in vines. 



These are not all, but space will not permit 
naming more. 

The estimate of 7,000 acres for the season's 
planting is none too high. 

Two raisin and fruit packing houses did busi- 
ness in Hanford last season, and had all they 
could attend to, while the estimated acreage de- 
voted to vines and trees was only 3,000 acres. 
Two years hence there will be 10,000 acres to 
be cared for. To handle the crop from this im- 
mense acreage it will require a small army of 
men; and at packing time hundreds of women 
and children will find employment. 

Hanford is growing rapidly; and why should 
she not under the conditions as above set forth? 
She has a fine two-story brick school building, 
costing $20,000. One block fronting on the 
main street is built entirely of brick, and 
another block will be constructed within a few 
weeks, as the last frame building on that block 
has just been removed to make way for a brick 
structure. 

Richard Mills has a fine two-story brick 
building nearly completed on Douty Street. It 
is built with Dick's usual taste, and is un- 
doubtedly the handsomest structure in Han- 
ford. 

Simon, Manasse & Co. are just completing a 
handsome store room at the corner of Main and 
Douty streets, at a cost of $16,000. The main 
room will be occupied by the owners, which 
give as commodious a storeroom as could be de- 
sired, while there are three neat storerooms at 
the north end of the building, facing on Douty 
street. There is a fine cellar under the entire 
structure. 

The " Hotel Artesia" and "Grand Central" 
are the leading hotels. 

A flouring mill capable of turning out seventy 
barrels per day, is one of the features of the 
city, and the owner of this property, J. H. 
Johnson of this city, is putting in an Edison 
electric-light system to light the streets and 
business houses. The brothers. Rush and David 
Lacey of this city, are conducting the business 
of the mill and electric lights. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



219 



Hanford's new bank is the Merchants'. The 
principal place of business is Hanford; capi- 
tal stock, $100,000, divided into 1,000 shares 
of a par value of $100 each. Amount actually 
subscribed, $65,000, by the following named 
gentlemen: Warren W. Parlin, $10,000; Her- 
man Nathan, $10,000; Caleb Railsback, $10,000: 
William J. Newport, $10,000; John B. New- 
port, $10,000; Joseph H. Dopkins, $10,000; B. 
Arthur Bateman, $5,000. 



is a thriving little town of about 600 inhabitants, 
situated on the main line of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad and about four miles south of King's 
river, a large stream from which an abundance 
of water is taken for irrigating purposes. 

It has been comparatively a short period of 
time since the site where the town of Traver 
now stands was considered almost a barren 
waste, inhabited only by the coyote, jack-rabbit, 
horned toad, lizard and tarantula, with an 
occasional sheep or cattle ranch, there still 
being many of the early settlers here who have 
chased the deer, the elk and the antelope over 
the same country where now can be seen thrifty 
orchards and vineyards. 

A view from the tower of the schoolhouse re- 
veals one of the most beautiful scenes the eye 
can behold, — a vast area of land as level as the 
trackless ocean, dotted here and there by 
beautiful dwellings, the homes of prosperous 
farmers, orchardists and vineyardists, sur- 
rounded by handsome groves of shade and or- 
namental trees, in the midst of a thrifty orchard 
or vineyard, with numerous large and smaller 
ditches which carry the life-giving water to the 
thrifty trees and vines, and roads leading to 
Traver from all directions. 

Such a transformation in such a compara- 
tively short time could not have been accom- 
plished but for the superior quality of the soil, 
the abundance of water for irrigation, and the 
energy of the people. 

In 1882 an organization was perfected which 
had for its object the development of those 



portions of Tulare and Fresno counties known 
as the "76 country," the company adopting as 
its name, "The 76 Land and Water Company," 
— the "76" being taken from the country once 
owned by Thomas Fowler, whose branding-iron 
was "76," and his ranch was also known by the 
stockmen as the "76 ranch." The members of 
the organization were P. Y. Baker, who was 
the originator of the project; C. F. J. Kitch- 
ener, Thomas Fowler, D. K. Zumwalt, all of 
Tulare County; and EL. P. Merritt, Francis 
Bullard, Charles Traver and I. H. Jacobs, who 
reside in various portions of the State. The ex- 
cavating work for an irrigatino- canal was beo-un 
in August of the same year. 

In March, 1884, the present town site of 
Traver was surveyed and named after Charles 
Traver. A sale of lots was advertised to take 
place on the 8th of April, 1884, and the rail- 
road company ran excursion trains from San 
Francisco, Los Angeles and intermediate points, 
and there were sold that day and the day follow- 
ing lots to the amount of $65,000. At that 
time the only building in Traver was one which 
Kitchener & Co. had moved from Cross Creek, 
a small station about two and a half miles dis- 
tant, being occupied by Manasse & Brumenthal 
as a store. At about the same time the rail- 
road company commenced building a depot and 
side-track. Thus the work of improvement 
went on, until by the 1st of May Traver boasted 
of two mercantile stores, one drug store, one 
agricultural implement depot, two lumber-yards, 
three saloons, two hotels, two barber shops, two 
livery barns, post office, telegraph office and 
railroad depot, together with the usual addition 
of a growing China-town. Thus the thriving 
little town of Traver continued to grow until 
by its first anniversary it had doubled in busi- 
ness and had erected a handsome $8,000 school- 
house and a church building, having a popula- 
tion of nearly 500. 

During the early history of Traver wheat 
was the principal industry of the farmers, as 
this crop could be raised without irrigation; 
but as the country became settled land became 



220 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



too valuable for this crop to pay, and the atten- 
tion of the majority was turned to fruit-raising, 
which has within the past two years nearly sup- 
planted wheat-growing. Fruits of all kinds 
grow to perfection in this vicinity, and the same 
lands which a few years ago brought to their 
cultivators the small sum of from $7 to $15 per 
acre in wheat, are now beginning to return to 
their owt ers from $50 to $250 per acre, and in 
some cases even more. 

During the past four years the town of Traver 
has suffered greatly from the ravages of fire, the 
first occurring on the 30th day of October, 
1887, in which at least one-third of the business 
portion of the town was swept away in smoke. 
Again, on June 18, 1890, another fire occurred 
which wiped out about $36,000 worth of prop- 
erty; and on the 29th of July of the same year 
still another, which succeeded in cleaning up 
over $51,000 more. These set-backs to the 
town, which came just at the time the change 
from wheat-raising to iruit-culture was taking 
place, were a very severe blow which would 
have proved fatal to many places, as the change 
of industry in the country had cut off nearly 
all the income from the producing class for a 
period of from two to three years, when they 
will begin to get returns from their young 
orchards and vineyards. 

On August 14, 1888, the citizens of the '-76 
country" voted on the organization of an irriga- 
tion district, which was carried by a large ma- 
jority, and on September 25, 1888, the board 
of directors, consisting of P. Y. Buker, T. L. 
Peed, J. D. Vannoy, E. E. Giddings and J. E. 
Toler, met in Traver, the metropolis of the dis- 
trict, and organized, electing P. Y. Baker as 
president; and on July 1, 1890, purchased the 
great water system, which is the largest in the 
State of California, of the "76 Land and AYater 
Company," and now the water system is owned 
by the people and an abundance of water is 
supplied to all who need it at a nominal cost, 
and Travel' is now starting out, as it were, on a 
new era, with three large general merchandise 
stores, one exclusive grocery store, one drug 



store, one fruit store, a bakery, three Baloons, 
one barber shop, three blacksmith and wagon 
shops, one shoe shop, one large rimning-mill, 
three large warehoue s, two livery barns, a 
handsome two-story brick hotel, one of the 
largest and best in the county, a meat market, 
a large brick society hall, a large frame public 
hall, three churches, a handsome $8,000 school- 
house, a weekly newspaper, the Advocate, and 
a good prospect for a packing-house in the near 
future; and is now taking a step forward that 
will place it in the front ranks of prosperity, 
witu a substantial future before it. 



is situated eight miles west of Hanford, in the 
same fertile region, and contains, by the census 
of 1890, a population of 651. The town was 
originally laid out about a halt' mile south of 
its present location, on land belonging to Dr. 
Lovern Lee Moore, and it was from the doctor's 
name that some of his friends gave the village 
the name of Lemoore. When the railroad was 
built a new town site was laid out, and such 
buildings as had been erected were put on 
wheels and moved to the new town. For several 
years past Lemoore has had bad luck. For a 
time it bid fair to outstrip Hanford, but tire 
after tire occurred until the people became 
somewhat discouraged and for a time almost 
ceased to build. Furthermore, the Laguna de 
Tache Rancho was too near the town to encour- 
age or even permit the growth it otherwise 
might have had. Several other large tracts 
were held near by, so that people were not able 
to get lands on which to settle as near town as 
they desired. There have been many favorable 
changes recently, however, and Lemoore has 
taken new life and bids fair to compete largely 
with her neighbor, Hanford. She has a tine 
flouring-mill, several large general merchandise 
establishments, grain warehouses aggregating a 
capacity of 8,000 tons, a fine schoolhonse. two 
neat churches, and a full accompaniment of 
business houses of all kinds. Lemoore's fruit 
interests are very important, and the farmers 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFJRNIA. 



221 



and stock-breeders living in the vicinity are 
among the most successful in the county. It is 
a good town to live in, having a quiet and 
sociable community, maintaining literary socie- 
ties and patronizing home entertainments of 
that character rather better than any other town 
in the county. She has her social and fraternal 
societies, and Justin Jacobs is the legal adviser 
of the town. The Leader is the newsy news- 
paper, and is well to the front showing up its 
section of the county. 



SPRINGVILLE. 



On the west bank of North Tule, eighteen 
miles northeast of Porterville, is the rising little 
hamlet of Springville, one day to be the Carls- 
bad of Tulare County. This place takes its 
name from the tine soda spring which bubbles 
from the earth in the center of the town, and 
which has attracted many persons for years past. 
During many years past the place has been 
widely known as " the old soda, spring place," 
and here each summer numbers of individuals 
have spent the warm months; some came seek- 
ing recreation, while others were drawn hither 
to gain health by drinking the already noted 
soda water found here; but want of accom- 
modations and the lack of mail facilities kept 
the resort in the background. 

In the year 1871 John Crabtree filed a set- 
tler's right on the land, and later on obtained a 
patent. Subsequently it passed into the hands 
of other parties, and at one time gave promise 
of becoming a health resort. A wealthy lady 
of Sacramento built a hotel and made some 
other improvements with the intention of con- 
ducting a home for invalids and others in feeble 
health, but owing to the sparsely settled condi- 
tion of the country she did not succeed. Here 
in later years was the happy home of O. H. P. 
Duncan, now deceased, and the old soda-spring 
place became a stock ranch. The many sheep- 
men who then went to the meadows each sum- 
mer took a run down to the spring to get a quaff 
of the sparkling water. Nature alone had done 
her part, for as yet the spot was unembellished 



by man. Mr. Duncan sold the property to Sol- 
omon Sweet, the merchant of Visalis, who 
owned it until a year ago, when Avon M. Co- 
burn purchased the bind with a view mainly of 
utilizing the splendid water power furnished by 
Tule river; but beincr of a go-head nature Mr. 
Coburn has made the place a town in reality as 
well as in name. 

At present Springville has a store, well 
stocked and complete; a post office, blacksmith 
shop, box factory, furniture shop, and hotel; all 
this the result of a year's growth. The town- 
site comprises about eighteen acres, which in- 
cludes five blocks, — the lots being of various 
sizes, the largest embracing two acres. The 
prices of these lots are from $200 downward, 
according to location and size. Many of these 
lots are covered witli large oak trees, which 
cover the entire site and afford shade as well as 
fuel. 

The climate is all that can be desired; the 
water of the river, aided by the magnificent 
oaks, keeps the air balmy, while only four miles 
to the east are the pine forests on Black moun- 
tain, which send down their cool, healthful 
breezes each evening at twilight. By a ride of 
two hours one can be landed amid the pines and 
meadows on the slopes of the Sierras. Water 
can be placed on every lot. The power which 
runs the factory is made to pump water and 
carry it to any desired point; several residents 
have water in their yards and dwellings at this 
writing. 

The soil here is rich and easily tilled. Being 
in the thermal belt, the orange and lemon, as 
well as the banana, do exceedingly well. Almost 
anything can be produced in the line of fruits. 

This place is on the main county road leading 
to Cramer, Milo and the sawmills beyond; all 
the lumber sawed in the great timber region 
above here must pass Springville on the way to 
the valley. One quarter of a mile north is the 
junction of middle Tule with the north branch, 
and at this junction the road to Prohibition Flat 
leaves the main thoroughfare. In the imme- 
diate vicinity are some line homes with profit- 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



able orchards and vineyards; among them may 
be mentioned the places of G. W. Duncan, J. 
R. Hubbs aiid Louis Weber; while surround- 
ing the town are many acres of good irrigable 
land as yet uncultivated. Dr. J. M. Gilstrap, 
one mile south, is making a cosy home on a 
twenty-acre lot he recently purchased. East of 
here three miles is Black Mountain valley, a 
beautiful circular cove where some nice homes 
are being made. The valley can be watered 
from middle Tule, and the soil produces some 
of the finest mountain apples in the State. J. 
M. Aiken, one of the oldest settlers, has a prof- 
itable ranch with a large orchard, mostly apple 
trees. Other settlers are 0. A. Elster, R. L. 
Hudson, Alfred Albee, J. Reynolds; and here 
also is the "Idle-wild Retreat" of Editor 
O'Clancy, of the Enterprise. 

WHITE RIVER, 

more generally known as "Tail Holt," is the 
oldest town in Tnlare County, having been es- 
tablished as early as 1855 or 1856. Keysville 
is an older place, but what is left of it, and that 
is little, is now in Kern County. Prospectors 
in search of gold mines were traveling through 
the hills, and near where White River now is 
were fortunate in picking up numerous gold 
nuggets, and in quantities that returned good 
wages at that date. The news of the discovery 
attracted a large number of miners thither, and 
for several years it was a prosperous mining 
camp. A couple of stores and several saloons 
commenced business, and prospered. The camp 
had all the experiences of the mining towns of 
early days— there was hard work during the day 
and a carousal at night. These night carousals 
led to many fights, and a graveyard was started 
with a man who died with his boots on. It is a 
singular fact that the first seven men buried in 
this mountain cemetery had the given name of 
" Dan," and each and every one of them were 
killed in rows with brother miners. These 
murders or homicides all occurred between the 
years of 1856 and 1860. The succeeding inter- 
ments, for a number of years, consisted almost 



entirely of small children. Pure mountain 
water and air has been conducive to longevity, 
and today there is not a more healthy appearing 
people than those who have their abiding place 
at White River, and a number of those who lo- 
cated there on the first discovery of gold are 
yet living there or in that vicinity, though few 
of them are engaged in mining, but have turned 
their hands to pastoral pursuits. 

The placer mines of the district were ex- 
hausted within a year or two, and the popula- 
tion began to decrease before the beginning of 
the year 1860. Those remaining, however, 
sunk "coyote" holes in numberless places on 
the mountain sides, and were generally re- 
rewaded by specimens of quartz containing 
quantities of gold. 

D. B. James (Brigham) was probably the first 
one to turn his attention to quartz mining in 
the district, and he is to-day interested in the 
principal quartz leads of the district. Several 
years ago he erected a ten stamp mill on the 
river, and on the town site, for the purpose of 
crushing ore taken from the Bald Mountain, 
Eclipse and Last Chance mines, all of which are 
about two miles distant from the mill. Mr. 
James opened a restaurant at White River on 
his first arrival, but afterward became interested 
in the mines, and has worked on some of his 
interests there, periodically, up to the present 
date, though he has not resided there for years. 

Among the early-time settlers that located at 
White River there now remains there Clint 
Biggs, S. W. (Doc.) Woody, A. J. Maultby and 
D. B. James. The three first named have 
turned their attention to farming and cattle 
raising. 

White River contains two stores, one owned 
by L. A. Maceron, and conducted by the Mitch- 
ell Bros., and the other run by a Mr. Barring- 
ton. W. E. Pinnell is the blacksmith of the 
town. Then there is a saloon and feed stable, 
the latter conducted by the Mitchells. 

All of the little valleys in the surrounding 
mountains have of late been taken up by set- 
tlers as homesteads. These parties raise grain 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



223 



hay for the market, which is sold during 
the year at from $12 to $15 per ton. Then 
these settlers have a few head of cattle and a 
number of hogs, and from these industries com- 
bined make a little money. Charles Barbero, a 
former well-known resident of Mussel Slough, 
has a ranch two miles above the town, on which 
can be produced vegetables of all kinds. 

There are three sawmills in the timber belt 
east of White River, who find a market for 
their products on the plains about Poso creek 
and the country surrounding Delano. D. W. 
Grover's mill has a capacity of about 25,000 
feet of lumber per day. The Poso Creek Lum- 
ber Company also has a mill of a capacity of 25,- 
000 feet per day. The Arbor Vita mill, managed 
by W. D. Parsons, is now cutting lumber. 



is a neat, new town five miles east of Dinuba in 
a spur of Tulare valley, near the foothills of 
the Sierra Nevada, and sheltered from the winds 
by Smith's mountain. The spur of the valley 
in which the town is located opens toward the 
south, and the mountains both protect it from 
the northwest winds and form a lovely and pic- 
turesque view. The town is in the center of 
this valley, which is about nine miles in each 
direction. It is one of the richest and best pro 
tected tracts of land in Tulare County. This 
spot is not only found to be exceedingly well 
adapted to the production of both deciduous 
and citrus fruit trees, but also the raisin grape- 
In 1888 Messrs. Daniel R. Sliafer, Neal Mc- 
Callan, D. C. Bane, L. J. Miller and R. Q. 
Wickham, purchased and platted the town site' 
and it was given the name Orosi (golden val- 
ley). Nothing farther was done for a year, 
when D. R. Shafer built and started a general 
merchandise store, and at the same time started 
a residence on his present ranch. After six 
months he sold his store and engaged in the 
planting of fruit trees and vines The town 
now, in 1891, contains about thirty houses. All 
the inhabitants are engaged in horticultural 
pursuits, having had large fruit and vineyard 



experience in other places. The soil is sandy 
loam, very rich, it being the delta of Sand creek, 
and on this garden spot within a radius of two 
miles from there, 1,000 acres of raisin grapes 
have been planted and are giving the highest 
promise of the greatest possible success. 

Orosi is thirty-five miles from the city of 
Fresno, the county seat of Fresno County, and 
sixteen miles from Visalia city. Mr. Addison 
J. Bump, an investor in Orosi, has planted a 
grove of Washington Navel budded orange trees 
from Florida, and notwithstanding they are 
only in the second year, one of the trees had 
seven well formed oranges on it. lie has 
also a fine grape vineyard on this tract. Lands 
with abundance of water are cheap here — only 
from$80 to $125 per acre; and all who have seen 
this lovely spot, with its snow-capped moun- 
tains in the background, are delighted with it, 
and the evidence of its prosperity are abundant 
on every hand; and the present settlers are 
both worthy and enterprising. 



This prosperous new town is located on a 
branch of the Southern Pacific railroad, thirty 
miles southeast of Fresno and forty-five miles 
from Porterville, in the heart of a rich grain 
and fruit country; and the country for miles in 
every direction is covered with waving fields of 
golden grain, dotted with pleasant homes and 
orchards and vineyards of raisin grapes. The 
town site was surveyed in 1889, and the rail- 
road built to the place. Two hundred and forty 
acres of land was deeded to the railroad com- 
pany by James Sibley, E. E. Giddings, Adolph 
Levis and another. This land the company 
platted and gave it its name, Dinuba; and the 
first building was built by Homer Hall and A. 
C. Austin, for an office. D. S. Colin & Co. 
built the first store, and are hence the pioneer 
merchants of the town. 

The first church edifice was built by the 
Methodists, in 1890, and the school board the 
same year built a large and attractive school- 



224 



HI8T0ST OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



house, at a cost of §20,000, a building that 
would be au honor to any town. 

The Baptists have a church organization and 
contemplate building an edifice in the near 
future. 

Mr. James Sibley, with a partner, built the 
Dinuba Hotel, and the town contains, in 1891, 
three stores, two blacksmith shops, railroad 
depot and a large warehouse, a nice, well kept 
post office, and several other business places 
usual in such towns. 

The town is under the Alta irrigation sys- 
tem, and in that particular is well situated. 
Adjoining lands are worth from $80 to §100 
per acre. 

The town contains about 150 inhabitants, 
earnest, thrifty, law-abiding people, mostly 
from the Eastern States, who, seeing the advan- 
tages and bright prospects of the place, have 
decided to make it their home. The culture of 
the soil, both for grain and fruit, is of recent 
date, and everything bespeaks the highest pros- 
perity and developments. 



geographically speaking, occupies a very im- 
portant position. She is on the main line of 
the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Visalia 
road branches off here toward the east, and 
the Mussel Slough road to the west, giving 
the town the appearance of a railroad center. 
From some unknown cause the town has 
never grown much. The country surrounding 
near by is good. An artesian well has been 
sunk there and a considerable flow of water 
obtained. The town has a good general mer- 
chandise establishment, two hotels, a lumber 
yard, grain warehouse, large and convenient 
depot, stock-yards, etc. Recently there is an 
air of activity apparent, and Goshen will yet 
be an important town. 

GRANGEVILLE 

is generally conceded to be one of the garden 
spots of the county. It is certainly the best 
improved and wealthiest farming community 



iii the county. It is located in the heart of 
Mussel Slough, four miles northwest from 
Ilanford. The village of itself is of little im- 
portance, — two stores, blacksmith and wagon 
shop, etc. 

For many years this was nearly entirely a 
wheat-growing community; not so now: they 
carry on diversified farming, fruit-growing, 
etc. The land as a rule is held in small 
tracts, and at high prices, none caring to sell. 
The village has a handsome schoolhouse and 
an excellent school. 

CAMP BADGER 

is not a village, though there are a store and 
blacksmith shop there. It is situated high 
up in the Sierras, about forty miles northeast 
of Traver. Stock-raising and lumbering are 
the principal industries. Many families from 
the valley go there camping in summer, and 
ere long it will become a favorite summer re- 
sort. 

FARMEKSVILLE 

consists of a general merchandise store, a com- 
modious hotel, a blacksmith shop and a large 
two-story schoolhouse. It is situated .about 
seven miles southeast of Visalia, surrounded by 
very fertile lands, on which are produced im- 
mense crops of grain, fruits and vegetables. It 
is well timbered with oaks, some of which are 
very large, specimens being nine feet in dia- 
meter. 

TI1TON 

is located on the main line of the Southern Pa- 
cific railroad, ten miles south of Tulare city, ami 
was a few years since a prosperous town of per- 
haps 400 inhabitants, and at that time had three 
good stores, — a drug store, two hotels, black- 
smith shops, two large grain warehouses, a tine 
depot, one church, two livery stables, a good 
school building and an energetic population. 
Immense grain shipments were made from here, 
as also large quantities of wool. Tipton is not 
now what she was then. Other towns spring- 
ing up in the county, and destruction by tire, 
have caused her to decrease rather than in- 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



225 



crease. The country surrounding is line, and 
needs only water to enable it to make Tipton 
a flourishing town, which no doubt will be in 
the near future. 

PIXLET, 

situated on the main line of railroad, five miles 
south of Tipton, is named for Frank Pixley, 
•editor of the Argonaut. Here are a monster 
artesian well, a fine three-story hotel, a splendid 
brick-store building, a handsome two-story 
schoolhouse, a large grain warehonse, livery 
stables, blacksmith shop, etc. The place is sur- 
rounded by a wonderfully fertile country. Being 
in the artesian belt, where an abundance of 
water can be had, Pixley is a desirable place in 
which to live. 

ALILA 

is one of the new towns of the county, located 
on the line of the Southern Pacific railroad, 
seven miles north of the south line of the 
county. The territory surrounding the town is 
some of the best in the State. To the east- 
ward the land is a rich sandy loam, retains 
moisture remarkably well, and is pleasant to 
cultivate. A portion of this region is covered 
by the artesian belt, and several fine wells have 
been developed. The town has a fine school 
building, churches, general stores, grain ware- 
houses, societies, etc. 

Alila is in what is known as Southern Tulare, 
lying south of Tule river, which has an area of 
20 x 36 miles, and once irrigated will be one of 
the very valuable sections of the county. The 
soil is in its tavor, as it is of a moist character 
and retains its moisture well. The problem of 
irrigation is being solved, and soon this will be 
a charming locality. 

BELLEVILLE. 

This village is situated six miles east of 
Pixley, the latter being the shipping point for 
its products. The land surrounding is irri- 
gated by water taken from Deer creek through 
a canal twelve miles long. There are two 
schoolhouses on this section about three miles 
apart; each cost about $2,000. 



WOODVILLE 



is nine miles northeast of Tipton, the nearest 
shipping point. The village contains two 
churches, a good hotel, two stores and two 
blacksmith shops. The town is located only a 
short distance from the rich bottom lands of 
the Tule river; principal products of this re- 
gion, wheat and alfalfa hay. 



is located twelve miles due east of Tipton, con- 
tains a store and blacksmith, shop. Nearest 
shipping points, Porterville or Piano. Supplied 
with water from Tule river through a large 
ditch. The soil in this region is exceedingly 
fertile. 

ARMONA 

is situated midway between Hanford and Le- 
moore, at the junction of the Goshen division 
and the Los Banos branch of the Southern 
Pacific railroad. It has a hotel, blacksmith 
shop, general store and two large warehouses. 
It is a large shipping point for wheat and 
wool. 

KAWEAH COLONY. 

The colonists began settling in the cafion as 
early as 1886. They soon learned that the land 
they wished to develop was not accessible with- 
out a good roadway. They accordingly formed 
themselves into a co-operative body and pro- 
ceeded to wrestle with the solid grauite rock 
and boulders until a road some twenty miles in 
length was hewn out of the implacable rock. 
This road, which starts from an elevation of 
about 1,500 feet, and rises by an easy grade to 
7,000 feet, is one of the finest in the State, 
and stands a monument to the pluck, energy 
and good faith of these hardy pioneers. 

The Kaweah Co-operative Colony Company 
was organized in 1886 for the purpose of dem- 
onstrating the advantages of complete co-oper- 
ation in social and industrial life. Its prime 
mission is to insure its members against want, 
or fear of want, by providing comfortable 
homes, ample sustenance, educational and rec- 
reative facilities, and to promote and main- 



226 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



tain harmonious and social relations. It is 
neither an anarchist nor a free-love colony, and 
persons of that turn of thought are not desired; 
nor will they be received as members. The 
colony is a thoroughly democratic institution in 
the true meaning of the term. All members 
are on an equal footing as far as opportunities 
are concerned. All have an equal voice and 
vote in the affairs of the colony. The property 
of the colony is owned by the membership as a 
whole; the affairs are administered by a board 
of five trustees elected by the membership at 
large. Each branch of industry is under super- 
vision of a superintendent appointed by the 
trustees, and removable by the workers in his 
department. General meetings are held at 
regular intervals, at which reports of officers 
are read and other business transacted, each 
member having the right to voice and vote 
upon all questions arising. '■ A membership in 
the colony entitles its owner to an equal share 
with all others in all its profits and privileges. 
Any person may become a member who is in 
sympathy with the movement and is willing to 
faithfully do his or her share toward advancing 
the colony's objects and welfare. The price of 
membership is $500, of which $100 must be 
paid in cash; the remainder may be paid in 
work for the colony. In case a member pos- 
sesses property of value to the colony his en- 
tire membership fee may be paid in such ma- 
terial, subject to the decision of the trus- 
tees." 

The town of Kaweah is delightfully situated 
on the north fork of the stream whose name it 
bears, near where it joins the main river. The 
water supply for power and other purposes 
being ample, and the natural resources, abun- 
dant, it is admirably located for a manufacturing 
town. The place contains about 100 buildings, 



a public school and library, postofrice, store, 
harness shop, blacksmith shop and a printing 
office, issuing a weekly newspaper, the Kaweah 
Commonwealth. This is a neat four-page 
paper, and has a circulation of 2,000 copies 
weekly. 

The colonists have now in operation a saw- 
mill, connected with which is a planer, also a 
lath and shingle mill, and a planing mill and 
box factory are being erected. Each member 
of the colony contributes an equal amount to 
the capital stock of the concern. The soil, the 
stock and the machinery are owned by the com- 
pany as a whole, and are operated in the interest 
of the members. The by-laws provide that 
only those who perform some useful service to 
the company are entitled to receive dividends, 
the number of hours worked by a member being 
the basis upon which his dividends are made. 
By this method it is assumed the producer gets 
the full product of his labor. The citizens of 
this colony are mostly native-born Americans, 
and include among them many highly cultured 
and intellectual people. 

Their creed, if it can be so called, is to do 
unto others as they would be done by. Being 
questioned as to the politics of the colony, 
one of the officers said: "The colony has not 
recognized any party in politics. Its members 
have voted for those whom they have considered 
to be the most fit for office." 

The following are the officials of the colony : 
J. J. Martin, Secretary; William Christie, Treas- 
urer. Board of Trustees : J. J. Martin. Burnette 
G. Haskell, William Christie, II. T. Taylor and 
Richard Corbett. Department Superintendents: 
I. Barnard, W. B. Hunter, James Bellah, Wm. 
Howard, Wm. Christie, J. J. Martin, B. G. 
Haskell, George B. Savage and Mrs. Candacc 
E. Christie. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



227 




EARLY HISTORY. 

No satisfactory history could be written of 
Kern County without first reviewing the early 
settlements, a few incidents as well as first in- 
dustrial enterprises undertaken prior to county 
organization, when the vast area of Kern County 
as it now is was a portion of the present large 
county of Tulare. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

When the State was first formed into coun- 
ties, the whole country extending from the 
Tuolumne river to Walker's pass on the south, 
and from the Nevada State line on the east to 
the Coast Range on the west, was divided into 
two counties, — Mariposa and Tulare. From 
these have since been formed the counties of 
Mariposa, Mono, Inyo, Merced, Fresno, Tulare 
and Kern. This portion of the great San Joa- 
quin valley, until about the year 1835, was al- 
most a terra incognita, having been visited by 
the trappers only about the date mentioned. In 
June of that year Lieutenant Moraga and his 
companions, of the Mexican army (then sta- 
tioned at the presidio of San Francisco), crossed 
the San Joaquin, near the mouth of the Tuo- 
lumne, and traveled thenee in a southeasterly 
direction to 'the Merced river, a distance of 
about forty miles, the whole of which had to be 
traversed without water. The weather being 
very hot, it is not strange that they in their 
thirst and famished condition called the river 
El Rio de la Merced, the river of mercy. After 



visiting King's river the expedition returned 
over the mountains to the west. 

The first American known to have arrived in 
California overland was Captain Jedediah S. 
Smith, of New York, at the head of a trading 
expedition, which he accompanied from St. 
Louis. In the spring of 1826 Captain Smith, 
at the head of a party of twenty-five, left the 
winter-quarters of the company on the head- 
waters of the Missouri river, to make a spring 
and fall hunt. They crossed the mountains and 
entered the great San Joaquin valley, near its 
southeastern extremity, thus being the first 
party from the East or North to enter this mag- 
nificent valley, and the first to explore any of 
the rivers flowing into the bay of San Francisco. 
The counties of Kern and Inyo were formed in 
1866. The discovery of gold in the territory 
now included in Kern County was made in 
1854 by a party of emigrants on their way 
from Los Angeles County. 

They had camped on a gulch in the Greenhorn 
mountains, one of the highest points of the lower 
Sierra, and there found a rich deposit of gold. 

The news spread rapidly, but it was not until 
1857 that the great rush known as the Kern 
river gold excitement took place. A report of 
rich mines then spread more rapidly, and for- 
tune hunters headed in large numbers from 
various localities for the new "El Dorado." 

EARLY MINING. 

Soon many rich mines were located, among 
which may be mentioned French Gulch, Span- 



228 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ish Gulch, Bradshaw's, Whisky Flat, Keysville, 
and many others. These placers soon becoming 
exhausted, miners began the search for the 
source. This was soon found in numerous 
auriferous quartz ledges that showed themselves 
all through the mountains. One of the first 
discoveries of this character was the Big Blue, 
the great summer mine near Kernville. This 
was in 1860. Numerous small leads, and one 
large one called the Mammoth, were found near 
Keysville, where the first quartz mill was 
erected in the county in 1859. Keysville was 
the most prosperous mining camp in the county 
up to 1864. The Long Tom mines were dis- 
covered in 1863, from which near a half million 
of gold was extracted within eighteen months. 
The famous Joe Walker mine near Havilah 
was discovered in 1866. This was a valuable 
lead, but at the depth of 400 feet a great body 
of water was encountered, and thousands 
of dollars expended in an attempt to pump 
it out, but all machinery, pumps, etc., proved 
a failure; the volume of water was too 
great. 

Soon there were many miners who decided 
that there were more promising features in till- 
ing the soil, stock-raising, etc., than in the un- 
certain pursuit of mining. Up to the date 
named little attention had been given to agri- 
culture. Some little hay and grain had been 
grown in the mountain regions about Walker's 
basin, Lynn's valley, Bear and Cumming's val- 
leys, Tehachapi, and the little flats along the 
Kern river. Before entering the valley and 
treating of its agricultural resources, develop- 
ments, etc., a further ramble will be made in 
the mining regions. 

The Clear Creek Mining District was dis- 
covered in July, 1864, by a prospecting party, 
consisting of Benjamin T. Mitchell, Alexander 
Reid, George McKay and Dr. C. De La Borde, 
more generelly known as the " French Doctor." 
The district was organized in August of the 
same year, and comprised the whole region 
drained by Clear creek and Copperas branch, 
and bounded by the summit of the mountains 



surrounding this basin. George McKay was 
elected recorder of the company. The first 
lode discovered and recorded was the Havilah . 
The locaters of this were the gentlemen above 
named. Afterward this company, known as 
the Havilah Mining Company, located many 
other ledges, and soon after dissolved, and each 
continued prospecting alone. Soon afterward 
Dr. De La Borde, in connection with August 
Gouglat, discovered and located thirty six 
ledges, among which were the Rhone, Roche- 
fort, Eagle, Dijon, Nos. 1 and 2, Cape Horn, 
Navarre, Nievre, Alma, Nos. 1 and 2, Lyon, 
Marengo, and others. The famous Delphi- 
T3'rone and Lexington lodes were located by II. 
McKeadney. From this time on the mining 
interests were rapidly developed. 

The first store opened in the mining district 
was by Alexander Reid, as also the first board- 
ing-house, and to him much was due for his en- 
ergy and successful efforts in bringing the 
mines to public notice, and his unceasing perse- 
verance to make them a success. The first mill 
erected in this district was the " Pioneer," by 
Joseph H. Thomas. This mill he brought 
from the Coso district, formerly the property 
of the Willow Spring Mining Company. The 
first run of the mill was from the Dijon lode, 
which paid at the rate of §37 per ton. The 
next mill in operation was the four-stamp mill 
of Hon. J. W. Freeman, which was brought from 
Greenhorn, and commenced work in January, 
1865. The first rock crushed by this mill in 
the new field was from the ledges of Nice- 
wander, Park & Co. The largest yield was had 

from this crushing of all mills in the same dis- 
cs 

trict of like amount of rock since, and perhaps 
more than from the same amount of unpicked 
rock in the State. The yield of twenty-seven 
tons of rock was over $5,000, the rock paying 
over $300 per ton. The gold was saved from 
the battery alone, there being no other mode 
for saving it at the mill. The Rochefort lode 
made a yield of $230, and the Delphi $180 per 
ton the same week, ami it was believed that, 
considering the facilities for saving the precious 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



229 



metal at the time, the yield for like amount of 
rock in the State was unprecedented. 

Nicewander, Park & Co., erected the fourth, 
a five-stamp mill, near their mines on the moun- 
tains. Several other mills followed as the de- 
mand called for. 

The New Nork and Clear Creek Company 
erected a ten-stamp mill, then not excelled by 
any in the State. Dr. De La Borde and Goug- 
lat sold their entire interest in this district, in 
October, for $50,000. Sometime thereafter, 
Nicewander, Park & Co., sold their entire min- 
ing interests to Colonel Arnold A. Rand, real- 
izing nearly double the cost to them. 

The preceding review of early mining in 
Kern County is to show the immense deposit 
of the precious metal in this region, and gold 
is but one of many more valuable metallic de- 
posits in the county, — more valuable in the 
sense that they can be worked, and larger pro- 
fits realized with less capital invested, and 
quicker returns. Antimony, quicksilver, cop- 
per, etc., are found in paying quantities, as also 
vast gypsum deposits, coal and oil, all of which 
will be a source of large revenue to the county 
when railroad facilities enable the men of en- 
terprise and capital to ship these products; and 
the fact that such deposits of wealth-producing 
commodities exist in a country is an assurance 
that railroads will soon be constructed to them, 
and ere long Kern County will be in the midst 
of a hum of mineral development. 

BEGINNINGS. 

Resuming the general history of the valley 
portion of the county, it is proper here to state 
that in 1861 the first white man camped and 
settled on what has since been designated as 
Kern Island. In 1862 two or three others fol- 
lowed, and in a short time were joined by the 
late Thomas Baker, better known as Colonel 
Baker, founder of Bakersfield, a man of fore- 
sight and good judgment. The only means of 
communication at that day with the outside 
world was by two stage lines, — one via Havilah 
to Los Ange.les, the other via Havilah to Owen's 



river. From Havilah the road crossed Green- 
horn mountains to Visalia. 

Colonel Baker, with his usual energy, built 
at great expense a toll-road from the foot of the 
mountain, a distance of twenty-seven miles, to 
Havilah, and a desultory communication was 
established. 

GOVERNMENTAL, ETC. 

The act creating Kern County was approved 
April 2, 1866, with the following sections: 

Sec. 1. — There shall be formed out of por- 
tions of Tulare and Los Angeles counties, a new 
county to be called Kern. 

Sec. 2. — The boundaries of Kern County 
shall be as follows: 

Commencing at a point on the western boun- 
dary line of Tulare County, two miles due south 
of the 6th standard south of the Mount Diablo 
base line, thence due east to the western boun- 
dary of Inyo County; thence southerly and 
easterly following the western boundary of Inyo 
County and northern boundary of Los Angeles 
County to the northeast corner of Los Angeles 
County; thence south along the eastern boun- 
dary of said county to the line between town- 
ships 8 and 9, north of the San Bernardino base 
line; thence due west to the Tulare County line; 
thence southerly along the said Tulare County 
line to the southwest corner of Tulare County; 
thence northerly, following along the western 
boundary of said county to the place of begin- 
ning. 

The first meeting of the Board of Supervisors 
was held at Havilah, the first county seat, Au- 
gust 1, 1866. Henry Hatnmell and J. J. Rhymes 
were present. Mr. Hammell was chosen chair- 
man of the Board. This meeting was held 
" pursuant to the act of the Legislature creating 
the County of Kern, to define its boundaries and 
to provide for its organization." The act also 
provided for such organization by appointing 
the first corps of county officials. The Board 
at the meeting referred to proceeded to lay out, 
organize and define the boundary of townships 
JNos. 1, 2 and 3. The first tax levied by the 



230 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Board was State and county, $2.61 on the $100 
worth of property. 

At the meeting of tbe Board of Supervisors, 
August 5, 1867, the new courthouse at Havilah, 
constructed as per contract for $2,200, was 
accepted. 

It appears that about the time the new county 
was organized a news organ was also established. 
We find that the first number of a paper called 
the Courier, was issued in Havilah Saturday, 
August 18, 1866, by the Courier Publishing 
Company; C. W. Bush, editor; George A. Tif- 
fany, printer. Politically this paper was Demo- 
cratic, was a four page, six-column sheet, and 
was much above the average newspaper in anew 
field. The first number presented the following 
as a County Directory: 

State Senator. J. W. Freeman. 

Member of Assembly, I. C. Brown. 

County Judge, Theron Reed. 

District Attorney, E. E. Calhoun. 

Sheriff, W. B. Ross. 

Clerk, Recorder and Auditor, H.D. Beqnette. 

Treasurer, D. A. Sinclair. 

Assessor, R. B. Sagely. 

Surveyor, Thomas Baker. 

Superintendent of Public Schools, J. R. Riley. 

Coroner and Public Administrator, Joseph 
Lively. 

Supervisors, Henry Hammell, S. A. Bishop 
and J. J. Rhymes. 

B. Brundage, Thomas Lespeyre, and E. E. 
Calhoun appear as advertisers in the legal pro- 
fession in Ihe first number of the Courier. The 
medical profession was represented in the same 
paper by the cards of J. A. Davidson and C. 
W. Bush. E. W. Doss, " Pioneer Druggist." 
Bridger & Howeth, proprietors of Sozarac Bil- 
liard Saloon; Clear Creek Exchange Hotel, by 
H. T. Miller. Bell Union Hotel, Hammel & 
Denke, proprietors. Mead & Clark's United 
States Mail Stage line for Visalia; grocery and 
general store, by W. G. Mills; Clear Creek 
store, D. A. Sinclair, proprietor. Several oth- 
ers advertised in this issue. 

The Courier of September 15, 1866, makes 



mention of the organization of a hook anil 
ladder fire company in Havilah, but it 
seems they never owned a hook or a ladder. 
The same paper mentions L. F. Ilumistun 
as county judge, and quotes prices of prod- 
uce, goods, etc., as follows: flour, per barrel, 
$12; butter, psr pound, 50 cents; cheese, 
37 cents; potatoes, 3£ cents; beans, 8 cents; 
eggs, 62 cents per dozen; coal oil, $2.25 per 
gallon; candles, 37 cents per pound; crushed 
sugar, 30 cents; brown sugar, 20 to 25 cents; 
coffee, 37 to 50 cents. October 13th of that 
year the paper appeared in a new and much 
improved dress. The heading was, " Havilah 
Weekly Courier," J. K. Acklin, printer and 
business manager. 

John M. Brite appears as County Supervisor, 
succeeding J. J. Rhymes. In December, men- 
tion is made of Theron Reed as district judge. 
Saturday, December 29, 1866, A. D. Jones ap- 
wears as editor of the Courier. In November 
of that year, mention is made of F. W. Doss as 
superintendent of public schools, and that 
Henry Hammell, J. J. Rhymes and John M. 
Brite comprised the County Board of Supervi- 
sors, having previously stated that Brite suc- 
ceeded Rhymes. 

The first regular meeting of the Board of 
Supervisors at Havilah, when all were present, 
was August 6, 1866. At the special meeting 
previously held, the clerk was instructed to ad- 
vertise for proposals to build a county jail. At 
the regular meeting referred to proposals were 
received from four different bidders, and the 
contract was awarded to Thomas B. Stuart, for 
the sum of $1,600, to be completed in sixty 
days. The building to be constructed of one- 
foot square timber, 20x16 feet, and to contain 
three cells, the partitions of which were to be 
six inches thick, the doors to be of half-inch iron 
made as a orating. The contract also included a 
sheriff's office, to be constructed over the jail. 
The building was to be erected on a lot con- 
tabling two acres purchased by the Board for 
county purposes. At the same meeting the 
Board entered into a contract with Thomas 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



231 



Baker and his associates to make or construct 
irrigating ditches on Lower Kern river, by 
which many thousands of acres of land then 
valueless and belonging to the State and county 
would be made productive and of great value. 
Baker and his associates were to receive a por- 
tion of said lands in payment for their work. 

The name Havilah is from the Old Testa- 
ment, — Genesis ii: 11: " Pison : that is it 
which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, 
where there is gold." Havilah, the place of 
much gold, was the first county seat of Kern 
County, situated about 360 miles southeast of 
San Francisco, at an elevation of about 2,000 
feet above ocean level, and about 110 miles in- 
land on a direct line. 

The first steam quartz mill erected at this 
place was by a Mr. Thomas of Visalia, in 1864, 
and was an eight-stamp mil]. Havilah con- 
tained 500 inhabitants that year. Of that num- 
ber there were twenty-five families; the balance 
were miners, prospectors, etc. There were 147 
buildings or tenements of various kinds in the 
town, among which were four hotels, twelve 
mercantile establishments of various kinds, 
doing an extensive business, two drug stores, 
three boot and shoe stores, two livery stables, 
two breweries, three bakeries, two billiard sa- 
loons, two barber-shops, three fruit stores, two 
bath houses, one paint shop, three blacksmith 
and wagon shops, besides numerous saloons, 
bars, etc., four physicians, one surveyor and 
civil engineer. Some were rather expensive 
buildings. The Bell Union Hotel, built and run 
by Messrs. Hammell & Denker, cost $16,500. 

January 1, 1868, there were three post offices 
in the county, viz.: Lynn's Valley, Havilah and 
Kernville. 

This same month and year Philip T. Colby 
succeeded L. F. Humiston as county judge. H. 
D. Bequette appears as court commissioner in 
connection with his duties as county clerk, 
recorder and auditor. This year there were 
six townships in the county. 

There being some dispute as to the boundary 
line between Kern and Los Angeles counties, 



a resurvey was made by George W. Orth on 
the part of Kern County, and William P. Rey- 
nolds on the part of Los Angeles County, and 
the following report was made by the Kern 
County surveyor: " The line having been lo- 
cated by act of Legislature between townships 
8 and 9 north of the San Bernardino base line, 
commenced at corner to townships 8 and 9 
north, ranges 16 and 17 west of San Bernar- 
dino meridian, where a cedar post was set and 
marked L A on south side, and K on north 
side, and ran thence according to the true 
meridian west (the variation of the needle being 
14 minutes, 41 seconds east) and at 480 
chains set another and similar post, and with 
like letters thereon as before. Around this 
post was raised a mound of stones. Thence 
over rolling hills, and at 653 chains to the crest 
of the main range of mountains, the general 
course of which is north 82 east and south 82 
west, thence across mountains and at 843.35 
chains attained the highest elevation along the 
line; thence, gradually descending, at 885 chains 
enter Canada los Encinos, passing across which 
at 1,120 chains; set cedar posts on each side of 
Fort Tejon and Los Angeles road; theuce over 
bald hills, at 1,280.30 chains established the 
corner to Los Angeles, Kern and Santa Barbara 
counties, from which found by traverses Fort 
Tejon to bear north 17 degrees, 20 seconds 
east, 322 chains distant, and James Gorman's 
house to bear south 61 minutes east, 308 chains 
distant. 

" May 27, commencing at the initial point 
and setting posts as previously described, every 
six miles, ran according to the true meridian, 
the variation of the needle being 14 minutes, 41 
seconds east, east through a sandy desert, 
passing at times through a dense growth of 
cactus trees, and at 1,370 chains set posts on 
each side of Willow Springs and Lake Eliza- 
beth road; thence over open desert, at 1,471 
chains. Set posts on each side of Clear Creek 
and Soledad road. Thence passing at times 
throngh the beds of dry lakes, composed of a 
hard, spongy clay, incapable of holding water, and 



232 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CAIAFORNIA. 



again over open desert, to a point due north of 
Mt. San Antonio, distant from the initial point 
4,564.35 chains, at which was established the 
corner to Los Angeles, Kern and San Bernar- 
dino counties. 

'• By observation whilst on the meridian at 
9:30 p. m. on May 16, 1869, at Cow Springs, 
variation of the needle was found to be 14 
degrees, 41 seconds east. 

"The line running west from the point last 
named passes for the first seven miles through 
an open, undulating plain, watered by numerous 
branches running from springs in the foothills, 
and susceptible of a high degree of cultivation; 
thence to the Canada los Enciuos, over rugged 
mountains covered with scrub oak, cedar, fir, 
pine and manzanita; thence to the western cor- 
ner, over bald hills, and crossing some good 
grazing land. The entire eastern line passes 
through an open desert almost destitute of 
vegetation, and rendered useless by the entire 
absence of water. The work on this end was 
rendered very disagreeable and expensive, inas- 
much as all the water used by the party was 
transported in wagons, and during the latter 
portion of the time the men and stock suffered 
extremely, having hoped to tind stock water by 
digging into the beds of dry lakes. 

" During the seven days occupied on the west- 
ern line the weather was very cold, with violent 
and constant winds; on May 22, 23 and 24, rain 
storms, and at 8:46 p. m., May 27, an earth- 
quake lasting ten seconds." 

The files of the Courier are incomplete, hav- 
ing been destroyed by fire. April 13, 1872, the 
paper is headed Kern County Weekly Courier, 
Bakersfield. A five- column folio. June, 1872, 
mention is made of a new paper started at Havi- 
lah, called The Miner. 

In 1872 the question of moving the county 
seat was agitated, and the new and promising 
town, Bakersfield, in the valley was the pros- 
pective location. February, 1873, an election 
was held as to said removal. Owing to some 
irregularities in the vote, three precincts were 
thrown out, but the court afterward instructed 



the Board to count them. Bakersfield won the 
county seat by a small majority. The result 
was hotly contested, much bad feeling engen- 
dered, as is generally the case on such occasions, 
and a year was consumed in costly and acri- 
monious litigation before the seat was finally 
located at Bakersfield. The injunction suit was 
commenced in the month of May, 1875. The 
county expended, by warrants on the treasury in 
conducting this suit, the sum of $2,237.80. 
Pending the decision of the court as to said in- 
junction the county paid rent for court room and 
county officers §350. The costs in the action 
amounted to about $400, making a total of 
$3,037.80. 

February, 1874, the County Board of Super- 
visors designated the town hall of Bakerstield 
as the court room of the county. The first 
county officers were appointed. The first elec- 
tion was evidently held July 12, 1866, but no 
record of it can be found. Thomas Baker was 
at that time county surveyor, and E. W. Doss 
superintendent of schools. 

The first deed recorded in Kern County was 
July 23, 1866, being for a lot in Ilavilah. from 
H. C. Hardiug to James R. Watson. 

It will be seen that the act authorizing a 
county to be called Kern was passed in April. 
1866. In August of that year the county was 
organized and boundaries defined, and in No- 
vember of the same year the first grand jury was 
drawn, as follows: W W. Hudson, foreman; 
Robert Palmer, W. T. Heuderson, Thomas H. 
Bennix. J. P. Swearingen, B. T. Mitchell, W. 
H. Williams, M. H. Erskine, E. It. Burke, Sol- 
omon Jewett, Edward Tibbett, V. G. Thomp- 
son, Henry Pascoe, J. J. Murphy, J. S. Totty, 
Daniel Muncton, W. D. Ward, T. W. Barnes, 
Stephen Chandler and Isaac Lightner. 

The Board of Supervisors reconstructed the 
civil townships of the county in 1873, with 
names as follows: South Fork, township No. 1; 
Havilah, township No. 2; Tehachapi, township 
No. 3; Tejon, township No. 4; Bakersfield, 
township No. 5; and Lynn's Valley, township 
No 6. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



233 



The board also authorized A. R. Jackson to 
draw a map of the county, at a cost of $500. 

The Courier seems to have had strong bear- 
ing toward Republican politics in 1873. 

On election day, October, 1873, there occur- 
red a tripple tragedy at Sageland, near Havilah. 
Henry Watson killed Moss Oilman, and upon 
Robert Peppard attempting to arrest him, a 
struggle ensued, in the course of which they 
stabbed each other so fatally that they both 
died almost immediately. Watson and Oilman 
were very drunk and had quarreled the night 
before, and on the morning of the election. 
About noon Oilman went to bed, Watson sought 
him out and asked, '■ Have you voted?" " Yes." 
" Who for?" » Reed." With that he struck 
Oilman and went out. Being remonstrated 
with for having struck a man helplessly drunk, 
he said: "Then I will go back and kill him." 
He returned accordingly, and, finding Oilman 
still on his bed, fractured his skidl in pieces 
with his revolver, and slashed his body in many 
places with his knife. 

Thomas Bridger (owner of the mill and mine) 
then went to arrest him; but he swore that he 
would not be arrested. At this stage of the 
proceedings, Peppard, who was with Bridger, 
attempted to seize him by the hand in which he 
held a large sheath knife, and was stabbed twice 
in the breast. He then closed with Watson, 
and in the struggle that ensued thiy fell to 
gether and rolled down a slight declivity. When 
they arose Peppard said to Watson: " You have 
cut me, and you shall die." Suiting his action 
to the word, he threw all his strength into a 
rapid and powerful thrust with his knife. The 
keen blade penetrated Watson's heart, and they 
both fell dead together! 

It was near one year after the election to 
change the county seat from Havilah to Ba- 
kersfield bofore the matter was decided by the 
court. In January, 1874, the court in session 
at Visalia (Judge Deering presiding), decided 
that Bakersfield was duly chosen by a majority 
of the voters at the election in 1873. The first 
court held in Bakersfield was presided over by 

15 l J 



Judge Colby, beginning Monday, February 2, 
1874, and continued three days. Some of the 
public records were transferred from Havilah 
on Saturday preceding. 

Plans for a courthouse and jail at Bakers- 
field were advertised for as early as July, 1874, 
and stipulated not to cost more than $25,000. 
A. A. Bennett's plans were accepted and the 
work of erection began at once. Although 
some bad feeling existed, the ceremonies of lay- 
ing the corner stone were conducted in due 
form, the Masons and Odd Fellows participat- 
ing with the insignia of their order, as follows: 

B. Brundage, Master of the Bakersfield lodo-e 
of Masons was chosen master of ceremonies. 
When the orders had resumed their respective 
places the choir, composed of Mrs. Hunt, Mrs. 
Willow, Mrs. Condict, Mr. Olds, Dr. Oruisby 
and Mr. Johnson, opened the exercises with an 
appropriate song. The following souvenirs 
were deposited under the corner stone in accord- 
ance with custom: Copy of the Bible; history 
of the organization of Kern County; impres- 
sions of the court and county seals; organiza- 
tion of the town of Bakersfield; organization of 
Kern Lodge, No. 202, I. O. O. F.; organization 
of Bakersfield lodge, No. 224, F. and A. M.; 
copy of the great register of Kern County; one 
copy each of the Kern County Weekly Courier, 
Southern Californian, San Francisco Daily 
Bulletin, San Francisco Alta Californian, San 
Francisco Morning Call, San Francisco Exam- 
iner, San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento 
Weekly Record- Union; a copy of the original 
map of the town of Bakersfield, of the constitu- 
tion and by-laws of Kern Lodge, I. O. O. F., 
and a package of miscellaneous coins. 

COUNTY STATISTICS, VALUES, ETC. 

The Legislature passed an act in March, 1868, 
for adjusting the debt between the counties from 
which Kern was formed, and W. L. Kennedy, E. 
E. Calhoun and A. D. Green were allowed $750 
for services in settling the debt due by Kern 
County to Tulare and Los Angeles counties. In 
August, 1869, George W. Orth was allowed 



234 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



$1,938 for services in running the boundary line 
in conjunction with the surveyor of Los An- 
geles County. The line at that time established 
between the two counties, by George W. Orth 
of Kern, and William P. Leonard for Los An- 
geles County, is the line of to-day. About 1867, 
when the cattle interest predominated, the 
county assessment roll showed a total of 
$1,500,000. 

The following will enable the reader to form 
an idea of the growth of the various industries 
in the county for the decade of 1872 to 1882 
inclusive: 

1873. 1882. 

Acres of land enclosed 26,811 47,210 

Acres of land cultivated 9,652 32,380 

Acres of land in wheat 2 244 25,220 

Bushels of wheat 38,433 361,000 

Acres in barley 2,363 4,960 

Bushels of barley 6,146 99,200 

Acres in corn 1,039 1,842 

Bushels of corn 19,830 52,600 

Acres in hay 2,952 12,840 

Tons of hay 3,801 18,320 

Acres in cotton 40 92 

Pounds of cotton 20,000 27,000 

Number oi sheep 127,020 382,290 

Pounds of wool 1,000,000 2,293,740 

Gristmills 3 7 

Barrels of flour made 8,000 12,000 

Bushels of corn ground 2,000 5,800 

Number of sawmills 5 3 

Feet of lumber sawed 4,000,000 

Number of quartzmills 15 8 

Improvements $238,312 $312,804 

Personal properly 328,637 1,599,838 

Railroad, assessed by State Board . . . 1,237,215 

Total valuation in 1872 was 2,958,076 

Total valuation in 1882 was 5,431,714 

The total acreage assessed in 1882 was 1,117,- 
421, at an average of $1.66 per acre; irrigating 
ditches at $74,681, and mining claims at $5,- 
410. 

The following is the number of stock in the 
county in 1882, and valuation: 

Head. Value. 

Cattle 29,880 $298,800 

Calves 3,448 10,635 

Cows, thoroughbred 122 3,800 

Cows, graded 1,599 31,980 

Oxen 50 2,240 

Total 35,099 $347,455 



Head. Value. 

Horses, thoroughbreds 17 $ 5. 100 

Horses, graded 3.146 80,135 

Horses, American 396 25,070 

Colts 1,223 18 893 

Jacks and Jenuies 131 2,356 

Mules 488 4,443 

Total 5,401 $135,997 

The census of 1870 gives a population for 
the county of 2,727; that of 1880, 5,601,— 
an increase in ten years of 2,676. Population 
in 1890, 9,808. 

PROPERTY VALUES. 

The following will give an idea of the increase 
of wealth in the county for one decade. The 
rate per $100 is given, and the total tax col- 
lected : 

Year Rate. Total Tax. 

1880. $2.15 $118,008.82 

1881. 2.50 150,286 92 

1882. 2.00 108,633.82 

1883. 1.65 83,687.67 

1884. 1.65 93.62S.S4 

1885. 1.75 102,496.19 

1886. 1.75 86,652.14 

1887. 2.00 137,938.97 

1888. 1.55 131,305 03 

1889. 1.75 172,298.76 

1890. 1.50 151,673.84 

The figures given make an interesting study. 
It will be seen that the tax rate is lower than 
has been in any year during the decade. By the 
rate per $100, the assessed value of property in 
the county for each vear will be found. 

POPULATION BY TOWNSHIPS IN 1890. 




PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

The public schools of the county are under 
the efficient management of County School Su- 
perintendent Alfred Harrell, Esq. The mini her 
of school districts in 1891 were forty-six, and 
others were being formed, so that during the 



SLSTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



235 



year the total would probably reach fifty. 
Number of school buildings in the county, 
forty-six. Number of teachers, fifty-five: of 
these fourteen are males, and forty-one females. 
Male teachers receive $80 per month; females, 
$70. Average length of schools are eight 
months. Mr. Harrell was first elected to the 
office of County School Superintendent in 
1886, and has been re-elected ever since. On 
assuming the duties of the office in 1886 he 
found little on record by his predecessors to 
guide him as to the future necessities, judging 
by past emergencies and how they had been 
met and disposed of. He had in a measure to 
begin anew. He had the ability and the will, 
and with him to will was to do, and he delayed 
not as to action; and his watchword all along 
the line was "Forward;" and to-day the grand 
results, rapid growth and efficiency of the 
schools in the county commend the manage- 
ment much more than can words. 

In 1880 there were 1,036 census children in 
the county, and there were then twenty schools. 
In 1885 there were 1,264 children and thirty- 
three schools. In 1890 there were 1,997 chil- 
dren in the county between the ages of five and 
seventeen years. 

Schools are now graded. Each teacher at the 
close of the school term is required to furnish 
to the county superintendent of schools a re- 
port showing the progress made by each pupil 
and their rating at close of school. This method 
enables the teacher on beginning a school to 
place each pupil where he properly belongs 
without a course of examination, as by applica- 
tion to the county superintendent the report of 
the teacher who had taught the school last 
would be furnished. 

The city schools are under the same manage- 
ment as those of the county. Bakersfield has 
now the best school building in the county, 
costing $12,000. Delano has the second best, 
costing $10,000. Bonds have been voted to 
build an elegant as well as spacious school edi- 
fice in Bakersfield, to cost $30,000. The plans 
indicate a building which will be an orna- 



ment to the city and do great credit to the 
county. 

Mr. Harrell is confident as to the advance 
that will be made in the educational interests of 
the county within a few years, and his aim is to 
bring his county up to the standard of the best 
in the State. He has the educational interests 
of his people at heart, is capable and energetic, 
and success will crown his efforts if sustained 
by the citizens, which they certainly will do. 
Kern County citizens are awake to the great 
possibilities for their section of the State, and 
will not permit any other people to surpass 
them in anything. 

KEEN COUNTY OFFICIALS. 

The following gentlemen have filled the 
several positions named since the county was 
organized. Senators are reckoned from the date 
of Tulare County's organization. The three 
counties included in this work have been con- 
tinuously grouped together in Senatorial repre- 
sentation, and at times such has been the case 
in the Assembly. 

Senators— J. W. Freeman, 1863-'68; Thomas 
Fowler, 1869-'72; Tipton Lindsey, 1873-'76; 
Thomas Fowler, 1877-'78: Chester Rowell, 
1880-'81; Patrick Reddy, 18S3- ; 85; John 
Roth, 1887-'89, G. Stockton Berry, 1890-'91. 

Assemblymen— J. C. Brown, 1863-'68; E. 
W. Doss, 1869-'70; J. Buckhalter, 1871-'72; 
W. Canfield, 1873-'74; J. A. Patterson, 1875- 
'76; W. S. Adams, 1877-'78; A. B. De Brutz, 
1881; A. J. Atwell,1883; W. L. Morton, 1883; 
E. L. De Witt, 1885; M. J. Brooks, 1887; 
George W. Wear, 1888-'89; Thomas A. Rice, 
1890-'91. 

The first officials of Kern County were ap- 
pointed when the act was passed creating the 
county, and were as follows: County Judge, 
Theron Reed; District Attorney, E. E. Cal- 
houn; County Clerk, Recorder, etc., H. D. Be- 
quette; Sheriff, W. B. Ross; Assessor, R. B. 
Sagely; Surveyor, Thomas Baker; Coroner, 
Joseph Lively; Superintendent of Schools, E. 
W. Doss; Treasurer, D. A. Sinclair; Super- 



236 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



visors — Henry Hammell, J. J. Rhymes and S. 
A. Bishop. 

At the election held in 1867 the following 
were elected: Sheriff, R. B. Sagely; Clerk, 
H. D. Bequette; District Attorney, Thomas 
Laspeyre; Treasurer, D. A. Sinclair; Assessor, 
James R. Watson; Surveyor, Thomas Baker; 
Coroner, A. D. Jones; Superintendent of 
Schools, E. W. Doss; Supervisors — D. W. 
"Walser, District No. 1; J. J. Rhymes, District 
No. 2; and John M. Brite, District No. 3. 

F. W. Craig was elected Supervisor for Dis- 
trict No. 1 in October, 1868. 

At the October election, 1869, the following 
were elected : Sheriff, William II. Coons; Clerk) 
T. J. Williams; Assessor, James R. Watson; 
Treasurer, D. A. Sinclair; District Attorney, 
Thomas Laspeyre; Surveyor, E. E. Calhoun; 
Coroner, Herman Hershfeld; Superintendent of 
Schools, J. IT. Cornwall; Supervisor of District 
No. 2, C. T. White. 

Elected in October, 1871: Sheriff, W. H. 
Coons; Clerk, A. A. Bermudez; District At- 
torney, A. C. Lawrence; Treasurer, D. A. Sin- 
clair; Assessor, Benjamin F. Walker; Coroner, 
Jacob Asher; Surveyor, E. E. Calhoun; Super- 
intendent of Schools, J. H. Cornwall; Super- 
visor of the 1st District, F. W. Craig. 

Sol. Jewett was elected Supervisor District 
No. 2 in 1872. 

At the October election, 1873, the following 
were elected: W. R. Bower, Sheriff; D. A. 
Sinclair, Treasurer; F. W. Craig, Clerk; A. C. 
Lawrence, District Attorney; B. F. Walker, 
Assessor; Walter James, Surveyor; L. A. Beards- 
ley, Superintendent of Schools; J. F. Miller, 
Coroner; John Narboe, Supervisor of the 3d 
District. At the meeting of the Board of Su- 
pervisors, October 21, 1873, A. H. Denker ap- 
pears as chairman of the Board. No record of 
his election could be found. 

In 1874 F. W. Goodale was elected Supervisor 
from District No. 1. 

In the fall of 1875 the following were elected: 
M. P. Wells, Sheriff; J. W. Freeman, District 
Attorney; J. C. Pemberton, Treasurer; F. W. 



Craig, Clerk; R. R. Donnell, Assessor; W. A. 
Johnson, Surveyor; L. A. Beardsley, Superin- 
tendent of Schools; II. C. Dimock, Coroner; 
T. F. Kerr, Supervisor Second dit-trict. At this 
election P. T. Colby was elected county judge. 

F. A. Tracy was electod supervisor from the 
Third district in November, 1876. 

T. E. Harding appears among the Board of 
Supervisors. Canvassing the vote November 10, 
1877, records fail to show when he was elected. 
Total vote cast at October election, 1877, was 
1,214. The following were elected: W. R. 
Bower, Sheriff; J. C. Pemberton, Treasurer; J. 
W. Freeman. District Attorney; F. W. Craig, 
Clerk; E. E. Calhoun, Auditor; W. R. Mac- 
murdo, Surveyor; A. A. Mix, Coroner; Wm. 
Lightner, Supervisor of the First district. 

A complaint being entered that F. A. Tracy 
was not a resident of the Third district, he was 
retired, and the county judge appointed John 
M. Brite of said district to the position. Tracy 
is recorded as having met with the Board regu- 
larly, claiming his seat, at the same time the 
case was pending decision by the court, which 
finally decided in favor of John M. Brite. 

In June, 1878, a special election was held to 
elect a delegate to the State Constitutional Con- 
vention, and V. A. Gregg was honored with that 
position. 

In the fall of 1878, A. J. Halbert was elected 
Supervisor from the Second district. 

There was a special meeting of the Board held 
August 23, 1879, at which the Board appointed 
A. P. Bernard County Treasurer, the office hav- 
ing been vacated by the death of Treasurer J. 
C. Pemberton. 

At the general election held in the fall of 
1879, B. Brundage was elected Superior Judge; 
A. T. Lightner, Clerk; W. R. Bower. Sheriff; 
T. E. Harding, Assessor; F. S. Wallace, Super- 
intendent of Schools; A. P. Bernard, Treasurer; 
W. P. Wilkes, Auditor; G. V. Smith, District 
Attorney; W. R. Macmurdo, Surveyor; S. A. 
Burnap, Coroner; P. O. Hare, Supervisor of the 
Third district. 

H. Ilirshfeld appears as one of the Board of 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



237 



Supervisors at their meeting April 7, 1880. 
The records do not show whether he was elected 
or appointed. November, 1880, A. Fay was 
elected Supervisor from the First district, and 
in August, 1882, George H. Wheeler was ap- 
pointed Supervisor for the Second district. 

The new Constitution of 1879 changed the 
general elections from odd to even years, and at 
the fall election of 1882 there were 1,328 votes 
polled, and the following officials were elected : 

A. P. Bernard, Treasurer; A. T. Lightner, 
Clerk; W. R. Bower, Sheriff; William Tyler, 
Auditor; T. E. Harding, Assessor; W. R. Mac- 
murdo, Surveyor; J. W. Freeman, District At- 
torney; A. B. Macpherson, Superintendent of 
Schools; John T. Maio, Coroner; R. H. Evans, 
Supervisor of the First district. J. McKamy and 
L. Crusoe appear as members of the Board ot 
Supervisors at their meeting January 8, 1883. 

There were 1,424 votes cast at the November 
election in 1884, and the following officers 
elected: W. R. Bower, Sheriff; William Tyler, 
Auditor; J. F. Rowe, Tax Collector; N. R. 
Packard, Clerk and Recorder; J. W. Freeman, 
District Attorney; A. P. Bernard, Treasurer; J. 
F. Maio, Coroner; W. R. Macmurdo, Surveyor; 
R. H. Evans, Supervisor District No. 1; John 
M. Brite, Supervisor District No. 2; J. M. 
McKamy, Supervisor District No. 3; L. Cru- 
soe, Supervisor District No. 4; George C. Do- 
herty, Supervisor District No. 5. 

At the November election, 1886, there were 
1,418 votes cast, and the following officers 
elected: Dallas McCord, Sheriff; N. R. Packard, 
Clerk and Recorder; H. P. Olds, Auditor; J. 
W. Freeman, District Attorney; W. T. Jame- 
son, Treasurer; T. A. Baker, Tax Collector; T. 
E. Harding, Assessor; Alfred Harrell, Superin- 
tendent of Schools; F. Buckreus, Coroner and 
Public Administrator; W. L. Dixon, Surveyor; 
L. F. Gates, Supervisor Second district; J. M. 
McKamy, Supervisor Third district. 

April 4, 1887, E. M. Roberts appears as one 
of the Board of Supervisors, supposed to have 
succeeded George C. Doherty. L. F. Gates, of 
the Second district, died in January, 1888, and 



on the 7th of February of that ysar Joseph 
Fountain was elected to fill the position. 

At the general election November, 1888, the 
number of votes polled was 2,196, and officers 
elected were: W. J. Graham, Sheriff; N. R. 
Packard, Clerk and Recorder; W. A. Howell, 
Auditor; Alvin Fay, District Attorney; T. A. 
Baker, Tax Collector and Treasurer; F. Buck- 
reus, Coroner and Public Adminstrator; W. R. 
Macmurdo, Surveyor; Charles F. Bennett, Su- 
pervisor First district; A. Morgan, Supervisor 
Fourth district; E. M. Roberts, Supervisor Fifth 
district. 

County Clerk N. R. Packard, known as Judge 
Packard, is a Southern-bred gentleman of the 
highest type and very courteous to all. On the 
26th day of March, 1891, a colored gentleman 
approached the Judge in his office and expressed 
a desire that the Judge issue to him license to 
preach; when told by the Judge that it was not 
in his line of business to license servants of the 
Lord, the colonel citizen seemed much dis- 
appointed. 

There were 2,640 votes cast at the general 
election in November, 1890, and officers elected 
as follows: H. L. Borgwardt, Sheriff; N. R. 
Packard, Clerk and Recorder; A. T. Lightner, 
Assessor; W. A. Howell, Auditor; T. A. Baker, 
Tax Collector and Treasurer; Alvin Fay, Dis- 
trict Attorney; Alfred Harrell, Superintendent 
of Schools; F. Buckreus, Coroner and Public 
Administrator; W. R. Macmurdo, Surveyor; 
Joseph Fountain, Supervisor District, No. 1; 
E. A. McGee, Supervisor District, No. 2. 

The Superior Judges have filled the position 
in the order as follows: B. Brundage; Rufus E. 
Arick (deceased); A. R. Conklin, present Judge, 
appointed by Governor Waterman to fill the 
vacancy caused by the death of Judge Arick. 

KEEN CODNTT AS IT IS. 

We have been rambling over Kern County as 
it was in early times, and will now survey it as 
it is, and try to get a glimpse of what it may 
and certainly will be tweuty-five years hence at 
the rate of progress and development now being 



2H8 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



made. Tliere are a few incidents of the past 
yet worthy of record, however, hut we will in 
the main deal in the present, with the present, 
and for the future. 

It will be of interest to those who may read 
ihese pages in 1925, after all wild animals have 
been exterminated, to know that even as late as 
1867, there were many large bears in the county. 
In April, 1867, a Mr. Pettit, who was herding 
sheep for William and D. S. Lightner at Allen's 
Camp, Walker's Basin, wrote to the Courier 
that he had a few days previously killed an im- 
mense bear by poisoning. He stated that the 
bear's estimated weight was 1,000 pounds. 
There were many in the county at that date and 
were very destructive to sheep. Near old Fort 
Tejon, on an oak tree about thirty inches in 
diameter, was found some years since the follow- 
ing inscription, then nearly grown over: 

I. H. S. 

Peter Lebeck killed by a j-bear October 17, 
1837. 

At the time the letters were carved, the tree 
was perhaps less than half its present size. 
Recently investigators found that the inscrip- 
tion had grown over, and on cutting in and re- 
moving the growth, they got an exact reprint 
on the portion removed, leaving the original 
plain on the tree. Further curiosity led them 
to excavate at the root of the tree, and to their 
surprise they found the remains of a man, per- 
fect in all parts except one hand, which could 
not be found. The remains were evidently those 
of the man, Peter Lebeck, and the tree was a 
growing monument to the unfortunate pioneer. 

While we desire to keep before our readers 
the enormous proportions of Kern County, we 
do not expect to impress you with half the facts 
connected with this wonderful region. We 
could write volumes, and make many seemingly 
unreasonable statements, and yet not tell the 
half. But to prepare the reader for some large 
stories, or stories of large products, we wish to 
call his attention to the fact that Kern is one of 
California's large counties, embracing 8,100 



square miles, which is very near equal to the 
State of Xew Hampshire, with an area of 9,005 
square miles, and a population of 375,827. 
Vermont has an area of 9,135 square miles 
and a population of 332,205. Massachusetts 
has an area of 8,040 square miles, a little less 
than that of Kern County. Massachusetts has 
a population of 2,233,407. Little Rhode Island 
has an area of only 1,085 square miles and sus- 
tains a population of 745.861. This will give 
an idea of what Kern County is capable of sus- 
taining when her vast area is developed to the 
extent that it can and will be. One million of 
people can subsist in the county more comfort- 
ably than can the present population in the 
State of Massachusetts. 

Kern is bounded on the north by Tulare and 
Inyo counties; on the east by San Bernardino; 
on the south by Los Angeles, and on the south- 
west and west by Ventura and San Luis Obispo 
counties. It occupies the extreme southern 
portion of the great San Joaquin valley, lying 
centrally in the State east and west, and is 
situated in the southern portion of Central 
California. 

ITS TOPOGRAPHY. 

Its eastern boundary line extends a little over 
the summit of the Sierra, and the summit of the 
Coast Range may be said to form its western 
boundary. Xearly one-fourth is embraced in 
foothills, a large amount is mountain lands 
covering a portion of the immense lumber belt 
of the Sierra. The southeast corner covers a 
portion of the Mojave desert east of the Sierra. 
The remainder of the county, known locally as 
Kern valley, is without exception one of the 
richest sections of the State and not surpassed 
in the world. It embraces the principal portion 
of the agricultural lands of the county, extend- 
ing from the northern limits of the county and 
the southern border of Tulare lake, to the am- 
phitheater of mountains which surround it on 
the east, south and west. A small portion of 
Tulare lake dips into this county, but it has no 
natural boundary on the north, being simply a 
prolongation of the great valley of the San Joa- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



239 



quin. It is quite regular in its outline, being 
about forty miles wide east and west, by about 
fifty miles north and south. It is seen that 
here lie 2,000 square miles, or more than one 
and a quarter million acres of the most fertile 
lands to be found in this or any other country, 
so large an unbroken body of rich land. 

In the central southern portion of Kern val- 
ley lie Kern and Bnena Vista lakes. Kern lake 
is thirteen miles south of Bakersfield, and is 
about seven miles long east and west, with an 
average width of nearly three miles. About 
five miles west of this and connected therewith 
by a slough is Buena Vista lake, about the same 
length, apd of an average width a little greater 
than that of the former. These lakes are con- 
nected with Tulare lake, distant about thirty-five 
miles, a little west of north, by Buena Vista 
slough. On the border of these lakes and 
sloughs, especially on the north side of Kern and 
Buena Vista, are swamp lands unreclaimed and 
exceedingly rich. About ten miles south of 
Tulare lake, and connected with the slough 
leading thereto, in the northwestern portion of 
Kern valley, is G-oose lake, about two and a half 
miles in length by one in width. The irrigated, 
developed district or portion of this valley lies 
within about fifteen to twenty miles south and 
west and twenty-five to thirty northwest of 
Bakersfield. These lands, which are covered by 
as fine a system of irrigating canals and ditches 
as exists, slope from east to west, or have an 
icnline to the west of four to seven feet to the 
mile, the average being about five feet. The 
irrigating features and water resources will be 
more fully presented elsewhere. 



PRODUCTS. 



This county will produce anything from the 
most delicate and sweet-scented flower to the 
mammoth Sequoia gigantea. Space here will not 
permit detail as regards each valuable product, 
but mere mention will be made of many of the 
most profitable products that have been tried in 
the county. Here grow and yield well, nearly 
all the agricultural and horticultural products 



of the temperate zone, besides some of the semi- 
tropic. The agricultural list embraces wheat, 
barley, oats, rye, Indian and Egyptian corn 
buckwheat, alfalfa, millet, canary seed, hops, 
sorghum, sugar-beets, cotton, tobacco, castor- 
bean, peanuts, flax, hemp, jute, ramie and liq- 
uorice-root. Some of the last named are not 
extensively cultivated, but from tests made it is 
ascertained that they can be successfully pro- 
duced. Of these, alfalfa probably excels all 
others in its marvelous growth and bountiful 
yield. Garden vegetables of nearly every de- 
scription grow to parfe3tion. In this list are 
Irish and sweet potatoes, yams, beans, peas, 
cabbage, onions, cauliflower, tomatoes, celery, 
asparagus, tnrnips, carrots, parsnips, beets, rad- 
ishes, pumpkins, squashes, water-melons, musk- 
melons, nutmegs, cantelopes, egg-plant, arti- 
chokes, spinich, rhubarb, citrons, Chili peppers, 
etc. Of these, sweet potatoes and melons excel. 
The horticultural products embrace all the de- 
ciduous fruits, some of the citrus fruits, fruit of 
nut-bearing trees, berries and fruit of the vine. 
Of these are the apple, pear, peach, plum, prune, 
apricot, nectarine and cherry. All varieties of 
berries; the blackberry and strawberry excel. 
Table, raisin and wine grapes do well. Of the 
fig, orange, lemon, lime and pomegranate; the 
fig excels. Of nuts, are walnuts of all varie- 
ties, hard and soft-shell almonds and the pecan. 
Fruits attain enormous size. 

EXAMPLES OF KERN COUNTY PRODUCTS. 

But few people who have never seen the 
wonderful products of California, are willing to 
believe facts when stated, but very naturally say 
that it is a California fabrication. The ordinary 
Easterner cannot get it within the scope of his 
reasoning faculties that 140 bushels of corn can 
be produced on one acre of land, yet such is the 
case: while it is not claimed that every acre of 
land planted to corn will make such yield, yet 
it has been grown in Kern County. Several 
years since, Captain Noble, a practical farmer, 
whose farm was situated near Bakersfield, 
noticed that his field of corn promised an abund- 



240 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ant yield, and concluded to ascertain the exact 
amount per acre. He had a practical surveyor 
measure the ground. He then gathered and 
measured the corn, and found that the amount 
produced was 140 bushels per acre. Thinking 
perhaps that the statement might be doubted, 
he went before a justice of the peace and made 
oath to the amount. 

Eastern people who are accustomed to con- 
sider sweet potatoes weighing two and three 
pounds as large, will not feel disposed to credit 
the statement that potatoes eight times aslar^e 
have been grown in Kern County, yet such is 
true. Some years since Dr. Stockton produced 
a crop of potatoes near Bakersfield, and exhib- 
ited a number in town, the largest of which 
weighed twenty -three, and the smallest twenty 
pounds. When we ask why, if such are actual 
results, do not all engage growing corn and 
sweet potatoes, the answer we receive is that 
more can be realized from various other crops 
than can from the two named. 

There can be grown on Kern County soil six 
crops of alfalfa in one year, each crop making 
one and a half tons of hay per acre, or nine 
tons per acre per year. One acre will pasture 
three head of horses or cattle. At the age of 
fifteen months a Kern County colt is as large 
as the average Eastern at three and four years. 

Viewing the situation from this standpoint it 
will be seen that other products surpass those 
of corn and potatoes, even at such an enormous 
yield. 

There is no better soil and no better climate 
for producing and preparing the raisin than is 
found in Kern County. The prune, the tig, the 
lemon, lime, olive and various other fruits will 
yield richer returns per acre than will corn and 
potatoes. Hence the cause why few attempt to 
grow those products for profit. 

RESOURCES. 

It is a difficult matter to compass within die 
limits of a sketch of this character anything 
like an adequate description of the all but 
illimitable resources of a county such as Kern, 



with its millions of acres of valley, hill and 
mountain, all replete with sources of the great- 
est wealth. At the outset considerable was said 
as to the agricultural wealth of the county, and 
th t these statements were no exaggeration it 
now becomes necessary to prove. With Bakers- 
field as a starting point let the visitor go in any 
direction and carefully note the salient features 
brought to his attention. The one most promi- 
nent feature will be the vast area devoted to the 
production of alfalfa. Thousands upon thou- 
sands of acres are perennially green with this 
most valuable of forage plants. On every hand 
are great slacks containing hundreds of tons of 
well-cured hay, while in the pasture fields are 
tens of thousands of horses, cattle and sheep, 
which are re?red and fattened for market upon 
no other food 'han this. The alfalfa-fed beef 
and mutton of this valley is simply without a 
superior. This hay is cut and put in the stack 
at an average cost covering all expense of no 
more than $1 a ton, and no stock grower needs 
further information as to the possibilities oi 
profit. 

But there are other sources of \.ealth of su- 
perior value to this and we will continue the 
journey. Almost due south of Bakersfield some 
ten or a dozen miles we reach he Greenfields' 
ranch of several thousand acres, devoted largely 
to stock growing, but to grain, fruit, etc., as 
well. Here we learn that wi eat is raised with 
irrigation which averages forty bushels to the 
acre, barley fifty bushels, and shelled corn sixty 
to seventy-five bushels. Sweet potatoes go 300 
bnshels to the acre, and other vegetables in pro- 
portion being kept growing the year round. 
Here is an orchard of apples, peaches, apricots, 
pears, ^runes, nectarines and other fruits, with 
ten acres of grape vines, while in the grounds 
about the house are orange, fig, pomegranate, 
pecan and other trees. All of the fruits named 
are produced in large quantity and excellent 
quality, while from the grape are made raisins 
that are equal to the best. Almost everything 
in the way of ornamer tal shrub or flower grows 
luxuriantly, and the entire place is a scene of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



241 



trop : cal verdure that is attractive to the upmost. 

A return drive of a few miles brings ns to the 
Stockdale ranch, where similar results have been 
accomplished in the production of grain, fruits, 
etc., by the aid of irrigation. Not far away is 
the Bellevite, which is the acme of what can be 
done in the delta lands. Here is a magnificent 
orchard of mature orange trees, bearing luscious 
fruit, while every fruit and nut that is culti- 
vated in the State is represented and all grow- 
ing with the greatest luxuriance and producing 
fruit of the most excellent quality. 

And so we can go day after day, visiting ranch 
after ranch and finding that nothing in the wide 
range of cereal, fruit, vegetable and ordinary 
farm crop will not grow. Hops, cotton, tobacco, 
Egyptian corn and many other specialties have 
been successfully experimented with. From 
apples to oranges, every variety of fruit is pro- 
duced. The vegetable garden is green the year 
round. Melons are almost a nuisance. Beets 
grow five or six feet deep. In fact, in all the wide 
range of products of the temperate and sub- 
tropical zones it would be impossible to select 
one that does not attain perfection here. 

One of the specialties, however, for which 
Kern County is destined to become famous is her 
peaches. Every section has some two or three 
specialties, and the peach has so far attained the 
greatest success here. Space forbids going into 
too great detail, but a couple of notable in- 
stances of recent occurrence will suffice to show 
what has been accomplished and what may be 
expected. A couple of miles or so south of 
Bakersfield is a peach orchard belonging to S. 
A. Wible, which has been planted just thirty 
months, and in which the trees average fully 
seventeen feet in height, with large trunks and 
a growth of limb that would be extraordinary 
in an orchard twice the age. This orchard cov- 
ers twenty acres, though the trees if planted in 
the usual style of 108 to the acre would only 
occupy fifteen acres. Last year, when only 
eighteen months old, there were five tons of 
choice fruit taken from the trees. This year 
there were 7,731 boxes of fruit gathered and 



shipped to to the East, where it was sold at 
at auction in New York, bringing readily from 
$1.40 to $2 a box. The entire actual cost of 
gathering, boxing, shipping and selling was less 
than 70 cents a box. There was thus left a 
profit of from 70 cents to $1.30 a box. Aver- 
aging it at $1, which is within bounds, and the 
net retnrns will be seen to have been $7,731, 
from which, of course, must be deducted the 
cost of cultivation, which, however, is small, 
since only one irrigation was given the orchard 
during the season. 

In addition, however, to the 7,731 boxes of 
fresh fruit shipped to the East there were 3,000 
pounds of dried peaches put up, worth at a low 
calculation $450, while an additional large 
quantity of fresh fruit was given away and sold 
directly from the orchard. Here, then, we have 
a twenty-acre orchard of peaches which at two 
and one-half years from planting returned a net 
profit of at least $7,000, or $350 an acre. 

In another dire°tion from town and on the 
road to the Rosedale colony is another famous 
peach orchard, the property of C. A. Maul. 
From twenty-three acres of trees which are six 
years old there were shipped to the East sixteen 
carloads of fresh fruit, besides which enough 
more was dried and otherwise disposed of to 
make three or four carloads more. For the fruit 
shipped the grower received $16,000, of which 
at least three-fourths, and probably a greater 
proportion, was net profit. 

A feature of both these orchards was that 
from half to three-fourths of the fruit that set 
on the trees was thinned out while young. 
From some trees as many as 2,500 young 
peaches were picked, leaving only 300 or 400. 
The result was that the fruit that was left to 
mature attained an immense size. Large num- 
bers of boxes were packed in which each peach 
weighed over a pound, while many specimens 
were weighed that were from twenty to twenty- 
four ounces in weight and measured from twelve 
to fifteen inches and more in circumference. 
The quality of this mammoth fruit, too, was 
most excellent. It withstood shipment well, 



242 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



arriving at the East in perfect order, and sold 
readily for the highest prices. 

From what has been already accomplished it 
is no hazard to prophesy that the Kern delta 
will be noted in the future for at least three 
specialties. These will be the production of 
peaches, which will find a ready market either 
shipped fresh to the East, dried in the open air, 
or sold to canners, who will be able here to pro- 
cure large supplies of the very choicest fruit. 
The raisin grape will be another specialty. 
Enough has been done in various portions of 
the county to show that the soil is eminently 
adapted to this fruit, while the climate is the 
best for drying purposes that can be found. The 
prune is another fruit that will be a favorite, 
while the apricot, fig, orange and other varieties 
will be largely and successfully cultivated. 

In the lower foothills is a large area at a cer- 
tain elevation which partakes of the same gen- 
eral characteristics of climate as are found at a 
similar height all over the State, the danger 
from frost is at a minimum, and the orange and 
other tender growths thrive to perfection. At 
the famous Tejon ranch are splendid specimens 
of mature orange trees, while in many other lo- 
calities in the valleys and foothills may a simi- 
lar growth be seen. That the orange will be 
grown here on a scale of commercial importance, 
is believed by all who have taken the trouble 
to inquire into the existence of the requisites of 
soil, climate and water for the development of 
that most attractive and profitable industry. 

Columns might be filled with detail of the 
remarkable success attending all agricultural 
experiments made here. But enough has been 
related to show that every claim made at the 
outset is abundantly substantiated. 

There are other resources, however, which, 
while they have not reached the development 
that has been achieved by agriculture, neverthe- 
less are bound to attain importance nearly equal 
thereto. That there are in the mountains lar^e 
deposits of gold, silver, antimony and other 
valuable minerals has been shown from the 
earliest history of the county. Indeed, the 



mines about Havilah and Kernville were the 
cause of the first settlement of this region. 
Lack of ready means of transportation has been 
a serious drawback to the development of these 
deposits. 

In the western and southwestern portions of 
the county are other mineral deposits which are 
also of great extent and value. There are thou- 
sands of acres of asphaltum, with immense 
springs from which a tremendous volume of 
that material is constantly poured forth in liquid 
form. There are natural gas deposits also in a 
number of widely separated localities, which 
will become of the greatest value for manu- 
facturing and illuminating, and there are ledges 
of pure sulphur large enough to make matches 
for the world. Silver and gold there are, too, 
in the San Emigdio range of mountains, witli 
traces of workings which must have been oper- 
ated a hundred or more years in the past. 

In the mountains of Kern County are some of 
the largest areas of virgin l'orest left in the 
State. Great groves of stately redwood, pine, 
fir, cedar and other trees cover thousands of 
acres which are practically untouched, their re- 
moteness from the lines of travel having so far 
prevented them from being profitably worked. 
The opportunities for capital in this direction 
are of the most promising character, since water 
power is abundant for the ready operation of 
mills, and the rapid growth of the county fur- 
nishes a home market for large quantities of 
lumber. 

There is still another resource of this valley, 
which, while mentioned last, is destined to be 
by no means the least in the list of sources of 
wealth. No community is so prosperous as 
that which provides a home market for the bulk 
or at least a large share of its products. In 
those localities where manufacture of various 
kinds give employment to large numbers of 
men, the farmers find a ready sale at good rates 
for nearly everything produced by them. Manu- 
facturers go where raw material, transportation 
and motive power are the cheapest and most 
readily obtainable. 



' 




HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



243 



The sources of raw material in Kern County 
have been pretty well explained. Flax, cotton, 
ramie, wool, leather and other articles of manu- 
facture can be produced here in any quantity at 
a minimum of cost. In the mountains are in- 
exhaustible supplies of wood, while metals of 
various kinds are in abundance. The means of 
transportation have already been pointed out. 
There are already two competing transconti- 
nental lines in the county, with the promise of 
even greater facilities in the immediate future. 

The matter of motive power becomes the next 
consideration. The irrigation canals themselves 
afford an abundant supply, which has already 
been utilized in a small way, showing what may 
easily be done whenever the time shall become 
ripe. But go to the source of supply of those 
canals. Take a trip to the mouth of the Kern 
river canon, a pleasant drive of two or three 
hours from town, and note the existant facts. 
There, within a short distance, the river plunges 
down falls and cataracts several hundred feet. 
Thousands of tons of water are falling with re- 
sistless force, as they have fallen for uncounted 
ages, beating and wearing the granite walls to 
dust, and carrying the decomposed material to 
the plains below. At a dozen points this tre- 
mendous power can be utilized for any purpose 
that may be desired. By a pipe line the water 
may be brought out on the mesa below the 
mouth of the canon, and while furnishing 200 
feet or more of fall for the development of 
power, may at the same time provide water for 
the irrigation of thousands of acres of as fertile 
'soil as the sun ever shone upon. Dynamos can 
be put in here and electricity generated, which 
can be conveyed to all parts of the valley and 
harnessed to machinery for manufactures of 
every variety. Such an opportunity for the de- 
velopment of the cheapest power in practically 
unlimited quantities has seldom been offered, 
and as one watches the great stream dashing 
over precipice and boiling over boulder he can 
hut wonder that it should have been so long 
neglected. 

But watchful eyes and active minds have ta- 



ken in the situation, and it now seems altogether 
probable that before another twelvemonth shall 
have rolled around, decisive steps will have been 
taken for the development of this resource which 
is destined to become one of the most prominent 
avenues for wealth in this surpassingly en- 
dowed section. 

SCENERY. 

Before going further investigating the agri- 
cultural, horticultural and other resources of the 
county, we wish to make brief mention of Kern 
County scenery. The principal points of in 
terest near the county has been so fully described 
elsewhere in this work that we will not go into 
detail here, only throw more light on what has 
been said. 

The Sierras hold in their depths riches other 
than gold and silver. The student of nature 
can here find much that will sharpen his percep- 
tion, and augment his knowledge, as well as im- 
press him with the immensity of his ignorance. 
There is something ennobling in mountains. 
The mountain-climber oblains ideas of vastness, 
of intensity, and of sublimity, which the plains- 
man never realizes. And there is a fascination 
in his wild life, that when it has once laid hold on 
the individual, reluctantly loosens its grasp. He 
finds health, strength, quietude, and suggestive 
facts in his surroundings, and when fatigued by 
weary rambles he obtains comforting repose on 
a rock pillow, and lulled to sleep by falling 
waters and the sad but sweet music of swaying 
pines, he dreams dreams that come not to the 
plainsman. 

The peculiar and beautiful sight of red snow 
is met with on the Sierra at an elevation of 
12,000 feet. Mr. Frank Dusy of Fresno Coun- 
ty says he has seen miles of it on these moun- 
tain ranges. When examined through a strong 
microscope these odd and pretty globules are 
discovered to be of the very small microscopic 
water plant {Protococcus nivalis) which gives 
to this snow its red or crimson color. 

The Tehipitee and Paradise valleys have been 
described. We will add here a brief description 
of one of the most wonderful wonders in the 



244 



EI8T0RT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Sierra yet discovered. No pen, be the wielder 
thereof ever so gifted, can do justice to the 
Kern River Canon. This is undoubtedly one of 
the greatest wonders in the world. The bottom 
of the valley is 8,000 feet above the sea, and its 
walls are nearly perpendicular, varying in height 
from 3,000 to 6,000 feet. This valley is much 
narrower than the Yo Semite, varying from one- 
fourth to one mile in width, while the Yo 
Semite has an average breadth of over two miles. 
This has the effect of making the valley's 
walls seem more lofty than do those of the 
Yo Semite, which are somewhat disappointing 
to one unaccustomed to measuring such won- 
derful altitudes with the eye. Kern River 
Canon is also a much longer valley than the Yo 
Semite, which is only seven miles long, while 
Kern is between thirty and forty miles in length, 
and for twenty miles of this distance horses 
can be taken into the valley only at one point. 
Twelve miles due east of Paradise valley will 
be found the south end of the " Palisades," that 
grand range of perpendicular cliffs of compara- 
tively recent volcanic formation, along the sum- 
mit ridge of the Sierra, between Fresno .and 
Mono Counties, which range from 13,000 to 
to 14,000 feet in height. Mount Goddard, 
about twenty miles north-northeast, is 14,000 
feet high; Mount Silliman, twenty- two miles 
south, is near 12,000 feet. Mount King and 
Mount Gardner, twelve miles away to the south- 
east, are estimated to be 14,000 feet high. 
Mount Brewer, still farther away in the same 
general direction, is of equal height, and is on a 
spur embraced by two branches of King's river. 
Near it ten peaks can be seen as high, and per- 
haps four are higher, according to the geologi- 
cal survey. Slightly east of south thirty-two 
miles is the lofty Kaweah Peak, one of the 
highest points seen from the San Joaquin val- 
ley, and estimated to be over 14,000 feet, though 
its exact height has not been ascertained. South- 
east thirty miles are Mount Tyndall, 14,386 
feet, and Mount Williamson, "an inaccessible 
bunch of needles " higher still and about two 
miles north of Tyndall. Thirty-eight miles 



southeast is the culminating point of all the 
Sierra Nevada, Mount Whitney, whose height 
is more than 15,000 feet, and whose slopes, 
canons and table lands form the immense water- 
shed that is drained by Kern river and its 
numerous tributaries. 

All these and hundreds of other less noted 
peaks can be seen from high points near Para- 
dise valley. This grand canon of King's river, 
nestling thus in the midst of the most magnifi- 
cent Alpine scenery of America which sur- 
rounds it within a radius of fifteen miles, is, in 
straight line, fifty-five miles northeast of Vis- 
alia, sixty five miles slightly north of east from 
Fresno city, and about seventy-five miles south- 
east from Yo Semite valley. A remarkable 
natural phenomenon of this valley is a double 
sunset every day, as seen from near Copper 
creek. Regularly at 1:30 p. m. the sun passes 
behind a very high cliff and peak on the south 
side of the great cafion. For about two hours 
it remains concealed from view, and then bursts 
forth again from beyond the western edge of 
Mount Capitan and just over the falls of the 
Roaring river. Then comes the second sunset 
about the time it occurs in the San Joaquin 
valley, the sun seeming to pass down the deep 
gorge to the westward, where King's river finds 
its exit toward the plains. Few, if any, other 
regions can boast of such a phenomenon. 

Another natural fact worthy of mention is 
that, because of the dense shade of the high walls 
on the south side of this valley, the snow disap- 
pears, trees bud, and flowers bloom on the 
north side immediately under its perpendicular 
cliffs, which reflect the sun's rays down into the 
valley, in February, three months earlier than 
on the south side. In the latter region snow 
remains in the deep crevices and gorges until in 
June. Similar effects of the more or less direct 
rays of the sun are witnessed along all the 
southern or northern slopes, not only of the 
mountains of this coast but throughout the 
world. The wild flowers of this valley and the 
Kern River canon are much the same as those 
found in the Yo Semite. 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



245 



The upper or southern poitiOii of the great 
San Joaquin valley closely resembles that of the 
Nile, yet vastly more capable of sustaining a 
much larger population. These comparisons 
are well worth a careful reading and study. 
There is no fancy or ideal pen-picture here at- 
tempted; much more might truthfully be saiu ; 
yet as there are so many who doubt and claim 
that such statements are mere braggadocio, we 
simply ask of you who do ot believe to come 
and see, and you will be cordially welcomed by 
an hospitable people. 

KEEN DELTA COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE NILE. 

The fabulous fertility of the delta of the Nile 
has been set forth in both Biblical and profane 
history for thousands of years. The t fertility, 
due to the regenerative and recuperative power 
of the waters with which the land is periodi- 
cally flooded, has for ages been regarded as the 
highest type of its kind which the world has 
ever seen. It made of Egypt the garden spot 
of the world, to which even proud Rome was 
forced to look for the corn with which her citi- 
zens and soldiers were fed. It showed to the 
world that a comparatively small area, bordered 
by desert on every hand, could, by the magic 
power of the goddess Fluvia, be made to sup- 
port millions — a more dense population in pro- 
portion to area than any other part of the world. 
It produced a civilization the highest of its 
era, the indelible traces of which remain until 
this day. To irrigation Egypt owed the fact 
that she became the granary of the world, the 
earliest mistress of civilization. To irrigation 
primarily were due the grand temples and the 
wealthy cities that lined the Nile for hundreds 
of miles. The waters of that river led captive 
over the adjacent valley were the mainspring of 
a wealth and prosperity such as no other part 
of the world ever saw. 

It is something of a jump from the days of 
Jacob and the journeying of his sons into Egypt 
in search of corn during a year of famine (a 
dry year, in the Californian sense) to the Paci- 
fic coast of North America in these latter days 



of the nineteenth century. Yet we will take that 
jump, and in the search for a parallel to the 
N ile delta traverse the coast from north to south. 
Search well each valley and note the salient 
features; study the soil, the climate, the streams, 
the products, and when that search shall have 
been completed, what section will be found to 
most nearly resemble the famed valley of the 
Nile ? 

Without fear of contradiction, the answer 
undoubtedly must be, the upper or southern 
portion of the San Joaquin valley, — that vast 
region where the Coast Range and the Sierra 
Nevada sweep in a grand semicircle around 
from the west and the east, and form the lofty 
barrier which shuts out the desert from the fer- 
tile plains watered by the Kern and San Joa- 
quin rivers and their tributaries. In a word, a 
closer approach to the natural conditions of the 
delta of the Nile will be found in the 5,000,- 
000 acres embraced within the boundaries of 
the county of Kern than in any other part of 
this continent. 

Let us look at these conditions and note the 
points of similarity. First, as to climate. The 
valley of the Nile is practically rainless. Rain- 
storms come so infrequently that the natural 
precipitation cuts no figure at all in the calcula- 
tions of the tillers of the soil. So with the 
Kern delta: the rainfall is less than in any other 
part of the State — a fact which, while to some 
might appear a drawback, nevertheless, as will 
be shown, has overwhelming compensations and 
advantages. Nature deals ever in compensa- 
tions, and as in Egypt she has provided the vast 
volume of the Nile to offset the lack of rainfall, 
so here in the Kern river and other streams are 
sources provided ample for the irrigation of the 
entire vast area. Indeed, kindly nature has 
been more bounteous in her treatment of the 
Kern delta than in that of the Nile. In Egypt 
that stream occasionally fails to bring down the 
floods necessary for the fructification of the soil, 
and then ensue seasons of famine and distress. 
The streams of the Kern delta, however, fed by 
the vast glaciers of the lofty Sierra, and by the 



246 



HI.STORr OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



snows which never fail, afford, year in and year 
out, with the certainty and regularity of the 
succession of one year after another, an abund- 
ance of the life-giving fluid for every use of the 
entire valley. A failure of this water supply is 
impossible, and with the adoption of the more 
modern methods of irrigation there will be an 
abundance for every acre without taking into 
account the subterranean streams, which, when 
tapped, furnish an artesian flow without parallel. 
In the sirgle feature of water supply the Kern 
delta is immeasurably superior to its prototype 
in Africa. 

As to soil, for ages the Nile has been bring- 
ing down from the interior of Africa vast de- 
posits of matter from the disintegration of the 
rocks, the wash of the soil and the precipitation 
of decaying vegetable growth. This has been 
deposited along its banks and has made a soil of 
surpassing fertility. For thousands of years it 
has been cnltivated in the most intensive fash- 
ion, the drain upon the fertilizing elements 
keeping pace with the additions made to it. 

For countless centuries the same process has 
been in progress in the Kern delta. The fer- 
tile soil that once clothed the mountain ranges 
has been carried into the valleys. The granite 
cliffs have given way to the corrosive influences 
of nature and, converted into loose, friable ma- 
terial, have been carried into the valley and 
mingled with the soil. For thousands of years 
that soil has produced each season a vegetable 
growth, rank and lush, which has decayed and 
lias formed a deposit of vegetable humus that, 
intermingled with the detritus from the moun- 
tain slopes, has formed a seedbed of a fertility 
that is simply unsurpassable. Age after age has 
this been going on here, just as it has in the 
Nile delta. But while the soil of that region 
has been drained with regularity by the hus- 
bandman, the Kern delta has been storing up 
all this vast fertility, not losing a particle, and 
to-day for the first time since the foundation of 
the world, is this perfect seedbed thrown open 
for the behoof of the husbandman. 

In product, too, the resemblance between the 



Nile delta and that of the Kern is remarkable. 
In the one cotton, sugar cane, wheat, corn, rice, 
melons, figs, apricots, pomegranates, grapes, 
peaches, oranges, sweet potatoes — in a word, all 
the long list of subtropical fruits and vegeta- 
bles — thrive in profusion. In the other exactly 
the same wide range of product and luxuriance 
of growth can be seen. The semitropical pro- 
fusion and rapidity of growth of delicate tree, 
shrub and flower seen in the gardens of the Kern 
delta rival in every detail those features of the 
Nile valley which have been made histo.ical in 
song and prose, and which are to-day one of the 
chief delights of travelers in that region. From 
year's en i to year's end the soil of the Kern 
delta stands ready to yield crop after crop. No 
season of idleness is neede.l; no rest is de- 
manded. The imprisoned fertility of ages 
stands ready day and night, without intermis- 
sion, to give itself up to the use and profit of 
man, tne touchstone which calls it forth being 
ever one thing — irrigation. Marvelous as are 
the accounts of the rapidity and extent of 
growtli of grain, vegetable and fruit in the delta 
of the Nile they can all be duplicated in this 
California copy of the garden of the East. 
There is no exception. Actual experiment has 
demonstrated the truth of an assumption that 
might sound far-fetched to those who are not 

o 

aware of the wonderful results that have been 
accomplished in this marvelously favored por- 
tion of California. 

But to the facts that warrant this comparison 
of the Kern delta with the Nile. There are 
within the boundaries of Kern County over 
5,100,000 acres, including valley, foothills and 
mountains. Tulare is the next neighbor on the 
north, Inyo and San Bernardino on the east, 
Ventura and Los Angeles on the south and San 
Luis Obispo on the west. Over a million and 
a half acres are in the San Joaquin valley, pre- 
senting a broad expanse of almost level land of 
the highest fertility. This portion of the county 
is bounded on the northeast, south and south- 
west by a semicircular mountain wall com- 
posed of the Sierra Nevada and Coast ranges, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



24? 



which here join in one tremendous rampart, 
guarding the vast amphitheater at their base. 
Such another continuous body of the finest agri- 
cultural land scarcely exists. In the foothills 
and mountains are plateaus and valleys with 
fertde soil which cover thousands of acres and 
are susceptible of the highest development. In 
the lofty Sierra are immense forests of pine, 
redwood and other growths, which have scarcely 
as yet been touched by man's hand, and will 
afford abundant supplies of lumber for cen- 
turies. 

From these mountains flow streams into the 
valley, principal among which is the Kern river, 
with a perennial and never-failing flow of thou- 
sands of feet of the purest water. Out in the 
valley are Tulare lake, Kern and Buena Vista 
lakes and Goose lake, all large bodies of water 
fed by springs as well as by streams from the 
mountains. The supply of water thus furnished 
is simply unsurpassed. 

RAILROADS. 

Prior to the advent of the Southern Pacific 
railroad through the San Joaquin valley Kern 
County was but little known. Some thirty 
years ago a mining excitement in the mountains 
to the east and south brought a large influx of 
population and caused several settlements to 
spring up, notably among them being Havilah 
and Kernville, the former having been made the 
county seat in 1866 when Kern was cut off 
from Tulare County. But this mining excite- 
ment was of comparatively short duration, and 
Havilah is now little more than a name, though 
once a prosperous, bustling town. Bakersfield 
then became the center of trade for the county, 
and stock-growiug was for years the principal 
industry, great bands of sheep and cattle rang- 
ing the vast unsettled plain in search of suste- 
nance. When the railroad began to push south 
toward Los Angeles the town of Sumner was 
laid out, a mile east of Bakersfield, and in the 
mountains to the southeast Caliente was for 
months the terminus of the road, while the diffi- 
cult grades and tunnels through the Tehachapi 



mountains were being constructed. The main 
line of the Southern Pacific railroad has 117 
miles of track in Kern County, while the Atch- 
ison and Topeka line has fifty-six miles of road 
running easterly from Mojave station. The 
Fresno and Porterville road comes down the 
east side of the valley and joins the main line 
at Poso, in Kern County. 

Besides these roads the Atchison and Topeka 
line can get into Central and Northern Califor- 
nia by no other possible way than through the 
Kern valley. Leaving Mojave the surveys and 
part of the grading for this road run north- 
westerly through the Tejon pass, across the 
Tehachapi mountains and into the valley, pass- 
ing through Bakersfield. There is absolutely 
no other outlet possible for this road. After 
leaving Bakersfield it may pass up the west side 
of the San Joaquin valley to Antioch, as is pro- 
posed and promised, or it may cross the Mount 
Diablo spur of the Coast Range into San Luis 
Obispo County by the Palo Prieta or other pass, 
and thence through San Benito and Santa Clara 
counties up the peninsula to San Francisco 
direct. But whatever the course of the line 
after leaving the Kern valley, it is physically 
impossible that it should leave this section to 
one side. 

Still another line of road has been surveyed 
across the mountains, by feasible passes from 
Nevada through the Owen's river valley and 
down the canon of the Kern river, coming out 
in the only place possible, Bakersfield. 

WATER SUPPLY. 

At the outset it was stated that the water sup- 
ply of Kern County was something phenome- 
nal, and that subject is worthy of elaboration. 
While nature has given this region the lightest 
rainfall of all parts of the State, it has fol- 
lowed the inevitable law of compensation by 
providing two sources of inexhaustible supply. 
These consist of the surface and the underground 
streams, whose vast volume, when properly 
utilized, will suffice to provide a far more cer- 
tain and abundant supply of moisture than is 



S48 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



possible when the capricious clouds are the sole 
source of dependence. While the rainfall in the 
Kern valley is of the lightest description, vet 
within a comparatively short distance the pre- 
cipitation of moisture in the shape of snow and 
rain reaches the enormous amount of 100 inches 
or more annually. In this region the Sierra 
reach their loftiest height. Here are Tyndall 
and other peaks, with Whitney, the highest 
mountain in the United States, towering aloft 
over 15,000 feet. On these mountains the 
snow remains year after year, forming tremen- 
dous glaciers, which are the perennial source of 
streams which in the nature of things can know 
no such thing as failure, even in the season of 
scantiest rainfall in the valley region. Here, in 
these solitudes, rises the stream which is the 
main source of supply for the valley below. 
Away in the northwestern part of Tulare County 
are the headwaters of the north fork of the 
Kern river, drawing supplies from thousands of 
square miles of watershed on the western slope 
of the Sierra. For over sixty miles this stream 
flows through the mountains of Tulare County, 
and some twenty miles after crossing the line 
into Kern County the south fork unites with it. 
For thirty miles or more the stream then flows 
through a picturesque and rocky cation, finally 
debouching upon the plain a short distance 
from Bakersfield. In its course the river has a 
fall of upward of 12,000 feet, and near the 
mouth of the last canon before reaching the 
plains are cataracts and falls which give a tre 
mendous amount of water power, easily utilized 
and only awaiting the hand of enterprise to be- 
come a source of great wealth and the cause of 
the rapid development of the community. 

The amount of water contained in the Kern 
river is something enormous. Careful meas- 
urement taken in the dryest portion of the sea- 
son shows a minimum flow of 2,700 to 3,000 
cubic feet per second. In the season of great- 
est supply there has been measured a maximum 
of over 19,000 cubic feet to the second. With 
the normal supply averaged as it should be, one 
who has any knowledge concerning such mat- 



ters can readily see that with proper methods of 
handling and distributing the immense supply 
every acre of arable land in the valley can be 
furnished with an abundance of water for all 
ordinary farming purposes. 

At present the water is used in the most 
wasteful manner possible. Broad and shallow 
canals convey it over the valley, by their shape 
and grade inviting the greatest loss from evap- 
oration and seepage. In the actual application 
of the water also to growing crops there is the 
greatest wastefulness. None of the enocomical 
methods evolved from necessity that are in use 
in many other places have been adopted here. 
There has always been plenty of water for all 
purposes, and hence no economy has been made 
necessary. But with correct methods of hand- 
ling the waters of the Kern river there is no 
manner of doubt that all the land within reach 
of its flow can be provided with an adequate 
supply for all crops. 

Besides the Kern river there are other streams 
rising in the mountains, and, joining their flow 
after reaching the valley, largely augmenting 
the supply of water. From the Kern river and 
its branches there radiates throughout the val- 
ley a system of irrigation canals which it is no 
invidious comparison to say is without its equal 
in the State or even in the entire country. 
These canals attain the dignity of rivers, and 
their flow is something enormous. There is 
one main canal, for instance, which is larger 
than the famous waterway of New York State, 
the Erie canal. It is 120 feet wide on the sur- 
face, 80 feet on the bottom and has banks seven 
feet in height. A depth of six feet of water co- - 
tinues thirty-two miles. Branching from this 
canal (the Calloway) are more than seventy 
smaller distributing ditches from eight to twenty 
feet wide and covering over 200,000 acres in 

o 

one body. 

There are thirty-two main canals of varying 
dimensions diverting water from the Kern river. 
Of these the three largest are the Goose lake, the 
Kern Valley Water Company's and the Calloway. 
The first named has a width of 1-40 feet on the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



249" 



bottom and carries 90,000 miners' inches of 
water. The second is 125 feet wide on the bot- 
tom and carries seven feet of water, equivalent 
to 130,000 miners' inches. The flow of the 
Calloway equals 74,000 miners' inches. The 
Stine has 56,000 miners' inches, and from 
that amount the quantity of water in each canal 
runs down to 500 inches, which is the capacity 
of the Wilson ditch. 

These thirty-two main canals have an aggre- 
gate length of nearly 300 miles, but this is only 
a small part of the entire length of irrigating 
canals in the valley. Each main canal has from 
five to fifty times its own length in laterals, 
which radiate in every direction. 

The total appropriation of these canals is 
597,262 miners' inches, or 11,911 cubic feet 
flow per second. The capacity for irrigation of 
this immense flow — that is, the amount of land 
that can be covered when the water is economi- 
cally handled — can be best estimated on the ba-ds 
adopted elsswhere. Careful experiment has 
demonstrated that one miner's inch of perpetual 
flow will irrigate from four to ten acres of land, 
according to the nature of the soil and the vari- 
ety of crop produced. Upon the lowest ratio, 
therefore, these canals carry water enough for 
2,389,000 acres of land. Here, therefore, is 
abundant proof that the water supply of Kern 
County is ample for all the land that is included 
within the arable area of the great delta. 

The water supply being so abundant, it fol- 
lows that irrigation is most cheaply performed. 
In many parts of the State an annual charge of 
from $5 co $10 an acre is made for water. In- 
deed, in one case, whose success has been widely 
advertised, several thousand acres of land have 
been disposed of where the purchasers were re- 
quired to sign agreements to pay an annual 
water tax of $10 an acre for all time. In Kern 
County, on the other hand, the highest rate 
paid is $1 an acre annually, and the usual price 
is only 50 cents, which is a mere bagatelle to 
the cultivators of small farms. 

So far the source of supply for irrigation that 
has been dealt with is entirely the surface 

16 J 



streams. There is another source of scarcely 
less importance, which is found in the great 
underground streams that have been tapped by 
artesian wells. The shape of the Kern delta, 
surrounded on three sides by lofty mountains 
upon whose sides the rainfall is large, together 
with the geological character of the formation, 
early suggested the possibility of the successful 
boring of artesian wells. Experiments were 
made which met with success — a success that in 
many instances is simply astounding. Great 
wells flowing from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 gal- 
lons daily have been sunk in many places, while 
the number of smaller flows is numerous and 
constantly increasing. So far the artesian belt 
has been proven to exist for a length of some 
fifty miles and a width of about fifteen, but it 
is believed by many experts that it is only a 
questiou of depth for the procurement of ar- 
tesian water in all parts of the valley. JSlo one 
who has not seen a well of a couple of million 
gallons' capacity daily can have any idea of what 
it is like. Such wells are generally capped over 
with a powerful pipe and valve, and the flow is 
regulated as desired. When turned on full 
force the water bursts forth with a roar, and 
either mounts high into the air or spurts hori- 
zontally in a perfect flood, according to the posi- 
tion in which the controlling valve has been 
placed. It is a grand sight to see one of these 
wells pouring forth water enough to irrigate a 
thousand or more acres, and in a flood whose 
volume never suffers depreciation. The artesian 
wells of Kern are one of its most picturesque 
and interesting sights, as well as one of the 
most valuable features from an economic stand- 
point. They range in depth from 200 to 500 
feet, and the size varies according to the freak 
of the owner. Some are over a foot in diameter 
and others only two or three inches. When 
properly stored in reservoirs there are single 
wells the water from which will irrigate 2,000 
to 4,000 acres. 

Although the Kern delta has been so abun- 
dantly supplied by nature with every resource 
of soil, climate and water, yet the centers of 



2",0 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



population have been slow of formation, and for 
years the growth has not been rapid. Happily, 
however, as will be explained elsewhere, this 
state of facts no longer exists, and Kern County 
has commenced a growth that will within a few 
Years give it the prominence to which it is 
justly entitled. 

IRRIGATION. 

The three essential elements in agricultural 
and horticultural pursuits — in the tillage of the 
earth — are soil, water and climate. In all ages 
of the world it has been proven that water is 
not equally distributed over the face of the 
earth. It is well known that the rainfall varies 
very much in all parts of the world. The his- 
tory of man shows that in this and every other 
country, and this State is no exception to the 
rule, at one time crops are drowned out aud at 
another time they are dried out. There is 
scarcely a section known where extreme has not 
tallowed extreme. In California, especially, 
there is not perfect reliability in the precipita- 
tion of water for farm husbandry. It is also 
known that natural water-courses cannot be 
utilized for this purpose. Many streams are so 
located, the beds of their channels are so situated, 
that their waters cannot be diverted from their 
natural course and be brought out upon the 
surrounding country for this purpose. It is 
equally well demonstrated that artesian water 
cannot be obtained in all places when needed. 
In view of these incontrovertible facts, what re- 
mains to be done is to meet the emergency — to 
provide the husbandman with just the amount 
of water he wants, and at just the time he needs 
it — never too much, never too little, to success- 
fully carry out the great pursuit of life — the 
cultivation of the soil. 

It is an indisputable fact, and no one need 
attempt to deny it, that the San Joaquin valley 
is a "dry country," especially the southern 
portion of it. The rainfall from Goshen to 
Caliente, a distance of 100 miles, is very light. 
Kern valley lies in this district. The annual 
rainfall at Bakersfield has been as low as four 
inches. There would be small hope for success- 



ful agricultural and horticultural pursuits were 
there no artificial means of obtaining water. 

Nature designed that this life-giving element, 
which accomplishes such wonderful results in 
the leading pursuits of life, in all warm, dry 
countries, should be at hand, should be super- 
abundantly supplied by the agency of man, for 
his own benetit. Fortunately this is demon- 
strated in Kern valley, by being located within 
a magnificent 

ARTESIAN BELT. 

The limits as yet are undefined, but of great 
extent. From the northern border of the 
county, especially on and south of the southern 
border of Tulare lake, it extends through the 
entire alluvial sections of Kern valley. This 
artesian district covers the entire country for 
fifteen to twenty miles east and north of Tulare 
lake, in Tulare County. But here we have only 
to do with the artesian district of Kern valley 
as far as developed. It covers a distance of 
nearly or quite fifty miles north and south, with 
a width of ten to fifteen, miles. We have good 
reason for believing that it covers nearly the 
entire valley. Probably the largest artesian 
well that has yet been opened in this county is 
that finished for Dr. Leek in the northern part 
of the county in 1890. It is fifteen inches in 
diameter and 713 feet deep, and has a seven- 
inch flow of 4,500,000 gallons per day. The 
doctor has a section of land and was desirous of 
irrigating it all from one well, and has suc- 
ceeded, having enough water and to spare. He 
has proved also that there is economy in the 
construction of a large well in many ways, and 
this only cost 25 cents per foot more than one 
of ordinary size. 

A fair flow is obtained at a depth of 200 feet, 
and other flows are obtained at short intervals 
in going down further, so that any reasonable 
quantity of water can be obtained by going 
deep enough. One of these wells will usually 
irrigate a section of land, and if the water is 
collected and stored in reservoirs, some will 
supply water for 3,000 to 4,000 acres. 

In many instances the flow is too great for 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



251 



the farmer, and he has to cap his well, to pre- 
vent a superabundance of water. Just south of 
Tulare lake, in the northern part of Kern val- 
ley, there are more than three dozen of these 
wells within a radius of ten miles. We give 
here the flow of a dozen of these wells in gal- 
lons every twenty-four hours, all yielding over 
1,000,000 each: 2,500,000, 2,500,000, 2,400,- 
000, 2.400,000, 2,200,000, 2,200,000, 2,000,000, 
1,600,000", 1,600,000, 1,500,000, 1,500,000, 1,- 
200,000. 

The water discharging from artesian wells, of 
which there are several on Kern Island within 
a distance of six miles from the lakes, main- 
tains a uniform temperature of seventy-one de- 
grees Fahr., summer and winter, making the 
water valuable for winter irrigation. These 
wells, just north of the little lakes, are from 250 
to 460 feet deep. 

CANALS. 

Under the head of the Kern delta, a few 
pages back, reference is made to the water sys- 
tem there. The following account is more 
complete: 

In order to present to the reader fully and 
accurately this immense system of irrigation by 
canals, we give a brief description of each canal in 
detail, with such facts and figures as will be in- 
teresting. 

The canal of the Kern River Water and Irri- 
gating Company, known as the Beardsley canal, 
the highest on the river, being the most north- 
easterly of this great system, is taken from the 
northerly bank, in the southeast quarter of 
section 3, township 29 south, range 28 east It 
is eight miles in length, fifteen feet wide on 
the bottom, and two and one-half feet deep. It 
has ten miles of distributing ditches. It ap- 
propriates 47,030 miners' inches, under a four- 
inch pressure, equivalent to 938 cubic feet per 
second. This location was made December 2, 
1873. 

The McCord canal is taken from the north- 
erly bank of the river, in the northeast quarter 
of section 18, township 29 south, range 28 east. 
The main canal is four and one-half miles long, 



with three branches, havincr a total leno-th of 
ten miles, and fifteen miles of distributing 
ditches. The main canal is twenty feet wide 
on the bottom and two and three feet deep. 
This, with the Beardsley, is the means of sup- 
ply for that portion of the district above the 
Calloway canal. It appropriates 5,000 inches, 
equivalent to 100 cubic feet per second. This 
location was made March 20, 1875. 

The Calloway canal belongs to the Kern 
River Land and Canal Company, and is the 
largest and most important in the system. It 
conies out of the northerly bank of the 
river, a short distance above the Southern Pacif- 
ic Railroad Company's bridge, in the southeast 
quarter, section 13, township 29 south, range 27 
east. It is thirty- two miles long, eighty feet 
wide on the bottom and 120 on the surface, 
with banks seven feet high and ten to sixteen 
feet wide on top, with inside slope of four to 
one, and outside two to one. On the west bank 
there is a delightful drive-way the full length. 
It has a depth of abmt six feet. The grade is 
eight-tenths of a foot per mile. In thirty 
miles it crosses Poso creek, by means of a weir 
150 feet in length, built in the bed of the 
creek, and connecting at either end with the 
lower bank of the canal. This arrangement ad- 
. mits of the use of the winter waters of Poso 
creek, by diverting them into the canal. It 
has some sixty-five distributing ditches, from 
eight to twenty feet wide on the bottom, averag- 
ing sixteen feet, and from one to nine miles 
long, the aggregate length being about 150 
miles. These branches have banks three and 
one-half feet high, intended for three feet of 
water, with slopes three to one and a grade of 
one and six-tenths feet per mile, giving to each 
a capacity of 196 and five-tenths cubic feet per 
second. The importance of this canal is seen 
when we state that it covers about 200,000 acres 
of land. The head-gate at the point of diversion 
from the river is 100 feet long, built of red- 
wood lumber, 6x6 struts, 4x6 side posts and 
two- inch flooring. The foundation is twenty 
feet wide up and down the stream and has three 



252 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



rows of sheet piling, 4 x 8, Oregon pine, driven 
to a depth of from twelve to sixteen feet, with 
intermediate or anchor piles of the same dimen- 
sions and material, to which the sills, 4x8, red- 
wood, are spiked. There are twenty-five bays, 
and the gate- boards are 2x6, redwood. The top 
of the gate is eight feet from the floor. The 
gate extends from the right hank out into the 
stream and is connected with the weir by an 
artificial abutment. The weir extends from this 
abutment southerly across the river and is 400 
feet long, being of similar construction to the 
head-gate, the only difference being that the 
gate-boards are twice as long, reaching across 
the bays. By means of the gate boards, which 
are movable, the water is under complete con- 
trol and can be regulated at will. A consider- 
able portion of the lands covered by this canal 
has been already cultivated and irrigated, and 
the life-giving waters of this magnificent 
aqueduct have transformed the barren plains 
of this region into luxuriant fields of alfalfa, 
and enabled the rearing of many beautiful 
homes in the midst of lovely gardens where 
grow the plants of many climes. The Callo- 
way appropriates 74,000 inches of water, equiv- 
alent to 1,476 cubic feet per second. The 
location was made May 4, 1875. 

The McCaffrey ditch, sharing the head-gate 
of the Calloway canal, is three miles long, seven 
to eight feet wide on the bottom and is two 
and one-half feet deep. It irrigates the land 
between the Calloway and the river. The ap- 
propriation is 1,296 inches, equivalent to 
twenty-six cubic feet per second. The date of 
location is October 31, 1874. 

The Emery ditch, having its head-gate in the 
northeast quarter of section 22, township 29 
south, range 27 east, is three miles long, six to 
eight feet wide on the bottom and two feet deep. 
It appropriates 2,000 inches, equivalent to forty 
cubic feet per second. Located December 2, 
1876. 

The Jones and Tuckey ditch begins in the 
northeast quarter of section 32, township 29 
south, range 27 east. It is four miles in length, 



ten feet wide on the bottom and two feet deep. 
The appropriation is 1,000 inches, equivalent 
to twenty cubic ftet per t-econd. Located June 
24, 1876. 

The Railroad canal, commencing near the 
corner of southwest quarter of section 31. 
township 29 south, range 27 east, is 3,000 feet 
long. It is forty feet wide on the bottom and 
two feet deep. It empties into Goose Lake 
slough It appropriates 31,075 inches, equi- 
valent to 620 cubic feet per second. Its loca- 
tion dates July 24, 1874. 

The Wible canal, having its head-gate in the 
northwest quarter of section 6, township 30 
south, range 27 east, and running about 1,000 
feet, discharges into Goose lake canal, and by 
means of this canal and Goose Lake slough its 
waters are conveyed to the lands to beirrigated. 
It is forty feet wide on the bottom and two 
feet deep. Its appropriation is 5,040 inches, 
and its capacity 300 cubic feet per second. 
Located May 1, 1875. 

The Goose Lake canal, the property of the 
Goose Lake Canal Company, is taken from the 
northerly bank of Kern river, in the northeast 
quarter of section 1, township 30 south, range 26 
east, and rnns thence northwesterly four and 
one-half miles, emptying into Goose lake 
slough. Flowing through this slough the water 
is taken out at different points along the slough 
in ditches. It is 140 feet wide on the bottom 
and three feet deep. It appropriates 90,000 
inches, equivalent to 1,795 cubic feet per sec- 
ond. It was located July 13, 1875. The Rail- 
road, Wible and Goose Lake canals all empty 
into the Goose Lake slough, and use it as a 
common channel to carry their waters to the 
adjoining lands as far down as Goose lake, a 
distance of twenty-two miles. 

The Pioneer canal, owned by the Pioneer 
Canal Company, has its head gate in the north- 
east quarter of section 1, township 30 south, 
range 26 east. It has a length, westerly, of 
eleven and one-half miles, being sixty feet wide 
on the bottom and three feet deep. This canal 
flows through the entire length of the Mc- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



253 



Clung ranch, which is wholly irrigated by it, 
and its principal distributing branch, the Pot- 
tinger ditch, seventeen feet wide. It also passes 
through the Buena Vista ranch, furnishing 
mainly its irrigating waters. Its appropriation 
is 20,074 inches, equivalent to 400 cubic feet per 
second. This canal was located April 26, 1873. 

The Edwards ditch, whose head-gate is in 
the northwest quarter of section 1, township 
30 south, range 26 east, is two miles long, ten 
to twelve feet wide on the bottom and one foot 
deep. It appropriates 1,440 inches, equivalent 
to twenty-nine cubic feet per second, and was 
located December 21, 1874. 

The James and Dixon canal is owned by a 
company of that name. It commences in the 
southeast qitarter of section 3, township 30 
south, range 26 east, and runs in a westerly direc- 
tion about twelve miles. It is thirty feet wide 
on the bottom and three feet deep. Its ap- 
propriation is 14,000 inches, or 279 cubic feet 
per second. Located April 19, 1873. 

The Johnson ditch is owned by the Lower 
INew Kern River Irrigating Company, and be- 
gins in the southeast quarter of section 3, 
township 30 south, range 26 east, a few feet be- 
low the James & Dixon Canal, with which its 
waters join in a shallow slough a few hundred 
feet below. Its course is southwesterly about 
four miles. It is thirty feet wide on the bot- 
tom and three feet deep, and appropriates 8,640 
inches, or 172 cubic feet per second. Located 
June 12, 1873. 

The Ashe ditch is near the Johnson, and is 
taken from the river in the southeast quarter of 
section 3, township 30 south, range 26 east, and 
is one mile in length, three feet wide on the 
bottom and two feet deep, with a discharge 
capacity of twenty-four cubic feet per second. 

The May ditch takes its supply from a short 
arm of the river in the northwest corner of the 
southwest quarter of section 18, township 30 
south, range 26 east. It is two miles long, eight 
feet wide on the bottom and two feet deep. Its 
appropriation is 4,000 inches, eighty cubic feet 
per second. Located November 29, 1S73. 



The Joice canal draws from the river in the 
northeast corner of the southwest quarter of 
section 23, township 30 south, range 25 east. 
Nearly four miles long, twelve feet on the bot- 
tom and two feet deep. It appropriates' 6,250 
inches of water, 129 cubic feat per second. It 
was located May 26, 1873. 

The Dixon canal is a branch of the Joice 
canal, diverting the water from the latter for 
about two and a half miles, and then it branches 
out to the northward, irrigating lands on the 
borders of the reclaimed swamp land district. 
It is eight feet on the bottom and four feet 
deep, and appropriates sixty-nine cubic feet of 
water per second. Its location dates April 13, 
1875. 

The foregoing canals and ditches, as indicated, 
are all on the north side of New Kern river, or 
now Kern river proper. We will give the loca- 
tion and brief description of those on the south 
side, about the same number beino- located on 
both sides of the old river. 

The first one in order on the river, located at 
the highest point on the left bank of the stream, 
is the property of the Kern Island Irrigating 
Canal Company, called the Kern Island Can?l. 
It is taken from Kern river near the south j if t 
corner of southwest quarter of section 9, town- 
ship 29 south, range 28 east, about two and 
one-half miles northeast of Bakersfield, through 
which town it passes. It is eighteen miles 
long, with a width at the head-gate of forty- 
eight and a half feet on the bottom and a depth 
of four feet. It terminates at Kern lake. At 
Bakersfield this canal makes a vertical fall of 
nearly twenty feet, furnishing water-power for a 
large flouring mill. This important canal has 
two main branches, — the town branch supplying 
Bakerstield and vicinity, having a length of two 
miles, and a central branch, diverging from the 
canal south of town, and running nearly parallel 
to it varying from one-half to two miles distant, 
for a distance of ten miles in a southerly direc- 
tion. This branch has a width of twenty feet 
on the bottom, and a depth of three feet, with 
slopes of three to one. The central branch is 



254 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



our of the best irrigating canals in the valley. 
It has nineteen drops in the distance of ten 
miles, placed at intervali of half a mile. The 
Kern Island and its branches have thirty-one 
lateral ditches, besides a connecting ditch with 
the Stine canal, having a total length of over 
eighty miles. It appropriates 400 cubic feet 
per second. Located in the year 1870. Old 
South Fork canal, rext lielow the Kern Island, 
derives its water from the river in the central 
northern part ot the northeast quarter of sec- 
tic n 17, township 29 south, range 28 east, about 
three-fourth 6 of a mile below the head-gate of the 
Kern Island canal. It runs three miles south- 
westerly into the bed of the old south fork o 
Kern river, in which its waters are conveyed to 
Kern lake in nearly a southerly direction. The 
cai al is twenty-six feet on the bottom, and is 
from two to three feet deep. It has seven miles 
of distributing ditches, the principal of which is 
the Cotton Baneh ditch, irrigating 1,100 acres 
of alluvial bottom lands, north of and adjoining 
Bakers field. Most of the water diverted into 
the old south fork is turned into the Panama 
slough, and again diverted below by the Panama 
ditch. This canal is alt-o used at times as a 
feeder for the Kern Island canal. It appro- 
priates seventy-five cubic feet per second. 

The Farmers' canal, owned by the Farmers' canal 
Company, takes water from the river in the north- 
east quarter of section 24, township 29 south 
range 27 east, about 200 feet above the Southern 
Pacific railroad bridge across Kern river, with 
forty-eight feet opening, fronting parallel with 
the river, the water entering the canal at right 
angles with the stream. The first artificial 
channel to the Panama slough is about three- 
fourths of a mile in length. 

The total length of the main channel is about 
fifteen miles, consisting wholly of natural 
sloughs. It has four miles of branches varying 
from ten to twenty feet in width, and thirty 
miles of distributing ditches. The artificial 
channel is fifteen feet wide on the bottom, and 
three feet deep, the natural channel varies from 
twenty to fifty feet in width, with a depth of 



six to ten feet, having nearly vertical banks. 
The soil through which it passes is generally a 
firm clayey loam, and permits natural irrigation 
of adjacent lands by percolation. A great deal 
of the land along this channel requires little sur- 
face irrigation. Its volume of water is 287 
feet per second. Located April 20, 1873. 

The Castro ditch derives its water at the 
junction of Old and Kern rivers in the northeast 
quarter of section 26, township 29 south, range 
27 east. It is sixteen feet wide, two feet deep 
and five miles long. It crosses Panama slough 
and irrigates a small amount of land east of that 
channel. Its volume of water is twenty cubic 
feet per second. The Stine canal, the property 
of the Stine Canal Company, takes its water at 
the junction of Old and Kern rivers adjoining 
that of Castro: same local description as the 
former. It occupies the bed of Old river for 
half a mile, is eighty feet wide on the bottom, 
three feet deep and fifteen miles long. It has 
two main branches, with numerous forks, varying 
in width from twelve to twenty feet on the bot- 
tom, and having an aggregate length of thirty- 
two and a half miles, forty-one and a half miles 
of distributing ditches. It is next in import- 
ance, in this system, to the Kern Island canal, 
and shares with the Farmers' canal in irrigating 
townships 30 and 31 south, range 27 east, be- 
sides supplying water for other lands west and 
south. It appropriates 1,117 cubic feet per 
second. Its location dates December 12, 1872. 

The Anderson canal heads also in the northeast 
quarter of section 26, township 29 south, range 
27 east, at the junction of Old and Kern rivers. 
Its head-gate connects with those of the Stine 
and Castro, ami the same system of wing dams 
serves for all. The canal runs soutwesterl v 
four miles, is fifteen feet wide on the bottom 
and two and one-half feet deep. This canal is 
used exclusively for irrigating Stockdale ranch, 
located about five and one-half miles southwest 
of Bakerstield. Its appropriation is 5.057 inches, 
equivalent to 101 cubic feet per second The 
location was made October 9, 1872. 

The Gates canal, owned by the Gates Canal 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Company, is taken out of Kern river,in the south- 
west quarter of section 26, township 29 south, 
range 27 east, and runs in a southwesterly direc- 
tion two and one half miles. It is twelve feet 
wide on the bottom and two and one-half feet 
deep. It also is used exclusively in irrigating 
Stockdale ranch. Its appropriation is 5,057 
inches, equivalent 101 cubic feet per second. 
This canal was located originally without record 
early in 1872, and re-located October 7, 1878. 

The Buena Vista canal belongs to the Buena 
Vista Canal company. Its head-gate is in the 
northeast quarter of section 33, township 29 
south, range 27 east, and runs southwesterly 
through Bellevue ranch, located about eight miles 
west of Bakersfield. It is thirteen and three- 
fourth miles long, thirty feet wide on the bottom 
and three feet deep. It has numerous ditches of 
various dimensions. Its appropriation is 14,000 
inches, equivalent to 279 cubic feet per second. 
Its location was July 15, 1870. 

The James canal, which is the property of the 
James Canal Company, heads in the northeast 
quarter of section 33, township 29 south, range 
27 east. It runs southwesterly seventeen and 
one- fourth miles, is sixty feet wide on the bottom 
the first three miles and forty feet the remaining 
distance, and is three feet deep. This canal also 
flows through Bellevue ranch, supplying water 
for this ranch and lands still further south and 
west. The amount of appropriation is 19,730 
inches, equivalent to 394 cubic feet per second. 
Date of location, October 15, 1871. 

The Plunkett canal, belonging to the Plunkett 
Canal Company, commences in the northwest 
quarter of section 33, township 29 south, range 
27 east. It runs southwesterly through Bellevue 
ranch, and is used exclusively for it. Amount of 
appropriation is 5,057 inches, equivalent to 101 
cubic feet per second. Date of location, De- 
cember 31, 1872. It is three and three-fourth 
miles long, twelve feet wicie on the bottom and 
two and one-half feet deep. 

The Meacharn canal is the property of the 
Meacham Canal Company, commencing in the 
northwest quarter of section 6, township 30 south? 



range 27 east, and flows through Bellevue ranch 
southwesterly about four miles. It is twelve 
feet wide on the bottom and three feet deep. 
Its appropriation of water is 1,500 inches, 
equivalent to thirty cubic feet per second. It 
was located April 15, 1873. 

The Wilson canal commences at a point on 
Kern river, near the head-gate of the Meacham 
canal, in the northwest quarter of section 6, town- 
ship 30 south, range 27 east,and also flows through 
Bellevue ranch two and one half miles in a 
southwesterly direction, and is five feet wide on 
the bottom and two feet deep. It appropriates 
500 inches, equivalent to ten cubic feet per sec- 
ond, and was located August 15, 1874. 

The Henley canal begins in the southeast 
quarter of section 9, township 30 south, range 26 
east, and runs southwesterly two and one-half 
miles. It is three feet wide on the bottom, and 
two feet deep. The amount of the appropri- 
ation is 2,880 inches, equivalent to fifty-seven 
cubic feet per second. Its location dates Janu- 
ary 29, 1874. 

The Frazer canal takes its waters out oE Kern 
river,in the northeast quarter of section 16, town- 
ship 39 south, range 26 east. It flows southwest- 
erly two and one-fourth miles, and is five feet wide 
on the bottom, with a depth of one and one-half 
feet. It appropriates 2,600 inches, equivalent 
to fifty-two cubic feet per second. It was lo- 
cated April 15, 1873. 

The Kern Valley Water Company has two 
main canals for the reclamation of swamp 
land in District No. 21, in Buena Vista slough, 
and a distributing canal. The principal canal 
is that on the west side of the district, follow- 
ing, generally, the border of the swamp lands 
for a distance of twenty-four miles. At its 
head it is 125 feet wide on the bottom, 7 
feet deep, with sides sloping from three to one, 
and from seven to one, and a grade of nine- 
tenths of a foot per mile. The grade is very 
irregular, and we give it in detail, as it will be 
interesting for the reader to see that here is an 
almost perfect system of irrigation over an un- 
even country. For one-half mile the grade is 



2)0 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



nine- tenths of a foot ; nine miles, it is two feet ; one- 
half mile, two and five-tenths feet, and one and 
one- fourth miles, level ; vertical drop, one and six- 
tenths feet; one mile, eight feet; two miles, level. 

Below this main channel a parallel distribut- 
ing canal, thirty feet wide on the bottom and 
two feet deep, was constructed, about teu miles 
long. On the east side of the swamp a canal 
about six miles long was constructed for irri- 
gation purposes, having a width on the bottom 
of twenty-five feet, a depth of three to five feet, 
and side slopes of three to one. The appropri- 
ation of water of the Kern Valley Water Com- 
panv is 100,000 inches, equivalent to 1,995 
cubic feet per second, and its location dates 
April 7, 1877. 

The appropriation of the Kern valley, east 
side, is 30,000 inches, equivalent to 599 cubic 
feet per second, and the location dates April 
9, 1877. 

RESUME OF THE CANAL SYSTEM OF KEEN VALLEY. 



NAME OF CANAL. 



Length, 

Miles. 



Beardsley 

McCord 

Calloway 

McCaffrey 

Emery 

Jones Tuckey 

Railroad 

Wible 

Goose Lake 

Pioneer 

Edwards 

James & Dixon 

Johnson 

Ashe 

May - 

Joice 

Dixon 

Kern Island 

Old South Fork 

Farmers 

Castro 

Stine 

Anderson 

Gates 

Buena Vista 

James 

Plunkett 

Meacham 

Wilson 

Henley 

Traver 

Kern Valley Water Company 



Total 297 9-20 597,365 



32 
3 
3 
4 

3-5 
1-5 
4i 

iii 

3 

4 

1 

2 

4 

2i 
30 

3 
V&% 

5 
4T^ 

4 

13& 

17JK 

m 

4 
40 



Appropriation. 



Inches, Cubic 
Miners' Feet. 



47,230 
5,000 

74,000 
1,296 

2,000 

1,000 

31,075 
5,040 

90,000 

20,074 
1,440 

14,000 
8,040 
1,200 
4,080 
0,250 
3,450 

20,000 
3,800 

14,400 
1,000 

55,980 
5,057 
5,057 

14,000 

19,730 
5.057 
1,500 
500 
2,880 
2,000 
130,000 



938 

100 

1,470 

26 

40 

20 

620 

100 

1,795 

400 

29 

279 

172 

24 

80 

125 

09 

400 

75 

287 

20 

1,117 

101 

101 

279 

394 

101 

30 

10 

57 

52 

2,594 



11,911 



The first division of the above table down 
to and including the Dixon canal, represents the 
canals on the northern bank of Kern river. 
The rest, those taken out of the southern bank 
of the Kern. 

There is not to be found in this country such 
an extensive system of irrigating canals, and of 
such magnitude and vast importance as this 
Kern valley system ; and the people of Kern 
valley may challenge the world to produce bet- 
ter results under similar circumstances. Let it 
be distinctly understood, as we have intimated, 
that all these great works and very satisfactory 
achievements have been acquired in the short 
space or fourteen to fifteen years. The canal 
system of Kern valley is open to criticism. Per- 
fection is not claimed; but as far as capital and 
brains could be employed, no pains have been 
spared in utilizing both in bringing science, 
art and an almost incalculable amonnt of labor 
into requisition to attain these results. 

We recognize the bounteous hand of nature, 
as well as the intelligence and enterprise of man 
in these accomplishments, so plainly unfolded 
in the location of the valley, its genial climate 
and exceedingly rich soil; the location of Kern 
river, the great altitude of its source, its moun- 
tain tributaries, its immense water-shed, and 
the ease with which water can be diverted from 
it, which accounts for the great number of 
canals and ditches which have been taken from 
it, as we have shown. 

We cannot dwell with too much emphasis 
upon a water supply for a great system of irri- 
gation. The first and most important con- 
sideration, in a section where agricultural 
success is wholly dependent upon irrigation, as 
in Kern valley, is that of the amount and per- 
manence of the water supply, for upon these 
depend the prosperity of the community. 
Fortunately Kern river, which is virtually tin- 
sole source of supply for all this valley, is a 
stream of large volume, whose waters can be 
entirely diverted witliout injury to any public 
interest, and wliose discharge, though variable, 
is unfailing. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



257 



The river heads, as we have shown, among the 
loftiest peaks of the Sierra Nevada, whose ice- 
fields and beds of snow yield only to the heat of 
midsummer, furnishing an immense volume of 
water long after the winter rains of the foot- 
hills and valley are lost sight of. The rains of 
winter and the melting snows of summer on the 
upper Sierra thus maintain a full flow in Kern 
river for about two thirds of the year, the period 
covering the greatest demand for irrigation- 
Kern river has a slope through the valley of six 
to eight feet per mile, and lies in a shallow, 
sandy bed, with banks of sandy soil three to six 
feet high. These are favorable conditions, and 
enable water to be taken out at almost any point 
at comparatively small cost. Few permanent, 
costly dams or very expensive head-works have 
been found necessary. A simple wing-dam of 
sand and brush, running out into the channel of 
the river at an acute angle up the stream, serves 
every purpose, in most cases, for diverting water 
into the canals, there being only five weir ex- 
tensions across the river in the whole system. 

Then, again, the slope of the irrigable lands 
of the valley is so great, there is no difficulty in 
running canals in almost any direction over 
them, nor in distributing water in the smaller 
ditches, or in draining it off. It is, therefore, 
peculiarly favorable for irrigation, yet the soil 
is too friable to permit of canals of any consider- 
able size taking the natural slope of the ground 
without serious erosion and damage. 

The grade over these sloping plains is regu 
lated by "drops," or weirs, placed at proper 
intervals, with movable weir-boards, which are 
also convenient and necessary for raising water 
to enter distributing ditches. These drops are 
constructed similar to the canal head-works, and 
are characterized by an absence of ponderous 
gates for regulating the water, and extreme 
lightness of timber used, studying the greatest 
economy in material. Head-gates are a neces- 
sity, when the water is taken out of the river, 
to control the admission of water to the canal. 
They are made entirely of wood, there being no 
stone readily accessible in this vicinity. The 



better class of these head-gates are constructed 
upon a foundation of anchor-piles driven into 
the sand as far as possible, with sheet-piling of 
two-inch planks at the upper and lower side of 
the structure. 

Weirs, as before indicated, are constructed not 
only for drops, but for raising water for enter- 
ing distributing ditches. Side-gates are at the 
head of distributing ditches for the purpose of 
admitting water from the canal into such ditches. 
They are constructed upon the same principle 
as head-gates. 

The canal is the usually constructed flume 
for carrying one stream of water over another, 
across a gulch or ravine. 

Wing-darns are built of brush, and in the 
river, from the lower side of the month of the 
canal up the stream, at an acute angle with the 
current, to turn the waters of the river into the 
canal. 

Waste-gates are built at the heads of canals 
and also along their course, to let off any over- 
supply of water. Inverted siphons are put into 
canals, for the purpose of carrying their waters 
under another canal. 

A module is put into a gate or other structure 
for the measurement of water. 

It has been positively demonstrated that upon 
all the sandy soils, at least, which form the prin- 
cipal area of land in this valley, under culti- 
vation, the effect of years of irrigation has been 
a marked increase in their fertility and an ap- 
parent change for the better in their composi- 
tion. The mountains drained by Kern river are 
composed of friable granite, which is very rap- 
idly disintegrating. Great quantities of this, 
as well as vast quantities of gypsum from the 
gypsum beds over which this river flows, are 
transported by the river to the plains below. 
Water and cultivation disintegrate the coarser 
particles, and these fertilizing elements become 
dissolved and prepared for plant-growth. In 
filtering through this porous soil all this sedi- 
ment and fertilizing matter contained in the 
water is detained, and a perpetual restoration 
is furnished. Some of the richest fields in 



238 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Kern island, producing large annual crops, and 
of some productions two crops, were barren 
wastes of sand before being fertilized and re- 
claimed by irrigation. 

The change for the better in the climate of 
Kern valley since the general introduction of 
irrigation, has been as marked as the improve- 
ment in the soil. This is more noticeable, in 
fact, because it affects the physical condition of 
every one. While it is admitted that formerly 
there was a good deal of malaria in Kern valley, 
we now say with positiveness that there is 
scarcely any at all. The healthfulness of Kern 
valley will compare favoiably with any other in 
the State. Malarious fevers were quite preva- 
lent iu the valley formerly, but have been almost 
wholly abated, mainly, it is claimed, by these 
measures. 

Old sloughs containing stagnant water have 
been purified by the introduction of pure moun- 
tain water running through them. Jungles of 
miasma-breeding willows have been cleared, 
swamps drained and dried out, and decaying 
vegetation on every hand destroyed. Besides, 
it may as well be understood first as last, that 
the miasmatic influences prevailing here in the 
early settlement of Kern valley were largely 
owing to the people drinking surface water. 
Since artesian and deep well water is used, a 
radical sanitary change is seen. 

Prior to fourteen or fifteen years ago, there 
were not in this valley more than a dozen fami- 
lies outside of Bakersfield and vicinity, and 
almost all the entire valley was a barren, desolate, 
sandy waste, or desert, except the immediate 
environs of Bakersfield. Now about 150,000 
acres of this land is made to " blossom as the 
rose," yielding as fine crops as grow, and capa- 
ble of sustaining a population of 100,000 people, 
while not more than one-fourth of the irrigable 
land of the valley is under direct cultivation. 

TRANSPORTATION. 

The Southern Pacific Company's great over- 
land railroad runs through the center of Kern 
valley, the entire length of the county, nearly 



northwest and southeast, meandering a little, a 
a distance of 117 miles, passing through 
Sumner, which adjoins Bakersfield. The Atchi- 
son, Topeka and Santa Fe Company's over- 
land Needles road, runs into this county 
fifty-six miles, connecting with the South- 
em Pacific at Mojave, while several surveys 
have been made, all tending in this direc- 
tion, and which must, if the railroads are built, 
pass directly through Kern valley. 

The Southern Pacific Railroad, New Fresno 
division, connects with the main line of road at 
Poso, giving Kern county about 15 miles of 
that line. 

COLONY SETTLEMENT. 

Very early in the history of Kern County, 
the lands of the valley were taken up in large 
tracts and demoted to stock-orowii'ia' tmiuly, 
though more or less cultivation was also under- 
taken. The names of Haggin & Tevis and 
Miller & Lux are intimately connected with the 
development of the vast irrigation system which 
has converted so many thousand acres of arid 
land into productive fields and pastures. But 
such ownership in great bodies is not conducive 
to the best prosperity of any community, nor is 
it apt to be profitable in the long run to those 
interested. About two years ago the owners of 
several hundred thousand acres of land in the 
valley determined to introduce the colony sys- 
tem of settlement and to that end a large area 
was subdivided and put upon the market. A 
novel plan was inaugurated of searching out, 
both in the East and in Europe, those who were 
interested or who might become interested in 
California, and by personal effort inducing them 
to make their homes here. The fact was recog- 
nized that one of the great drawbacks to the 
rapid settlement, of the State was the apparently 
high price at which lands were held. Although 
it can be demonstrated (as it will be further 
along) that these lands are intrinsically of the 
highest value, nevertheless it is also a fact that 
people are loath to pay what seems at first 
glance a high rate. Accordingly actual settlers 
were offered the choicest locations for as little 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



259 



as $35 to $60 an acre, and the result was the 
immediate success of the colony enterprise. 
Several sections of land within a few miles of 
town were laid out under the names of Rosedale 
and Mountain View colonies. Upon these a 
large number of English and American families 
of the most desirable class have been located, 
and now scarcely a week passes but other parties 
arrive and almost invariably decide to remain. 
Care has been taken to make no misrepresenta- 
tion as to soil, product or climate, and the con- 
sequence is that the disappointment, if any, is 
on the other side, and is agreeble rather than 
unpleasant. 

A local paper observes the following: 
"The writer paid a visit to the locality of these 
colonies a short time since and the develop- 
ment that has been accomplished there in less 
than eight months is simply marvelous. Take 
the Rosedale, for instance. March the first 
settlers arrived. There was not a fence, irriga- 
tion ditch, house or any similar thing on the 
ground, while not a shrub, vine or other plant, 
except a little alfalfa, was to be seen. Now 
pleasant houses dot the country in every direc- 
tion. Hundreds of acres of vineyard almost 
cover the ground, and examination shows that 
many of the vines, though planted only last 
April, have grapes upon them, in one case 
twenty-two clusters being counted on a single 
vine. There are fine crops of peanuts, potatoes, 
melons and other vegetables, while alfalfa 
planted barely seven months ago has yielded 
three large cuttings already. Peach and other 
trees have made a tremendous growth and will 
bear good crops next year. Most remarkable 
of all is the fact, that houses built on the naked 
land in April last are already almost hidden 
from view by the rapid growth of trees and 
shrubbery scarce six months old. The writer 
made a point of conversing with these settlers, 
who had literally come from the four corners of 
the earth, and without exception found them well 
pleased. Invalids had regained their health, 
sickly children had become robust and bronzed, 
and in every particular satisfaction was ex- 



pressed with soil, climate, prodncts, and above 
all the kind and helpful treatment accorded 
these strangers in a strange land. 

" So rapid has been the settlement in these 
colonies that already a handsome two-story 
schoolhouse has been made necessary, while a 
church, stores, etc., will follow in rapid suc- 
cession." 

The desirability and feasibility of colony en- 
terprises of this sort has thus been demonstrated 
and already numerous plans are on foot for 
similar settlements in other portions of the 
county. At the rate of progress already made 
it will be but a short time before the Kern delta 
will become a series of prosperous, wealthy 
colony settlements that will be without a 
superior. 

OIL FIELD. 

On the eastern slope of the Coast Range, 
adjoining the valley, has been developed large 
quantities of petroleum of the best quality. 
The principal holders and operators of which 
are the Union Land and Oil Company. This 
Company was organized at Columbus, Georgia, 
for the purpose of prospecting and developing 
Kern County oil lands. Messrs. John Hamil- 
ton, William De Witt, E. T. Hunt and M. 
Singleton, are leading members of the company. 
The locality is known as the old Buena Vista 
district. The company have developed several 
wells of large flow, which are at present capped 
to prevent waste of oil, having no shipping 
facilities. A railroad is much needed through 
this portion of the county, and would cause a 
rapid development of its many valuable re- 
sources. 

For the mineral development, much is due to 
Mr. Hamilton for his energy and perseverance 
prospecting for minerals, oil, etc. He has spent 
twenty years in the county at this business, 
and has spent much time and money prospect- 
ing the locality now being developed by the 
company. 

PHYSICIANS. 

C. A. Rogers and Augustus Schofer. Find 
sketches elsewhere, by the index. 



260 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



M. Perry was born in Sonora, Atchison 
County, Missouri. December 29, 1855, obtained 
bis literary education in the State Normal 
School of Nebraska, from 1865 to 1872 ; at- 
tended lectures at College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa, Eclectic Medical Insti- 
tute of Cincinnati, and American Medical Col- 
lege of St. Louis, Missouri, graduatingat the last- 
named institution, June 8, 1882, at twenty-seven 
years of age. He is a member of the Pawnee 
County Medical Society, of Nebraska, a society 
of " regulars." He is a permanent Fellow of the 
Eclectic Medical Association of California, etc. 
He also attended an extra course in 1884. 

He was married January 12, 1889, to Miss 
Ellen Kelsey, nee Walters, in San Francisco, 
California. The doctor is a line anatomist, and 
this qualification, combined with assurance and 
boldness, has brought him into note as a sur- 
geon. 

T. E. Taggart. See sketch elsewhere. 

W. P. Cash was born in Ontonao-on, Michigan, 
December 6, 1848, received his literary educa 
tion in the common and high schools and an 
academy of the same place, up to 1867. Dur- 
ing that year be attended Bryant & Stratton's 
Commercial College, at Detroit, Michigan. His 
medical education, was received at the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, 
and Kentucky School of Medicine, at Louisville, 
Kentucky, graduating at the latter, in the class 
of 1887, in his fortieth year. He has also taken 
acoursein, and diploma for, medical chemistry 
and pharmacy. Practiced in Minnesota till 
1888, in which year he came to California; 
practiced in San Diego, and finally located in 
Delano, California. June 2, 1880, he married 
Miss Agatha F. Sorenson, of Carver, Carver 
County, Minnesota. 

J. H. Johnson located in Havilah in 1878, 
and in Kernville in 1879. The Doctor grad- 
uated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
Keokuk, Iowa, in 1878, and at the Medical 
Department of the University of the City of 
New York, March 8, 1887. During the eight 
years the Doctor was practicing bis profession 



in Kernville he endeared himself to the people 
by liis skill and his boldness in his surgical 
cases, to which he is peculiarly adapted. Wish- 
ing to enlarge his sphere of usefulness, he took 
a trip abroad in 1886, visiting the leading med- 
ical centers of education, returning and locating 
in Los Angeles, California, where he is now 
engaged in a large practice. 

M. C. Hoag was born in Toledo, Ohio, Feb- 
ruary 25, 1847; graduited in the classical course 
of the University of New York; obtained his 
medical education at the Cincinnati College of 
Medicine and Surgery, taking his degree June 
4, 1874, at twenty-seven years of age. He 
practiced medicine and surgery very success- 
fully in Bakerstield and Tehachapi during the 
years 1876-'77-'78-'79. He is now located at 
Sanger, California. He was married to Vine 
E. Shirley, in 1874, at Toledo, Ohio. 

J. G. Murrell. Find sketch elsewhere by in- 
dex. 

W. H. Sweet was b jrn in Newport, New Hamp- 
shire, March 7, 1852. His literary education 
was obtained at the New London Academy and 
Union Academy at Meridian, both in the same 
State. He came to California in 1869, and 
studied under Dr. J. P. Whitney, of San Fran- 
cisco. He located in Havilah in 1872 and prac- 
ticed his profession successfully for two years, 
when he moved to Visalia, entering into part- 
nership with Dr. Russell, where lie practiced a 
few months, then moved to Kernville, where he 
continued to practice till his death, July 15, 
1876, at the early age of twenty-four years. 
Dr. Sweet married, while practicing in Havilah, 
Miss Lizzie Anna Davis, of Visalia, California. 

Dr. H. S. Pelton, born in Burlington, Iowa, 
in 1863, attended the very excellent schools of 
that town, removing in 1880 to San Francisco, 
where he engaged in a tinware firm until he 
entered the Hahnemann Hospital College, grad- 
uating at the same November 1, 1888, when he 
located in Bakersfield, California, where he at 
once entered into a large and lucrative practice; 
but, the climate not agreeing with him, he lo- 
cated in Oakland, California, in May, 1891. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



261 



Dr. John Snook, born in London, England, 
in 1861, emigrated to America in 1883, pur- 
sued his medical studies in the Eclectic Medical 
College of Oakland, California, graduating 
April 22, 1886. He then located at Bakersfield, 
remaining three months: next he was in Colusa 
County for a few months ; then removed to Han- 
ford, Tulare County, California, and finally lo- 
cated in Bakersfield again in 1887. 

Dr. S. M. Meeker, born in New York in 1827, 
came to Kern County in 1874, and commenced 
farming. April 28, 1881, he graduated at the 
California Medical College, and then located at 
Elmira, California, where he remained until 
July, 1891, when he located in Bakersfield. 

H. S. Bachman. See sketch found by the 
index. 

Dr. W. H. Cook, born in Carthage, Illinois, 
in 1855, commenced studying medicine with 
his father, who was a physician, in 1873; at- 
tended lectures at Rush Medical College, Chi- 
cago, and graduated there February 15, 1876. 
He then located in Globe City, Arizona, where 
he remained until August, 1886; then he 
finally located in Bakersfield, where he has a 
very large business. In 1887 he was appointed 
surgeon to the Southern Pacific railroad, and 
has given entire satisfaction. 

CLIMATE AND HEALTHFOXNESS. 

At least nine months in the year the climate 
is not only pleasant and healthful, but perfectly 
delightful, making it a luxury to live within 



such influences. The temperature is quite uni- 
form, standing about the same as in counties 
north, and rising as high as in some southern 
counties. The heated term is short, usually 
lasting from the middle of June to the middle 
of September. The atmosphere is dry and 
rarefied, and the heat is never oppressive. By 
actual tests made, there is a difference of fifteen 
to eighteen degrees in the effect of the heat 
upjn the human system here and in the States 
east of the Rocky Mountains. For instance, 
the heat does not affect man, or is not felt more 
here at 100 degrees, than there at eighty-two or 
eighty-five degrees. Here it seldom, if ever, 
smites; there it is often fatal. Heat here never 
interferes with manual or out-door labor, and 
is by no means continuous through the heated 
term. If a few hot, sultry days occur in suc- 
cession, they are usually followed by as many 
cool agreeable ones. The nights are always 
cool, inviting sleep and rest, even in the hottest 
weather. The rainfall is light, and one is 
almost sure of 300 clear, bright, sunny days in 
a year. The death rate is low, and the health 
record good. Among the advantages here in 
climate may be named: First, absolute ex- 
emption from the hot, north winds, so de- 
structive in the northern part of the State. 
These reach as far south as Fresno, with severe 
effect at times in early summer. Second, having 
the lightest rainfall in the San Joaquin valley, 
the atmosphere must be specially favorable to 
the drying of fruits in the sun, never in danger 
of having them destroyed by early rains. 



262 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




[0-DAY, dotted all over the world, there are 
towns of the size of this whose beo-innings 
are lost in obscurity. Why founded, and 
by whom, can never be known either because 
the history was never written, or because the 
records have been lost. 

Yet, somehow, it is a satisfaction to know 
who was one's great-great-grandfather; and it is 
exceedingly pleasant to a resident of one of to- 
day's villages (unless he and it alike are slug- 
gish) to learn, so far as may be, the surround- 
ings of his natal home. Who were the first 
comers, what they did, how and why they 
builded for the future, and the surroundings of 
the little youngster unto sturdy youth or may- 
hap into prosperous manhood, are matters of 
exceeding interest. But they must be chron- 
icled by the historian of their day; or else he 
of the muck-rake coining long afterward at most 
can hand over only uncertain fragments of an 
indeterminate Rosetta stone to puzzling anti- 
quarians. Therefore and wherefore people are 
yet living who report that, as far back as 1840 
(and others were at the same doings before 
them) the head of the San Joaquin valley, of 
which Bakerstield is now the pivotal point, was 
a great range for cattle. The Dons, rejoicing 
in the possession of Spanish grants, lived to 
the south and nearer the sea; but their herds 
roamed at will; and near where are now the 
headquarters of the Miller & Lux Kern County 



domain, about twenty-five miles southwest of 
town, there was quite a settlement of vaqueros, 
their families and traders. For the simple 
wants of these country folk, ditches at that day 
were taken from Kern river, — sinill, to be sure; 
for their needs were little and their purse was 
light. But life existed; and its wants were 
more or less supplied. Who they were can be 
easily told as where they went; but season after 
season, now past and gone, found them and the 
herds they guarded the sole residents of Kern 
River valley. 

In 1864 Colonel Thomas Baker, who had looked 
upon the land and found it good, obtained from 
the State a reclamation right, and, for his con- 
venience in prosecuting the work, built a resi- 
dence for himself and his family, which, until 
the tire of July, 1889, stood in the heart of the 
town. The levee which he builded is pretty 
nearly followed by the course of the present 
town ditch between Nineteenth and Twentieth 
streets. 

At about that time, cotton being scarce and 
high, a firm known as Livermore& Chester put 
several hundred acres in cotton on the site of 
what is now known as the Cotton ranch, which 
is a part of the present town. There were diffi- 
culties of various kinds to be encountered; but, 
withal, a good deal of tine cotton was raised and 
hauled by teams to the south. All trading 
then was to and from Wilmington in Los An- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



263 



geles County; and it. is said that somewhere in 
that section this cotton was manufactured into 
fabrics. A supply depot, established by Liver- 
more & Chester for the wants of incomers and 
wayfarers, grew into a store with a very large 
yearly traffic. 

In 1869, within the limits of the present 
town, there were three buildings; hut there were 
people enough within a meeting and discussing 
radius, to agree upon the fact that a town should 
be laid out, and to seriously consider where 
should be the place. There were several minds 
about it; but, as has since been proved, the clear- 
est-headed won the day. It happened that for 
some months General Palmer, at the head of a 
corps of engineers, was located somewhere near 
the present site of Pampa, searching for the 
best line for the proposed Atlantic & Pacific 
railroad through the mountains. Being appealed 
to for his judgment as to the best place for the 
disputed but needed town site, he confirmed the 
argument for Bakersfield where it now stands. 
Their arguments were: It stands where the key 
of irrigation mustunlockthecanals; the mountain 
passes over which railroads can come center to- 
ward it as spokes to the hub of a wheel ; back of 
it northerly and easterly are tributary moun- 
tains; southerly and westerly are embracing 
plains. No matter where first a settlement may 
start, eventually, for nature has made it so, here 
or hereabouts the town must be. 

The elevation of the site of Bakersfield above 
sea level is 415 feet. 

So, in 1869, the town of Bakersfield — chris- 
tened after Colonel Thomas Baker— was for- 
mally laid out, its plat duly filed; and with all 
proper form the bantling was started upon the 
high road which leads to prosperity. It is ad- 
mitted that it is very hard to keep the road; 
and the early childhood of Bakersfield was not 
particularly promising. The soil was fertile, 
but the market was invisible; and there was 
no railroad yet. Many settlers tried, and tried 
hard. A great deal of the adjacent land was 
taken up; and many small irrigating ditches 
were made to draw upon the river for the 



needed water. But, he}*ond home use, there 
was no demand for country produce. Stock could 
walk to its slaughter-pen; but, for anything 
besides that, there was no demand. 

In 1874, with the coming of the railroad, cap- 
ital began to be expended in the valley. Settlers 
here and there were bought out; and one by 
one the little ditches of earlier days were sys- 
tematically taken hold of and enlarged into 
canals capable of carrying large quantities of 
water. The property of Livermore & Chester, 
south of town, perhaps 40,000 acres in extent, 
was bought in a lump. In 1876 the Calloway 
Canal Company, started as a private enterprise 
by small owners and which had languished for 
want of fnnds, was bought out; and the pres- 
ent immense canal was prosecuted to a finish 
with ample means. Purchases here and there 
without stint showed that a heavy capitalist had 
entered into the country with the intention of 
making it his own. Under his plan of. opera- 
tions, hundreds of miles of canal were built, 
thousands and thousands of acres of land tilled, 
fencing done without stint, great numbers of 
cattle, sheep, horses and mules bred and raised, 
and all sorts of farming tests and experiments 
carried on. 

This, as tributary to Bakersfield, made the 
town grow and prosper, precisely and in just so 
much as can a merchant who has a fixed num- 
ber of solvent customers, each needing a certain 
yearly supply. The town depended upon the 
demands of the king of the country, and be- 
yond his needs could not go. With this regular 
custom and such certain pay, it came to. have a 
mercantile credit unsurpassed by any town in the 
San Joaquin valley; yet it was like a pool,— 
deep, perhaps, but landlocked. Beyond the 
limits of that day it could not go. It had a 
regular demand to which it gave a regular sup- 
ply, and nothing more. 

The produce of a great farm must be simple; 
for complex farming requires many hands and 
expensive help. So this well managed princi- 
pality settled down to alfalfa growing and stock- 
raising, the combined enterprise requiring of all 



264 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



farming industries the least hired help to the 
acre. 

But, in our fathers' days, young people mar- 
ried; and they wanted a home. There are more 
of them to marry now than then ; and land is 
becoming valuable. The fertile lands adjacent 
to Bakersfield have become of too much worth 
to be devoted to stock-raising; and yet fruit 
and vine are too complex to adopt on an exten- 
sive scale. Twenty acres of either will not only 
enrich one family, but, to give them proper 
care, will busy father and sons, mother and 
daughters. And as a natural sequence this vast 
domain, with its perfect system of irrigation, 
was put upon the market upon such terms as 
placed the opportunity to buy land and acquire 
a home within the reach of any prudent and in- 
dustrious person. 

Of the events of the year 1889 in the town of 
Bakersfield, the two most important were, the 
fire which destroyed all the business portion of 
the town (since rebuilt better than ever), and 
the announcements' the opportunity to purchase 
lands from the great estate of J. B. Haggin. The 
fire was a serious blow, over three-quarters of a 
million in value being wiped out in an after- 
noon. But the subdivision of that land a 
hundredfold more than compensates for the loss, 
as it offers opportunities for thousands of fami- 
lies to be provided with comfortable homes. 

It requires immense expenditure to construct 
and comple the vast system of irrigating canals 
which now spread like network throughout the 
country. No capitalist or association of capital 
would undertake such an expense unless owning 
the land to be benefited thereby. So three 
steps have been taken: First, the aggregation 
of the land into one vast holding; second, im- 
proving it by levelling and clearing and the 
building of canals and miles and miles of dis- 
tributing ditches; and third, now that it is all 
ready for the day of small homes, placing it on 
the market within the reach of those who would 
till the land and thereby honestly live. This 
condition of things will result in making 
Bakersfield one of the largest and most pros- 



perous inland towns within the fertile State of 
California. 

Some of the reasons why this must be the re- 
sult are as follows : 

1. 1,250,000 acres of land, as fertile as any 
that the sun shines upon, lie directly within 
reach of the town. 

2. Just south, a mountain chain divides this 
region from Southern California. A town sit- 
uated at the head of a great valley, and the foot 
of the only available mountain passes, has a 
commanding situation which caunot fail to 
make it great. 

3. Oil, gypsum, asphaltum, gold, silver, lead 
and antimonial ores, lime, building stone, great 
forests of timber, and numerous other by-prod- 
ucts of nature, lie within the county and within 
available reach of the town. 

4. Kern river, from the canon where it leaves 
the mountains, has a fall of 300 feet before 
reaching the town. A stream with an average 
discharge of 2,700 cubic feet of water per sec- 
ond, with this fall, can be made to furnish an 
immense water-power; and the time is not far 
distant when the town will be a great manu- 
facturing center. 

5. The mountain passes are so situated that 
no railroad can be built without passing through 
or very near to the town. 

For these and many other reasons the shrewd- 
est business men concede that the time is not 
far distant when the town of Bakersfield will 
become a large and flourishing city. No place 
is more richly dowered; nor is there any more 
promising outlook within the State of Califor- 
nia. 

SINCE THE FIRE. 

The morning of July 7, 1889, opened with 
the promise of a quiet, pleasant, sunny Sabbath 
day for the town of Bakersfield. Citizens fol- 
lowed their bent, some attending church, some 
driving into the country, and others going here 
and there, as is the wont in a busy and thriving 
community. Just about noon a fire broke out, 
which practically wiped out the business por- 
tion of the town. Never was recuperative 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



265 



power more quickly shown, howe er! Fine 
brick buildings quickly took the place of those 
that had been burned, and now the streets pre- 
sent a truly metropolitan appearance, being lined 
with handsome buildings that would be a credit 
to a city ten times the size. Everything points 
to a rapid growth in the immediate future, and 
the business men of Bakersfield have their 
plans all laid on the basis of a city of 10,000 
or 15,000 inhabitants within tbe next five or six 
years — an anticipation which the most conserv- 
ative must concede to be well founded. The city 
has two splendid hotels, two banks and a large 
uumber of business houses carrying immense 
stocks and doing a large business. Prominent 
features in advancing the prosperity of the com- 
munity are the four newspapers, all weekly pub- 
lications. There are the Calif or nian, the Echo, 
the Gazette and the Democrat. The Calif or nian 
is published by A. C. Maude, and stands well to 
the front as an ably edited and handsomely printed 
paper. The Echo is the property of the Echo 
Publishing Company, and the Gazette is edited by 
G. W. Wear, both ranking among the prominent 
papers of the State. The Democrat is a new 
candidate for popular support, and is the prop- 
erty of a company. The community shows its 
appreciation of the good work done by these 
papers by according them all a hearty support. 

Carefully kept statistics show that Bakers- 
field ranks highly from the standpoint of health, 
the rate of mortality bein>£ unusually low, 
while the salubrity of the climate is acknowl- 
edged by all who have resided here for any 
length of time. There has been a steady im 
provement in health conditions ever since the 
first settlement of the place, and Bakersfield 
now challenges comparison with any other city 
in the State. The fact that the churches and 
schools are numerous and well attended, and that 
all the prominent fraternal organizations have 
strong societies, testifies to the intelligence 
of the community and its desirability as a place 
of residence or business. 

The census of 1890 gives Bakersfield a popu- 
lation of 3,563. 

J7 



This attractive city has all the conveniences 
of many larger cities, — street railways, water- 
works, a well-organized lire department and as 
good schools as are found in the State. The 
hotels, business blocks and many of the residen- 
ces are substantial as well as ornamental struct- 
ures. The city fathers govern the city well. 
Although she has no regular police force, yet 
there is now perhaps less disturbance than in 
many larger places. Bakersfield has had a liberal 
share of crime in the past, and her good citi- 
zens are a unit now to enforce law and order, 
and promote the growth of morals. There is a 
street railway connecting the town of Sumner, 
the railroad station, with Bakersfield, and ere 
long the two places will merge into one. 

NEWSPAPERS. 

A brief history of the newspapers which 
have put forth herculean efforts in behalf of 
Bakersfield and Kern County will be of inter- 
est to the many who are interested in the past 
and present, as well as of the future growth 
and general welfare of the city and county. 

THE KEEN COUNTY GAZETTE 

was founded in 1875, by J. F. Lithicum, and 
the first issue was October 20 of that year, a 
seven-column folio. Politically, Democratic 
from that time to the present. In September, 
1880, Hon. George W. Wear purchased the pa- 
per, and has conducted it ever since. The files 
of the paper were destroyed by the fire which 
laid waste the ciiy. 

Mr. Wear is a self-made man in every sense. 
He was born in Carroll County, Mississippi, 
February 28, 1852. His education was ob- 
tained at private schools in his native State, and 
not an extravagant share did he receive; but 
that which he received he proceeded to use and 
applied it well, and daily added thereto. After 
serving as typo in various newspaper offices he 
published a paper at Dresden, Tennessee, and 
also at Union City, that State. He was married 
at the latter place in 1873, to a daughter of 



266 



HISTORY OB' CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Colonel John Nash. Mr. Wear and wife have 
three children living, two sons and a daughter. 

Mr. Wear came to California and settled in 
Bakerstield in 1875, and was for a time the pub- 
lisher of the Kern County Calif ornian prior to 
purchasing the Gazette. His untiring Zealand 
efforts in behalf of Kern County led the citizens 
thereof to select him to represent them in the 
State Assembly, which he did with distinguished 
ability in the Twenty-eighth session of that body. 
AVlien his term expired, " Cincinnatus-like," 
he returned to his former love, the Gazette, and 
his home, preferring the paper and its power 
for good when properly used, and his home and 
family to that of a public life which called him 
away. 

THE KEEN COUNTY CALIFORNIAN. 

It has been stated elsewhere that this paper 
came into existence about the same time as did 
the county, viz., 1866, and then known as the 
Weekly Courier, published at Havilah, the first 
county seat. It lias changed hands several 
times, which is of no moment in history. It 
was first radically Democratic, but for years has 
been the expounder and able advocate of true 
Republican principles, not whether right or 
wrong, but when right, fearless in defending 
the right, and ecpially so and as vigilant in de- 
nouncing the wrong. 

This paper is now owned and ably edited by 
A. C. Maude, who became owner, editor and 
publisher some twelve years since. The edito- 
rials of this paper are able and the paper is 
doing great good in Kern County. Mr. Maude 
is awake to all the interests of his county, is 
familiar with its vast resources and prides him- 
self on presenting through his paper the great 
inducements to those seeking homes in Califor- 
nia. Such would do well to visit Bakerstield 
before settling elsewhere. The Calif ornian 
now issues a daily. 

THE WEEKLY ECHO 

was established at Bakerstield by a stock com- 
pany known as the Echo Publishing Company, 
August, 1886. The tirst issue was a seven- 



column folio, was enlarged to an eight-column 
folio in 1890, and it is devoted to the general 
interests of the county. S. C. Smith, present 
editor, has been connected with it since its birth. 
In connection with his partner, R. F. Gregory, 
he purchased the paper and plant early in 1889. 

Mr. Smith is a native Iowan, came to Kern 
County in 1883, and settled in Bakerstield in 
1886. Mr. Gregory hails from the Nutmeg 
State, and landed in California early in 1879, 
locating in Bakerstield. These gentlemen by 
diligence, perseverance and a proper presenta- 
tion of Kern County's many advantages, have 
won a patronage equal to other papers of much 
longer standing. 

THE KERN VALLEY DEMOCRAT 

is a new paper issued weekly by Pueschell & 
Harrell. The tirst number was issued Septem- 
ber 20, 1890, a seven-column folio. The 13th 
issue was a four-column quarto, and in April, 
1891, was made a five-column quarto. Price 
$1.50 per year, — the lowest price for a paper of 
the kind in the valley. These gentlemen have 
new material throughout, gas engine for press- 
power, and propose to leave nothing undone that 
will tend to make it the best paper in Kern 
County. Their object is to start a daily at an 
early day. 

E. A. Pueschell, of the above linn, was born 
in the town of Alleghany, Sierra County, Cali- 
fornia, December 18, 1858, the son of C. E. 
Pueschell, a hotel keeper and a native of Prus- 
sia, who came to America at the age of about 
twenty-five years, locating in this State in the 
fall of 1849; was one of the earliest to run a 
hotel in Nevada City, and later in Downieville 
and Alleghany. Afterward he came to Bakers- 
tield and conducted the James' Hotel. He 
finally sold out his business and died two months 
afterward. He married Miss Annie Flock, in 
Nevada City, a native of Germany, and they had 
six children, of whom Mr. E. A. is the second- 
born. The latter learned the printers' trade at 
Truckee, in the office of the Republican, com- 
mencing at the age of fifteen years. He was 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



267 



afterward in San Francisco two years, and then 
came to Bakersfield, where he was foreman in 
the office of the Calif or nian three years. He 
was appointed postmaster under the administra- 
tion of President Cleveland. He married Miss 
Annie, daughter of II. K. Vestal, of Bakers- 
field, and they have one daughter, Mary 0. 

Alfred Harrell, the partner, is the present 
county school superintendent, frequently re- 
ferred to in other parts of this history. 

THE COUBTHOUSE. 

The very credible public edifice was erected 
in 1875, on a public square of two acres. It is 
a solid cemented brick structure, two stories, 
with high basement, and surmounted by a hand- 
some dome-covered cupola, on which stands the 
Goddess of Liberty. The basement is used for 
various storage purposes. The first floor is 
reached by broad and lofty steps, and contains 
the sheriff's office, offices of district attorney, 
auditor, treasurer, tax collector, and the jail. 

The second story contains the superior court- 
room, offices of clerk, recorder, superintendent 
of schools and board of supervisors' room. Cost 
of building, $35,000; furnishing, $10,000. 
These courthouse grounds are surrounded by a 
fine, high, solid wooden fence of considerable 
artistic beauty. The grounds are well set with 
blue-grass and white-clover, forming a beautiful 
park. Outside are rows of lofty poplars, along 
the streets and inside, the beautiful lawn is 
thickly shaded with almost every variety of 
ornamental tree and flowering shrub known, 
with pleasant walks therein. This lovely spot, 
on which Kern's pretty capital stands, is one of 
rare beauty and picturesqueness. The view 
from the front of this edifice from the veranda 
first floor, is one to be long remembered. Look- 
ing southward forty miles away, one beholds 
the San Emigdio mountains, which are at times 
in winter covered with snow on their higher 
altitudes. The highest points in this range 
rarely exceed 8,000 feet. Bear Mountain, a 
spur of the Sierra, is seen twenty miles away 
and is 7,000 feet high. Mount Breckenridge, 



thirty-five miles away, is 8,000 feet hio-h. 
Mount Whitney, the highest point of land in 
the United States, is about 120 miles on an air 
line, 150 by trails and a little east of north from 
Bakersfield. The city is situated in a semi- 
circle or amphitheater of mountains distant 
several miles. 

LYNCH LA.W IN BA.KEKSFIELD. 

In times past, the good citizens have been 
compelled to administer justice without due 
process of law. As in other localities, there 
have been cases where technical advantages have 
been taken by lawyers to screen and clear the 
criminal. Such is said to have occurred in the 
case of the Yoakum brothers. Some years since, 
citizens of Kern County, well to do, but of an 
unyielding temper, Thomas and William Y.mk- 
um, were the murderers of Tucker and Johnson, 
who were shot from their wagons by men hid 
from view, — Tucker, while seated beside his 
wife and children, and Johnson while seated by 
the side of Mrs. Burdette. The Yoakums were 
arrested and William was tried for the mnrder 
of Tucker. The jury acquitted him. At the 
trial for the killing of Johnson, William Yoak- 
um was found guilty and sentenced to death, 
but an appeal to a higher court secured a new 
trial. The feeling was so strong as to the emit 
of the parties that it resulted in their beincr 
hanged and shot in jail. 

The murder of Tucker and Johnson was the 
culmination of a disputed mineral claim. The 
Yoakums had threatened to kill the first man, 
woman or child, who, as they termed it, " tres- 
passed " on their claim. It seems that Tucker 
asserted his claim on the same land, heedino- uot 
the Yoakums' threats, but, with Johnson, per- 
sisted in establishing his claim. The result was 
the four lost their lives. 

A SINGULAR BANK BOBBEET 

occurred in Bakersfield some years since. Soon 
after the founding of the Kern Valley Bank, 
the cashier, who was also deputy county treas- 
urer as well as manager of the Wells-Faro-o 



268 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Express business, and a man of unblemished 
reputation, and of liberal means, reported the 
bank had been robbed. He was discovered with 
a bruise on his face. He stated that he was 
busy writing at night when he was called to the 
door of the bank, and slugged, and supposed 
was chloroformed, as when he revived the money 
was all gone. The county had about $20,000 
on deposit, the express company considerable, 
and the strange feature was that the safes were 
standing open and nothing had been broken. 
Detectives were employed, some of whom were 
experts from San Francisco. They soon decided 
that the wounded cashier was the robber. To 
this, the stockholders and officials of the batik 
would not agree. They knew the man and had 
implicit confidence in him. Detectives said 
they must either arrest him or abandon the 
hunt, as he and none other knew all about it. 
Finally the bank managers gave their consent 
that detectives should put the matter squarely 
at the cashier and see how he acted. This they 
did, telling him that it was known that he could 
produce the money, and if he would do so, the 
matter would be dropped. He confessed at 
once. 

The building was a wood structure, ceiled 
with rough boards, in one of which, some feet 
above the floor, was a knot-hole, over which a 
picture hung. He said, " Look behind the pic- 
ture, and protruding from the hole will be 
found a cord, attached to which are the sacks 
containing the coin, amounting to near $20,- 
000." This was found lo be true. He directed 
them to look in a box of waste paper for the 
remainder, currency, which was found. He ad- 
mitted having self-inflicted the wound. The 
directors of the bank went on his bond, and 
when he was at liberty awaiting trial, he fled 
the country. He was heard of in Japan, where 
it is said he died. He left property ample to 
secure his bondsmen. He said the feeling to 
commit the deed was of short prompting and 
was irresistible. He had long been the trusted 
confidential man in more than one responsible 
position. This is but one of many illustrations 



how the love of money wrecks a once happy life 
and forever clouds a bright future. Could the 
young man be impressed with the fact that con- 
tentment and happiness can not be attained 
through dollars and cents dishonestly obtained, 
and that true enjoyment and the nearest approach 
to contentment and happiness in this life is 
attained by honest industry and proper use of 
earnings. Penuriousness is as abhorrent as is 
the wasteful spender of money; proper use 
without abuse should be the governing law. 

THE LEGAL LIGHTS. 

Although a young county, and until recently 
sparsely settled, Kern has had and now has some 
good legal talent. 

Judge B. Brundage, once Superior Judge, and 
residing at Bakerstield, is considered the lead- 
ing expounder of law in the county. 

There are a number of lawyers in Bakerstield, 
and some who are young, but have a promising 
future. Among them we mention J. W. Mahan, 
who has a good practice, S. X. Reed, N. R. 
Wilkinson, Francour & Roth, J. W. Ahern, 
C. C. Cowgill, Alvin Fay, present District At- 
torney, 1. E. Patten, J. A. Haralson, of Teha- 
chapi, and T. A. Wells, of Delano. 

In the past were: P. T. Colby, County 
Judge; George V. Smith, District Attorney; 
J. W. Freeman, deceased; A. C. Lawrence, 
deceased; and A. H. Davis, also deceased, hav- 
ing committed suicide. The two latter were in 
partnership. 

General J. W. Freeman was an attorney, re- 
siding at Bakerstield during the latter years of 
his life. He was born in West Virginia in 
1821. At the age of twenty-two years he en- 
tered the law department of the University of 
Virginia and graduated there. His tirst case 
in court was tried at Culpeper Courthouse. Vir- 
ginia. He came to California early in 1850, 
locating at Visalia, where he practiced law; and 
while a resident there he represented that dis- 
trict in the State Senate, 1863-'68. Moving to 
Kern County, he followed mining at Kernville. 
He was active in setting off this county from 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



269 



Tulare and in locating the county seat. He 
finally moved to Bakersfield, where he was dis- 
trict attorney for about sixteen years. He died 
October 10, 1890, highly esteemed by the com- 
munity. 

FREIGHTS SHIPPED FEOM BAKERSFIELD, 

during the months of August, September and 
October, 1890: 

Merchandise 1,002,245 pounds 

Hides 28,385 " 

Corn 265,630 " 

Spuds (Potatoes) 65,740 " 

Honey 54,555 " 

Green fruit, 49 carloads, or 732,395 " 

Onions 40,250 " 

M. T. Kegs 180,000 " 

Lambs 3,619 head 

Cattle 3,289 " 

Calves 703 " 

Horses 32 " 

Wool 152,035 pounds 

Asphaltum 40,000 " 

Number of passengers departing 2,688. 

Bakerstield is not an incorporated city, being 
yet under the management of the township 
trustees. Drainage, etc , and all improvements 
are done by stock companies, who contract with 
the trustees. The street-car line is owned by a 
stock company and connects with Sumner, and 
has a franchise to Belleview ranch. The water 
supply for drinkiug and cooking purposes is 
from artesian well- 1 , furnished by a local stock 
company. The water is of excellent quality. 
There are two first-class banks — the Bank of 
Bakersfield and the Kern Valley Bank. 

THE BAKERSFIELD GAS AND ELECTRIC LIGHT 
COMPANY 

was chartered in the spring of 1888, but 
nothing was done until some time in 1889, 
when the town was lighted by naphtha, which 
proved a failure. Blodget & Jostro purchased 
the plant, and after the fire put in coal 
works, and November 15, 1889, began light- 
ing the town with gas. In the spring of 1890 
they put in an electric light plant, incor- 
porated with a capital stock of $100,000; paid 



in, $50,000, — all owned by H. A. Jostro, presi- 
ent: H. A. Blodget, secretary; and L. P. St. 
Clair, treasurer. 

CHURCHES. 

Havilah was the first point visited in Kern 
County by the Catholic clergy, from Visalia, 
during the mining period. 

Upon the removal of the county seat from 
Havilah to Bakersfield, the mission was estab- 
lished at the latter place, and visits were regr 
larly made from Visalia up to 1884, when tL; 
parish was established, and Father P. M. Bh- 
non placed in charge of the parish, which it_ 
eluded Kern, Inyo, and the north part of Los 
Angeles County. The ecclesiastical name is St. 
Francis' church. 

The Baptists have a neat church edifice. 

The Methodist and Episcopal churches have 
large memberships, and are in a prosperous 
condition. There has not been the interest 
manifested in erecting attractive buildings for 
worship as in some other towns. 

SOCIETIES. 

The citizens of Bakersfield take great interest 
in their fraternal and beneficial societies, and one 
rarely finds either gentleman or lady who does 
not belong to one or more societies. There is 
one case deserving special mention, namely, Dr. 
Cook, who is one of the efficient, energetic mem- 
bers of many of the orders, and is also one of 
the most obliging gentlemen one will meet in a 
life-time, and to whom the writer feels under 
obligation for much of the data pertaining to the 
societies in Bakersfield. 

Bakersfield Court, No. 536, Independent 
Order of Foresters, was instituted April 5, 
1890; charter members, twenty. Officers for 
1891: C. J. Johnson, C. R.; J. V. Morley, V. 
C. R.; Charles Bickerdike, T. S.; J. Paul Spen- 
cer, R. S. ; Charles H. Hoskin, Chaplain; Dr. J. 
Snook, Physician; A. Hosking, J. B.; J. E. 
Bailey, S. B.; C. J. Raaz, S. W.; and B. J. Cur- 
now, J. W. 

Sumner Grove, JVo. 56, Ancient Order of 
Druids, was instituted April 11, 1886. Char- 



3".0 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ter members, thirty-four. Officers in 1891: 
Silva Selna, N. A.; J. Duserre, V. A.; John 
Eyraud, R. S.; M. M. Espitlier, C; and Dr. C. 
A. Rogers, Treasurer. Present number of 
members, sixty-one. 

Mistletoe Council, No. 83£, Legion of Hon- 
or, was organized January 20, 1882, witli six- 
teen charter members. The first officers were: 
Mrs. Dr. D. B. Rogers, Past Commander; B. 
Brundage, Commander; Dr. S. L. Rogers, Medi- 
cal Examiner; F. W.Craig, Secretary ; and John 
O. Miller, Collector. Officers in 1891: L. S 
Rogers, Commander; F. H. Colton, Collector; 
II. A. Blodgett, Treasurer; and Mrs. D. B. 
Rogers, Secretary. Present membership, seven- 
teen. The order is in a prosperous condition. 
Insurance has been promptly met. 

Baker Parlor, No. 42, Native Sons of the 
Golden West, was organized October 24, 1884, 
with twenty-six charter members. Officers in 
1891 are: J. W. Ahem, Pres.; F. L. Borgwardt, 
F. V. P.; T. A. Baker, S. V. P.; A. T. Light- 
ner, T. V. P.; I. II. Glenn, Past Pres ; A. J. 
Moulty, Marshal ; L. Suender, Treas. ; George W. 
Price, F. & R. Sec. Present membership, 31. 

Rio Bravo Parlor. No. 65, N. D. G. IP., 
was instituted in March, 1891, with thirty 
members and the following officers: Mrs. M. 
L. Wilkinson, P. P.; Miss Annie C. Foran, P.; 
Miss Susie Allen, 1st V. P.; Mrs. Kate Drury, 
2d V. P,; Miss Emma Suender, 3d V. P.; 
Mrs. Cora F. Bender, R. S.; Mrs. Ethel L. Mor- 
rison, A. R. S. ; Mrs. Eugenia F. Dinkelspiel, 
F. S. ; Miss Frances Stark, A. F. S. ; Miss Lida 
Jewett, Treas.; Miss Virginia Stark, M.; Mrs. 
Maria Leonard, I. S.; Miss Hattie Withington, 
O.S.; Miss Lottie Baker, Organist; Mrs. Carrie 
Dinkelspiel, Mrs. A. T. Lightner, Mrs. Ettie 
Weill, Trustees. 

Ancient Order of United Workmen. — The 
lodge was organized February 25, 1879, with 
forty members. The officers of 1891 are: 
U. P. Olds, District Deputy; William E. 
Tibbet, Past Master Workman: William 
Montgomery, M. W.; Charles Bennet, Fore- 
man; P. S. Jewett, Overseer; H. P. Olds, Re- 



corder; H. F. Condict, Financier; O. O. Matt- 
son, Receiver; L. P.St. Clair, Guide: A. Coous, 
I. W.; D. H. Coolbaugh, O. W.; Dr. L. S. 
Rogers, Medical Examiner; L. S. Rogers and 
William Lightner, Trustees. Present member- 
ship, eighty. 

Hurlbut Post, G. A. R., No. 127, was or- 
ganized January 25, 1886. Charter members: 
Henry F. Condict, C. A. Maul, S. A. Burnap, 
George K. Ober, H. T. Freear, Loren Towsley, 
E. C. Palmer, A. G. Myers, Thomas Metcalf, 
John A. Hynes,William McFarland, R. T. Nor- 
ri8 and A. M. Seright. First officers: H. F. 
Condict, P. C; S. A. Burnap, S. V. C; H. T. 
Freear, J. V. C; Thomas Metcalf, Chaplain; 
E. C. Palmer, Q. M.; William McFarland, O. 
D.;C. A. Maul, O. G.; George K. Ober, Ad- 
jutant. Members in 1891, fifty-nine. Officers: 
Thomas Metcalf, P. C; F. H. Colton, S. V. C; 
Aaron Bodley, J. V. C; A. W. Storms, Adju- 
tant; H. F. Condict, Q. M.; C. E. Coolbaugh, 
Surgeon; J. C. Jordan, Chaplain; George Dag- 
get, O. D.; Frank Clemens, O. G. Past Post 
Commanders: H. F. Condict, George K. Ober, 
J. C.Jordan, R. M. Walker and C. A. Maul. 

Hurlbut, W. R. C, No. 55, was organized 
July 9, 1888, with nineteen charter members 
and the following officers: Mrs. Julia M. Ober, 
Pres.; Mrs. Nina J. Condict, S. V. P.; Miss 
Bertie Condict, J. V. P.; Miss Maud Arick, 
Treas., Mrs. D. B. Rogers, Sec; Mrs. Frances 
Nixon, Chaplain; Miss Lottie Condict, C; Miss 
Hattie Shattenkirk, G.; Mrs. R. A. Walker, A. 
C; Miss Maud Metcalf, A. G. 

Officers in 1891: Mrs. M. Colton, President; 
Mrs. J. E. Beard, S. V P.; Mrs. Emma Mea- 
cham, J. V. P.; Mrs. Kate Drury, Treas.; Mrs. 
Julia M. Ober, Sec; Mrs. A. E. Willow. Chap- 
lain; Mrs. B. S. Olds, C; Mrs. Ida Petz. O.; 
Mrs. R. Bull, A. G. ; and Miss Susie Allen, A. 
C. Past Presidents: Julia M. Ober and Nina 
J. Condict. Expanded for relief during the 
past two years, $170. 

Phil Sheridan Camp. No. 6, Sons of Vet- 
rnnis. was organized October 2, 1888, with 
twelve charter members. Officers: II. A. 



HISTORY OV VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



271 



Blodget, Capt. ; J. W. Scribner, 1st Lieut.; F. 
Seibert, 2d Lieut.; W. H. Cook, 1st Sergt.; J. 
L. Drury, Quartermaster; S. L. Blodget, Sergt. 
of the Guard. 

Eakersfield Lodge, No. 2^4, F. <& A. M., 
was organized November 28, 1872, with four- 
teen charter members. Officers in 1891: A. H. 
Swain, W. M.; M. Macmurdo, S. W.; L. S. 
Rogers, J. W. ; B. Ardizzi, Treas. ; A. C. 
Maude, Sec'y; H. A. Jaston, S. D.; L. M. 
Kilvey, J. D.; S. H. Anderson, Tyler. There 
are at present forty-five members. 

There is a young but active growing lodge of 
the order of the Eastern Star in Bakersfield. 

Sumner Lodge, K. of P., Wo. 1J^3, was in- 
stituted April 16, 1887, with thirty-six charter 
members. Officers in 1891: J. E. White, P. 
C; W. EL Cook. C. C; Charles E. Day, V. C; 
E. C. Wiley, P.; Benj. Leet, M. of F.; S. Selna, 
M. of E.; John Robb, K. R. & S.; Patrick 
Friel, M. at A.; F. L. Alexander, I. G.; and F. 
B. Hack, O. G. Present membership, fifty- 
two. 

Kern Lodge, K. of P., No. 76, was insti- 
tuted July 26, 1882. Officers in 1891: O. D. 
Fish, P. C; A. T. Lightner, C. C; R. T. Greg- 
ory, V. C; H. S. Pelton, P.; T. A. Briggs, M. 
of E.; C. A. Rogers, M. of F.; S. C. Smith, K. 
R. & S.; L. Beer, M. at A.; T. A. Baker, I, G., 
and D. A. Leonard, O. G. 

Kern Lodge, No. %0<2, L. 0. 0. F.— This 
lodge was instituted April 25, 1872, with the 
following officers: B. Brundage, A. P. G.; H. 
Hirshfeld, N. G.; S. Jewett, V. G.; M. Jaeoby, 
Treas.; Julius Witteshoefer, Sec'y. 

Kern Lodge, I. 0. 0. F., was organized in 
Bakersfield April 26, 1872. Officers for 1891: 
Joseph V. Morley, A. P. G. ; George Daggett, 
N. G.; T. W. Helm, V. G.; W. H. Cook, Sec'y; 
H. F. Condict, Per. Sec'y; O. 0. Matson, 
Treas.; O. D. Kincaid, Warden; A. Coons, 
Cond.; R. Hosking, I. G.; H. Swain, R. S. N. 



G.; G. Leiser, L. S. N. G.; O. D. Fish, R. S. 
V. G.; S. L. Blodgett, L. S. V. G. There is no 
order more flourishing than this in the county. 

Bebekah Degree, No 4,7, 1.0. 0. F., was 
instituted at Bakersfield June 19, 1888, with 
thirty-three charter members: Nina Condict 
was the first N. G.; May Fish, V. G.; Lotta 
Condict, Sec'y; Roby Walker, Treas. Officers 
in 1891: May Price, N. G.; Emma Suender, 
Y. G.; Lotta Condict, Sec'y; J. B. Morley, Per. 
Sec. ; R. Walker, Treas., Nina Condict, 
W.; J. A. Fenton, Chaplain; Richard Hosk- 
ing, I. G.; A. Coons, R. S. of N. G.; E. Colm, 
L. S. of N. G.; H. Swain, O. G.; H. F. Condict, 
R. S. of V. G.; O. D. Kincaid, L. S. of V. G. 

W. 0. T. U. — This excellent organization 
has a large active membership. Its officers 
are: Mrs. L. R. Bond, Pres.; Mrs. A. Bodley, 
Cor. Sec'y; Mrs. C. C. Stockton, Rec. Sec'y; 
Mrs. E. W. Barnes, Supt. Evangelical Work; 
Mrs. Dr. Helm, Supt. Mothers' Meeting Work; 
Mrs. E. Dayhoff, Supt. of Social Purity Work. 
This organization starts with a membership of 
sixty-five. 

Bakersfield Lodge, No. 3]$, L. 0. G. T. — 
Present officers: J. F. Frary, C. T.; Mrs. E. W. 
Barnes, V. T. ; Mrs. J. C. Jordan, Chaplain; 
E. Squires, Sec'y; Strella Jordan, A. S. ; May 
Jordan, F. S. ; Lee Spencer, Treas.; W. Hutch- 
inson, M.; Miss Ruth Baker, D. M.; Jacob 
Moon, G. ; Oscal Houghton, L. D. ; Rev. J. C. 
Jordan, P. C. T. 

Practically a part of Bakersfield, being sep- 
arated by less than a mile's distance, is Sum- 
ner, or East Bakersfield. This is the location 
of the Southern Pacific depot and shops, and is 
a lively suburb, destined before long to become 
an integral part of the county seat. The depot 
is a handsome brick structure of modern archi- 
tecture, while the shops are provided with ma- 
chinery for repair and construction work of all 
kinds. 



272 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



0^ 



Tgr^>_ 



1 -^SMALiLEI^ TOWNS.^ | 



/dt-fa! 






POSO 

is situated in a tine agricultural region, on the 
main line of the Southern Pacific railroad, 
and is the junction of the Fresno division of 
that road, a little west of north from Bakers- 
field, and about half way from the county seat 
to the north line of the county. 

In September, 1888, the Poso irrigation dis- 
trict was organized under the provisions of the 
Wright irrigation bill, and all the proceedings 
of the board of directors have been scrutinized 
and declared legal by competent authority. 
Bonds to the value of $500,000 were unani- 
mously voted and issued of the denomination of 
$500 each, at six per cent., payable semi-annually. 
But after the engineer submitted his report, it 
was found that the total cost of all the irriga- 
tion works would not exceed the sum of $270,- 
000. The board, after a full and careful ex- 
amination, concluded that said sum was ample 
to construct and complete the necessary canals 
and works sufficient for the full and complete 
irrigation of all the land in the district. The 
assessed valuation of the lands in the district, 
about 40,000 acres, is $500,000, and the actual 
value $1,200,000. The population is abont 200 
and supports three schools, which are well at- 
tended. The character of the soil in this dis- 
trict, is a rich deep sandy loam of a dark color, 
and entirely free from alkali. It is easily 
worked, and is well adapted for every variety of 



farming, especially fruits ; and owing to the 
freedom of this locality from frost, the culture 
of the orange and lemon will no doubt in the 
near future be one of the most important 
industries. The fertility of these lands is estab- 
lished by the heavy growth of wild feed every 
year on the uncultivated portion, and also from 
the fact that tigs, apricots, peaches, vines, etc., 
recently set, have made a wonderful growth, 
with but slight irrigation and a sparse rainfall. 
The earliest wheat was shipped from this dis- 
trict last season. The water supply for the 
irrigation of these lands have been thoroughly 
and carefully investigated by the directors and 
their engineer, and will be obtained from Poso 
creek and its watershed, which covers an area 
of nearly 468 square miles, and is found to be 
sufficient to irrigate 100,000 acres through a 
system of reservoirs which are situated high 
enough to cover all the lands in the district. 
The district has the free and undisputed right 
to the water of Poso creek. The climate is ex- 
ceedingly healthy and entirely free from malaria, 
owing no doubt to the situation of these lands, 
which rise with a gradual incline toward the 
foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. 

The lands are situated on the east of the 
Southern Pacific railroad, between the flourish- 
ing town of Delano and the city of Bakersfield. 
the county seat of Kern County. The railroad 
has a depot at " Poso,'' contiguous to the difl- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



273 



trict, which is also the terminus of a branch 
line from Fresno via Porterville, — thus assuring 
this locality a well-established shipping point. 
B. C. Dorsey is the president, and J. E. Ander- 
son secretary of the company. Spottiswood is 
the post office. 
What is known as 

THE WOODY PRECINCT 

is in the foothills country, thirty-two miles 
from Bakersfield and twenty-five miles from 
Delano. Elevation about 2,000 feet. It is a 
fine grazing country. Winters are mild, with 
a greater precipitation than in the valley. Sum- 
mer temperature reaches 110 in the shade ; in 
winter mercury rarely falls below freezing, and 
never below twenty-six degrees. This is known 
as the thermal belt. Fine oranges have been 
grown here by Mr. Maltby. Bananas have 
grown but never fruited. This will be developed 
and become a famous fruit-growing region. 

DELANO, 

the second town in size in Kern County, is 
located in the midst of a very fertile country, 
on the main line of the Southern Pacific rail- 
road, west of north from Bakersfield, and near 
the north boundary of Kern County. For many 
years there was little growth to the town. It 
was named in honor of the Secretary of the 
Interior under President Grant, Columbus 
Delano. The " no-fence law " drove out men 
of small means who were engaged in the stock 
business, and they bought tracts of land in this 
region and leased more from the railroad com- 
pany and continued in the stock business, prin- 
cipally sheep ; and perhaps there were 225,000 
sheep sheared annually within a radius of twelve 
miles of Delano. Hence the town was not an 
important place, except as a shipping point for 
wool and stock, for many years. Cattle were 
raised principally in early times and up to about 
1885. They would graze on the plains until 
exceedingly dry, when they would take up the 
march for water in the foothills far away ; and 
it is said to have been an interesting sight to 
see a caravan of thousands of cattle wending 



their way to water, single file, forming a column 
several miles in length. Their thirst was so 
great on reaching water, that many drank until 
they died, and during an extraordinarily dry 
season thousands died in this way. Sheep were 
herded near watering places. There is no 
longer a scarcity of water in this region. A 
wonderful flow of water is obtained from arte- 
sian boring, and an irrigation system is in for- 
mation which will make the Delano country one 
of the most desirable in the great valley. There 
has been formed what is known as the Kern 
and Tulare Irrigation District, embracing lands 
in the two counties. This company was organ- 
ized under what is known as the Wright law, 
in April, 1891. The lands are bonded for an 
amount sufficient to complete the work necessary 
to properly irrigate every acre of land included 
in the district. The water is to be appropriated 
from Kern river, thus assuring an inexhaustible 
supply. The river is tapped on section five, 
range twenty-nine, about twenty-five miles from 
Delano. The main canal and branches will be 
fifty-six miles in length, 100 feet in width at 
head of main canal, first distributing seventy- 
five feet, second fifty feet, etc. The active fac- 
tors in perfecting this system of irrigation are 
J. B. Bobinson, G. A. Eisen, John Schiltz, 
James Edwards, O. B. Kimberlin and others. 

Delano began to prosper when water began to 
reach the land surrounding, so as to assure 
crops, and soon the appearance of thrift and 
prosperity was evidenced by good buildings, and 
then came the fire that swept away in an hour 
nearly the entire town. This did for Delano 
what it has done for all other towns and cities, 
— started it on the road to prosperity. A new 
and determined spirit seemed to possess the af- 
flicted citizens, and soon the town shown forth 
in a splendor not known before. Good business 
blocks now grace the streets, and she has a 
$10,000 school building, second to but one in 
the county. She has a wide-awake newspaper, 
churches and fraternal societies, and enterpris- 
ing progressive community, and a bright future. 

The Delano Courier was started January 27, 



274 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



1887, aa a seven-column folio, independent in 
politics, by Ed. A. and Charles L. McGee, 
who came from Hanford, where they had been 
employed on the Hanford Sentinel. Edward 
A. came west in 1885, and Charles in 1886. 
The latter was born August 31, 1866, at Mans- 
field, Ohio, and began editorial work at twenty 
years of age. Edward was born November 27, 
1862, in New York, and learned the printing 
trade in Iowa. Their father, John G. McGee, 
was a native of Canada, and became a book pub- 
lisher in New York city, and later a farmer in 
Iowa. He has five sons altogether, and they are 
all yet living, as also their father. In 1885 Mr. 
Ed. McGee married Miss May Mahankee, of 
Parkersburg, Iowa, a lady of German descent. 
Mr. McGee is a member of the Board of Super- 
visors of Kern County. 

GLENNVILLE 

is a beautiful little vllage, settled by Madison M. 
Glenn in 1857, in the foothills in the northern 
portion of the county, northeast from Bakers- 
field, characterized by picturesque scenery, ex- 
cellent water, delightful climate, and an excel- 
lent, hospitable people. The morals of the 
community are attested by their churches and 
societies. The Glennville Christian church was 
organized in February, 1880, by Rev. J. M. 
Gilstrap. The present membership is about 
fifty. A new church was erected in 1891. 

This is known as the Lynn's valley country. 

AYilliam P. Lynn, a farmer known as the 
father of the famous Lynn's valley, first settled 
in that region in the year 1854. He built the 
first mill in the county, on Poso creek, but the 
high water of 1861-'62 washed away the mill. 
Lynn was a bachelor, and never engaged in min- 
ing. He cultivated and produced principally 
hay and potatoes. After the floods, which swept 
away the mill, Lynn sold his interests in Kern 
County and went to Colorado, where he en- 
gaged in mining, and is said to have accumu- 
lated great wealth. W. P. Wilkes may be said to 
be the father of Glennville in a business sense. 
He came to Lynn's valley and located where 



Glennville now is, purchased thirty acres of 
land from J. M. Glenn, founder of the town. 
In 1867 he became associated in business with 
Colonel John C. Reed, and they opened the first 
store in Glennville that year. Mr. Perry pur- 
chased his partner's interest in the fall of that 
year, and the following year sold out and erect- 
ed the present Lynn's Valley Hotel. A post 
office was established there in 1867. There had 
been a post office known as Lynn's Valley, which 
was discontinued after Glennville was estab- 
lished. Mr. Perry was elected auditor of Kern 
County in 1879, but was compelled to resign the 
position on account of poor health. 

KERNVILLE 

is a pleasant village due east from Glennville 
and about half way from that place on a direct 
line to the village of Weldon, which is well up 
in the mountains in the northeast portion of the 
county. It was first known as Whisky Flats, in 
1863, but the name was changed the following 
year to the present appellation. The first store 
there was opened in 1863, by Curtis & Davis. 
The first public school was kept in a private 
dwelling, by Mrs. Carmel, a niece of Judge N. 
R. Packard of Bakerstield. The first post- 
master was Adam Hamilton, in 1864. 

Lerdo, Wade, Pampa, Bealville, Keane and 
Rosamond are points on the line of the rail- 
road, all of which have great promise of future 
growth. Rosamond is near the south line of 
the county, and nearly due south from Mojave. 
The last named place is the junction of the 
Southern Pacific and the Atlantic and Pacific 
railroads. There is a large amount of lain! in 
this region which will ue reclaimed, as the pos- 
sibility has been demonstrated at the pleasant 
little village of Lancaster, south of Mojave, as 
also at Rosamond. At both places artesian 
water has been developed and is in use. The soil 
responds liberally to water. 

TEHACHAri (pOSt office GRKKNWOOn), 

is on an elevated plateau nearly at the summit of 
the mountain from which it takes its name. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



275 



There is a large trade here with the mineral aud 
stock-grow. ng region in every direction. Con- 
siderable mining has been done in this region, 
but farming is the principal industry at present. 
The Tehachapi valley contains many thousand 
acres of fine agricultural land, 1,600 acres being 
already devoted to grain. 

Tehachapi has a good newspaper, the Summit 
Sun, started by E. J. H. Nicholson, October_ 
31, 1890, but now owned and edited by Horatio 
S. Bilyeu. It is a seven-column folio, inde- 
pendent in politics, and is a potent factor in 
advancing the interests of the town and sur- 
rounding country. 

The "Piute Club," social, comprising gen- 
tlemen only, was organized at Tehachapi, Feb 
ruary 3, 1890, with John Iribarne as President; 
A. Young, Vice Pres.; Hugo Kuhl, Sec; and 
C. S. Spalding, Sec. The present officers are: 
A. F. Schafer, M. D., Pres.; John T. Bell, of 
Mojave, Vice Pres.; Charles A. Lee. Sec; and 
S. Hineman, Sec. The soc ety occupies Nichol- 
son's hall, where they own a piano and give 
elegant entertainments. 

The " Golden Guild " is a social organization 
of young ladies which, like the preceding, is 
maintained for the purpose of giving entertain- 
ments and doing benevolent work, its present 
officers are: Miss Tudie Ward, Pres.; Miss 
Minnie Lee, Vice Pres.; Ada Nicholson, Sec; 
and Effie Davis, Treas. The present member- 
ship is fifteen, and they meet every Saturday. 

The prehistoric evidences of past races found 
in this region are worthy of some description; 
but before entering upon that field of antiqui- 
ties let us assume that we are on a train wend- 
ing its way up the Tehachapi mountain headed 
for Los Angeles, and we are told that ahead of 
us is the town of Tehachapi, situated in the 
western part of the beautiful valley of that name, 
and known far and wide for the celebrated 
" loop" in the railroad near that place, and for the 
terrible accident on the railroad near there some 
years since, by which the passenger train es- 
caped from the conductor and engineer, and ran 
down the grade toward Sumner. Part of the 



cars were overturned, wrecked and burned, and 
some twenty passengers killed. 

Again we resume our progress toward Los 
Angeles. The road runs into the ground under 
the mountains, groping along in the dark, then 
out, and winding around spurs and again into 
tunnels, all the while ascending, and finally it 
makes a turn and over itself. This forms the 
" loop," which is about a mile in circumference. 
After coming out of a tunnel the road runs 
around a mountain spur, and after a few other 
eccentricities goes on toward Los Angeles, 
conducting itself in a more straightforward 
manner. 

On this line of road from Caliente, a delight- 
ful village at the base of the mountains to Sum- 
mit City, there are seventeen tunnels, with 
numerous heavy embankments and many superb 
bridges, spanning the deep canons across which 
the iron horse leaps, puffing away his fiery 
breath in drawing his load to the summit. 

This is a great work, a wonderful display of 
engineering skill, andtheline is said to have been 
surveyed and ' located by a young man under 
twenty years of age. Tehachapi "loop" is loca- 
ted midway between KeeneandGirard, 340 miles 
from San Francisco. Length of "loop" 3,795 
feet; elevation, lower at tunnel No. 9, 2,956 feet; 
uppe. , at grade over tunnel No. 9, 3,034 feet; dif- 
ference in elevation 78 feet. It is said that one 
who is acquainted with the situation can get off 
a train when approaching the "loop " ascending 
the mountain, and walk directly across an J be 
ready to board the same train as it appears at 
the opposite side. This has been done by brake- 
men on freight trains. 

From Antelope mountain the observer has a 
fine view of Buena Vista and Kern lakes, with 
the connecting waters; Kern river in the dis- 
tance, with timber on either side; while beyond 
is the valley, and still beyond the Coast Range 
is plainly discernible. Below lies the village 
of the valley, and at the east end Tehachapi 
lake, a beautiful sheet of water when viewed 
from this place. In the distance is Mount 
Whitney and surrounding peaks. 



276 



HISTORY OF CENT HAL CALIFORNIA. 



Now let us carefully examine the traces left 
in this region by an extinct civilization. In the 
vicinity of Tehachapi there are numerous and 
varied remains and evidences of ancient Aztec 
civilization. There are on the hillsides, run- 
ning in different directions, well-defined aque- 
ducts and ditches. The soil is a firm cement 
which does not wash away. Immediately in 
these ditches are growing stately oak trees, as 
large, and evidently as old, as those of the sur- 
rounding forests, showing that the ditches must 
have been constructed hundreds and perhaps 
thousands of years ago. One of these ditches 
leads to a silver-bearing ledge, where shafts had 
been sunk, and from the bottom of which drifts 
ran in different directions, showing that the 
aborigines had mined here for the precious min- 
erals in the days of old. This old mine was 
re-discovered by the Narbeau brothers, who 
worked them for a time from the same shafts 
sunk by the ancient inhabitants of this conti- 
nent. The lode did not prove as rich as was 
hoped for, and was abandoned. In running a 
water ditch through this region, Mr. P. D. 
Green had occasion to remove a venerable oak 
tree. In taking away the roots, he observed that 
immediately under where the tree had stood the 
soil was different from the hard cement sur- 
rounding; that it partook of the nature of vege- 
table mould and debris, being very soft and 
easily penetrated. Following down, an ancient 
shaft was easily traced, and on removing the 
debris, was clearly defined, the walls remaining 
perpendicular, intact, and solid. At the bottom 
of this shaft the skeleton of a man was found, 
immediately underneath and covered up by a 
pile of charcoal and ashes remaining from 
some ancient tire. The tree growing over this 
shaft was evidently hundreds of years old, show- 
ing that the excavation had been made centuries 
before the advent of the Spanish race on this 
continent. 

cumming's valley 
was first settled by Josiah Hart, from Texas, a 
hunter by occupation, who located the present 
George Cumming's place in 1858, but sold his 



squatter's right to John Findley in 1859. He 
was a Kentuckian by birth, born November 18, 
1794, in Hardin County, and died in Cum- 
ming's valley, May 28, 1872. Isaac and Moses 
Hart, both residents of Bear valley, are sons of 
this pioneer. In this valley there are now 
16,000 acres devoted to grain. 



HEAR VALLEY. 



The first settlers in Bear valley were Thomas 
H. Goodwin, who made a permanent settlement 
in 1864, and B. Tungate, who may have pre- 
ceded him a short time. Judge P. D. Green, 
associated with John Geldon, George Milliken 
and one Holton, built cabins, put in a crop of 
barley in Bear valley as early as 1859, iu part 
on two sections, 11 and 12, township 32, range 
31. These crops were raised for the hay, not 
the grain; stockmen had first possession of this 
beautiful valley, it being an open range, and 
they were simply transient people. The settle- 
ments mentioned were made by permanent til- 
lers of the soil. 

Isaac Hart settled in the valley in 1869. He 
had been there as early as 1855, as an attache 
of the Government surveying party. It was 
his duty to build the mounds (corners), marking 
the section corners, etc. He still lives in the 
valley. (See sketch.) 



MOJAVE DESERT. 



An area of thirty to forty by about ninety miles 
of this desert region lies iu lvern County. By 
far the larger portion is in Los Angeles and 
San Bernardino counties. A significant fact 
is the recent (about ten years past) occupation 
of portions of this desert by cattle herders. Ac 
they were fenced out of those open ranges they 
were obliged to seek other fields. Stokey Bros., 
Charles Hitt, Mr. Moody, W. W. Landers, 
John Durnell, Richard Shackleford, Joseph 
Kiser, Bright Bros., and others have for eight 
to ten years been living here eight to ten miles 
apart. About twenty wind engines are now 
located on this section of the desert, and the 
number is fast increasing. The soil is too 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



277 



alkaline for farming in some places, and in 
others there is no hard-pan or sub-soil under- 
neath to retain water; however, much mi#ht 
be flooded. 

On what the cattle men call sand, alfalfa 
grows; also tea brash (not sage). " Sand 
grass " supplies a soft tender blade, growing 
about two feet high, with stalks which harden 
at maturity, and these yield a fattening seed. 
It shoots up suddenly as the weather gets warm. 
Cattle like it even when it is hard. Sage bush 
grows in abundance, and also hardens until fall 
rains come, when it softens and cattle 
devour it. The tea brush is perennial. In the 
hottest sands it thrives in large bunches, about 
three feet high and same in diameter. It is 
barren in appearance, not in the least tempt- 
ing, but cattle feed upon it and fatten. 
" Water weed," or " water plant," springs up 
after the spring rains, branches out and 
blooms, maturing in a space of about six weeks. 
It has a yellow bloom, which comes out on 
the stalk from ground up. Both bloom and 
stalk are nutritious. 

" Salt grass " grows wherever water can be 
retained near the surface. It has no fattening 
qualities; it only aids in carrying cattle over 



the winter season. Probably 20,000 head of 
cattle range on the Mojave desert. Sheep are 
ranged out for a short distance upon the desert, 
but have to return to the foothills for water. 

The use of the desert by stockmen is attract- 
ing attention, having become already a source 
of great profit. 

Those curious trees scattered orchard-like 
over the Mojave desert are not cactus, as many 
think, but a species of yucca, — the Yucca brevi- 
folia, — cousin to the " Spanish Bayonet " and 
" Adam and Eve's Needle and Thread," some- 
times seen in cultivation. 

POST OFFICES IN THE COUNTY, MAECH, 1891. 



Annette, 

Bakersfield,* 

Caliente, 

Clarkson, 

Delano,* 

Elmer, 

Freeman, 

Glenburu, 

Glennville, 

Greenwich, 

Havilah, 



Keene, 

Kernville, 

Miramont, 

Mojave, 

Onyx,* 

Rosamond, 

Rosedale, 

Spottiswood, 

Sumner,* 

Weldon, 

Woody, 



♦Money order offices. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



279 




If BIOQI^pjilC/lC SI\E5<?HE5. * 

♦u^_ 3^t 

#)glgrg ^^mi m.ilu-u u. i i m n n n ig i» n <■ ■■ g ■ ■■■ ■ ■ i , .. ,, r 



ketfp 



tOLONEL THOMAS BAKER.— It may 
be stated without fear of contradiction that 
no man has lived in Kern County who 
labored more diligently and devoted more years 
of unselfish energy and toil to the material 
development of Kern County in general and 
Bakersfield in particular than the late Colonel 
Thomas Baker. The history of the later years 
of his busy life might likewise be called an early 
history of the thriving little city which bears his 
revered name. The publishers of this work 
can pay no greater tribute to his memory than 
to reproduce a brief sketch of this man, which 
was written by an able bioerraphe'r who knew 
him intimately during his busiest years, aria 
which reads as follows : 

Colonel Thomas Baker was born in Musking- 
um County, Ohio, November 5, 1810, his birth- 
place being in the beautiful valley extending 
from Newark to Dresden, through which the 
Ohio canal runs. A military bent was given to 
the youthful ambitions of Colonel Baker by 
the times in which he was educated and the cir- 
cumstances in which he was placed. He was 
appointed a Colonel in the Ohio State militia 
before he attained his majority; but peace be- 
came so well assured that he turned his atten- 
tion to civil pursuits. 

Reared on a farm and familiar with surveying 
he studied law with the intention of making 
land law his specialty. Shortly after his admis- 
sion to the bar he moved to Illinois, where, 



however, he remained but a short period. The 
rapid influx of population into the Territory of 
Iowa induced him to go there, and his ambitions 
as a lawyer were soon rewarded with success. 
He was appointed the first United States Dis- 
trict Attorney of that Territory and retained the 
office until the adoption of the State constitu- 
tion. He was then elected Senator, and on the 
organization of the Legislature was chosen 
President of the Senate, becoming under the 
new constitution ex officio Lieutenant Governor, 
the first in that office in Iowa. He was subse- 
quently returned several times to the State 
Senate. No man had a larger share in the early 
' legislation of that powerful State; and many of 
her important laws on her statute books were 
devised and drafted by him. 

Influenced by the gold excitement and his 
bias for adventure, he finally determined to 
emigrate to the Pacific coast. In the autumn 
of 1850, after the usual tedious and dangerous 
overland made by most men of those days, he 
arrived at Benicia, where he remained a few 
months, when he removed to Stockton. In 1852 
he removed to Tulare County, and was one of 
the founders of the town of Visalia. In 1855 
he was chosen Representative of that district to 
the State Assembly. During the next fall he 
was appointed Receiver of the United States 
Land Office, which position he held during the 
administration of President Buchanan. In 1861 
he was elected State Senator from Tulare and 



280 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Fresno counties, and served in the sessions of 
1861-'62. 

September 20, 1863, he arrived on Kern Is- 
land with his family, preparatory to commencing 
his work of reclamation, remarking at the time, 
" Here at last I have found a resting place, and 
here I expect to lay my bones." To him the 
the country was neither new nor strange. 
He had visited and explored it, and carefully 
noted its capabilities years before. He was a 
man of keen perception, broad views, and com 
prehended fully the natural resources and pecu- 
liar advantages of a country, and systematically 
set about the prosecution of his work of reclaim- 
ing and developing his lands. He was liberal 
to a fault, and that was with him an almost 
entire abrogation of self. Often, when his in- 
genuity was taxed to supply his own wants, he 
was found willing to aid those who were worthily 
in dire need, and the stranger was always a wel- 
comed guest at his home. His friends, like 
those of President Jefferson, delighted with his 
genial manners and hospitality, seemed never to 
suspect that his store could be exhausted. The 
leading trait of his character was his uniform 
good nature and his philosophical placidity and 
coolness of temper and disposition. Nothing 
seemed to disturb his equanimity and self-poise 
for a moment. One of his favorite mottoes \ 
was, "Time will justify a man who means to do 
right." He thought it unworthy a rational be- 
ing to indulge in vain regrets. Whatever ills 
he suffered he wasted no time in brooding over 
them, and it was this peculiarity of mind or 
mental training that often gave him the mastery 
over adverse circumstances and enabled him to 
extricate himself. 

He knew better how to mako a fortune than 
how to keep it. The result was that, though 
several times in his life he might have retired 
wealthy, fortunes were lost with seeming indif- 
ference. His ambition was not so much to ac- 
quire lands as it was to develop them, and in 
this he succeeded to a greater extent probably 
than any other man in the State of California. 
His absorbing desire was to see his lands im- 



proved and occupied by settlers as soon as pos- 
sible; and in furtherance of this object he was 
invariably more liberal than the national Gov- 
ernment itself. 

He was the original owner of the town site of 
Bakerstield, and induced the erection of several 
of the public buildings there by his liberality. 
In fact he was the projector of nearly all the 
public works and improvements. His great ex- 
perience, intuitive sagacity, indomitable perse- 
verance and public spirit made him a useful 
man to his people. 

September 12, 1857, Colonel Baker was mar- 
ried to Miss E. M. Alverson, daughter of Dr. 
L. Alverson, in Visalia. Dr. Alverson, on com- 
ing to Kern County in 1870 from Iowa, prac- 
ticed medicine in Tulare and Kern counties, and 
died here in 1879. By this marriage there 
were four children, three of whom survive: 
May, now Mrs. H. A. Jastro; Thomas A., the 
present Treasurer of Kern County; and Lottie, 
still at home. An older daughter married C. 
C. Cowgill of Bakerstield, and is deceased. 
Colonel Baker died November 24, 1872. Mrs. 
Baker, the widow of the Colonel, was mar- 
ried January 19, 1875, to F. A. Tracy, a lead- 
ing pioneer of Kern County, of whom mention 
is made elsewhere in this work. 



§ON. ALVAH RUSSELL CONKL1N, of 
Bakerstield, was born, at Mehoopany, 
Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, March 
12, 1835. He came of the Mohawk valley 
branch of the Conklin family. State of New 
York, upon his father's side. His mother was 
one of the Vermont Redtields. He was edu- 
cated at Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsyl- 
vania, at the Wyoming Seminary. He was a 
practical printer and was such until he was 
twenty years old, having edited two different 
newspapers before he arrived at that age. His 
legal education was acquired under the tutelage 
of Hon. Lyman Hakes, in Wilkes Barre, and 
with Hon. George S. Tutton, in Tunkhannock, 




~)&/. d?/dc-ma£ <&or//\ 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



281 



Pennsylvania. He emigrated to Missouri in 
1858, and pursued his profession in Forest City* 
Holt County. From 1859 up to the time of 
the breaking out of the civil war, he was pub- 
lishing the Forest City Courier. Early in 
1861 he was waylaid and shot down in the 
highway while recruitin r a company for the 
Thirteenth Missouri Infantry, Colonel Peabody's 
Regiment of Volunteers, being the second 
person " bushwhacked " in the State of Mis- 
souri. 

He served four years in the Federal army, 
filling various responsible positions, and was the 
first Federal Judge Advocate to determine the 
admissibility of negro testimony before a mili- 
tary court. After the war he settled in War- 
rensburg, Missouri, where he resided up to 
1875. From 1868 to 1872 he was Judge of 
the Court of Common Pleas of Johnson County. 

In 1875 he emigrated to California, locating 
at Independence, Inyo County, where he 
actively engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion, in connection with Hon. Patrick Reddy, 
His brother-in-law. Under the new constitu- 
tion, in 1879, he was the nominee of the Re 
publican party of that county for the position 
of Superior Judge, which he declined, though 
the county was largely Republican in politics. 
In 1882 he was the nominee of the Republican 
party as its candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, 
winning his nomination over several well-known 
and active politicians, entirely through a three- 
minute magnetic speech before that body. 
Though the Republican ticket was defeated in 
the election, he received a vote of over 6,000 
more than the head of the ticket. In 1884 he 
was nominated as one of the electors-at-large 
on the James G. Blaine ticket, and was elected. 
Upon the assembling of the Electoral College 
he was chosen as its president. 

He was made a Mason in Forest City Lodge, 
No. 214, at Forest City, Missouri. He is now 
a member of Inyo Lodge, No. 221, Independ- 
ence, California. He was made a Royal Arch 
Mason in Bodie Chapter, No. 35, and received 
the orders of Knighthood in Bodie Command- 

18 



ery, No. 15, they having been conferred upon 
him by California Commandery, No. 1, by 
special request of Bodie Commandery. He has 
been a member, and an active one, of the Grand 
Lodge of California, Free and Accepted Masons, 
since 1879. For several years he ably dis- 
charged the duties of chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Grievances in that body. In 1886 he 
was elected Junior Grand Warden; in 1887, 
chosen as Senior Grand Warden; in 1888, he 
was elected as Deputy Grand Master; and in 
1890 he was promoted to the supreme head of 
the order in this jurisdiction, having been 
chosen Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, which 
position he now holds. 

His family consists of his wife, two sons and 
two daughters. He is a resident of Bakersfield, 
Kern County, California, and occupies the posi- 
tion of Judge of the Superior Court of that 
County, to which position he was appointed to 
fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Hon. 
R. E. Arick. 



-£=f*4 



^ 



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L OHN COWAN RUSSELL is a Forty- 
niner and a prominent horticulturist and 
rancher of Tulare County. He was born 
middle Tennessee, September 2, 1822, the 
son of James and Mary (Cowan) Russell, the 
former being a native of North Carolina. His 
parents were married in East Tennessee, and to 
them were born seven children, he being the 
fifth. One of his brothers was a surgeon in the 
Mexican war and two of them served in the 
Confederate army, one a colonel, the other a 
quartermaster, all coming out alive. Only two 
of the family are now living. Mr. Russell was 
reared and educated in the counties of William- 
son, Maury and Lincoln, Tennessee, and had 
the early training of a farmer's son. Then for 
two years he was engaged in clerking. 

With the overland emigration he came to 
this coast in 1849, over the southern route. He 
at once engaged in mining in Tuolumne County, 
where he met with only moderate success, and 



282 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALf FORMA. 



never got more than $1,000 ahead, for two or 
thiee years. In 1854-'55-'56, at Douglas Flat. 
Calaveras County, he was interested with a 
company in tunneling, frequently taking out 
three or four pounds of gold a day, and in two 
years and a half mining, over §100,000. There 
were twelve shareholders in the company. Mr. 
Kussell then went to Shaw's Flat, Tuolumne 
County, and bought an interest in the Reed 
claim, which they mined one summer and win- 
ter; sank a shatt thirty feet and took out 
$32,000. They were the discoverers of the 
Sidewiper mine, developed it and took out 
$100,000. He also owned an interest in a quartz 
mine at Carson Hill, near the noted Union 
mine, Carson Hill, and expended on it about 
$5,000, receiving little in return. He then sold 
out, went to Contra Costa County and spent 
some time there and at San Francisco. He pur- 
chased and partly opened a cement mine at 
Benicia, spent $1,200 on it and lost about half 
of that amount. The mine was afterward worked 
and furnished the cement used in building the 
State capitol. In 1860, during the silver min- 
ing excitement,he went to Virginia City and 
mined a year, investing money but never real- 
izing much from it. In 1861 he went to Em- 
pire City, Nevada, and built a sawmill and gave 
his attention to the lumber business. He had 
the logs cut in California and floated down the 
Carson river, and while there had a franchise to 
clear and control that river. He did a success- 
ful business there until 1868, meanwhile con- 
tinuing his mining interests. From that place 
he went to Hamilton, White Pine County, Ne- 
vada, and conducted a lumher business from 
1868 till 1875, then going to the Ward mining 
district, still, however, having an interest in the 
lumber business until 1880. We next rind him 
at El Paso, engaged in the stone coal business. 
There he obtained a contract from the Mexican 
Central Railroad Company to furnish them 
lime for building their road from Paso del Norte 
to the city of Mexico, which he did for two 
years, burning kilns, shipping car loads and 
being financially successful. 



In 1884 Mr. Russell came to Tulare County 
and purcln^ed a half section of land, two miles 
northwest of TraKer, where he is farming and 
has gone into fruit and grape culture. He lias 
fourteen acres in peaches, apricots, nectarines 
and French prunes, all bearing and doing well. 
and thirty acres of young orchard of peaches 
and prunes, and sixty acres in raisin grape-. 
also in a flourishing condition, three years old. 
He has invested in other lands in Tulare County, 
a portion of which is near Visalia. While now 
giving lii8 attention to agricultural pursuits, 
he is still interested in a mine in Lincoln 
County, Nevada. The company once sold it for 
$300,000, but, the purchasers not being able to 
pay for it, it came back to the original owners. 

Mr. Russell was made a Master Mason in 
February, 1849, at Fayetteville, Tennessee, and 
is now a Knight Templar in that order. His 
political views are in harmony with Democratic 
principles. He is a man of high moral charac- 
ter and is a most worthy citizen. 

Such is an epitome of the history of one who 
since 1849 has been very actively encaged in 
business in the great State of California — one 
who has had an opportunity to mark the won- 
derful growth of the State, who has had much 
to do in digging the golden treasures from her 
mines, who has been largely interested in the 
manufacture of her trees into lumher, and who 
is now devoting his attention to the develop- 
ment of her rich fruit interests. 



?OHN W. SHORT, late editor of the Re- 
publican, at Fresno, was born near the 
village of Shelbyville, the county seat of 
Shelby County, Missouri, October 8, 1858. His 
father, J. H. Short, was a native of Delaware, 
and his mother, whose maiden name was Emily 
Wharton, was born in Ohio and now resides in 
Fresno County, together with several members 
of her family. 

John W. Short was the oldest of a family of 
three children, two sons and one daughter. His 



HISTORY OF GENT HAL CALIFORNIA. 



2S3 



earliest recollections are of the closing days of 
the war of the Rebellion, when tire and sword 
had desolated that section as they only did 
where a division of sentiment arrayed neighbor 
against neighbor and brother against brother. 
His father was a volunteer in defense of his 
country, enlisting as a private in the State serv- 
ice, was soon made corporal and served in 
that capacity till the close of the war. Hard- 
ship and exposure during that struggle de- 
stroyed his health, and a few months later he 
died, not yet having reached the age of thirty- 
five years. Three years later the mother was 
again married, and in 1872 removed to Ne- 
braska. Leaving the remainder of the family 
at Nebraska City, the eldest son and step-father 
pushed on to the then wild and unsettled region 
in the central portion of the State, locating on 
Government land near where the city of Hast- 
ings now stands. For the first year the boy of 
twelve years was satisfied with the charm of 
frontier life, but soon began to feel the want of 
schools and opportunities for improvement. 
His mother's eldest brother, the late Hon. J. F. 
Wharton, was living at a town near Omaha, 
Nebraska, and sent an invitation to his nephew 
to live with him and attend the school which he 
was teaching. The invitation was accepted, but 
at the close of the first term the young man 
became possessed by the idea that the printers' 
occupation is the ideal one, and made an engage- 
ment with the local paper to learn that trade. 
When fifteen years of age he had learned to set 
type and do other work about a rural printing 
office. His uncle deciding to remove to Califor- 
nia, he returned to Hastings, near where his 
mother resided and secured work in the only 
newspaper office then established there. He 
remained in the same office nearly six years, the 
last two years doing editorial work instead of 
type-setting. During that time he attended 
the public school one term, which was his last 
effort to gather knowledge outside the hard 
school of experience. After this he spent nearly 
a year in northern Kansas, editing a paper there. 
He then returned to Nebraska, but shortly 



afterward received a letter from his uncle, who 
had just located at Fresno, informing him that 
he had engaged a position for him on the Re- 
publican of that place, then a weekly paper 
published by S. A. Miller. The summons was 
promptly responded to, and in May, 1881, Mr. 
Short arrived at Fresno. The following autumn 
his younger brother, Frank H. Short, and his 
mother and step-father, also left Nebraska and 
came to Fresno. He worked continuously on 
the Republican for over four years, then became 
a partner of J. W. Shanklin and bought a half 
interest in the paper. October 1, 1887, Short 
& Shanklin established the Daily Morning Re- 
publican. The paper met with unprecedented 
success; in a year after its first issue its circu- 
lation was equal to the best interior dailies in 
cities of like population. In May, 1890, the 
paper was sold to J. C. Judkins, who still suc- 
cessfully conducts it. 

September 3, 1885, Mr. Short was married 
to Jessie G. Francis, at Calistoga, who is a na- 
tive daughter of California, and is six years 
younger than her husband. They have one 
child, James Vernon Short, one year of age. 

Since retiring from the Republican Mr. 
Short has spent several months in looking at 
various portions of the State, but has returned 
with a view to making his home in Fresno. 
For his residence he has built a handsome cot- 
tage on North J street. 

The name of John W. Short is inseparably 
connected with the newspaper history of Fresno, 
alike creditably to himself and to that important 
factor in the growth and development of the 
community. His pen is always used in the 
cause of humanity and in the amelioration of 
civilized life. 



.DD1SON J. BUMP is a widely and favor- 
I ably known early settler of California, 
having come to the State in the year of 
its birth. A sketch of his life will be found of 
interest to many, and is as follows: 



284 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Mr. Bump was born in Madison County, New 
York, July 6, 1825, son of Elihu Bump, also a 
native of the Empire State. Grandfather Gid- 
eon Bump was born in Vermont, was a farmer, 
and, it is believed, a Universalist. Addison J. 
was reared and educated in New York. In 1850 
he crossed the plains to California, making the 
journey with ox teams, and after his arrival here 
engaged in mining, at first near Placerville and 
subsequently on the Cosumnes river in Sacra- 
mento County. He had moderate siiecess, 
found as high as $50 in a day, made a deal of 
money and also lost it. Coming easy, it went 
the same way. After mining for some time, 
he turned his attention to the cattle business, 
luiying in Los Angeles County and driving to 
Sacramento County, and in this was fairly suc- 
cessful. 

After having remained in California five 
years, Mr. Bump returned to New York and was 
married to Miss Adelia C. Bunnell, a native of 
the town of Lima, Livingston County, New 
York, and a former school-mate of his. She is 
a descendant of Connecticut ancestry. To them 
seven children have been born, all grew to ma- 
turity and are still living. Their names are as 
follows: Ella, wife of Boss W. Miller, resides in 
Tulare County; Elizabeth, vvifeof RichardDally, 
Solano County; Charles A. is a clerk in the 
United States Land Office at Visalia; Frank N., 
Hattie and Lottie (twins), aud Clara are mem- 
bers of the home circle. 

Two years after his marriage, Mr. Bump came 
with his wife to this State and settled at Cook's 
Bar, on the Cosumnes river, Sacramento County, 
where they kept hotel two years. From there 
they removed to Freeport on the Sacramento 
river, where he built a store and was engaged 
in the general merchandise business for six 
years. Disposing of his interests at that place, 
lie went to Forestville, Sonoma County, and 
built the first store in the town and also a nice 
home; opened a branch store on the Sacramento 
river and continued the business there about four 
years. He again sold out, and for the next 
three or four years we find him engaged in 



business at Walnut Grove on the Sacramento 
river, after which he disposed of his mercantile 
interests and retired from business. On Mokel- 
umne river he then purchased 160 acres of land, 
built and made improvements on the property, 
and not long afterward sold it. A few years 
later, in connection with F. B. Huston, lie en- 
gaged in a general merchandise store and hotel- 
keeping at Courtland. and was in business there 
until his health became impaired. He had, in 
the meantime, become the owner of 320 acres 
of land in Tulare valley; and to this, in October, 
1886, he came and built his present home, and 
began wheat farming. He has since purchased 
160 acres of land at Orosi, forty acres of which 
he has planted to Muscat grapes and five acres 
to budded "Washington navel oranges, both vines 
and trees being in a flourishing condition. This 
land is situated about six miles east of Dinuba, 
in a vicinity where the soil is unsurpassed by 
any in California; and Mr. Bump has the dis- 
tinction of being the pioneer orange-grower in 
this section of the county. 

In politics he is a Republican. Personally 
he is vivacious, courteous and obliging, and his 
many estimable qualities have surrounded him 
with a large circle of friends. 



*£&§ 



£$-■■ 



¥*£§ 



§M. AYERS, of the mercantile firm of 
Agee & Ayers, Grangeville, is a native son 
a of the golden West, born iu Butte County, 
in 1860. His father, A. S. Ayers, a native of 
Ohio, crossed the plains to California in 1852, 
and for fourteen years followed mining. He 
then farmed for nine years on the Sacramento 
river, and in 1877 came to Grangeville, pur- 
chased lands, and now owns 260 acres, forty of 
which is in fruit trees and vines and the remain- 
der in alfalfa and grain. 

A. M. Ayers was educated in the public 
schools of Sacramento, and remained with his 
father until twenty-one years of age, when he 
purchased 160 acres of land and began farming. 
He continued that occupation until 1886, when 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



285 



he 6old out, aud for one year was superintend- 
ent of the Last Chance ditch. He next secured 
clerkship in the general merchandise store of D. 
Brownstone, and in February, 1889, in partner- 
ship with W. M. Agee, they bought out the 
entire business, including building and grounds. 
The store, 40 x 86 feet, is well stocked with a 
general assortment for the family and house 
hold. They also carry agricultural implements 
and farm machinery, and do an extensive busi- 
ness. Mr. Ayers also owns town property, upon 
which he built his residence in 1886. 

He was married in Sonoma County, in 1883, 
to Miss Clara Farns worth, a native of Califor- 
nia, and they have four children, — Ralph, Clif- 
ford, Raymond and Bessie. Mr. Ayers is a 
member of Welcome Lodge, No. 255, F. &. A. 
M., at Lemoore. He was appointed Postmaster 
of Grangeville in September, 1889, by John 
Wanamaker, Postmaster General. 

V- 1 %*' r*°°&)W^5* 




E. HOUGHTON, an influential citi. 
zen of Kern County and a resident and 
i ° representati ve business man of Bakers- 
field, was born in Lincoln, Penobscot County, 
Maine, August 7, 1852. His father, George 
E. Houghton, a mechanic by trade, removed 
with his family from Maine to Lee, Massachu- 
setts, afterward coming to California and locat- 
ed 

ing at Stockton, where lie died in 1878. Of his 
eight children, William E. is the youngest. The 
mother, a native of Maine, and a most estimable 
lady, now lives in San Jose. Of the other 
members of the family, a brother, R. E. Hough- 
ton, is an able attorney of San Francisco, and 
another is Master in Chancery in the same city. 
A third brother is engaged in the milling busi- 
ness in Seattle, Washington, and a fourth, who 
was for some years a prominent tutor in public 
and private schools of California, lost his life 
by accident in Bakersfield, in February, 1888. 
W. E. Houghton received his early schooling 
in the town of Lee, Massachusetts. After com- 
ing to California he took a commercial course 



of study in San Jose, and in 1873 came to Kern 
county as bookkeeper for John H. Reddingtou 
& Co. In 1876 he became cashier for the Kern 
Valley Bank, in which position he continued 
about two years and a half. From 1879 to 1888 
he was in the employ of Miller & Lux as an ac- 
countant and searcher of records during the 
time of their extensive litigation, which in- 
volved grave questions of land titles and water 
rights in Central California. The firm of 
Houghton & Lightner was organized in 1887, 
and from year to year their business has devel- 
oped until it is now recognized as one of the 
most extensive and systematically conducted of 
all on the coast. The firm, comprising the 
subject of this sketch and Abia T. Lightner, 
both men of established business reputation, 
have personally a wide experience in land mat- 
ters in Califorr ia. They have developed a 
complete set of abstracts of titles of all the 
lands in Kern County, and are doing a large 
business in the abstract line. 

Mr. Houghton was married, December 25, 
1880, to Miss Ella Said of Bakersfield, and 
they are the parents of two children. Then 
residence is a model of its kind and is located 
at the corner of G street and Railroad avenue 



- : — }| ^ i^ 1 ^ : — 

fRVILLE COY GOOD1N was born 
in Missouri, in 1856, son of W. S. and 
Eliza (Blair) Goodin, natives of Tennes- 
see and Missouri respectively. He is the oldest 
son in a family of seven children, only three of 
whom are now living. The year following his 
birth he was brought by his parents to California. 
In the fall of 1861 they came to Tulare Couuty 
and settled on a ranch four miles northeast of 
Visalia, where his mother died when he was 
eleven years old. He remained at home until 
he was sixteen, when he started out to make his 
own way in the world, working for wages. 

In 1878 Mr. Goodin purchased 320 acres of 
land, a portion of which, when Orosi was 
started, he sold for the town site, and on twenty 



28G 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



acres he reserved lie built the second house in 
the village. He has a nice home and is keep- 
ing pace with the rapid development that is 
taking place all around him; has thirteen acres 
of vinevard at Orosi, in a flourishing condition; 
and owns 160 acres of land three miles south of 
the town and 100 acres three-quarters of a mile 
northeast. 

Mr. Goodin was united in marriage in 1884, 
with Miss Nannie Ragle, a native of Sonoma 
County, California. His political affiliations 
are with the Democratic party, and to him 
belongs the distinction of having been appointed 
the first Postmaster of Orosi. 



-<**< 



)»%>- 



W. MADDEN, President of the Tulare 
I County Bank and a prominent citizen 
HF * of Tulare, California, was born in Mon- 
tour County, Pennsylvania, in 1825. His 
grandfather, Joseph Madden, at one time an 
aid-de-camp to General George Washington, 
settled in Montour County, which was after- 
ward the home of many generations of the 
family. 

Mr. Madden's father being a farmer, he was 
reared on the farm and received only limited 
educational advantages. In 1844, with his 

o 

clothes strapped on his back and $18 in his 
pocket, he started out to make his own way in 
the world; joined an emigrant train and went to 
Michigan, settling at White Pigeon, which was 
named for the White Pigeon tribe of Indians. 
In 1846 he settled at Paw Paw, Illinois, where 
he followed farming and school-teaching, it be- 
ing necessary for him to study of nights to keep 
in advance of his classes; still he met with great 
success. 

Mr. Madden was married, at Paw Paw, in 
1847, and there continued to reside until 1852. 
In that year, in company with his brother, 
brother-in-law and a man named Berry, he 
started for California. Each man furnished one 
horse, and with one wagon they set forth; but, 
before reaching St. Joe, his friends dropped out 



and he was left alone with his one horse. He 
then joined a French company and with them 
left St. Joe, April 9, 1852. That being the 
cholera year, deaths were of frequent occurrence, 
and although our subject was attacked by that 
dread disease his pure "grit" tided him safely 
over. After five months of travel he landed at 
Haugtown, with no money and very poor clothes. 
While recuperating he did some work in a hotel; 
afterward went to Sacramento, and was given a 
start in peddling by A. T. ( )atley, who fur- 
nished horses, wagon and a load of miners' sup- 
plies. With these Mr. Madden started for Vol- 
cano, a mining camp, with the agreement that 
he should have one-half the net profits; returned 
nine days later, as he expresses it, " with more 
money than I had ever seen." Flour was then 
selling at SI per pound and other supplies in 
proportion. After peddling about six months, 
he was employed by the California Stage Com- 
pany, Sacramento, and remained with them seven 
years. 

His wife having died in the East, Mr. Madden 
was married a second time, at Folsom City, 
December 31, 1859, to Miss Nancy E. Carna- 
han, with whom he grew up from childhood in 
Montour County, Pennsylvania. In the fall of 
I860 they went to Toll House, Placer County, 
purchased a ranch of 640 acres and also bought 
the toll road and built fifteen miles additional. 
They also kept a wayside hotel and made a deal 
of money until their business was ruined by the 
completion of the Central Pacific railroad. i\\ 
1866 Mr. Madden sold out and moved to Cisco, 
Placer County, where he built a hotel with a 
dining-room capacity to seat 500 people. This 
was a center for stage lines and overland travel, 
and they did a large and lucrative business. In 
1869 he moved to Rockwell, same county, and 
bought a large fruit ranch, and ran a dairy. A 
year later he sold out and moved to San Jose, 
and subsequently to BLollister, purchasing an 
interest in the stage line from Ilollister to Gil- 
roy; this venture, however, was a losing one, 
and he soon found himself financially ruined. 
He then moved to Santa Cruz and rented a saloon. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



287 



but in a few days closed out- the " institution " 
and returned to farming, which again placed 
him upon a financial footing. In 1874 Mr. 
Madden decided to engage in the sheep busi- 
ness, came to Visalia and rented 5,000 sheep on 
shares, but this was not the business his fancy 
had pictured, and a year later he found himself 
again reduced to penury. In the fall of 1875 
he came to Tulare and secured a position with 
Sisson," Wallace & Co., at $65 per month, and 
remained in their employ for eighteen mouths. 
At that time Tulare had only about 200 inhabi- 
tants. 

Mr. Madden's next business venture was to 
rent the Lake House. After operating the hotel 
for two years, with little profit, he gave it up. 
He then purchased the old Pacific Hotel on J 
street, giving his notes at one and one-half 
per cent, interest per month, with the resolution 
to stay with the purchase if lie could make a 
living. He bought old furniture, also on time, 
and thus started his hotel, prosperity attending 
his labors from that time forward. In two years 
he was enabled to pay off all indebtedness, and 
subsequently increased the size of his hotel and 
did a tine business. 

In 1881 Mr. Madden bored an artesian well 
in his back yard for household purposes, but was 
induced to supply one and another, and thus 
was started the water system of the town, which 
was gradually extended beyond this capacity. 
In the destructive fire of 1886 his hotel and 
pump house were consumed, after which he 
moved out and located on O street, between 
Tulare and Kern streets. He then incorporated 
a water company and established a permanent 
plant; bored two wells 400 feet deep, and in 
1888 two more at an equal depth, all cased with 
10-inch pipe. They have two boilers, sixty- 
horse power, and two Buffalo Duplex pumps 
with a capacity of 75,000 gallons per hour, and 
fiave put in another pump in order to guard 
against accidents. The pipes are so arranged as 
to draw upon all the wells at one time, and no 
diminution has ever been known in the water 
supply. The water is piped into two large 



elevated tanks, with a capacity of 40,000 gal- 
lons each, from which distributing pipes supply 
the town. 

In 1890 Mr. Madden was instrumental in 
organizing the Tulare County Bank, which 
opened its doors for business in July of that 
year, and he was elected president of the insti- 
tution. Mr. Madden has been School Trustee 
for many years, and was instrumental in the 
building of their fine schoolhouse in 1884. 

The public school system of California is un- 
surpassed in the United States, and the public 
schools of Tulare City have reached the highest 
degree of perfection of all in the State. For 
fifteen years Mr. Madden has given the affairs 
of the schools his personal attention and to 
him, in a large measure, is due the excellent 
and progressive condition of Tulare schools. 
Churches, schools, and moral enterprises have 
found in him a generous supporter. 

He and his wife have four children, viz.: 
Lelia E., now Mrs. E. D. Castle; Margaret E., 
wife of F. W. Gorham; Washington D. ; and 
Mamie M., wife of I. O. Bachelder— all settled 
in the vicinity of Tulare. 

Mr. Madden is a member of Olive Branch 
Lodge, No. 269, F. & A. M.; of Tulare Chap- 
ter, No. 71, R. A. M.; and of Visalia Command- 
ery, No. 26, K. T. 

As a monument to his memory, Mr. Madden 
has just (1891) erected on the Plaza and pre- 
sented to the city of Tulare a drinking fountain, 
which is in bronze, and represents " Rebecca at 
the Well." 

To the stranger this signifies the disposition 
of the man, but no such symbol was necessary 
to his town's people, who will ever remember 
him for his kind words, genial disposition and 
disinterested public spirit. Mr. Madden is a 
typical Californian he belongs to the old school, 
that noble class who developed the great State 
of California. Only courageous men, men of 
nerve and progress, came to the golden West 
in the early '50s and remained; only men of 
personal courage, men of forceful characters, 
could pick up, cross the plains, and stay with 



288 



HISTORY Oh' CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the lips and downs of varied fortune on the 
Pacific coast. Many fell by the way or soon 
returned to the old home, while only the deter- 
mined, the progressive, the hopeful, the men of 
indomitable will remained and compelled final 
success. 

The early Californians are a remarkable class 
of men. Their chief characteristics are large 
generosity, energy of will, intense activity, hope 
even in the midst of disaster; and with all large 
and progressive ideas, only such men could 
make a country like California. 

Mr. Madden is one of these noble men. 



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>*■$=- 




IILEY HINDS, an early settler of Tulare 
County, California, was born in Ar- 
kansas, in 1836, son of Thomas and 
Rachel Hinds. He was the third of six chil- 
dren, had the misfortune to be born in slavery, 
and at an early age was bereft of his mother by 
death. Upon the death of their master his 
parents were set free. His father worked and 
saved his money, and when Wiley was ten years 
old paid $300 for his freedom. As he grew 
older the boy was sent to school and made the 
best of his educational advantages. In 1858 he 
came to California and to Visalia in company 
with E. Hinds, paying his own expenses, how- 
ever. 

Soon after his arrival here he obtained work 
at $30 per month, and worked for Mr. Pem- 
berton fourteen months. He was then em- 
ployed by Mr. Wallace, having charge of his 
hogs a year, for which he received $400. Next 
he worked for George E. Long five years, till 
he sold out. Mr. Hinds continued to work for 
wa«es until 1865, when he engaged in the stock 
business on his own account, in partnership, at 
first, with Mr. Harrington. After residing in 
California fourteen years and meeting with the 
success that his honest endeavors merited, he 
returned to the scenes of his childhood and 
visited both Kansas and Arkansas. While on 
this visit he made the acquaintance of Miss Lucy 



McKinney, a native of Kansas, who, in 1873, 
became his wife. He brought her to his Cali- 
fornia home, and their union has been blessed 
with eight children. One of their little chil- 
dren lost its life by earing sugar-coated pills 
that were accidentally left within her reach. 
Their children were all born in Tulare County, 
and, with the exception above cited, are all 
living. Their names are: Joanna, Julietta, 
John Thomas, Polly Rachel, Wiley Douglass, 
Edith Bell and Earnest Logan. 

Mr. Hinds has been a straightforward, hard- 
working man, and his efforts have met with 
success. He purchased hie first eighty acres of 
land, upon which he now resides, in 1868. Two 
years later he added eighty adjoining acres, and 
later 240 acres east of Earmersville. He owns 
1,000 acres of land in the foothills, city lots in 
Visalia and a house and lot in Oakland. In his 
stock-raising and farming operations he has met 
with eminent success. Mr. Hinds is a member 
of the Methodist Church, and in politics is a 
Republican. By his own integrity, industry 
and economy he has -won for himself a position 
of prominence in his county. By all who know 
him his word is regarded as good as his note. 

The old slavery times have passed away, 
thank God. A man's soul is tilled with disgust 
at the heinousness of the law in a great free 
country like the United States that made it pos- 
sible to hold such a man in bondage. 



H||LPHA H. GLASSCOCK, an early settler 
r/$AB °* California, and now a resident of 
^3^ Visalia, Tulare County, was born in Illi- 
nois, August 28, 1835. 

His father, Robert L. Glasscock, was born in 
Kentucky, in 1806, and was a descendant of 
Scotch ancestry who settled in America before 
the Revolution. He married Elizabeth Sul- 
inger, of Irish ancestry and a native of Mis- 
souri, and of their eight children Alpha II. was 
next to the oldest. He was educated in Mad- 
ison County (now Iron Connty), Missouri. His 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



father was a merchant and steamboat owner, 
and with him our subject was engaged in the 
mercantile business for six years. 

In 1859 Mr. Glasscock made the journey to- 
the far "West, stopped one winter in Nevada, 
then came to California and settled in Tulare 
County. For seven years he was successfully 
engaged in the cattle business. 



■-&4 



■± 



8N^ 



fR. G. GLENN is a native of Georgia, born 
in 1837. He was engaged in various 
9 pursuits at his home until after the close 
of the Rebellion. From 1866 until 1868 he 
was in Mississippi, and in June of the latter 
year he came to California. Solano County was 
the scene of his first exploits in this State, but 
Fresno was destined to be his home. He landed 
in this county in the year 1869, with $75, and 
by wise investment and careful expenditure he 
is to-day independent and ranks among Fresuo's 
well-to-do citizens. Early in his career here he 
entered into the sheep business, buying low and 
selling at a good profit, then investing his earn- 
ings in low-priced lands, from which on subse- 
quent sales he realized handsome returns. He 
owns a tine vineyard in the Fresno colony, and 
has been very successful in grape culture. He 
is a stockholder in the Fresno Loan & Savings 
Bank and also in the Farmers' Bank. 

Mr. Glenn was married, in 1876, to Miss 
Strother, and has a family of three children. 
He is a prominent member of the Baptist de- 
nomination, and at present is treasurer of the 
First Baptist Churcb of Fresno, of which soci- 
ety he was one of the organizers. 



jgg^ UGO KDHL is one of the business men 
HID w ^° nave contributed to Tehachapi's pros- 
wil perity. He came to this State with his 
parents in 1864, and has since been identified 
with its interests. 

His father, Peter Kuhl, a farmer, and his 



mother, whose maiden name was Ann Moose, 
were both natives of Germany, the former hav- 
ing come from his native land to America in 
1848. They were married at Davenport, Iowa, 
and of their five children the subject of this 
sketch was the third born. As already stated, 
the family came to California in 1864. Settling 
at Dixon, Solano County, the father engaged in 
farming and is yet a resident of that place, the 
mother having died in 1869. Hugo learned the 
trade of blacksmith at Dixon, worked at his 
trade four years in Sacramento, and afterward 
four years at Mojave. He located at Tehachapi 
in the fall of 1888 and opened a general black- 
smithing and wagon-making establishment, 
which he is still successfully conducting. 

He was married December 19, 1886, in Los 
Angeles, to Mrs. M. E; Macarter, a native of 
Boston, Massachusetts. By her former mar- 
riage she has three children: Rose M., William 
I. and Maud, and by her present husband, two: 
Mamie and Lillian. 

As a business man and citizen, Mr. Kuhl 
bears a most honorable name. He is Chief 
Ranger of the Independent Order of Foresters, 
Tehachapi. 



g^ARRY QUINN.— Among the men who 
, are connected with the sheep interests of 
Tulare county, none have attained greater 
success or prominence than he whose name 
graces this biographical sketch. 

Mr. Quinn was born in Ireland, December 
25, 1843, son of Thomas and Margaret (Donald- 
sou) Quinn, the latter of Scotch descent. His 
father was a farmer in Ireland. Harry lived at 
home until sixteen years of age, securing a 
common-school education and assisting in the 
farm work. At that early age he started out in 
life for himself- and emigrated to Australia. 
On his arrival there he first went to the mines 
of the Melbourne colony and subsequently to 
the mining districts of Adelaide colony. There 
was, however, little in mining for him, and he 



290 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



gave it up and turned his attention to the sheep 
industry. Securing a position on a large sheep 
ranch as a common laborer, he began zealously 
to learn the various details of the business, be- 
ing thus engaged for eight years. He came to 
California in 1868, traveled through the north- 
ern part of the State and Nevada, and after- 
ward came to the Tule river, in Tulare County. 
Being much pleased with the country, he de- 
cided to locate here. He hired out as manager of 
sheep ranches until 1872, when he purchased 
of A. Leitch, of Stockton, a one-half interest in 
his band of 7,000 sheep, grazing at that time 
being free throughout the valley. In 1879 Mr. 
Quinn bought 160 acres, where his residence is 
now located, and the firm of Leitch & Quinn 
own over 10,000 acres as a range for their sheep. 
This land lies on the border in Kern and Tulare 
counties, and in the mountains. Their flock 
averages 12,000 sheep and is divided into five 
bands, with no sheep older than five years. One 
band of 2,000 sheep consists wholly of pure 
blood French merinos, valuable stock for both 
wool and mutton. With the increase from 
these sheep they will eventually stock their 
ranch. Mr. Quinn is a wise and careful mana- 
ger, and, to avoid the possibility of a famine 
from dry years and short feed, sows annually 
400 acres of grain for hay, and has 300 acres 
in alfalfa, all of which is carefully stacked and 
stored, constantly keeping on hand a sufficient 
quantity of hay to carry his sheep through a 
possible dry year. 

In 1886 Mr. Quinn took an extended tour 
through the East, passing through twenty-two 
States. On this trip he was married, in Robe- 
son County, North Carolina, December 15 
1886, to Miss Katie Robertson, a niece of Mr. 
A. Leitch and a daughter of John Robertson, a 
native of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and Mary 
(Leitch) Robertson. Their union has been 
blessed with two children, Margaret and John 
Robertson. 

Mr. Quinn is a member of the I. O. O. F., 
and the A. O. U. W., and also of the blue 
lodge, chapter and commandery, F. & A. M., 



Visalia. He built his present large and hand- 
some residence in 1890, at a cost of §5,000, 
and with the highly improved grounds sur- 
• rounding the house: his place is the most beauti- 
ful and attractive in his section of the valley. 



fHARLES A. LEE, Postmaster at Tehach- 
api (Greenwich postoffice), has, during 
his brief residence here, thoroughly iden- 
tified himself with the business and social 
interests of the town. He came to California 
from his native State, Indiana, in 1887. 

Mr. Lee was born in Crawfordsville, Mont- 
gomery County, Indiana, February 1, 1866, and 
and at the age of fifteen began railroading. 
He pursued that calling in various portions of 
the Middle States until he came to California. 
Here, after a few months of travel in the south- 
ern and central part of the State, he again 
engaged in railroading, entering the employ of 
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. He 
continued in their employ until he met with a 
serious, almost fatal, accident, which resulted in 
the amputation of his right leg, and other in- 
juries seriously crippling his left hand Upon 
his recovery from this great physical shock, he 
engaged in the fruit and confectionery business 
in Tehachapi. He was soon afterward deputized 
postmaster by Hon. P. D. Green, and assumed 
the duties of his office on the first of January, 
1890. In this capacity he has proven himself 
one of the most efficient, accommodating and 
popular postmasters the town has ever had. In 
one respect he is worthy of special commenda- 
tion. The universal rules governing the con- 
duct of the United States post offices do not 
require the distribution of mail before the hour 
of eight o'clock in the morning or after seven 
in the evening; but as the mails arrive at his 
office at unseasonable hours, he is seldom at his 
post of duty later than 6:30 a. m., and is in- 
variably there as late as 9 p, m. The public 
should appreciate this effort on his part to give 
them a liberal service. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



291 



Mr. Lee is active in the social circles of 
Tehacliapi, and as popular as he is jovial and 
nniformally courteous. Although a single man 
lie is domestic in his taste, owns a new residence 
and has it presided over by his sister, Miss 
Allie, a young lady of culture, winning man- 
ners and womanly graces. He also has a sister 
Minnie and a brother Fred, residing with him. 



§B. CARPENTER is a native of New 
York State, born in Henderson, Jeffer- 
., ° son County, June 12, 1827. His father 
was a substantial farmer and in favor of educa- 
tion, and thus our subject was privileged to at- 
tend the public schools of Henderson, the State 
Normal School at Albany (the second normal 
school established in the United States), and the 
Jefferson County Institute at Watertown. 
After completing his studies he returned home 
and followed an agricultural life. He was mar- 
ried at Rodman, in 1853, to Miss Euphrasia P. 
Redtield, and, after one year passed with Mr. 
Carpenter's parents, they moved to Poweshiek 
County, Iowa, and settled on a farm. In 1859 
they returned home, and in February, 1862, lo- 
cated in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, where 
they continued general farming till 1875, the 
year in which they came to California. 

After their arrival in the Golden State they 
came to Tulare County and settled at Porterville, 
where Mrs. Carpenter had a brother, L. J. Red- 
field. The following year Mr. Carpenter pur- 
chased railroad land where Poplar now is, and 
engaged in farming and stock-raising. He was 
among the first to plant a deciduous fruit or- 
chard on the plains, beginning in 1878 in an 
experimental way. He also planted vines, but 
they were destroyed by rabbits and thus fnr- 
nished an object lesson to his neighbors that 
vines could only be grown by fencing the land. 

Mr. Carpenter was appointed Postmaster of 
Poplar, April 12, 1880, and filled the office con- 
tinuously to November 18, 1890, his long serv- 
ice being proof of his faithful attendance to 



duty. For many years he has been secretary 
and treasurer of the South Side Tule River 
Ditch Company, and as School Trustee has ad- 
vanced the interests of education. He is a 
member of Porterville Lodge, No. 359, I. O. 
O. F., and of Rockford Lodge, No. 76, Farm- 
ers' Alliance. 

Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter have four children : 
Fred IL, Arthur D., Byron L. and Clara H. 
The sons are all landholders, and are settled 
conveniently near the home place. 



-<**< 



»*•£=- 



j£S* H. MALTER, one of the prominent and 
ftsJT successful vineyardists of Fresno, was 
wi* born in Silesia, Prussia, in 1852. He 
was educated in art and science in the Polytech- 
nic school at Brieg, Prussia. In 1868 he emi- 
grated to the United States, coming directly to 
San Francisco, where he found employment as 
draughtsman in a foundry, until 1872, when he 
organized the tirm of Malter, Lind & Co., who, 
in later years, became very prominent as con- 
tractors and builders of heavy mills and mining 
machinery. They built many of the large re- 
duction works in Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, 
Montana, New Mexico, etc. ; among them they 
built a 120-stamp mill for the Hoinestake mine, 
which was at that time the largest stampmill 
in the world. They also built some of the heavy 
quartz mills of Mexico. In 1884-5 Mr. Mal- 
ters was President of the iEtna Iron Works, 
and there manufactured much of their own 
machinery. They were for many years promi- 
nently known through all the mining sections 
of this continent. 

In 1879 Mr. Malter first turned his attention 
to viticulture, purchasing 480 acres east of 
Fresno, and a little later he bought the Henri- 
etta ranch of 1,640 acres. He planted 420 
acres of this land in vines, mainly of the varie- 
ties suitable for wine purposes. In 1881 Mr. 
Lind bought an interest in the first purchase, 
which partnership continued until 1883, when 
a division was made. Mr. Malter subsequently 



292 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



sold most of the Henrietta ranch, retaining in 
all but 300 acres, 160 acres of which are planted 
in wine grapes, eighty acres in raisin grapes, 
and sixty in alfalfa and grain. Mr. Malter is 
also largely engaged in farming in Tulare County, 
where he owns 2,400 acres, and a one-third in- 
terest in the Mussel Slough Canal. Mr. Malter 
continued in engineering business until 1888, 
when he retired, that he might devote all his 
attention to his vineyard interests. He has 
given the cultivation of the vine and the man- 
ufacture of wine much thought and study, and 
now superintends every detail of his extensive 
business. His vineyard is in a high state of 
cultivation and is very productive. He has an 
extensive winery; his fermenting house con- 
tains eighty-four tanks, with a capacity of ten 
tons each. In this sherry house he can make 
15,000 gallons at a time. He has one of the 
largest distilleries in the State. His wines have 
attained great distinction and much demand. 
They are often sold or contracted for in advance 
of the vintage. He makes about 300,000 gal- 
lons of sweet wines yearly, and sells only in 
car-load lots. 

In satisfying his aesthetic tastes Mr. Malter 
has just finished the erection of a handsome 
three-story residence, complete in every detail 
for the requirements of bachelor life. The up- 
per floor of the building is used exclusively 
to store his carefully selected library, which 
comprises upwards of 4,000 volumes, mostly 
standard works of Greek, Latin, German, 
French and English literature, and among them 
many valuable works now out of print. 

|||EDRO YRIBARNEisone of a class of men 
flW who have become of late years an impor- 
^t tant and progressive element in the stock 
interests of Kern County. 

He is a native of the south of France, and 
was born in the month of August, 1855. He 
was reared on a farm, and in 1877 came to 
America. Upon his arrival in California he 



went to Los Angeles, and worked for the Capi- 
tal Mining Company. By frugal habits and 
industry he accumulated a small capital, and 
engaged in the sheep business on a moderate 
scale, having gained experience in this line of 
business at his old home. His small flocks of 
sheep have gradually increased in numbers, 
until now he has about 9,000 head, which he 
ranges largely on his own lands in Kern 
County. He has acquired ownership to 380 
acres of land in Little Caliente valley, 320 
acres in Tudie cannon, about six miles northeast 
of Tehachapi, and approximately 1,000 acres 
adjoining the famous Tejon ranch in Kern 
County. 

Mr. Vribarne has two brothers, Michael and 
John, who came to America in 1887 and 1889 
respectively, and are in his employ. His emi- 
nent success in his chosen industry is due to 
his great diligence in business matters, his ac- 
quired technical knowledge of sheep-raising and 
his sagacious business methods. 



C. WILLIAMS, a tried and faithful 
servant in the government of Fresno 
>0 County, is a native of the Golden State. 
He was born in Vacaville, Solano County, in 
1857, his parents being among the pioneers 
who came to this State in 1852. Young Will- 
iams was educated in the common schools, with 
a finishing course, in 1873, at the California 
Baptist College, Vacaville. 

Reared on a farm he engaged in agricultural 
pursuits for himself in 1874, in Fresno County, 
giving his attention to raising wheat, that be- 
ing before the fruit industry was started. A 
year later, however, he went to Colusa County, 
and was variously employed until 1879, when 
he returned to Fresno and received the appoint- 
ment of Deputy County Clerk, under A. M. 
Clark. He continued in that position until 
1884, then being elected to till the office. He 
has since been re-elected at each succeeding 
election down to the present time, 1890. When 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



293 



he first entered this office its work was very 
light; now it ranks fourth in importance in the 
State. He formerly performed all the work; 
now he employs four deputies. 

Mr. Williams was married in Fresno in 1885, 
to Miss Mattie Thomas, and their household is 
brightened by one child, Claraj four years 
of age. 

Mr. Williams ia a Mason and a member of 
Fresno Lodge, Trigo Chapter and Fresno Com- 
mandery, Knights Templar. 




J. HUTCHISON, an early pioneer of 
California, who for many years lias been 
1° connected with the assessor's office of 
Fresno County, was born in Monroe County, 
Tennessee, in 1833. The year following his 
birth, his parents moved to White Oak Springs, 
Wisconsin, where he received the rudiments of 
a common-school education, attending school 
three months during the winter. At the age of 
fourteen he was apprenticed to learn the trade 
of blacksmith at Warren, Illinois, and at nine 
teen he started across the plains for California, 
making the journey in a " prairie schooner." 

Arrived in the Golden State, Mr. Hutchison 
settled at Mud Springs, now El Dorado, and 
engaged in placer mining, which he continued 
with varied success up to 1866. In that year 
he came to Centerville, Fresno County, and 
resumed work at his trade, working at it /or ten 
years. In 1874 he received the appointment of 
deputy assessor, under T. W. Simpson, for the 
term of three years. In 1877 he ran for County 
Assessor against J. A. Stroud, and being de- 
feated he became his deputy for the term. 
.Running for the same office in 1879, he was 
again defeated, his opponent being W. H. Mc- 
Kenzie. Mr. Hutchison then accepted the 
position of deputy sheriff, under E. Hall, for 
a term ot three years. In 1882 he again ran 
for County Assessor, this time receiving almost 
the unanimous vote of both parties; was elected 



for four years, and was re-elected in 1886 and 
1890. When he took the office the assessment 
roll of 1882 was $7,250,000, and by 1890 it had 
increased to $36,000,000. In 1883 Mr. Hutch- 
ison employed seven deputies; twenty-three are 
now required to do the work. 

Mr. Hutchison was married in El Dorado 
County in 1863, to Miss Priscilla M. Schaeffer, 
a native of Pennsylvania. Of the four children 
born to them, three are living, namely: George 
D., engaged in the livery business at Porter- 
ville; John L., manager of their ranch at Selma; 
and Mark S., who is attending the Garden City 
Commercial College at San Jose. 

With his sons, George D. and John L., Mr. 
Hutchison owns a forty-acre ranch at Selma, 
twenty acres of which are in raisin-grape vines, 
the rest to be set out to vines in 1891. They 
also own improved city property. 



§E. RAWLINS. — To the young men of 
our country are we indebted for much of 
* our rapid progression and development, 
and in the foremost rank at Hanford, Tulare 
County, California, we find the subject of this 
sketch. He was born in Warwickshire, Eng- 
land, in July, 1855. His father, Samuel Raw- 
lins, was a prominent business man of 
Birmingham, and his mother, Catharine (Donald- 
son) Rawlins, was a native of Scotland. Young 
Rawlins was educated at Repton. At the age 
of sixteen years he was sent to Scotland, and 
passed two years in learning the practical work- 
ings of a farm. He then attended the Royal 
Agricultural College at Cirencester, Gloucester- 
shire, where he graduated in 1875. 

In 1877 Mr. Rawlins started for New Zeal- 
and, via the United States, and stopped in 
California to visit his friend, James S. Robin- 
son, at Hanford. With a view of engaging in 
the sheep business, he then visited a friend in 
Mendocino County, but returned to the Lucerne 
district in 1878 and purchased 160 acres of 
land, located eight miles south of Hanford, and 



294 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



gave his attention to stock-raising. In 1879 
he was elected secretary and director of the 
Lakeside Ditch Company, and was instru- 
mental in working the company out of debt and 
placing it upon a sound financial basis, resign- 
ing after two years of service. In 1881 the 
firm of Robinson & Rawlins was established, 
composed of the brothers, James S. and William 
Rose Robinson (the latter now deceased), and 
the brothers, J. E. and Henry Rawlins. This 
company purchased 400 acres of land in the 
Coast Range, and developed the coal mine near 
Coalinga, which they operated until 1888. In 
that year they incorporated as the San Joaquin 
Valley Coal Mining Company, witli a sub- 
scribed capital of $300,000, J. E. Rawlins 
being elected president of the company. In 
1881 the firm of Robinson & Rawlins estab- 
lished the Hanford Water Works, the supply 
being raised by steam power from wells to an 
elevated tank, and through pipes supplying the 
town for domestic and fire purposes. In 1890 
they sank an artesian well 500 feet, with a 
twelve-inch casing, and developed a capacity of 
30,000 gallons per hour. 

In 1884 Mr. Rawlins returned to England, 
and was married to Miss Margaret A. McCal- 
moiit, youngest daughter of Hugh 11 B. McCal- 
mont. Their union has been blessed with 
three children, — Ethel Kathleen, Hugh Martin 
and Evangeliue. 

Mr. Rawlins was one of the incorporators of 
the Bank of Hanford in 1887, and was elected 
vice-president. In the spring of 1888 he was 
instrumental in the organization of the Han- 
ford Improvement Association, capital $20,000, 
and of this company he was elected president. 
They purchased 400 acres of land adjoining 
the town, subdivided the tract into ten-acre lots, 
and sold the same under the name of the Lu- 
cerne Colony Lands, selling on the installment 
plan, and meeting with eminent success in the 
enterprise. In 1890 he was one of the incorpor- 
ators of the Hanford Development Company, 
of which he was also elected president. This 
company was organized for the purpose of 



building the Artesian Hotel, which was com- 
pleted in a very satisfactory manner. 

With all his enterprises Mr. Rawlins was not 
neglectful of religious privileges, and partly 
through his efforts and financial aid the Epis 
copal Church was erected on Doughty street, 
Hanford, in 1882. He has sold his former 
land holdings, and now owns eighty acres near 
town, where he now resides, twenty-five acres 
of which are in fruit and vines, the rest being 
in alfalfa. Mr. Rawlins keeps about twenty-five 
bead of tine horses, and breeds for driving 
purposes. 

»-» | - S"S - l ' ~ '- — 




TLLIAM PEASLEE may well be termed 
the town-builder of Tehachapi. Evi- 
dence of his skill and taste as a carpen- 
ter and builder are from week to week looming 
up in the form of attractive dwellings and 
business houses. There is no trade or calling, 
the prosecution of which has a more telling 
effect on the appearance of a town than that of 
architect and builder. Therefore Tehachapi 
may congratulate itself upon the permanent 
location of so thorough a mechanic as William 
Peaslee within its borders. 

Mr. Peaslee is a native of Upton, Maine; 
born August 19, 1855. He came West in De- 
cember, 1886; spent eighteen months in Mon- 
rovia, California, where he erected many hand- 
some cottages and business blocks, and in 1890 
located in Tehachapi. Here he built a work- 
shop, is doing a thriving business, and has 
gained an enviable reputation as a thorough 
skillful and conscientious workman. 



fOHN EVERMON BUCK MAN. Tulare 
County, California, was born in an ox 
wagon, August 28, 1864, while his parents 
were in Arizona en route to this State. His 
father, Clement Evermon Buckman, a native of 
Kentucky, married and in 1865 settled in Cali- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



295 



fornia, purchasing in Tulare County the ranch 
on which his son, the subject of this sketch, 
resides. He first bought eighty acres, subse- 
quently added to it eighty acres more, and also 
became the owner of other real estate. He was 
an upright and honored citizen and reared a 
highly respectable family. His death occurred 
in 1879. His widow and eight of their eleven 
children survive. One of the sons now holds 
the responsible office of auditor of Tulare Coun- 
ty, and a history of him will be found in this 
book. 

John Evermon Buckman was educated in the 
Yisalia Normal School, and for four years taught 
school in the country. He is now doing a gen- 
eral farming business, also raising cattle and 
hogs, and, while he is living on the old home- 
stead, he has 160 acres of land in his own name. 

Mr. Buckman was married in 1885, to Miss 
Mary E. Voorhess, a native of California, 
daughter of "William and Amelia (Miller) Voor- 
hess, who came to this State in 1852. Mr. and 
Mrs. Buckman have four children: Mary Ada, 
Lily A., William Enoch and John Andrew. 
He is a Democrat and a member of the Farm- 
ers' Alliance; is a capable business man and has 
served as deputy county auditor two terms. 

»« ig*ini » 'gi » - 



tUGUSTUS SCHOFER, M. D., a resident 
and practicing physician of Tehachapi, 
was born in San Francisco in 1864. His 
father, Henry Schofer, a native of Germany, 
came to California in 1857, and was subse- 
quently married, in San Francisco, to Miss 
Mary Ford, a lady of Irish birth. Of their 
three children the subject of our sketch was the 
second born. Henry Schofer owns large tracts 
of laud in Kern County. His residence, how- 
ever, is in Gilroy, Santa Clara County. 

The Doctor attended St. Mary's College, of 
San Francisco, where he received his degree 
of Bachelor of Arts in 1884, and received his 
medical education at the Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College in New York city, graduating 



in 1887. He entered upon his professional 
career at Plainsburg, Merced County, Califor- 
nia, and a year later, in 1889, removed to Kern 
County and located in Tehachapi. Here he has 
established a large and growing practice, and 
has a wide circle of friends. 

He was married, March 5, 1888, to Miss Belle 
Lander, of Merced. 



-=$■*< 



>*$>- 



SRANK J. BURLEIGH, one of the enter- 
prising business men of Fresno, was born 
in Hill, New Hampshire, February 25, 
1848. In the fall of 1854 he moved with his 
parents to Lawrence, Kansas. His father rented 
the first hotel built in the town, a sod structure, 
100x30 feet, one story, with thatched roof. A 
year later he moved to Riley County, Kansas, 
took up 160 acres of land on Deep creek, and 
remained there until 1861. From that time 
until 1869 he was located at Manhattan, engaged 
in running freight wagons to Leavenworth. 
In 1869 he again took up farming in Riley 
County, on Timber creek, and made that place 
his home until 1874, when he moved his family 
to California and settled in Fresno County. 

Frank J. Burleigh was reared in Kansas, and 
was married in Manhattan, to Miss Mary A. 
Harris, a native of England. After their 
arrival in California he went to the monntains 
and worked in sawmills until 1878, when he 
returned to Fresno and brought with him a 
six-horse load of lumber, with which he built a 
two-room house on J street. With that as a 
foundation he has since built a commodious 
residence. From time to time he has invested 
in city property, and he also owns a twenty acre 
tract in Central colony. In 1880 he built his 
first warehouse, between Inyo and Kern streets, 
in partnership with S. Harris, and in 1882 they 
started a lumber business, being agents for the 
Puget Sound Lumber Company. The partner- 
ship continued until 1884, when they dissolved 
and closed up the business. Mr. Burleigh then 
dealt more extensively in live stock, in which 



206 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



he had been engaged since 1878. In March, 
1888, he began his present warehouse, between 
Mono and Ventura streets, on the west side of- 
the railroad. This building is 60x250 feet, 
with a capacity of 8,000 tons. Mr. Burleigh 
deals extensively in wheat, barley and live- 
stock. The present year he has sold 150,000 
grain sacks to the farmers. 

He and his wife are the parents of two chil- 
dren : Charles M., born in 1876, and Hattie L., 
born in 1878. Both are at home attending 
school. Having been deprived of educational 
advantages in his youth, Mr. Burleigh is the 
more careful that his children shall be educated. 
He has met with serious reverses during his 
career in Fresno, but by diligence and persever- 
ance overcame and settled a loss of $15,000, 
and now carries on a lucrative and satisfactory 
business. 



^€B-^ 



fOHN M. BRITE.— This venerable citizen 
of Kern Connty and patriarch of Brite's 
valley may appropriately be termed the 
pioneer of pioneers, as will be seen by the fol- 
lowing brief narration of facts bearing upon his 
experiences in California and in Kern County. 
Mr. Brite first came to this county in 1855 
He then located in the Tehachapi valley on the 
ranch now owned by John Clark. There he 
built the first house in the valley, which was 
made from hewn pine logs, after the old Mis- 
souri style, like the home of his youth. He 
lived on this place about three years, after 
which he sold the same to John Dosier, and in 
the spring of 1858 located in what has from 
that date been known as Brite's valley. This 
beautiful spot, on the rugged eminence of the 
Tehachapi range, is a depression in the moun- 
tains, one mile south and seven miles west of 
Tehachapi. It is about four miles in length 
and two miles and a half in width, and is sur- 
rounded on all sides by mountain peaks and 
high rolling hills, which are covered with a heavy 
growth of oak and pine timber. This valley 



has an almost level surface, ascending slightly 
to the north. It has a fertile black loam soil, 
with only a few spots of alkali, and it produces 
a fine yield of grain without irrigation. A 
bountiful supply of spring water is at hand for 
stock and domestic uses, and the climate is su- 
perb. A lack of sufficient and unmolested cattle 
range is what first directed Mr. Brite's atten- 
tion to this favorable locality. He at first took 
up a homestead of eighty acres, in 1858, and 
later he acquired by purchase eighty acres more. 
From time to time he has added to his posses- 
sions, and now owns 580 acres, all under fence 
and in a fine state of improvement. He built 
the first sawmill in the Tehachapi country, in 
1863. It was a circular mill, located at the 
head of Tehachapi creek, and propelled by an 
overshot wheel. It did service for about twenty 
years and was finally burned down. In 1878 he 
built a steam mill on Antelope cr j ek, which he 
sold to A. C. Deitz of San Francisco. This mill 
was abandoned in 1880. In 1888, associated 
with his sons, L. F., W. L., and J. B., he erected 
a second steam mill in the mountains, south of 
Brite's valley, which they still own and oper- 
ate together with lumber yards in Tehachapi. 
The firm owns 6,140 acres of timber and graz- 
ing lands in the vicinity of their mill, and are 
doing business under the name of Brite & 
Sons. 

John M. Brite was born in Callaway County, 
Missouri, August 9, 1822. His father, Henry 
Brite, was a farmer and stock-raiser by occupa- 
tion; was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, 
and lived near the city of Lexington. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth Moore, a daughter in one of the 
first families of that county. Of their twelve 
children (eight of whom lived to maturity) John 
M. was the fifth born. About the year 1819 
the family emigrated to Missouri and subse- 
quently to Texas, where both parents died — 
the mother in Clarksville, Red River County, 
in 1839, and the father in Bastrop County, in 
1865. Of their children Eliza II. came to Cal- 
ifornia, married Benjamin Barton of the f anions 
Barton ranch, aud lives in the city of Redlands, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



297 



San Bernardino County; Wharton H. came to 
the mining regions of this State and died some 
time in the fifties. Aside from these and the 
subject of this sketch, no other members of the 
of the family ever came to this coast. 

November 22, 1849, Mr. Brite married Miss 
Amanda E., daughter of Joseph Duty. Esq., of 
Traverse County, Texas. She was born Sep- 
tember 1, 1833. Thirteen children have been 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Brite, as follows: Eliza- 
beth Louise, born July 27, 1851; Joseph Hen- 
ry, May 21, 1853; James Moore, January 8, 
1856; Mary Elizabeth, November 25, 1857; 
Lucas Franklin, August 13, 1859; Martha Ann, 
September 20, 1861; Eliza Lee, June 22, 1863; 
William Longstreet, March 16, 1865; John 
Brickenridge, December 10, 1866; Charles 
Richard, October 26, 1868; Chloe Mildred, 
January 17, 1871; Clara Ellen, March 10, 1873; 
Cora May, August 26, 1876. 

Joseph H., the oldest son of the family, is 
engaged in farming in Brite's valley. He mar- 
ried, November 7, 1877, Miss Lydia A., daugh- 
ter of Nathan McCrig. She was born Decem- 
ber 9, 1861. Her father, a native of Tennessee, 
came to California, and his death occurred in 
Cummings Valley, in 1872. This union has 
resulted in four children, three of whom are liv- 
ing, viz.: Charles H., born October 1, 1878; 
Minnie E., July 26, 1886, and Myrtal M., April 
9, 1889. One son, John A., died in 1883, aged 
two years. 

James M. was married on the 25th of Decem- 
ber, 1877, to Miss Lucinda, daughter of Fran- 
cis M. Wiggins, deceased. She was born at El 
Monte, Los Angeles County, California, March 
28, 1860. They have five children, — James 
Arthur, born July 2, 1880; Francis Moore, Oc- 
tober 14, 1882; Jesse D., February 27, 1885; 
Walter L., June 21, 1887; and Joseph Thomas, 
February 4, 1890. 

L. F., familiarly known as " Gabe," married 
Miss Laura, daughter of John Smith. Their 
three children are John Perry, born January 17, 
1887; Vance, May 14, 1889; and Bertha, 
August 17, 1890. 

19 



Elizabeth Louise, oldest of the family, died in 
Texas, at the age of two years. Martha A. 
died in Tehachapi, also at the age of two years. 
Mary lived to be seventeen, and died in Te- 
hachapi. Chloe Mildred is the wife of J. E. 
Stowell, Cummings valley, this county. Other 
members of the family are single and at home. 

Mr. Brite has taken a somewhit active part 
in shaping the civil affairs in Kern County. 
He was one of its original petitioners for a 
county organization in 1865. He served on its 
first County Board, succeeding Colonel Bishop, 



and since that time has served fourteen 



yean 



While not a blind partizan, he was born and 
reared a Democrat and votes the ticket straight 
when he regards it as consistent with the prin- 
ples of good government. He has always 
been found foremost in favoring any movement 
tending to the social and educational advance- 
ment of the county; and, while not professing 
to be a religious man, he has always lived and 
reared his family on a high plain of morality, 
believing that temperance in all things is essen- 
tial to useful living and the highest type of 
happiness. 

C. WIGGINS.— This venerable citi- 
zen is one of the first settlers of the 
® village of old Tehachapi. He was 
born in Mason County, Kentucky, October 19, 
1822; lived in St. Louis, Missouri, seventeen 
years, afterward in Lamar County, Texas, and 
from that place, in 1854, came to San Francisco. 
The fall of that year he went to El Monte, Los 
Angeles County, and there for seven years fol- 
lowed his trade, that of mechanic. Since 1861 
he has resided at Tehachapi. He owns 160 
acres of fine bottom land at this place, all under 
a high state of cultivation. 

March 6, 1851, he married Miss Mary J., 
daughter of J. H. Dircks, deceased, a soldier of 

o 

the regular army. Mrs. Wiggins was born in 
the Choctaw Nation. She died, leaving six 
children: Henry F. ; Lucinda, wife of John 




21)8 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Dtirnel; Alice, wife of G. W. Bryant; Emma, 
wife of Daniel Davenport; John W. ; and 
Martha, wife of Frank Collins. 



— **« 



»**=- 



§ TOMBS, one of the pioneers of Fresno, 
was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 
® 1828. Until twelve years of age he as- 
sisted his father on the farm, and at that time 
was apprenticed to his brother, William C. 
Tombs, in Kilerea, to learn the trade of saddler 
and harness-maker, serving a period of five 
years. Then, seeking a broader field of labor, 
in 1845 he emigrated to America, landing at 
Quebec, Canada. He first worked at his trade 
in Ogdensburg and later in Toronto and western 
towns in New York, living a migratory life and 
working as opportunity offered. As a harness- 
maker he was successful and did some tine 
work. Of eight sets of harness that he made to 
be exhibited at State fairs, each took a premium. 

In 1850 he made the voyage via the Isthmus 
of Panama to California, landing in San Fran- 
cisco in December. For a time he was success- 
fully engaged in placer mining on the Yuba 
river, but in a quartz-mining scheme he lost 
everything he had made. In the fall of 1854 
he engaged in the stock business in Mariposa 
County, buying one section of land and improv- 
ing the privilege of free grazing. He had 100 
head of horses and 3,300 head of cattle, and did 
a prosperous business until 1864, the memor- 
able dry year, when he lost nearly all his cattle 
and saved his horses only by taking them to the 
mountains. Closing out his stock interests in 
1867, be went to Merced County and again 
turned his attention to his trade. 

In September, 1873, Mr. Tombs came to 
Fresno. He brought with him a load of lum- 
ber, doors and windows from Merced, and on 
the present site of the First National Bank he 
put up the eighth house in the town. When it 
was completed he opened a shop in it, and re- 
mained at work there until 1882. In that year 
he made a trip to Europe for the purpose of 



settling an estate in Ireland to which he had 
become heir. On his return to Fresno he en- 
gaged in the hotel business witli John Albin at 
the California House on K Street, and also 
rented the United States Hotel. After being 
associated with Mr. Albin for two years he 
bought ont that gentlemen's interest and con- 
tinued alone until 1886. That year he closed 
out his hotel business, purchased the general 
merchandise stock of R. P. Fanning on Mari- 
posa stieet, and entered upon a mercantile life. 
This, however, was to be of short duration, for 
the following year a disastrous fire destroyed 
his store, and, having only a small insurance, he 
lost $17,000. Then for one season Mr. Tombs 
was successfully engaged in burning brick. In 
January, 1888, he began his present hotel, cor- 
ner of J and Merced streets. This hotel, 70... 73 
feet, three stories high, containing sixty-two 
rooms, was completed and opened to the public 
on the 13th of July, 1888. Since Fresno was 
incorporated Mr. Tombs has been a member of 
its city Council. He has also served the public 
in other ways; was instrumental in bringing 
about and perfecting the present sewer system; 
served as School Trustee for two terms before 
the city was incorporated. In addition to the 
property interests already referred to Mr. Tombs 
owns other city real estate and a forty-acre 
ranch near Fresno. 

Mr. Tombs was married in Merged County in 
1861 to Miss Madelaine Beighle, a native of 
Pennsylvania. They have a family of six chil- 
dren. 

#^€B-^# 



§ENRY DEAS.— The subject of this sketch 
is one of the most thrifty and prosperous 
citizens of Cummings valley. A brief 
outline of his life is as follows: 

He was born in Germany, February 27, 1850; 
was reared and educated in his native land and 
there learned the trade of shoemaker. In L870 
he came to America, and at once engaged in 
farming in Santa Cruz County, California. 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



299 



Three years later he located in Ouramings val- 
ley, where he now owns 1,760 acres of fine 
agricultural and grazing land. Of this amount 
about 500 acres are grain -producing and the 
rest is suitable only for grazing purposes, but i - 
also valuable for its timber. He keeps about 
100 head of cattle, twenty horses and other 
domestic stock. 

Mr. Deas was married in Tehachapi, Novem- 
ber 30, 1879, to Miss Martha, daughter of 
William Baker, deceased, one of the leading 
pioneers of Central California, and a son of the 
venerable Thomas Baker, the founder of the 
city of Bakersfield. Mrs. Deas was born in 
Visalia, April 25, 1862. Their four children are 
Ana M., born June 27, 1881; Mattie D., May 
17, 1883; Frederick W., November 11, 1884, 
and Henry, June 8, 1886. 

Mr. Deas is a modern and model farmer, and 
his success in life is due entirely to his own 
personal industry and business tact. The or- 
derly arrangement and solid improvements on 
his ranch and the taste displayed in and about 
his home is a true index of the character and 
thrift of Mr. Deas and his estimable wife. 



«OLLIS H. EMMONS.— Prominent among 
the representative business houses of the 
Fresno of to-day stands that of Don- 
alioo, Emmons & Co., of which firm Mr. Em- 
mons, the managing partner, forms the subject 
of this biography. 

A native of Pennsylvania, born in September, 
1856, his early life was' spent in various parts 
of the East.' The family home is at Hunting- 
ton, West Virginia, but young Emmons was 
sent to school in New York. There he pursued 
his studies for a time, returning later to Vir- 
ginia, where he graduated at a college. 

At the age of seventeen he came to California 
and entered the well known establishment of 
Huntington, Hopkins & Co., of Sacramento, 
where he learned the hardware trade. He was 
in this business for thirteen years, commencing 



at the bottom and gradually working up until 
at one time he was one of the assistant man- 
agers of the concern. In 1886 he came to 
Fresno and took a half interest in his present 
business, and is now its sole manager. When 
Mr. Emmons entered the firm the business was 
small and uncertain. To-day it is the largest 
wholesale and retail hardware house in the val- 
ley and transacts the largest business. The de- 
velopment of the raisin industry and the enor- 
mous growth of the town and county in connec- 
tion with wise and judicious management have 
had much to do with the success of this firm. 
Mr. Emmons is unmarried. 

^~g^££ _ 

fP. BUHN was born in Baden, Germany, 
February 27, 1850. At the age of four- 
9 teen years he came to America, and from 
1864 until 1871 lived in San Francisco and Los 
Angeles, where lie was engaged in the liquor 
business. In the last named year he came to 
Tehachapi and turned his attention to agricult- 
ural pursuits. In 1881 he purchased a lot and 
on it erected the Golden Gate Restaurant build- 
ing, in which he established a restaurant and is 
now conducting a successful business. 

He was married in 1870, to Katherine Ock- 
ert, who was born at his native home in Ger- 
many. She died in 1881, at the age of thirty 
years, leaving three children, two daughters and 
one sou, namely: Annie, now Mrs. David Clark, 
of Tehachapi, and Finley and Amelia. 

■^ 3sss» <i :i , f ,, '4» c = < ' - 

||4 OUTS M. COLE is associated with E. E. 
ffky? Manheim, they being partnersand managers 
■^^ of the firm of Kntner, Goldstein & Co., 
general merchants at Hanford. The business 
was started in 1881, by Kutner, Goldstein & 
Co., with Mr. S. Rehoefer as manager, in a store 
building 25 x 100 feet, located on Sixth street. 
In 1886 Mr. Rehoefer sold his interest to Mr. 
Arthur Dinkelspiel, who then assumed the man- 



300 



E I STORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



agement. The business having grown to such 
proportions that greater facilities were neces- 
sary, an addition of 25 x 100 feet was made, 
and the capacity of the store doubled. A ware- 
house, 50 x 50 feet, was also added. Business 
was then continued very successfully until Sep- 
tember, 1890, when that portion of the town 
was swept away by fire, the store and contents 
being entirely destroyed. Before the debris had 
ceased to smoke operations to rebuild had com- 
menced, and sixty days from the date of the 
fire their present handsome store, 50 x 150 feet, 
was ready for occupancy. On December 31, 
1890. Kutner, Goldstein & Co., the universal 
providers, was incorporated. Mr. Dinkelspiel 
then went to Fresno to reside and Messrs. Cole 
and Manheim, former clerks, were placed in 
management of the Hanford branch of their ex- 
tended business. The new store is very hand- 
somely and completely fitted, and their extended 
stock is all graded in the several departments 
for convenience of handling. 

Louis M. Cole was born in Chicago, in 1870. 
His father, Samuel Cole, a practicing physician 
of that city, moved to Denver in 1871, practiced 
his profession there fourteen years and then re- 
turned to Chicago, where he still resides. Louis 
was educated in the Denver high school and 
took a course of study at the Bryant & Stratton 
Business College of Chicago. In 1887 he came 
to Hanford, and under the instruction of his 
uncle, Arthur Dinkelspiel, he learned the mer- 
cantile business. 

E. E. Manheim is a native of California, born 
in San Francisco in 1868. His father, Isaac 
Manheim, came to California about 1852, fol- 
lowed mercantile life in Humboldt County until 
1863, when he settled at San Francisco and 
continued the business there for many years. 
He is now an insurance and commission broker. 
E. E. Manheim was educated in the high school 
at San Francisco. Entering his father's office, 
he acquired a knowledge of bookkeeping and in 
1889 came to Hanford, in the employ of Kut- 
ner, Goldstein & Co. A short time ago the 
Kutner-Goldstein Company purchased an addi- 



tional 25 x 150 feet on the west side of the pres- 
ent site, and after the construction of their new- 
store will have a larger amount of square feet 
than any other store in the county. They also 
do an extensive grain business, handling two- 
thirds of the crop brought to this market. 

tEWIS L. CORY is one of the prominent 
young attorneys of Fresno. His parents 
came across the plains to the Pacific coast 
in 1847 and settled in San Jose, where the fam- 
ily home was located for many years, and where 
he was born in 1861. Very early in life he was 
sent to the public schools and alterward to the 
University of the Pacific. At the age of fifteen 
he went Fast to complete his studies, entering 
the freshman class at Rutgers College in New 
Jersey and remaining there two years. In 
1879 he entered the junior class at Princeton 
University, Princeton, New Jersy, then under 
the direction of the venerable James McCosh, 
LL. D., and graduated in 1881, at the age of 
twenty years. He then went to New York city 
and took a two years' course in the Columbia 
Law School, without question one of the finest 
institutions of its kind in America. During 
this period Mr. Cory was at different times 
studying in the law office of Judge Fullerton, 
of New York, one of the most celebrated attor- 
neys in the East. After graduating at Columbia 
Law School in 1883, he was admitted to the bar 
in New York State, and practiced there for two 
years in connection with the linn of Hubbell 
*&Co. 

Considering the opportunities for a profes- 
sional man much better in the West than in the 
East, Mr. Cory returned to California, and in 
1884 settled in his old home, San Jose. The 
following year he removed to Fresno, where lie 
has since resided. He is a partner in the well- 
known law firm of Church & Cory, of which 
Mr. George E. Church is the senior member. 
The firm has an extensive practice throughout 



HISTORY OF dWTBAL CALIFORNIA. 



301 



Central California, being employed in many of 
the most important cases of litigation. 

Mr. Cory was married in 1882, to Miss Car- 
rie Ayres Martin, a native of New Jersey, and 
their union has been blessed by two children. 



fUDGE FRANK H. SHORT, one of the 
rising young lawyers of Fresno, was born 
in Shelby County, Missouri, in 1862. His 
father, Hamilton Short, carried on farming up 
to the time of his death, which occurred in 
1863. 

In 1871 young Short moved with his mother 
and family to Hastings, Nebraska, where he at- 
tended the city schools and taught one term 
prior to the year 1881, when they all came to 
California and located in Fresno. Here he en- 
tered the high school in order to further pur- 
sue his studies, and afterward taught one year 
at Gertrude, in the meantime devoting his 
leisure moments to the study of law. In 1884 
he entered the office of J. F. Wharton, a lawyer 
of great prominence throughout this county. 
At the fall election of 1884, Mr. Short, at the 
age of twenty-tw ) years, was elected Justice of 
the Peace for a period of two years, and at the 
expiration of his term of office he formed a 
partnership with Judge J. F. Wharton, which 
continued until the latter's death in March, 
1889. He then became associated with Judge 
George A. Nourse in a partnership, which part- 
nership continued until January 1, 1891, since 
which time Mr. Short has been practicing alone, 
doing a general law business and having a large 
practice, — civil, criminal and probate. He 
was connected with the Corrick-Gates cases, 
which were quite noted, also more recently in 
the Vincent murder case, — Vincent being pros- 
ecuted for the murder of his wife, and being 
the first white man sentenced to be hung in 
Fresno County: Mr. Short prosecuted in this 
case; also in the Sullivan murder case, and ap- 
peared for the defense in the Jack Smith mur- 
der case; also in the Williams arson cases, — all 



cases of much interest in this county. Though 
but twenty-eight years old Mr. Short has ap- 
peared on ODe side or the other of nearly all of 
the more important cases recently tried in this 
county. 

In 1888 he was a candidate on the Republi- 
can ticket for District Attorney, against Mr. 
Tupper, and although defeated ran about 200 
votes ahead of his ticket. He takes much in 
terest in politics, and in 1890 was chairman of 
the Republican County Convention, a delegate 
to the State Convention and a member of the 
committee on platform and resolutions, and was 
also a delegate to the Congressional Convention. 
Though attending closely to his professional 
duties he has extensive real-estate interests in 
Fresno, and his residence has the largest 
grounds and is one of the handsomest and best 
kept places in Fresno city, having been 
planted more than seventeen years ago. 

Judge Short was married in Fresno, in Oc- 
tober, 1885, to Miss Emma Packard, and their 
union has been blesssed with one son, Frank H. 
Short, Jr., who is now three years old. 



-^.-fiSSft 



-& 



T |||EORGE W. CODY, of Grange ville, was 
fvW DOrn i n Oakland County, Michigan, in 
f£*l 1842. At the early age of seven years he 
began his pioneer life, by going with his parents 
to Dane County, Wisconsin, and settling near 
Madison, in that wild, unbroken, prairie coun- 
try. His father purchased a small farm and 
there resided until 1859, when they again moved, 
settling in Johnson County, Nebraska, where 
everything was new and undeveloped. Mr. 
Cody enlisted at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 
January 20, 1861, in Company H, Eighth Kan- 
sas Infantry, under Colonel John A. Martin, 
later governor of Kansas. The regiment was 
connected with the Army of the Cumberland 
and that of Tennessee. Our subject served 
three and a half years, passing through fifteen 
battles and skirmishes, and also spending fifteen 
months in the prison pens of the Confederacy. 



3U2 



ElbTORY OF CEr^'UL CALIFORNIA. 



He was captured at Chickamauga, Georgia, anc 
first confined in the Atlanta bull pens, an<". 
lieing frequently removed he passed through 
Libby and Andersonville, Pemberton, Danville, 
Charleston, and Florence prisons, besides many 
other tombs of incarceration. Upon his release, 
being greatly reduced and his time having ex- 
pired, he was discharged and returned to his 
home in Nebraska. 

He then began fanning and milling, and sub- 
sequently moved to Tecumseh, where he opened 
a general merchandise stor^ j . In 1873 he sold 
out and came direct to Lemoore, Tulare 
County, California, where the family of his wife 
then resided. He purchased 320 acres of land, 
and renting other lands farmed to the amount 
of 1,000 acres annually, without water. Mr. 
Cody was connected with and aided in the con- 
struction of the Lower King's river, the Peo- 
ple's and the Last Chance ditches. He farmed 
until 1881 and then moved to Orange, Los 
Angeles County, bought forty acres of land and 
set it to English walnuts and raisin vines. He 
remained there until the boom of 1886, and 
then moved to Los Angeles and engaged exten- 
sively in real-estate operations. In 1888 he 
came to Fresno and became interested in the 
Providence Mine in the Sierra Nevada moun- 
tains. Here they erected quartz mills and other 
expensive machinery, but the prospects were 
soon worked out and much money sacrificed. 
In the fall of 1889 he purchased his present 
ranch of twenty acres two and a half miles 
northeast of Grangeville, and eighty acres ad- 
joining the town. The entire tract is now set 
to fruit and vines, where Mr. Cody devotes his 
time to his ranch interests. 

Mr. Cody claims to have invented the most 
economical and perfect raisin dryer in existence. 
He makes the raisin culture a specialty; packs 
all his own and buys others and packs for some 
of his neighbors, etc. Packs but two grades, — 
Three Crown London Layers and Three Crown 
Loose, — grades the balance and sack> them. 
One grade is called Two Crown Loose, and the 
other Seedless Muscatel. 



t 



He was married at Elk Station, Johnson 
County, Nebraska, in 1865, to Miss Mary M. 
Gray, a native of Wisconsin, and daughter of 
Hon. A. W. Gray, whose biography appears 
elsewhere in this history. Mr. and Mr6. Cody 
have three children living,— Thorley G., Har- 
vey P. and Andrew Milo. Two are dead, Guy 
Tyrral and Marenda Josephine. 



*!-*«• 



f'BRAHAM B. COVALT, Fresno, the resi- 
l dent agent of the Pacific Mutual Life Insnr- 
-. ance Company, was born in Sisterville, 
West Virginia, inl829. His father, Abraham Co- 
valt, a farmer and physician, was born in 1800, 
and recently died at the advanced age of eighty- 
nine years. 

The subject of our sketch received a limited 
education in the select schools of Virginia, after 
which he was made Colonel of a West Virginia 
militia regiment. In 1849 he went to Bur- 
lington, Iowa, and learned the painter's trade 
in all its branches, remaining there until l v "7. 
In that year he located in Danville. Missouri, 
still following his trade. At the Presidential 
election he voted for Abraham Lincoln, and for 
this loyal act his property was destroyed by in- 
cendiary fire, lighted by Southern sympathizers. 
Mr. Covalt was married at Danville, in 1858, 
to Miss Emily Case, and after the destruction of 
their home they moved to Macomb, Illinois. 
In 1862 he enlisted in Company A, Eighty- 
fourth Infantry Volunteers, Captain J. P. Hig- 
gins and Colonel L. H. Waters in command. 
The regiment was forwarded to the Army of the 
Cumberland, and their first hard work was es- 
corting General Bragg through Cumberland 
Gap. They had several small fights, and on 
reaching Murfreesboro, Tennessee, December 
31, 1862, they entered a general engagement, 
which lasted for three days. Mr. Covalt was 
wounded on the first day, but, although dis- 
abled, he remained with his regiment during the 
battle. He was then Benl to hospital No. 16, 
at Nashville. Tennessee, where he remained 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



303 



until April 16, 1863, at that time receiving a 
discharge. 

After leaving the service Mr. Covalt returned 
to Macomb, Illinois; being unable to work at his 
trade he opened a vegetable and fruit stand. 
He subsequently removed to Atchison, Kansas, 
and clerked for Ellsworth Cheeseborough, 
father-in-law of Hon. John P. Ingalls, United 
States Senator from Kansas. At the death of 
Mr. Cheeseborough, in 1867, his business was 
discontinued, and Mr. Covalt turned his atten- 
tion to the life-insurance business, engaging 
with Dr. George A. Moore, the present presi- 
dent of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany, with whom he lias since been connected. 

He came to the Pacific coast in 1875, first set- 
tling in Portland, Oregon, and remaining there 
until 1880, when he moved his family to Oakland, 
California, where they still reside. Mr. Covalt 
came to Fresno in 1880 to look after the interests 
of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company. 
He is also financial agent for the San Francisco 
Savings Union of San Francisco, and the Bank 
of Sacramento. Owing to injuries received in 
the war, from the effect of which he has never 
recovered, he is unable to enter actively into 
business. 

Mr. and Mrs. Covalt have five children, three 
sons and two daughters, all living in Oakland. 



fOHN CLARK FOSTER, deceased, was one 
of the California pioneers of 1849, and also 
one of the pioneer stockmen of the Mussel 
slough country. He was born in the Spartan- 
burg district, South Carolina, in 1805, and his 
ancestors were among the early settlers of that 
locality when under British rule, and they were 
also identified with the Revolutionary war. He 
was married in 1832, to Miss Sarah Smith, a 
native of the same district, born in 1806. After 
marriage they removed to Oskaloosa, Alabama, 
and being a carpenter and millwright by trade 
he engaged in running a sawmill. Remaining 
until 1840, he moved to Crawford County, Ar- 



kansas, settling near Van Buren, where he fol- 
lowed his trade and farming. With the gold 
excitement of 1849 Mr. Foster was among the 
first to start. Joining a small company of thirty 
men, they traveled with ox teams to Santa Fe, 
where they sold their teams, secured pack ani- 
mals and a guide and started for Fort Bridger, 
800 miles distant, across the Rocky mountains, 
with no road and but a poorly defined and 
dangerous trail. At Fort Bridger they struck 
the old emigrant route through Salt Lake, and, 
having lost several of their animals, walking 
was necessary. As we now journey across the 
continent in parlor cars, how little we realize 
the indomitable will and energy of these early 
pioneers! After suffering many hardships Mr. 
Foster and his little company arrived at Dia- 
mond Spring, California, and there commenced 
mining operations, remaining until the fall of 
1850.. In that year he went to Smith's Bar on 
the Feather river, and mined until the winter of 
1852, meeting with average success. He then 
left the mines to return for his family, via the 
Nicaragua route, and safely arrived at his home 
in the spring of 1853. He again embarked, 
with his wife and eight children, by pz-airie 
schooner and ox teams, across the plains, fol- 
lowing the Fort Smith route up the Arkansas 
river, over the spur of the Rocky mountains to 
the head of Cherry creek, and again landed at 
Diamond Spring. There he followed mining 
near Placerville about seven years, after which 
he went to the Sacramento valley and engaged 
in farming for two years, or until he was washed 
out by the flood of 1862, when he went to Shel- 
don, same county, and farmed until 1866. In 
that year they came to the Mussel slough dis- 
trict and rented the old Middleton place of 640 
acres, where he carried on farming and stock- 
raising. In 1867 they located 160 acres, known 
as Willow Point Place, on King's river, and 
later secured the remainder of the section, 
where he engaged quite extensively in the stock 
business, and after the completion of the Last 
Chance ditch farmed to a considerable extent. 
Mr. Foster died in 1878, at the age of seventy- 



304 



HISTORY OF CENT HAL CALIFORNIA. 



three years. His good wife followed him in 
1880, dying at the age of seveuty four years, 
leaving five children to mourn their loss: Fran- 
ces, now Mrs. J. F. Brooks, a rancher north of 
Hanford; Sarah, now Mrs. P. Byrd of Visalia; 
William W., George S. and John C. The 
brothers are all unmarried, and upon the sale 
of their father's estate they combined their in- 
terests, purchased forty acres west of Grange- 
ville in the edge of the town, and erected a 
commodious and handsome cottage, where they 
reside in harmonious unity. They have a fine 
vineyard of sixteen acres, with six acres in de- 
ciduous fruits and the remainder in alfalfa and 
pasture. They are recognized among' the sub- 
stantial residents of Grangeville, and are highly 
esteemed among their town people. 

#?*-6S?H£# 

fANIEL DAVENPORT has been a resi- 
dent of California since 1855. His father, 
Jesse Davenport, settled in San Bernar- 
dino County as a rancher that year, having been 
accompanied to this State by his wife and 
family. He later spent one year in Arizona; 
returned to California and located at Santa Cruz, 
where he remained eight years. In 1871 he 
took up his abode in Cummings valley, the 
present home of A. C. Alberts, Esq., where he 
died in 1877. 

Daniel Davenport is a native of Brown Coun- 
ty, Illinois, born August 29, 1851, and came to 
California in 1858, locating in San Bernardino. 
Thus far he has devoted his life to farming. He 
has a mechanical turn of mind, handles tools 
with the skill of an experienced workman and 
does his own blacksmithing and oversees his 
own carpenter work. He owns one of the best 
located and improved grain and fruit ranches in 
the Cummings valley; also owns ninety-five 
acres of timber land and 200 acres of stock 
range, keeping about forty-five head of cattle. 
Mr. Davenport has been twice married. His 
first wife, nee Cynthia Hart, departed_ this life 
in 1877, leaving one son, Milton. His second 




marriage occurred April 29, 1882, to Miss 
Emma ; daughter of Judge W. C. Wiggins of 
Tehachapi. By her he has six children: Edna, 
Jesse, Mary, Berenice, James and Henry. 



W. SHIPP was born in Holmes 
County, Mississippi, May 3, 183-1, 
a and was reared on his father's cotton 
plantation in that State. When lie became of 
age he engaged in the cotton business for him- 
self and pursued that occupation there until he 
came West. 

In 1868 Mr. Shippcameto California, making 
the voyage via the Isthmus of Panama, and 
arriving at the Golden Gate June 8. After a 
week's sojourn in San Francisco he went to 
Solano County, where he had acquaintances. 
There he tried to buy a piece of land, but prices 
were high and he deferred making purchase. 
He finally procured a team and went through the 
San Joaquin valley on a prospecting tour. He 
traveled on down to Los Angeles and returned 
north on the western side of the mountains. 
During this trip he saw Fresno County, and in 
Fresno County he determined to locate. He 
bought 1,060 head of sheep and drove them down 
to this county, on Big Dry creek, his partner in 
this enterprise being Major Nelson, the present 
county treasurer. Mr. Shipp has been engaged 
in the stock business ever since he came here. 
Eighteen months ago he retired in favor of his 
two sons, to whom he has entrusted his cattle 
interests. His operations in this valley have 
been uniformly successful. A man of sound 
judgment and undaunted courage, he has earned 
his success through steady and persistent meth- 
ods of work. 

Mr. Shipp has interests in valuable property 
in Fresno, and also owns a fine vineyard of thirty 
acres adjacent to the town. He is a stockholder 
of the Farmers' Bank, and also holds an interest 
in the I Street Improvement Company. 

He was married in 1858 to Miss M. J. 
Strothor, who, like himself, was born and reared 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



305 



in Mississippi, she being just four years younger. 
They have a family of seven children, two 
sons and five daughters, viz.: George, a resi- 
dent of New Mexico; John M., who has charge 
of the ranch; Eliza, now Mrs. Ambrose of 
Arizona; Carrie, Lela, Lizzie and Mittie. 



«e*-»| > ■» | | i g <■ <l * 



tLFRED BAIRD, a resident of Big Dry 
Creek, Fresno County, California, was born 
in Ohio, November i6, 1829. The Buck- 
eye State continued to be the scene of his child- 
hood and youth until he reached the age of 
eighteen years. He then went to Iowa and 
settled on the frontier of that State, where he 
engaged in carpentering. For twelve years he 
pursued this occupation with varying success. 
The year 1859 found him en route to California, 
making the trip with ox teams and horses and 
taking with him his wife and two children. 
Three years previous to this time he was mar- 
ried to Miss Lydia K. Beard, a native of Indi- 
ana, who, with her parents, settled on the Iowa 
frontier about the time Mr. Baird took up his 
abode there. 

The journey across the plains consumed the 
entire summer and proved an uneventful one. 
Arrived in California, Mr. Baird tarried a short 
time at a point near Yisalia and finally settled 
down on King's river, Fresno County; here he 
has lived since the fall of 1859. The remarkable 
changes that have taken place, the rapid devel- 
opment of the soil, and the birth and growth of 
Fresno have all been witnessed by him. His 
early reminiscences of life in the San Joaquin 
valley are interesting in the extreme. 

The year of his arrival here found him en- 
gaged in gardening on King's river, and pros- 
perity attended him for two years, when the flood 
came and he lost his whole place. He then 
procured some sheep on shares and also engaged 
in the cattle business, which he continued with 
excellent success for eighteen years. Mr. Baird 
ascribed his success to his sheep investment and 
to the fact that his stock had the entire public 



domain to run over. He sold out his sheep in- 
terests in 1878, but still holds his ranch prop- 
erty, consisting of 8,000 acres of land, scattered 
through Tulare as well as Fresno County. He 
resides at Big Dry Creek, twenty miles east of 
Fresno, on what is known as Poverty ranch, the 
ranch being so named on account of a weed 
growing in abundance near his place called 
poverty weed. In his agricultural pursuits Mr. 
Baird has also met with eminent success. 

During his long residence in this county he 
has assumed his share of work and responsibil- 
ity in politics. He has been a Republican 
candidate for Assemblyman, and on two occa- 
sions for County Treasurer, never, however, be- 
ing elected, owing to the Democratic ascendancy 
in the district. 

His family of four children consists of Ben- 
jamin M., a resident of Visalia; Alice, now 
Mrs. Dr. Reid of Tulare; L. E. Baird, living in 
Oregon; and Florence C, now Mrs. R. E. 
Keiler. 

jS|EORGE HARRIS.— Antelope canon is 
"Offl? one °* t ^ ie w i'dest y et m ost picturesquely 
^K*i beautiful nooks of the Tehachapi moun- 
tain region, and Mr. Harris has the honor of 
being one of its most independent denizens. In 
point of altitude he holds the vantage ground, 
being located nearer the head of this gorge than 
any other settler. He has been a resident of 
California since 1883. 

Mr. Harris was born in Sullivan County, New 
York, November 3, 1840, and remained at home 
in his native State until he was twenty-one 
years of age. His jfather, W. D. Harris, was a 
blacksmith by trade, and of his six children the 
subject of this sketch was the second born. 

In 1861 Mr. Harris enlisted for the defense 
of the Union, joining the Eighty-ninth New 
York Volunteer Infantry, and serving as a 
soldier until 1863, a little less than two years. 
He was in the Ninth Army Corps, and did some 
lively fighting, but fortunately received no 
wounds. 



306 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




After the close of the war he spent about eight 
years as a stationary engineer in the oil regions 
of Pennsylvania, then traveled extensively 
throughout the United States, Mexico and 
British Columbia, and in 1885 located on his 
present ranch. His property is located in sec- 
tion ten, and comprises 240 acres, timber and 
farming land. He has also some mining prop- 
erty which he jointly holds with Mr. S. D. 
Furber. Mr. Harris is a single man, and his 
hospitality and great generous heart make him 
popular, and class him among the old-time Cal- 
ifornians. As a business man and a citizen, 
none stand higher in the estimation of the local 
public than George Harris. 



WILLIAM H. TUCKER was born in 
Hardin County, Tennessee, December 
22, 1852. His father, C. H. Tucker, 
carried on farming extensively, corn and cotton 
being his principal crops. Young Tucker's 
education was begun in Hardin County, and 
continued in Saline County, Illinois, to which 
place his parents moved in 1864, in order to 
give their children better school facilities. Two 
years later they returned to Tennessee, as the 
schools of that section had been improved by 
securing normal-school teachers from Illinois. 
Mr. Tucker finished his education at the Sal- 
tillo high school, on the Tennessee river, com- 
pleting his studies in 1876. 

He then went to Texas, where he had a brother 
living, and passed the winter of 1876 in teaching 
school and looking over the country. Returning 
to Tennessee in the fall of 1877, he remained .n 
his native State until December of the follow- 
ing year, when he came to California. He tar- 
ried for a short time in Stockton before coming 
to Fresno County. Soon after his arrival here 
he purchased 428 acres of land on the San Joa- 
quin river, and 250 acres near by, and at once 
gave his attention to wheat farming. He was 
thus occupied until February, 1889, when he 
sold the former property. He still retains the 



other ranch, and has it rented; it is yet used 
for wheat, but when irrigated, which it will be 
in the near future, its value will be greatly in- 
creased. 

In February, 1889, Mr. Tucker moved his 
family to Fresno, and engaged in the real-estate 
business. In a trade he secured his present 
store property, 50x150 feet, on K, between 
Stanislaus and Tuolumne streets. He then 
bought the stock of general mercnandise goods 
from John N. Albin. He has renewed this 
stock, and now carries a full line of all kinds of 
general merchandise, except dry goods, and is 
doing a prosperous business. 

Mr. Tucker was married in Fresno County, 
in May, 1882, to Miss Amanda Jackson Ward, 
a native of California. Four children have 
come to brighten their home. 



fD. FURBER is one of the most active 
miners of the Summit district, near 
Q Tehachapi. He is a native of Illinois, 
born in Bunker Hill, Macoupin County, April 
14, 1864. He came from Kansas City to Cal- 
ifornia in 1879, and located in Los Angeles; 
thence to Kern County in 1885. He was edu- 
cated in Los Angeles as a chemist and assayer 
of minerals, and since his location in Kern 
County has devoted his entire time to the ex- 
ploration of the mining districts of the Teha- 
chapi. He has located and practically developed 
several of the best mining prospects in that 
region of the country, taking from the sands 
what is termed light gold quartz, assaying from 
$10 to §41 per ton. Recently he became sole 
owner of the Colorado mine locate 1 in Ante- 
lope canon. This mine was opened by Mr. 
Olmsted and his boys in 1885, and in 1885 a 
fine stamp quartz mill was erected. Later this 
became known as the Baltic, and is soon to be 
worked by its new owner. 

Mr. Furber, while yet a comparatively young 
man, has shown much enterprise as a miner, 
and the success 60 richly merited is only the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



307 



natural result of industry and an irrepressible 
ambition. He is favorably known as a man of 
sterling business principles and strict temperate 
habits. 

....■■ .101 t 1? i J t | g > ^< l* M l 



|R|ERO HARRINGTON.— Few people have 
WW seen and experienced more of frontier life 
^t on the plains and on the Pacific coast than 
the venerable subject of this sketch and his esti- 
mable wife. 

Mr. Harrington was born in Ohio, Septem- 
ber 1, 1820. His father, Giles Harrington, 
was a native of Connecticut, and his mother, 
Ann Murry, was born in Vermont. They 
reared a family of ten children, of whom Nero 
is next to the youngest and the only living 
member. They were among the earliest set- 
tlers of Gallia County, Ohio, and lived there till 
1842. At that time they located in Missouri, 
where the father died the following year. 

At the age of twenty-one Mr. Harrington 
left home, and that year (1841) married Miss 
Charlotte Cooper, a native of Washington Coun- 
ty, Maryland, born May 17, 1820. Her father, 
Cunningham Cooper, a farmer by occupation, 
removed from Maryland to Ohio in 1827, be- 
coming one of the pioneers of the Buckeye 
State. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. 
Harrington lived in Kentucky about six months. 
In 1842 they removed to Iowa and located in 
Van Buren County, where they made their 
home for fifteen years. In 1857 they started 
across the plains to California with their family 
of seven children, making the journey with an 
ox team and being six months en route. They 
located in Shasta County. There they lived 
for twenty-eight years, reared a large family, 
developed a comfortable home and accumulated 
some property. In 1885 he sold his real-estate 
interests and for a short time lived in the town 
of Red Bluff, then six years in Arizona, and 
from there he came to Kern County and located 
in the Tehachapi valley. Four miles from the 
village of Tehachapi he owns eighty acres of 



well-improved land and a comfortable home. 
He and his wife have ten children, forty grand- 
children and ten great-grandchildren, all occu- 
pying honorable and prosperous positions in 
life. The following is a record of their chil- 
dren's names and dates of birth: Catharine, 
wife of Ezekiel Thatcher of Shasta County, was 
born December 28, 1842; Cunningham, born 
May 26, 1843, lives in Arizona; George W., 
April 26, 1845, a farmer of Humboldt County, 
California; Clemena, December 22, 1847, be- 
came the wife of John Klotz, and is now de- 
ceased; Mary A., August 17, 1851, is now 
Mrs. Bidwell of Shasta; Rhoda A., April 4, 
1853, is the wife of G. W. Munsey of Te- 
hachapi; Morgan, October 4, 1855, resides in 
Shasta County; Cinderella, September 4, 1857, 
is the wife of A. H. Edwards of Shasta valley, 
California; Stephen T., February 26, 1860. 
resides at Reno, Nevada; and Charlotte is now 
Mrs. W. Black of Tehachapi. 



- : : O I ' ^ : ' : : - 

fAPTAIN ROBERT L. FREEMAN, Re- 
ceiver of the United States Land Office at 
Visalia, first came to California in 1849. 
A review of his life, -briefly given, is as follows: 

Captain Robert L. Freeman was born in New 
Jersey, April 24, 1830. His ancestors came to 
America the year previous to the Revolutionary 
war, and his maternal grandfather was a soldier 
in the army under General Washington. Cap- 
tain Freeman's father, Isaac P. Freeman, a na- 
tive of New Jersey, married Ann Lee, who was 
born in Virginia, a member of one of the most 
distinguished families of the Old Dominion. 
To Isaac P. Freeman and his wife eight chil- 
dren were born, of whom the four oldest are de- 
ceased. Of the four living the subject of this 
sketch is the oldest. 

He received his education at Princeton, New 
Jersey. In 1847 he enlisted in the Second Ohio 
Cavalry and was a participant in the war with 
Mexico. In a skirmish he received a bayonet 
wound through his arm, which disabled him 



303 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and on account of this he was discharged. 
After his recovery he became a clerk on a 
steamer plying between New Orleans and St. 
Louis, remaining thus employed until the time 
of his coming to California in 1849. The over- 
land journey to this State from St. Joseph to 
the Feather river occupied five months, and was 
fraught with much danger. Two of his com- 
pany were drowned in the Green river, and they 
were attacked several times by Indians, but only 
suffered the loss of a few of their cattle. From 
the Feather river they went to Mokelumne Hill. 
At that place young Freeman mined a year and 
a half with good success; found a hundred dol- 
lars in a single piece, and averaged twenty dollars 
per day. 

After remaining in the golden State two years 
he returned to Iowa, passed his examination in 
1859 and engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion of attorney at law. Upon the breaking 
out of the great civil war lie at once raised a 
company of cavalry in McGregor, Iowa, his 
company being attached to the Seventh Army 
Corps. They participated in the battles of Perry 
Grove, Hartsville, Pilot Knob and a number of 
other engagements. On the Red River expe- 
dition Captain Freeman's horse wa6 shot from un- 
der him, and the Captain's head was severely in- 
jured by the fall. While in the service he acted 
most of the time as Assistant Adjutant Gen- 
eral on the staff, in succession of Generals Cur- 
tis, Fremont, Halleck, Sherman, Davidson and 
Carr, there being frequent changes of generals 
in his department. 

When he came out of the service, our subject 
was elected Recorder of Clayton County, Iowa, 
and served eight years. In 1876 he returned 
to California and has since made his home here. 
He has been engaged in farming in Tulare 
County; has two ranches and a home on one of 
them. 

On the 9th of July, 1889, President Harrison 
commissioned Captain Freeman Receiver of the 
United States Land Office. No more fitting 
appointment could have been made, nor could a 
more worthy candidate for the office have been 



found. \ veteran of two wars, a man in the 
full enjoyment of all his faculties, he is in every 
way deserving of the office and is creditably 
performing the duties of the same. 

The Captain is a modest, unassuming old gen- 
tleman and truly a representative American. 
He went into the great war the stanchest kind 
of a Democrat, and came out an equally 
strong Republican and the latter party has since 
had his fealty. He is a Knight Templar, Mi-son 
and a member of the Grand Army of the Re- 
public. 

— ■ : s <§> .{. . cf> «===—»- 



IHOMAS JEFFERSON DUNCAN, a na- 
c tive of Illinois, was born November 30, 
1835. He was reared in Missouri, and 
came across the plains to California when he 
was nineteen years old. His stock in business 
then consisted of five hundred head of cattle 
and a few horses. The trip consumed over 
three months, and was uneventful, although the 
Indians were extremely hostile, and our subject 
lost many of his cattle through methods pecu- 
liar to their race. 

Arrived in the golden State, Mr. Duncan set- 
tled in Stockton, and lived there until the year 
1871, running his cattle through the San Joa- 
quiti valley in the vicinity of Lathrop. He dis- 
posed of his stock in 1866, and five years later 
came to Fresno County, where he has since re- 
sided. He was one of the first men in the valley 
to rent land for sheep purposes, an arrangement 
which has since proved so successful. Previous 
to the dry year of 1887, he owned 9,000 head 
of sheep, and at the close of that disastrous 
year he had only 1,500 head. In 1881 he closed 
out his entire stock, consisting of 4,000 head, 
making a good profit and investing Ins means 
in town property and land adjoining the corpo- 
ration. This latter property, two acres and a 
half in the Villa Home tract, located one-half 
mile from the courthouse, is the present resi- 
dence of Mr. Duncan. He is one of the di- 
rectors of the Fresno Loan and Savings Hank, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



309 



and was at one time a stockholder in the Fowler 
Switch Canal Company — a company which he 
helped to organize. 

Mr. Duncan was married in 1870, to Miss 
Miller, and has three sons and one daughter, 
namely: Andrew F., Ellen, Roy and Ray. The 
oldest is now attending college at Stockton. 

" ""S ' fr ' I * ^"'"" ■ 



fC. MERRIAM, a prominent lawyer of 
Fresno, was born in Logansport, Indian a 
° April 30, 1849. He enjoyed excellent 
educational advantages, graduating at the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, Illinois, in 1870, and subse- 
quently attending the Albany Law School, 
Albany, New York, where he graduated in 1874. 

After completing his course of study in the 
East, he returned to his Indiana home and set- 
tled down to the practice of his profession. 
He did well there ; but, like thousands of other 
young professional men, he saw in the West 
superior opportunities for rapid advancement, 
and directed his course toward the Pacific coast. 
Arriving in California in 1876, he settled at 
once in San Francisco, where he was engaged 
in the practice of law for three years. At the 
earnest .solicitation of some friends in Tulare 
County, he lived in that locality for a time. 
Then he came to Fresno County and opened an 
office in Selma, and shortly afterward settled in 
Fresno, where he has since continued to reside. 
Mr. Merriam is actively engaged in the practice 
of his profession in this city. 

He was married December 12, 1888, to Miss 
Lulu E. Mizner, a native of Grand Rapids, 
Michigan. 



-3-€§ 



>*%*-- 



fAVID FRANKLIN COFFEE, County 
Assessor of Tulare county, California, 
dates his birth in Tennessee, May 10, 1845. 
He is a son of Joel and Martha (Moore) Coffee, 
the former a native of Tennessee and the latter 
of Kentucky. His paternal ancestors came 



from Scotland to America before the Revolution. 
They subsequently settled in Kentucky and were 
among the prominent pioneers of that State. 
General Coffee, a cousin of Mr. Coffee's father, 
was a general in the Confederate army. 

David F. was next to the youngest in a fami- 
ly of eight children, and he was reared and 
educated in southern Illinois. In 1864, at the 
age of nineteen years, he came to California and 
settled in Stanislaus County, engaging in aori- 
cnltural pursuits. In 1874 he removed to Tulare 
County, and purchased and improved a ranch. 
His political views have always been those of 
the Democracy, and in 1890 he was nominated 
by his party and elected Assessor of the county, 
which position he is filling with marked ability. 

Mr. Coffee was united in marriage in 1868, to 
Miss Elorendo Hunter, a native of Canada. 
Seven children have been born to them, all in 
California, namely: Joel Stanford, Ada Ella, 
Clara, Laura, Rosie, Minaand Leroy. The two 
last named died in infancy. 

Mr. Coffee is associated with the A. O. U. W. 
and the K. of 1 J . 

— "— "I »s n ; » % "-«>• — 



tN. HYDE was born in Stanislaus county, 
California, in 1857. His father, S. S. 
^ Q Hyde, a native of Kentucky, emigrated 
to this State in 1850, coming as United States 
Marshal. He was a prominent figure in the 
early history of California ; was for a time en- 
gaged in teaching, being one of the first teachers 
in the State. He moved to Fresno County in 
1860, settled near King's river, and engaged in 
wheat farming and stock-raising. In 1867 he 
planted the first Muscat vineyard on the plains, 
and was the first to divert water from the King's 
river for irrigating purposes, which he did on 
May 24, 1867. The channel through which he 
conducted the water was three miles long, two 
spades wide and two spades deep. He was also 
one of the first supervisors of this county, and 
held the office until his death, which occurred in 
1869. While out among his stock he met with 



310 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



an accident that proved fatal to him, and he 
died, leaving a wife and ten children. 

His son, I. N. Hyde, was educated in the 
public shools of the county, and in the academy 
of Fresno. He graduated in 1876, received a 
certificate to teach school in the county, and was 
engaged in teaching in the schools of Fresno 
until 1888. At that time he passed a rigid ex- 
amination in twenty-one studies, and received a 
life diploma, issued by the State of California 
and signed by the regents of the State University. 

In 1877 the Legislature canceled the great 
register of Fresno County, and Mr. Hyde was 
appointed deputy clerk by A. M. Clark to com- 
pile a new great register. In 1888 he was 
appointed deputy recorder under T. A. Bell, 
which position he still holds. 

Mr. Hyde was married in Millerton, Fresno 
County, December 25, 1879, to Miss Minnie E. 
McClelland. Their union has been blessed witli 
four children, two sons and two daughters. 

The home ranch of ninety acres is still owned 
by Mr. Hyde and his brother, H. R. Hyde. 
They have twenty-seven acres of oranges on 
the place, which were planted in 1888, and 
which promise a rich profit in the near future. 

Mr. Hyde is a member of Fresno Lodge, No. 
186, I. O. O. F. ; Wahtoke Tribe, No. 63, 
I. O. R. M., of which he is Sachem ; Fresno 
Lodge, No. 3455, Knights of Honor ; and 
Parlor No. 24, Native Sons of the Golden 
West. 



§YMAN BROWN RUGGLES was born in 
Pennsylvania, April 3, 1828, and comes 
of old New England stock. The family 
record runs back to one Joseph Ruggles, who 
landed in Massachusetts in 1635. His son, 
Timothy, was a member of the Connecticut 
Legislature when that body voted on the adop- 
tion of the Declaration of Independence, and 
he with one other member voted against the 
measure, thus proving their loyalty to the kin<(. 
His brother Joseph's grandson, Eden Ruggles, 



was the father of Joseph Ruggles. both natives 
of Connecticut. The latter married Silva 
Brown, a native of New York and. on the ma- 
ternal side, a relative of Colonel Ethan Allen of 
Revolutionary fame. To them were born 6even 
eons and three daughters, the subject of this 
sketch being the middle son. Of tin's family 
one son and one daughter are deceased. 

When only a few months old, Lyman B. was 
taken by his parents to Ohio, where they re- 
sided eleven years. At the expiration of that 
time they removed to Michigan and settled on 
a farm in Van Buren County. There Mr. 
Ruggles remained until 1850, when he came to 
California. For two years he mined in El Do- 
rado and Nevada counties, and during that time 
saved nearly $1,000. In 1852 he went to Yolo 
County and took up a piece of Government 
land, which he improved and on which he was 
engaged in farming for twenty-one years. In 
1873 he sold out and engaged in the lumber 
business at Woodland, and two years later, in 
1875, came to Tulare County and settled on 160 
acres of land half way betweeu Hanford and 
Traver. This farm he cultivated and also pur- 
chased other lands in the vicinity of Dinuba. 
In 1888 he removed to Traver and took an in- 
terest in the Traver Warehouse Association, and 
engaged in the handling of wheat and agricul- 
tural implements. He was president of the 
corporation for two years, but at this writing is 
retired from active business. He owns a home 
in Traver, where he lives, and has 400 acres of 
grain land that he is having farmed to wheat. 
In 1857 Mr. Ruggles was united in marriage 
with Miss Martha Ann Dexter, a native of Il- 
linois, who bore him five children. Of these 
children we state that Mattie M. became the 
wife of Peter Mull, and is now deceased; Ger- 
trude M. is the wife of George Farmer; the 
sons are John, Charles and Clarence, all except 
the last having reached maturity. After thirty- 
one years of happy married life Mrs. Buggies 
passed away. She was a devoted wife and lov- 
ing mother, and in her death the family and 
many friends sustained a heavy loss. April 28, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



811 



1889, Mr. Buggies wedded Mrs. Emma (Hack- 
ney, Robinson, a native of Tennessee. 

In politics Mr. Ruggles is a Republican, and 
while in Yolo County he was a member of the 
Board of Supervisors. In 1880 he was Repub- 
lican candidate for the State Assembly, and ran 
100 votes ahead of his ticket. He is a member 
of the F. & A. M., and his church affiliations 
are with the Methodists, he being a trustee of 
the Methodist Church of Traver. Mr. Rug- 
gles is widely known in Tulare aud several 
other counties of the State, and wherever 
known highly respected and esteemed. 



fERNAKD KESSING, deceased, was one 
of the respected pioneers of Central Cali- 
fornia. 

He was born in Germany, November 4, 1838, 
and came to America at the age of twenty 
years; first located at Cincinnati, Ohio, where 
for fifteen years he was engaged in the clothing 
trade. In 1871 he came from Cincinnati to 
California. In San Francisco he did clerical 
work a year and a half for his uncle, John 
F. Kessing, a wealthy merchant. He moved to 
Tulare in the year 1872 and built the first 
hotel and store in that place. He also was the 
first Postmaster and agent for Wells, Fargo & 
Co. at that point. After living in Tulare two 
years, he moved to Sumner, following up the 
construction of the Southern Pacific railroad; 
six months later, opened up the first stock of 
merchandise at Caliente. From Caliente he re- 
moved to the Loop, what was then known as 
" Camp 12." 

Mr. Kessing was married in San Francisco, 
November 4, 1872, to Mrs. Mary A. Goss, a 
native of Hanover, Germany. She enjoyed the 
advantages of a good German education, lost 
her parents when quite young, and came to this 
country at the age of sixteen years. 

Removing from the Loop, Mr. aud Mrs. 
Kessing took up their residence at Tehachapi, 
where they erected the first frame building in 



the town, the Summit House, which Mrs. Kes- 



sing still owns and conducts. 



Failing health 




caused Mr. Kessing to go to San Diego to re- 
cuperate, and his death occurred there, January 
27, 1889, at the age of fifty-one years. 

Mrs. Kessing is a lady of business tact and 
executive ability and conducts her business af- 
fairs in a most creditable manner. She has a 
son at Bakersfield, and one daughter, an accom- 
plished young lady, at home. 



TLLIAM WALTER CROSS, Superior 
Judge of Tulare County for the past 
twelve years, is a native of Illinois, born 
in Vermilion County, December 8, 1842. His 
ancestors were among the first settlers of Mary- 
land, having come to this country from Eng- 
land with Lord Baltimore. His father, Joshua 
Anderson Cross, a native of Maryland, married 
Mary C. Ford, who was born in Pennsylvania. 
In 1852, accompanied by his family, he crossed 
the plains to the far West. The Judge was ten 
years of age at that time, and remembers viv- 
idly the long journey with ox teams. They set- 
tled in Nevada City, where the father purchased 
property, built and sold houses, and carried on 
the business of contracting and building. His 
death occurred in 1881, caused by an accidental 
fall. 

The Judge was the seventh of a family of 
nine children. He was educated in the schools 
of Nevada City and in the College of Benicia. 
At the age of nineteen years he began to read 
law under George S. Hupp, and later with Hon. 
Aaron A. Sargent, being admitted to the bar by 
Judge McFarland. He then practiced in the 
State of Nevada one year with Judge John 
Garber and George S. Hupp. At the expira- 
tion of that time he returned to California and 
continued the practice of his profession in Ne- 
vada City. In 1867 he was elected District 
Attorney, and served two years; was renominated 
for the office but declined to be the candidate. 
He remained in Nevada City until 1872, when 



313 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



he came to Tulare County and settled in Visalia, 
opening a law office with Judge Burckhalter as 
partner. In 1874 the supervisors appointed him 
District Attorney, and at the expiration of the 
term he was elected to that office. In 1879 he 
was elected Superior Judge on the Democratic 
ticket, and lias capably and honorably performed 
the duties of Superior Judge, three times hav- 
ing been elected to the position by his fellow- 
citizens. 

Judge Cross was happily married on the 20th 
of August, 1872, to Miss Florence Edwards, a 
native of Missouri. When a year old she was 
brought by her parents to California, and in 
this State was reared and educated. Their union 
has been blessed with seven children, six of 
whom are living. Their names are as follows: 

o 

William Walter, Jr., Florence R., Mabel E., 
Lillian, Anderson and Gertrude. 

The Judge is an active member of the I. O. 
O. F., and for years has been a member of the 
Grand Lodge. Politically he is a Democrat, 
lie has given much of his time and attention 
to politics and has also done much to promote 
the growth and development of the country; is 
liberal with his means both in private and pub- 
lic affairs. As a judge his decisions are made 
with great fairness and legal acuteness and are 
very seldom reversed. AVith the legal profes- 
sion he stands high as a lawyer, and the general 
opinion of the citizens of his county is that he 
is the peer of any judge in the State. 



■JISON. E. H. TUCKER.— The self-made men 
|M] of America have ever stood in the front 
'frM ranks of our poets and authors, our ora- 
tors and statesmen, our inventors and me- 
chanics. He who has been the producer of his 
own fortune, whose education is the result of 
his own efforts, who has marked out his own 
path, pursued his own policy, and lias suc- 
ceeded, is always an eminent success. 

No man has ever risen to eminent distinction 
who did not come from the middle or lower 



classes. It is the rare combination of brains, 

industry and perseverance that makes the in- 
dividual capable of being a leader, a man of in- 
fluence, one who can make and mould public 
opinion. E. EL Tucker, the subject of this sketch, 
the member of the Assembly from the wealthy 
and populous county of Fresno, is an excellent 
example of the self-made men of our day. He 
was born fifty-two years ago in the State of 
Kentucky, of the good old pioneer stock of the 
early days, when it took pluck, a good rifle and 
a scalping knife to go West. His father was 
one of the early settlers of Iowa, where Mr. 
Tucker received the best common -school ednca- 
tion obtainable in a log-cabin schoolhouse of 
the pioneer days. 

In 1852 his father was attacked with the 
gold fever, removed to this State and settled at 
Sutter Creek, in Amador County. His parents 
resided in Amador until their death, some years 
ago. For several years he mined with his father 
and two brothers, with more or less success, and 
when the Fraser river excitement arose he was 
caught up in the whirl, a d soon found himself 
en route to the new El Dorado. On his arrival 
at Whatcom he met Colonel W. H. Wall, ce, 
an old and honored friend of his father's, who 
persuaded him to abandon the Fraser river 
trip, and go to his home at Steilacoom, on Puget 
Sound. Mr. Tucker did so, and within two 
years he became so popular with his newly made 
acquaintances that he was nominated and elected 
on the Democratic ticket to the responsible 
office of Sheriff. At the expiration of his term 
of office he was re elected by over a two thirds 
vote of the county. Before the close of his 
term he resigned, to assist Colonel Justin Stein- 

berger, to recruit the regiment of First Wash- 
es ' f^ 

ington Territory United States Infantry Volun- 
teers, which was ordered for that section by a 
special act of Congress. When the organization 
of the regiment was completed, Mr. Tucker was 
mustered into service on the 27th of December, 
1862, at Fort Steilacoom, with the rank of Cap- 
tain. He served in the regiment with distinc- 
tion, in command of Company ■• K '" until the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



313 



close of the war, when he was honorably mus- 
tered out of the service at Fort Vancouver, on 
the 8th day of April, 1865. 

During a greater portion of his army service 
his company was stationed at Fort Steilacoom. 
He was afterwards appointed Quartermaster's 
Agent at Fort Boise, Idaho Territory, and was 
with General George Crook's command in 
charge of transportation, during that official's 
campaign against the Pit River Indians of 
eastern Oregon and northern California, and 
was present at the battle of Goose lake, in 
which the Indians were badly whipped. At the 
close of the Indian war, Mr. Tucker returned 
to California. He made up his mind that the 
future wealth of this State must be in the agri- 
cultural products and stock-raising, as mining 
was becoming less and less important each 
year. He went to Fresno County in 1874, and 
settled at Kingston, where he was for a time 
engaged in staging and mail contracting be- 
tween Kingsburg and Grangeville in Tulare 
County. As early as 1878, through his in- 
fluence with the authorities at Washington, he 
secured the establishment of a daily mail serv- 
ice between Kingsburg, Wild Flower, Kingston 
and Grangeville. He sold out his staging 
business in 1879 to Messrs. Simpson and 
Woodward. In October, 1879, he married Miss 
Fanning, of Fresno City, and settled in the 
now prosperous town of Selma. He was one 
of the original founders of that beautiful little 
city, and much of its prosperity and that of the 
surrounding country is due to his wide-awake 
energy and business tact. 

In 1891 he was elected the first president of 
the newly formed Selma Irrigation District 
Company. 

His business is that of real-estate agent and 
the breeding of fine horses. He is largely in- 
terested in the canals of Selma and is president 
of the Fowler Switch Canal Company, one of 
the largest and most important enterprises of 
that nature in the State. 

While this is Mr. Tucker's first experience as 
a legislator, he has served several years as a I 



member of the State Irrigation Committee, and 
spent much of his time at the capital, during 
the session of 1886-'87, in the interest, of irri- 
gation, and was always considered one of its 
most intelligent supporters. He was instru- 
mental in getting the injunction laws amended 
by which canal companies may give bonds and 
flow water, pending litigation, and was a stanch 
supporter of the " Wright Bill." 

Mr. Tucker is what you may term an uncom- 
promising irrigationist, and says the rights of 
the people to a reasonable run of the waters of 
all streams, for irrigation, must and will pre- 
vail in the near future. He is the president of 
the Board of Trade of Selma. 

In the Legislature of 1890-'91 he was hon- 
ored with the chairmanship of the Committee 
on Irrigation, also the chairmanship of the 
Committee on Indian Affairs. He is a mem- 
ber also of the Judiciary and County and Town- 
ship Government Committees. He is always 
found in his seat, is a good debater, and no bill 
is introduced that he does not carefully scru- 
tinize. If a good measure, he indorses it; and 
if he thinks it one not in the best interest of 
the public, he unsparingly denounces it. 

He has introduced the following acts which 
will become laws, and are all most excellent 
measures: 

AN ACT. 

To amend sections 10, 22 and 27 of an act 
entitled "An Act to provide for the Organiza- 
tion and Government of Irrigation Districts, 
and to provide for the Acquisition of Water 
and other Property, and for the distribution of 
Water thereby for Irrigation Purposes," ap- 
proved March 7, 1887; an act relating to 
appointments to office in case of vacancies, and 
to assessments of real property, and to the col- 
lection of such assessments; and also an act 
for the protection of the owners of ditches and 
flumes for irrigative purposes. 
an" act. 

To amend section 392 of the Code of Civil 
Procedure of the State of California, relating 
to the place of trial of civil action. 



314 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



AN ACT. 

To amend section 1248 of the Code of Civil 
Procedure, of the State of California, relating 
to the assessment of damages where the right 
of eminent domain is exercised. 



Supplemental to an Act entitled "An Act to 
provide for the Organization and Government 
of Irrigation Districts and to provide for the 
acquisition of water and other property, and 
for the distribution of the water thereby for 
irrigation purposes," approved March 7, 1887, 
and to provide for the examination, approval 
and confirmation of proceedings for the issue 
and sale of bonds issued under the provision of 
said act. 



fLEMENT T. BUCKMAN, Auditor of 
Tulare County, California, is a son of 
Clement E. and Survilla (Shanks) Buck- 
man, natives of Kentucky. His mother was de- 
scended from Maryland ancestors. He was 
born in Kansas, March 31, 1859, while his 
parents were en route to California. They did 
however, come direct to this State but remained 
a few years in Arizona, reaching California in 
1864. 

Mr. Buckman was educated in the Visalia 
.Normal School. For a number of years he was 
engaged in farming and stock-raising on a ranch 
of 400 acres purchased by his father. He now 
owns a ranch of 160 acres which he rents. He 
acted as Deputy Assessor of the county for six 
years, and in 1888 was elected County Auditor, 
being re-elected for a second term, which he is 
now serving. His position is one of importance, 
as lie has the oversight of all the receipts aud 
disbursements of the county. Sixteen years ago 
Mr Buckman had the misfortune to lose his 
right arm, the result of an accident with his 
gun while he was crossing a fence; and he has 
learned to wield his pen in a swift and graceful 
manner with his left hand. 



He was married September 18. 1882, to Miss 
Irene Combs, a native of Missouri and daughter 
of the late J. C. Combs. They are the parents 
of three children: Ethel F., Clement T., Jr., and 
Chester Raymond. 

Mr. Buckman was born a Democrat, and has 
taken a deep interest in local politics. He is a 
member of the A. O. U. W., and by all who 
know him he is regarded as a most reliable 
citizen. 

g - *< - 2» - — 




A. BELL, Recorder for Fresno County, 
$|pjP was born in Gallatin, Sumner County. 
Tennessee, in 1856. His father, T. H. 
Bell, carried on general, farming, making to- 
bacco the staple crop. In 1859 he moved to 
Dyer County, West Tennessee, and there young 
Bell received his education at the Newbcrn 
School, which was chartered as Union Seminary. 
He entered the primary department and con- 
tinued in school until he was eighteen years 
old. At that time the family moved to Califor- 
nia and settled in Fresno County. On King's 
river his father engaged in wheat farming and 
stock-raising, remaining there until the ad- 
ministration of President Cleveland, when he 
was appointed Receiver of the Visaiia land 
office. After his appointment he moved to 
Selma, and still makes that his home. 

T. A. Bell lived with his parents until 1880, 
when he engaged in the sheep business, making 
headquarters at Centreville and keeping from 
1,500 to 2,500 sheep. This he continued until 
1884. In that year he sold his flock and en- 
tered mercantile life in Fresno, under the firm 
name of Harrell & Bell. Two years later he 
sold his interest and became agent for the Fresno 
Agricultural Implement Works, and was also 
in the land business. 

In the fall of 1888 Mr. Bell was elected 
County Recorder, and was re-elected in the fall 
of 1890. He employs ten deputies, three of 
whom are official: J. M. Collier, C. C. Elliott 
and I. N. Hyde. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



315 



He was married in San Francisco, in January, 
1887, to Miss Emma S. Maddon, a native of 
Stockton, California. They have two children: 
Mary Gertrude, born July 9, 1888, and Irtna 
E., born May 5, 1891. Mr. Bell is a member 
of Fresno Lodge, No. 247, F. & A. M.; Yine- 
land Lodge, No. 67, K. of P., and Fresno Lodge, 
No. 3455, Knights of Honor. Of the last 
named lodge he is a charter member. 



jAURICE EDWARD POWER, Dis- 
i'/jWIlt trict Attorney of Tulare County, Oali- 
^silB^ fornia, is a native of the Golden State, 
bcrn in Santa Clara County, December 14, 
I860. The ancestors of his family came from 
Ireland at an early day, and his father, John 
Power, was born in Quebec, Canada. At the 
age of sixteen years he came to the United 
States and settled in Maine, where he engaged 
in lumbering until 1852. At that time became 
to California in search of gold, and mined for 
seven years. In 1859 he married Mary A. 
Welsh, by whom he had five children, the sub- 
ject of this sketch being the eldest. 

Maurice E. received his education at the 
Santa Clara College and at the Washington 
College. He read law under Judge J. B. La- 
mar, and in August, 1885, was admitted to prac- 
tice in the Supreme Court. He practiced law 
in San Jose until March 10, 1888, when he 
came to Visalia, at which place he has since 
continued the practice of his profession. He 
received the appointment of Deputy District 
Attorney under Charles G. Lamerson, holding 
the position until the expiration of Mr. Lamer- 
son's term. He was then appointed to the same 
position by Mr. Jacobs. In the fall of 1890 he 
was nominated on the Democratic ticket for 
District Attorney, and was elected without an 
opposing candidate. He at once entered upon 
the duties of his office with alacrity and ability, 
and his many friends bespeak for him a success 
ful career in his chosen profession. 

Mr. Power is a member of the .Native Sons 



of the Golden West, and is Second Vice Presi- 
dent of the parlor to which he belongs. 



"W"%t< 






Jj|j|l H. KNAPP, one of the leading agri- 
wBM culturists of the Tehaehapi valley, has 
l^Pfl® been a resident of California since 

1875. He is a native of Medina, New York, born 
May 9, 1853, son of E. H. and Jane (Jackson) 
Knapp, both natives of the Empire State and 
members of pioneer New York families. The 
father, a farmer by occupation, removed from New 
York to Walworth County, Wisconsin, where 
he lived about ten years; in 1870 he went to 
Homer, Calhoun County, Michigan. 

W. H. Knapp had received a good common- 
school education and at Homer learned teleg- 
raphy. After his arrival in California he 
spent one season in Napa City, and in May, 

1876, was tendered a position as telegraph oper- 
ator at Tulare. He remained there, however, 
only one month and was then assigned to the 
Tehaehapi station. The Southern Pacific rail- 
road was then in course of construction and the 
present thriving town of Tehaehapi consisted of 
Mr. Knapp's operating office, 7x9 feet, and a 
few tents pitched by the railroad company. 
With an eye to the future resources of this val- 
ley, Mr. Knapp took note of the great fertility 
of the soil and the delightful climate, and de- 
cided to make a practical farmer's test. In 1877 
he pre-empted eighty acres of Government land 
and sowed it to barley, the result being a reve- 
lation to himself and to the stock-rangers who 
had traversed the country for several years. To 
his pre-emption claim he has added until he 
now has 480 acres adjoining town. He has set 
out 180 fruit trees and has some fine improve- 
ments on his property. In 1888 he resigned 
his position as agent for the Southern Pacific 
Railroad Company at Tehaehapi station, and 
now devotes his time and attention to his per- 
sonal interests. 

Mr. Knapp was married December 24, 187S, 
to Miss Sierra Nevada Williams, daughter cf a 



316 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



California pioneer, the tall James E. Williams. 
She was horn in Visalia, December 2. 1863, and 
lived with her parents in the tirst hotel which 
was built by them at Old Town, about two miles 
from the present village of Tehachapi. Mr. and 
Mrs. Enapphave three children: James E., born 
November 15, 1881; Gertrude, May 13, 1884; 
and Bertha, February 3, 1887. 

Mr. Knapp is one of Tehaehapi's most thrifty 
citizens and a member of the town school board. 



►3*-»J* 



ffOHN A. PATTERSON has the distinction 
of being the only person now (1891) living 
in Tulare County who was here when the 
first count}' election was held. A resume of his 
life is as follows: 

John A. Patterson was born in Georgia, Octo- 
ber 15, 1824. He was educated at a private 
school, and his youth was spent in assisting his 
father on the farm. In 1849 he crossed the 
plains to California with a company of adven- 
turers, and after a journey of six months arrived 
at his destination on the 24th of September. 
Cholera, that scourge of the plains, followed 
them for a distance of 400 miles and claimed as 
its victims tive of their number. 

After his arrival in California, Mr. Patterson 
and his companions at once sought the mines- 
At Mariposa, on the Tuolumne river and at 
other places he worked in the mines, averaging 
about $10 per day. After mining three years 
he purchased cattle, in partnership with a Mr. 
Hazelton, went to King's river and turned loose 
the tirst band of wild cattle at that place. He 
made his home there fourteen years, and during 
that time Tulare County was organized. He 
remembers little about it although he came into 
the county to help with the organization. He 
moved to Visalia and purchased a ranch a mile 
and a half east of the city. In 1871 he sold 
out and moved to his present location, a ranch 
of 500 acres of choice land. The first house he 
built on it was consumed by fire. It was soon 
replaced, however, by a more commodious one 



that now nestles among the trees and flowers of 
its owner's own planting. At Stone Corral Mr. 
Patterson has 2,000 acres of land. 

In 1854 he was married to Rebecca Glenn, a 
native of Missouri, and to them eleven children 
were born, of whom two died when young. 
The remaining children are as follows: Thomas 
J., Mary, Arza, Georgia, Robert L., Nettie 
Andrew D., Henry and Charles. All are set- 
tled near their parents in Tulare County. The 
oldest son, Thomas J., is one of the prominent 
practicing physicians of Visalia. 

In politics Mr. Patterson is a Democrat. He 
was a member of the State Assembly, and was 
instrumental in having the bill passed for the 
erection of the fine county courthouse. Although 
Mr. Patterson has witnessed the changes that 
forty years have wrought on this coast, ftill he 
appears strong and vigorous. He is a man of 
high moral character and strong convictions, 
commanding the respect and esteem of all who 
know him. 



§L. DIXON was born in Mississippi, in 
1853, one of a distinguished family of 
® seven children. In 1870 they all moved 
to California and settled in the town of Madera, 
Fresno County. For a time our subject was a 
student at the University of California at Berke- 
ley, not, however, finishing the course which he 
originally selected, that of mining and engineer- 
ing. Returning to Madera, he remained there 
for a while. Then he took up some land near 
Bakerstield and turned his attention to ranch- 
ing, but this did not prove congenial to his taste 
and he sought other occupations. He soon 
secured a position in the State Engineer's De- 
partment, where he had important duties to per- 
form. His services in this field of labor were 
very satisfactory. 

In 1882 Mr. Dixon came to Fresno. During 
that year and the one following he was Deputy 
County Clerk, and at the same time tilled the 
position of Deputy County Recorder. At vari- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



317 



ous. times since then he has been accountant for 
different corporations and individuals, being 
particularly successful in this office work. He 
was the bookkeeper for Thomas E. Hughes in 
his real-estate business until January, 1889, 
when he assumed the office work in the Hughes 
Hotel, resigning October 15, 1890, when he 
opened a real-estate office of his own. In con- 
nection with his real-estate transactions he also 
does an insurance business, in both of which he 
has been quite successful. 

Mr. Dixon was married, in 188y, to Miss 
Mead, a native of New York. They have one 
child. 



-=**< 



>HS=— 



fDWARD M. JEFFEEDS, of the firm of 
Jefferds & Bell, United States land office 
and real estate, Visalia, California, is a na- 
tive of the Golden State, being born at Rough 
and Ready, Nevada County, July 25, 1854. His 
parents were Forrest G. and Zanetta D. (Gar- 
field) Jefferds, the former a native of Browns- 
ville, Piscataquis County, Maiue, born August 
26, 1829, and the son of Alpheus and Rebekah 
Jefferds, who moved from Brownsville to Fox- 
croft in the same county when Forrest was two 
years old, and where he remained with his father 
until he was sixteen years old. He then went 
to Lowell, Massachusetts, and labored for the 
Hamilton Faint and Iron Works until the Mexi- 
can war broke out. He then enlisted in Com- 
pany A, Massachusetts Volunteers, and served 
through the war. He was discharged in Boston 
July 24, 1848, and subsequently learned the 
trade of making gas meters for the Boston Gas 
Light Company. In August, 1851, he started 
for California, via the Isthmus of Panama, going 
by steamer from New York to Chagres (before 
the railroad was built), being ten days on the 
steamer, then up the Chagres river in a 
canoe to Cruces, and from there to Panama on 
a mule. He went from Panama to San Fran- 
cisco on the old steamer Republic, landing Oc- 
tober 5, 1851. In a few days he went to the 



mines in Nevada County, and lived near Ne- 
vada City on Gold Run about a year; next he 
moved to Rough and Ready; and in 1855 re- 
moved to Timbuctoo, Yuba County, where he 
was owner ot a hydraulic claim, known as the 
Babb claim, which he worked until 1861. In 
1860 Mr. Jefferds went to Tulare County, and 
bought land near what is now Farmersville. In 
1852 he married Miss Zanetta D. Garfield, a 
native of Woburn, Massachusetts, and they had 
three children, — Edward M., Minnie and Nettie. 
The mother died in 1868, and in 1869 he mar- 
ried Mrs. Nellie Reed, widow of Tilden Reed. 
In 1871 he was elected County Assessor of Tu- 
lare County, which office he held eleven years. 

His son, Edward M., the subject of this sketch, 
was educated at the common schools of Califor- 
nia, and subsequently attended the Foxcroft 
Academy in Maine. He next took a course at 
Heald's Business College in San Francisco, and 
was graduated at that institution in 1875. He 
taught school in Tulare County during several 
winters. Mr. Jefferds served as Deputy County 
Assessor for five years, and two years as Deputy 
County Recorder under J. E. Denny. Twice 
he received the nomination in the Republican 
convention for County Recorder. In Septem- 
ber, 1885, he went into the United States Land 
Office, in which he continued until January, 
1889, since which time he has carried on the 
business for himself. Mr. Jefferds has taken 
an interest in many of the public enterprises of 
Visalia. He is prominently connected with 
the I. O. O. F., and is a Past Grand of the or- 
der. He has been a member of the A. O. U. W. 
since 1880, and is a charter member of the " Na- 
tive Sons of the Golden West," Parlor No. 19. 
He is also President of the Visalia Fire De- 
parment. 

September 1, 1878, Mr. Jefferds married 
Frankie C. Thorns, a native of Visalia, and the 
daughter of A. O. Thorns, one of the pioneers 
of this coast, who at one time ran a stage line 
from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Mr. and 
Mrs. Jefferds have two children, — Cleora, born 
December 11, 1879, and Amos O., born De- 



-IS 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



cember 11, 1881. His residence is on South 
Court street, and his office in Harrel] Block. 



■ S - 3"t - g" 



f BERN AM A YOU is one of the prosperous 
farmers of Cummings valley. He was 
t Q born in France, January 17, 1858, and 
was reared as a fanner. At the age of sixteen 
years he came to America, landing in San Fran- 
cisco. After spenting some months on cattle 
ranges in Southern California, he came to Kern 
County in 1885 and located at Tehachapi. Here 
he engaged in stock-raising in Cummings valley 
and subsequently turned his attention to grain 
farming, in which he has been very successful, 
one year raising as high as 10,000 sacks of bar- 
ley, from which he realized $12,000. He owns 
640 acres of land, section 35, all under fence 
He is one of the most enterprising of men, and 
is a representative member of the French colony 
in that region. 



•^ 



-#H 



ft M. COLLIER, second son of J. N. Collier 
and Mrs. Pat ton Knox, nee Robinson, Col- 
lier, was horn in Pickens County, Ala. 
bama, in 1855. In 1865 his father moved to 
Deer Creek, Washington County, Mississippi 
where he still resides, and it was in that State 
that J. M. received his education. He attended 
the Vicksburg public schools and worked to pay 
for his board and tuition, finishing his studies 
in 1875. 

After leaving school Mr. Collier went to 
Storm ville, Bolivar County, that State, and en- 
gaged in mercantile business. Later he went to 
Memphis, and was there employed as a book- 
keeper. In 1884 he visited the World's Fair at 
New Orleans, and immediately thereafter started 
for California. After three months spent in 
visiting and travel, he settled in Fresno, having 
neither friend nor kindred in the county. His 
penmanship attracted attention and secured him a 
position as Deputy Recorder, under C. L. Wain- 



wright, receiving the appointment in December, 
1884. He was continued through Mr. Wain- 
wright's term of office, and was reappointed by 
his successor, T. A. Bell, still occupying that 
position. 

Mr. Collier was married in Los Angeles, in 
July, 1887, to Miss Dora Church, daughter of 
Judge Firman Church, whose biography ap- 
pears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Collier died 
may 8, 1891, leaving two children: Dora E., born 
April 26, 1891, and Augusta, born in January, 
1890. Mr. Collier is secretary of the Fresno 
Water Company, and is Ordnance Sergeant of 
Company C, National Guards of California. By 
cloi-e attenntion to his business and by careful 
and judicious investment of his earnings, Mr. 
Collier has accumulated considerable city prop- 
erty in Fresno. 

- -#?Hf@B(§9* , £ s — 

flMON HEINEMAN, one of the leading 
merchants of the Tehachapi valley, has 
been a resident of California about nine 
years He is a native of Bavaria, Germany, and 
was born August 16, 1865. His father, Carl 
Hineman, was a prosperous grain merchant of 
Wurzburg, of some local prominence. He died 
in 1881, leaving two sons: Simon, the subject 
of this sketch, and Adolph, a younger brother. 
Mr. Heineman came to America in 1882, 
bringing with him some means. He had en- 
joyed the advantages of a thorough schooling in 
his native city and inherited from his father the 
instincts and traits of a successful business 
man. Upon reaching San Francisco lie was 
readily tendered a position in the mercantile 
house of Frankenthal, Baohman & Co. He re- 
mained with this firm ahont four months, after 
which he accepted an offer of a position with 
J. Goldman & Co., Tulare. 

March 1, 1889, he established the business 
house of wdiich he is the head at Tehachapi, and 
which is one of the most extensive of its kind 
in Kern County. He erected the present 
spacious building which the firm occupies and 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



319 



which is well adapted to the wants of the busi- 
ness. Its shelves and warerooms are stocked 
with a choice line of* merchandise calculated to 
meet the various demands of the agriculturist, 
stock-man, miner, sheep-rancher, artisan and 
mechanic. Mr. Heineman conducted this busi- 
ness alone until the following May, when he 
associated himself with L. JBachman, his uncle, 
a merchant and capitalist of San Francisco. As 
a member of the warehouse firm of John 
Iribarne & Co., Mr. Heineman is interested in 
handling a large share of the heavy grain prod- 
uct of the valley. The substantial evidences 
of Mr. Heineman's success at Tehachapi is a 
natural result of the purchase of merchandise 
in large quanties at the place of manufacture, 
at the lowest possible cash price, and giving to 
his customers full value in quality and quantity. 
This he regards as the legitimate mission and 
moral obligation of the merchant. 



fHAELES THOMPSON, an enterprising 
rancher and horticulturist of Farmersville, 
Tulare County, California, is a native of 
Scotland, born November 2, 1840, son of Neil 
and Agnes Thompson, both natives of Scotland. 
At the age of nine years he came to America 
with his mother and family, his father having 
died iu Scotland. They settled in Ohio and his 
mother remained a widow until her death. Mr. 
Thompson was educated in Detroit, Michigan, 
and from there entered the Union army, in the 
quartermaster's department; was with Sherman 
until he left Chattanooga, and for a time was a 
clerk on one of the river steamers. 

At the close of the war, Mr. Thompson came 
to California and to Tulare County. His uncle, 
John McKay, had come from the Highlands of 
Scotland to this place, and with him Mr. Thomp- 
son engaged in the cattle, sheep and hog busi- 
ness. This uncle died on May 1, 1879, and left 
the ranch to Mr. Thompson and his aunt, he 
subsequently purchasing the aunt's interest. 

Mr. Thompson was married in Detroit, in 



1870, to Miss Annie Deering, a native of 
Massachusetts. Of their six children, all born 
in California, five are living — three sons and 
two daughters. Their names are as follows: 
Charles R., Arthur M., Amy F., Annie M. and 
Hugh . D. In connection with his farming 
operations, Mr. Thompson is engaged iu raising 
choice fruits, his ranch being located half a mile 
north of Farmersville. In politics he has been 
a life-long Republican, and as a worthy citizen 
he lias the respect of all who know liim. 



fEORGE WALTER KIRKMAN, with his 
brother, Grant Kirkman, is associated in 
the general merchandise business at Ex- 
eter, Tulare County, under the firm name of 
Kirkman & Co. 

Mr. Kirkman was born in "Way tie County, 
Indiana, December 4, 1853. His grandfather, 
George Kirkman removed from North Caro- 
lina to Indiana in an early day, when his son, 
John Kirkman, father of the subject of this 
sketch, was a lad of seven years. George Kirk- 
man spent the rest of his life and died in Indi- 
ana, and his son John was reared there and 
married to Elizabeth Thornburgh, a native of 
Indiana. Seven of their eight children are 
still living. He moved with his family to 
Missouri, and farmed there ten years, and in 
1882 came to the Golden West. They settled 
on the plains, near the present town of Exeter, 
took up a Government claim of 160 acres of 
laud, and engaged in raising wheat. Prosperity- 
attended their labors, and soon they were en- 
abled to purchase 200 acres more. 

In 1890, when the railroad was built to Exe- 
ter, the Kirkman brothers came to the town, 
built a store and dwelling and became the first 
merchants of the place. They keep a general 
stock of merchandise, and in this growing town 
and country have a thriving trade. At this 
writing, 1891, Exeter is only a year old, and 
the prospects for its future growth and develop- 
ment are flattering indeed. 



320 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



George W. Kirkman was raai-ried, in 1874, to 
Miss Delilah Yarnall, a native of Missouri, by 
whom he has four children, — John M., Dessie 
Maud. Carrie Minerva, and Bertie Ervin. 

Both Mr. Kirkman and his brother are Re- 
publicans. They are obliging business men, 
and are still conducting their farming operations. 




II. PARKER, one of the early pio- 
neers of Eresno County, is a man who 
9 has eagerly watched the development 
of the great vineyard and cattle interests, and 
the many other entereprises of the San Joaqnin 
valley. 

He was born in Marion County, Missouri, 
September 26, 1830. At the age of nineteen 
he went with his father to Council Bluffs, 
where they had charge of some cattle for three 
or four years. In 1849 Mr. Parker was united 
in marriage with Miss Nancy Wells, a native of 
Kentucky, reared in Missouri; with her and 
their two children he set out for California in 
the year 1853, coming across the plains in the 
pioneer way. Arriving in Salt Lake City they 
spent the winter there. The following spring 
they moved to Carson river, where he left his 
family and went on to Hangtown. There he 
bought a small stock of goods, and had them 
packed backed to Carson river. To move these 
goods it cost him twenty- five cents per pound. 
On Carson river he established a trading post, 
and with his family lived there for some months. 
In the fall of 1854 he moved on to California, 
first settling in Amador County, and next in 
what was then known as Mariposa County, and 
early in 185G he came to his present place, now 
Fresno County. In the latter part of that year 
he came to King's river, bringing what cattle 
he had, and here launched out in the stock 
business. He moved to Millerton in the fall of 
1856, and there conducted a restaurant for 
several years. Mr. Parker relates in a graphic 
manner many interesting reminiscences con- 
nected with the early history of Millerton. 



In the spring of 1865 he located in old 
Fresno City, engaging in various enterprises, 
staging, general merchandising, etc. The great 
flood of 1868 drove him out of the place. At 
one time during its progress he and his entire 
family were in eminent danger of drowning. 
For many miles on either side of their house 
was an expanse of water, rapidly increasing in 
depth, and there seemed to be no chance of 
their escaping a watery grave. At this juncture, 
however, a small steamer which had been run- 
ning up and down the river, packing freight, 
etc., appeared and rescued thein from their 
perilous position. 

Mr. Parker then moved to San Joaquin river, 
on what is known as California ranch; opened 
a general store and conducted a cattle ranch. 
He sold out his interests there in 1872, and 
went to Nevada to make a sale of some horses 
and mules. This he succeeded in doing, but it 
was an unfortunate transaction, and he lost a 
large sum of money. His next and last move 
was in 1873, to Sycamore station, now known 
as Herndon. He first bought a store and after- 
ward engaged in general farming and sheep 
raising. He has disposed of his sheep interests, 
and now devotes his time wholly to his farm. 
He owns a valuable ranch of 600 acres, and has 
been eminently successful in his farming 
operations. 

Mr. Parker has cut a prominent figure in the 
many localities in which he has resided; has had 
a great deal to do with their growth and de- 
velopment, and has ever cast his influence for 
good. He is a man of strong individuality. 
Once secured as a friend, he is faithful and true. 
He served on the first grand jury ever held in 
this county. That was in the fall of 1856. 
While living in Millerton he was the deputy 
sheriff for three years, lie was also Supervisor 
from that district one term. 

October 30, 1890. Mr. Parker met with a sad 
loss in the death of his wife. A heroic woman 
and a devoted wife, she stood by her husband 
through his reverses and successes, through his 
pioneer struggles as well as his latter pros- 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



321 



perity, and ever proved herself a helpmate in 
the true sense of the word. Her funeral was 
attended by a large concourse of friends and 
relatives, among whom were eighteen grand- 
children and her four children. The names of 
the latter are as follows: John F., James T., 
Mary, now Mrs. Charles Strivens, and Kittie, 
now Mrs. Bratton, — all residing in Herndon. 



— =$*■ 



mm 



.+>$=- 




IgRS. HOLD A SNELL, a venerable and 
highly esteemed lady of Tehachapi, is 
one of the early settlers of the Teha- 
chapi valley. Mrs. Snell has been three times 
married. With her second husband, James E. 
Williams, she came to this valley as earl} 7 as 
1867. In 1869 they located at Old Town, where 
they erected the first dwelling house, and a 
little later the first hotel, known as the Moun- 
tain House. Both these buildings have since 
been removed to Tehachapi, the latter being the 
present Mountain House, fronting to the rail- 
way station. 

Mr. Williams was an active business man 
and a respected citizen. He died in 1875, 
leaving five children: Isabella, now Mrs. Jesse 
Morrow, of Fresno; Laura, Mrs. E. Calhoun, of 
Selma; Milam, a resident of Norwalk, Los An- 
geles County; Sierra N., wife of William H. 
Knapp, of Tehachapi; and Major, a rancher 
and stock man of Tehachapi. 

By her marriage to Mr. Snell, Mrs. Snell had 
no children. Although somewhat advanced in 
years, she is a woman of affairs; owns and man- 
ages a ranch besides other property in Te- 
hachapi. 



fOSEPH SPIER, a prominent horticulturist 
of Visalia, and an early settler of Califor- 
nia, was born in Saratoga County, New 
York, November 15, 1826. He is of English 
ancestry, and three generations of the family, 
including himself, were born in the State of 



New York, all having the same name. Grand- 
father Joseph Spier was one of the brave 
soldiers who fought to free the colonies from 
the dominion of King George. The Spiers 
were by occupation farmers, and in faith Prot- 
estants. Mr. Spier's father married Jerusha 
Taylor, a native of his own State, and a de- 
scendant of Holland ancestry, who settled on 
the Mohawk river. To them were born four 
children. 

The subject of this sketch was educated in 
New York. He learned the sign-writer's trade 
and ornamental painting, and has developed 
much taste and talent in decorative and also in 
landscape painting. He emigrated to Illinois 
in 1844, being in Chicago in August of that 
year, growing up with that country. He lived 
in Chicago, Elgin and Peoria at different times. 

In 1852 Mr. Spier came to California and 
first engaged in mining at Columbia, Tuolumne 
County, and in company with others he mined 
in various mining districts of California, often 
meeting with good success, finding as high as 
$500 per day. Like nearly all the early miners 
of California, he would be rich one day and lose 
everything the next, and, nothing daunted, start 
in again and make more. While in Tuolumne 
County he improved a nice home, but when the 
mining interests declined he sold out for a 
trifle. In 1868 he located in Tulare County, 
being at that time financially embarrassed, and 
took up a Government claim of 160 acres. The 
county was then a great cattle range. He went 
to work and made improvements on his land, 
but sold his claim, as he was unable to keep it. 
Shortly afterward he purchased forty acres of 
land, the property on which he now resides and 
which is now within the city limits of Visalia. 
Gradually, as he was able with his own labor, 
he improved this property by planting it to 
fruit trees of every variety grown in California. 
He has seedling orange trees twenty years old, 
grown from seed he himself planted. On the 
6th of May, 1891, the writer of this sketch had 
the pleasure of eating an orange plucked from 
one of these trees. Mr. Spier has also gone 



322 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



into the nursery business quite extensively. In 
partnership with his son, he is doing a large 
business, employing several men as assistants. 
In 1890 they sold 60,000 young trees, and that 
year, for the large variety of fruit exhibited at 
the agricultural fair, received the sweepstakes. 
Mr. Spier also delights in the cultivation of 
choice flowers, and in this his wife takes equal 
pleasure. During all his horticultural experi- 
ence in this county he has been constantly 
making experiments to discover the varieties of 
trees and fruit best suited to his locality, and at 
considerable expense has gained valuable in- 
formation. Some of his young trees have been 
sent to all parts of California and to portions of 
Oregon. In the production of table grapes he 
lias also been very successful, and has a large 
variety of the best kinds. 

Mr. Spier is one of the pioneers in the use of 
water both for mining and agricultural pur- 
poses. In 1854=, with Andrew Fletcher, Dr. 
Windier, John Jolly and others, he organized a 
company and built one of the most extensive 
ditches of that time, being over six miles in 
length; and the organization was incorporated 
as the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Water Com- 
pany. Messrs. Spier and Fletcher superin- 
tended the construction of this immense water- 
course, which cost $2,000,000. The company 
met with strong opposition by rival water com- 
panies, and they were finally financially swamped. 
Mr. Spier always relied upon his talents with 
the brush to help him out in case of financial 
failure in business, and never has parted with 
his artistic outfit, frequently being called upon 
to paint some fine silk banner or some scenic 
work for the ladies' socials and dramatic enter- 
tainments. He has not confined himself to the 
artistic part of painting, being one day working 
on a tine silk banner, the next possibly painting 
the side of a house; the next painting a fine 
carriage, and the next day he might be seen on 
the stage of a theater, flinging colors on a big 
canvas flat to be used in some extravaganza 
soon to be brought out, etc. Nor did he con- 
fine himself to painting alone. Being a natural 



mechanic, he frequently worked at other me- 
chanical business or professions. The knowl- 
edge of engineering, acquired while ditching in 
an early day, made him quite proficient with 
the transit, and many times he has been called 
upon to survey mining claims involving intri- 
cate underground engineering work. But par- 
ticularly did the knowledge acquired iD early 
days prove of great benefit in locating ditches 
or canals in this and other portions of the 
State. 

In 1861, in company with two others., he 
built a flouring-mill near Columbia, one of the 
partners being a professional miller. After one 
year, the miller being dissatisfied, the partners 
bought him out, and therefore Mr. Spier be- 
came his own miller, making a superior quality 
of flour and taking first premium at the Stock- 
ton district fair. In 1863, during the last of 
April, in company with two others, Mr. Spier 
crossed the Sierra Nevada range on foot. There 
were no inhabitants for sixty miles, and only a 
blazed trail to follow. They had to carry their 
own blankets and provisions, and travel twenty 
miles over deep snow. On this trip Mr. Spier 
discovered a new pass, through which the 
Sonora road now runs, being near 1,000 feet 
lower than the one passed over by the trail. 

Since locating in Tulare County, Mr. Spier 
has interested himself in irrigation improve- 
ments, knowing that the success of the country 
depends on it. He has located several ditches 
and has water supplied to all of his land. 

Mr. Spier was married in 1848, at Saratoga, 
New York, to Miss Sarah M. Green, a native of 
Saratoga and a daughter of Daniel D. A. Green, 
who was born in Albany. New York. The 
Greens are descended from an old American 
family who made their home at Greensend, 
Rhode Island, the place taking its name from 
the family who settled there and passed through 
many trying scenes in the Revolution. The 
celebrated Greening apple originated on this 
farm. Mr. and Mrs. Spier have had five chil- 
dren, two sons and three daughters, only two of 
whom survive, viz.: Josephine, wife of George 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



323 



W. Hale, now residing at Sonora, Tuolumne 
County; and Charles A., who is in partnership 
with his father. Their oldest son, Thurlow, 
lived to be twenty-one years of age, and died at 
their home in Visalia. 

Mr. Spier was made a Mason in 1847, at the 
age of twenty-one, and is still a member in 
good standing. Among his other paintings he 
has made three allegorical pictures in Masonry, 
namely, Sunrise, High Meridian, and Sunset. 
They are creditable paintings and illustrate his 
talent in that direction. 

In his early life Mr. Spier was a Whig. At 
the organization of the Republican party he 
joined it and voted for Fremont. When the 
Greenback part}' organized he united with it, 
and he now works in the ranks of the Farmers' 
Alliance. He strongly favored the new Con- 
stitution of California, and was chairman of the 
Workingmen's Committee of his county. At 
his own expense he published a campaign paper 
in their interest, and every candidate he worked 
for was elected. Mr. Spier, as is readily seen 
by a perusal of this sketch, is a man of versa- 
tility of talent. He has done much in many 
ways to advance the interests of California, and 
is well and favorably known by many of the 
pioneers of this State. 

Such, in brief, is a sketch of one of the most 
prominent citizens of Tulare County. 



—==?<+ 



i - »■■! 



**=- 



§ IPTON LINDSEY, a worthy member of 

gjpk the bar of Tulare County, California, is 

<w' one of the men who came to this State in 

1849, and helped to lay the foundation for this 

great commonwealth. 

Mr. Lindsey is a native of Indiana, born in 
Delphi, Carroll County, May 21, 1829. His 
father, John Lindsey. a native of Kentucky, 
removed to Indiana in 1810, at the age of 
nineteen years; took part with Harrison in the 
war of 1812, and had the honor of being a 
member of the first Legislature of Indiana, 
being elected Speaker of that body. In 1829 



he received the appointment from the Govern- 
ment as miller and gunsmith for the Pottawa- 
tamie nation, and served in that capacity seven 
years. He was living in the heart of the In- 
dian country at the time of the Black Hawk war. 
He married Elizabeth Shields, a native of Ten- 
nessee, and of the seven sons born to them the 
subject of this sketch was the sixth, and is now 
the only survivor. Until Tipton was fifteen 
years old they lived where there were no school 
facilities. At that time a friend bought his 
time from the father for $100, and it was in- 
tended that he should work for that gentleman 
until he earned the money. That arrangement, 
however, was not carried out, and when Mr. 
Lindsey came to California he returned the 
money to his friend. Young Lindsey had ob- 
tained a little schooling in South Bend, Indiana, 
and read law under Hon. Thomas S. Stanfield. 
He had confined himself so closely to study and 
writing that his health had become impaired. 
The California gold excitement broke out, and 
it was thought that it would benefit him to 
cross the plains, which he did, driving an ox 
team and walking the entire distance from 
Platte City, Missouri, to " Hangtown," Cali- 
fornia, arriving there on the 5th of September, 
1849. Mr. Lindsey says it was a kill or cure 
medicine, but it helped to cure him. 

Arrived in the Golden State he mined for a 
year with moderate success, after which he 
settled in Santa Clara County, and for ten years 
gave his attention to agricultural pursuits. In 
1860 he purchased cattle and brought them to 
Tulare County, which was then a fine stock 
range, unexcelled by any in the world. In this 
enterprise he was successful until 1864, when 
the great drought caused most of his cattle to 
die. Soon after this he received the appoint- 
ment from Andrew Johnson of Receiver of the 
United States Land Office, and filled that posi- 
tion four years. At the expiration of that time 
he began the practice of law, and in 1873 was 
elected on an independent ticket to the State 
Senate, where he helped to enact the no-fence 
law of the State. After this he was again 



324 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



appointed Receiver of the Land Office, served 
eight years and again took up the practice of 
law, which he has since continued. 

Twenty-five years ago Mr. Lindsey purchased 
land in Visalia, and built a home in which lie 
has since resided. He has also invested in 
lands, and with his son is engaged in fruit- 
culture. 

Mr. Lindsey was married in this State to 
Miss Eliza Fine, a native of Missouri, but who 
was reared in California. They have had three 
children, two of whom are living, — Charles T. 
and Kate, wife of M. P. Frazer. He is a 
Mason, an Odd Fellow and an A. O. U. W.,and 
in his political views is a liberal Republican. 
Few citizens of the community have seen more 
of the wild West than he. 



' ! » < - 3' -' 



fS. BEDFORD, County Surveyor of Fresno 
County, California, was born in Cherokee 
® County, Georgia, in 1848. His parents 
moved to Marshall County, Alabama, in 1859, 
where the father carried on farming, and where 
young Bedford received his education. He at- 
tended the high school at Jacksonville, Ala- 
bama, and graduated in 1865. Then he gave 
attention to the study of surveying, and in 
1868 began work in Nebraska on the Missouri 
& Pacific railroad and the M. K. & T. railroad, 
and was engaged one year in locating and lay- 
ing out these roads. He then worked on the 
Kansas City & Texas railroad about eighteen 
months, after which he located in Palo Pinto, 
Texas, as surveyor and engineer of the Palo 
Pinto Land District, where he remained four 
years. He went to Cisco, and was also inter- 
ested in stock and mercantile business. 

Mr. Bedford came to Fresno in 1885, and was 
engaged in fruit culture about two years, invest- 
ing in city and ranch property. In the fall of 
1888 he was elected County Surveyor, and was 
re-elected in 1890. His work has been chiefly 
laying out county roads and locating sections 
and ranch boundaries. 



Mr. Bedford was married in Texas, in 1875, 
to Miss Mary F. Holcomb, a native of Georgia. 
They have five children, all living at home. Our 
subject is a member of the F. & A. M. and K. 
of P. at Cisco, Texas. 






•£?— 



tERBERT Z. AUSTIN, the popular young 
attorney who forms the subject of this 
sketch, is a native of New York State, 
born in St. Lawrence County, January 15, 1864. 
He was educated at home, and, selecting the law 
for his profession, entered the Law School at 
Albany, New York, — the law department of 
Union College of Scheuectady, — perhaps better 
known as the Albauy Law School. This insti- 
tution is celebrated throughout the country as 
one of the best preparatory law schools in the 
land. During the period he was in attendance 
there he also studied in the law office of Louis 
Hasbrouck, Esq., of Ogdensburg. After his 
graduation, in 1888, he came West and settled 
in Fresno, entering the office of Judge W. D. 
Grady, with whom he is now associated in prac- 
tice, under the firm name of Grady & Austin. 

Mr. Austin was the Republican candidate for 
District Attorney of Fresno County in 1890, 
but was defeated along with the rest of the 
ticket. 

He is unmarried. 



►*-*« 



fUSMAN MITCHELL, cashier of the bank 
of Harrell & Son, Visalia, is a native of 
the golden West. 
His father, Hyman Mitchell, a native of 
Prussia, came to California in 1847, and was 
subsequently married in Stockton to Dora Ja- 
cobs, also of Prussia. Susnian was their only 
child. Hyman Mitchell removed to Visalia six 
months after the birth of their son, and engaged 
in mercantile business, remaining thus em- 
ployed until 1859, when his death occurred. 
The subject of our sketch attended the public 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



325 



schools of Visalia and also the San Jose Busi- 
ness College, graduating in the latter institu- 
tion. He then became a clerk for his uncle, 
Elias Jacobs, and remained with him six years, 
until he received the appointment of Deputy- 
Postmaster of Visalia. Three years later he 
was appointed Postmaster by President Cleve- 
land. He did efficient duty in that capacity, 
made several improvements in the office and 
during his term the salary was increased $600 
per year. He resigned his office in order to ac- 
cept the position of cashier with Harrell & Son, 
Bankers, which he has acceptably filled for the 
past two years. 

Mr. Mitchell was married February 14, 1888, 
to Miss Eva Rozenthal, a native of Stockton. 
He built the beautiful home in which they 
reside, corner of School and Locust streets. He 
also owns a ranch, located one mile from the 
courthou e, where he is engaged in French- 
prune culture. 

Mr. Mitchell is a public spirited man, and 
has done much to promote the best interests of 
Visalia. He is treasurer of the Board of Trade 
of Visalia, secretary of the Fifteenth District 
Agricultural Association, and is a member of 
the common council of the city. He has 
passed all the chairs of both branches of the I. 
O. O. F., and is now treasurer of the lodge. 
He is a charter member of the Parlor of Native 
Sons of the Golden West, takes a just pride in 
the society, and also in the great State in which 
he was born. 



fESSE M. FOX.— Among the prominent 
O IT 

business men of Visalia is found the name 
of Jesse M. Fox, who was born in West 
Virginia, December 23, 1838. His father and 
grandfather both had the same Christian name, 
that of William. They belonged to one of the 
old Virginia families, but of their ancestry little 
is known. Mr. Fox's father married Amy 
McGahan, a native of Virginia, of Scotch ances- 
try, and a daughter of a soldier of the war of 



1812. To them were born two children, Jesse 
M. and a daughter. The former was reared and 
educated in his native State, there learned the 
carpenter trade, and for six years was a clerk in 
the store of Mr. Wilson at Wilson burg. 

In 1869 Mr. Fox came to Visalia, California, 
and was engaged in contracting and building 
for twelve years. He owned a half interest in 
the Visalia water works and at one time also 
owned two planing mills. Unfortunately, both 
the water works and planing and flouring mills 
were destroyed by fire. In 1889 Fox & Will- 
iams rebuilt their present flouring mill, which 
is 50 x 80 feet and four stories high. They also 
built the engine house and a fire-proof store- 
house, the latter being 50 x 150 feet. The mill 
is fitted up with a full roller process, and Mr. 
Fox, now sole proprietor, is doing an extensive 
business. 

Mr. Fox built his home on Court street in 
1873, having married, the year previous, Miss 
Georgia E. Erwin, a native of New York. To 
them was born one child, Amy. After sixteen 
years of married life Mrs. Fox died, in 1888. 
She was a lady much beloved and greatly missed 
by her bereaved family and many friends. Mr. 
Fox is a member of the I. O. O. F. in all its 
branches, and has been a representative to the 
Grand Lodge. In politics he is a Democrat. 
He has held the office of Mayor, and at different 
times has filled all the city offices except that of 
marshal. He is interested in real estate, own- 
ing both town and ranch property. As a busi- 
ness man he is enterprising and prosperous, 
enjoying the confidence and esteem of his fellow 
townsmen. 

ffOHN 1RIBARNE is one of the leading 
I citizens and business men of Tehachapi. 
Viewing the somewhat unusual circum- 
stances of his birth, education and early busi- 
ness experience, the reader can in a large measure 
account for the unique position he occupies in 
the business and social circles of his county and 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



home town, and in a region where success in any 
ordinary vocation in life means so much as it 
does here. 

Mr. Iribarne was born in St. John, August 
13, 1851. His father, Bernard Iribarne; was a 
native of France, born in 1826. By trade lie 
was a stone mason, but upon arrival in Califor- 
nia he promptly engaged in mining at Murphy's 
Camp in Calaveras County, where be met with 
more than average success and remained about 
fifteen years. Then lie took up his residence in 
Los Banos, Merced County, and engaged in 
raising cattle and sheep. After continuing thus 
until 1880 he made a trip to his native country. 
In 1886 he returned to California and located 
in Los Angeles, and lived there in retirement 
until his death, in 1888, when he was sixty-four 
years of age. .Mrs. Iribarne, his wife, died in 
Merced, Merced County, in 1872, fifty-six years 
of age. Her maiden name was Grace Oyam- 
burn, and she was a member of one of the early 
French-Basque families of San Francisco. 

Of the four children in the foregoing family 
the subject of this sketch is the only one living. 
He was sent to France in 1857, at six years of 
age, to be educated, and spent eight years there 
in one of the leading educational institutions. 
It was the fond ambition of his parents to pre- 
pare him for and see him enter the priesthood. 
It became evident, however, that his tastes in- 
clined in the direction of business; and after 
finishing his preparatory studies and taking a 
business course, his school days were brought to 
a close, and he rejoined his parents in Calaveras 
County, this State. In 1876 his father joined 
him in the mercantile business at Merced. In 
1884 he took up his residence in Sumner, Kern 
County, and there, as confidential man and 
bookkeeper for Ardizzi & Olcese, he remained 
two years. In 1886 he came to Tehachapi and 
entered the warehouse business, building the 
first warehouse at the Tehachapi railroad station, 
in 1889, which he still conducts, under the firm 
name of John Iribarne & Co., S. Hineman and 
L. Bachman being his partners. He is also as- 
sociated with the firm of S. Hineman & Co. and 



his extended acquaintance and wide business 
experience is of course invaluable to the com- 
pany. 

March 21, 1878, at Milton, Calaveras County, 
California, be married Miss Mary, a daughter 
of Peter Goyhen (deceased), a native of the 
south of France and a pioneer and prosperous 
rancher of California. 

Mr. Iribarne is recognized as a leader in the 
business, social and political circles of his com- 
munity. Educated as he is, in various lan- 
guages, speaking English, French, Spanish. Por- 
tugese and Basque, his acquaintance is widely 
extended. He is fortunately social and happy 
in his disposition, intuitively quick to read and 
discern the thoughts, tastes and motives of 
those whom he meets, and to adapt himself in 
manner and conversation to the individual mem- 
bers of the decidedly cosmopolitan community 
in which he lives and transacts an extensive 
business. 

In politics he is a pronounced Den. ocrat, 
whose opinions are respected. He is a public- 
spirited citizen, proud of his country, of the 
Tehachapi valley, and in particular of the tosvn 
of Tehachapi. He has graced it with one of the 
finest residences in Kern County, a modern and 
a model home, filled with all the interior con- 
veniences for luxurious living and exterior fur- 
nishings, etc., to constitute it an ornament and 
a source of just pride to the entire valley. 

Mrs. Iribarne is a lady eminently fitted to do 
the honors of so beautiful a home, not the least 
attractive feature of which is the presence of 
two daughters : Bertha, born December 24, 
1880, and Blanch, born September 27, 1882. 

— g « 3 » * r • g — 



P. CROMLEY, Tulare, California, is a 
rancher and one of the pioneers of this 
State. 

He was born in Jefferson County. Pennsyl- 
vania, November 13, 1829, but his earliest 
recollections are of Ohio. His father, accom- 
panied by his family, removed to Hancock 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



327 



County, Ohio, in 1831, and died there at the 
advanced age of ninety-five years. A. P. Crom- 
ley received his education in his native State 
and remained at home until 1849, when, with 
the vast emigration of that year, he, too, pushed 
westward across the plains, landing at Placer- 
ville in the fall of that year. For five years he 
was engaged in mining, with average success, 
and in 1854 turned his attention to the stock 
business near Sacramento. In 1855 he moved 
to King's liver, where he bought 300 acres of 
land and raised stock and kept 1,000 head of 
hogs. He followed the stock business about 
fifteen years, changing from hogs to cattle and 
then to sheep. In 1870 he came to Tulare 
County and was among the first to settle in the 
valley. He took up 160 acres of land west of 
Tulare, upon which he still resides and upon 
which he has since been engaged in agricultural 
pursuits. He has traded some in land and has 
sold a portion of his home ranch, retaining 
ninety-seven acres of it. He annually rents and 
sows about 400 acres to grain and is still en- 
gaged in the stock business, keeping horses, 
cattle and hogs. A five-acre orchard of mixed 
fruits furnishes the supply for home use, and 
sixty acres of his land are devoted to alfalfa. 

Mr. Cromley was first married on the King's 
river. Subsequent to the death of his first wife 
he was married again, at Visalia, February 18, 
1866, to Miss Susan Dunn, a native of Arkan- 
sas. By the two unions he has had fifteen chil- 
dren, thirteen of whom are still living. 

Mr. Cromley is a member of Four Creeks 
Lodge, No. 94, I. O. O. F. He has devoted all 
his life to agricultural pursuits and has i.ever 
held or sought public office. 



§R. BRADLEY W ATM AN DOYLE.— To 
this gentleman belongs the distinction of 
being the first established dentist in 
Fresno. 

Born December 10, 1853, the Doctor was 
reared in Dyersburg, Dyer County, Tennessee, 



and received his education in Newbern at the 
Union Seminary. At the age of eighteen he 
began the study of dentistry with his bother in 
Kentucky, remaining there three years. At the 
close of this period he returned to Tennessee, 
sold his interest in the home property, and, in 
December, 1875, charted a car, and with some 
friends started for the Pacific coast. He set- 
tled temporarily in Kingsburg, Fresno County, 
and, owing to ill-health, he did not immediately 
enter into active practice of his profession, but 
traveled over the surrounding country attend- 
ing to patients in the different settlements. 

In 1879 he came to Fresno and opened an 
office. The year previous he was united in 
marriage with Miss Bacon, a native of Cali- 
fornia, by whom he has two children. The 
Doctor had established a large practice, when, 
ou account of his wife's ill-health, it was deemed 
expedient for them to travel in search of more 
favorable climate. At the end of nine months, 
however, the family returned to Fresno, where 
they have since resided. At present his office 
is in the Fiske building. His honorable busi- 
ness methods, his affable manner and his skill- 
ful treatment of patients have won for him an 
extensive practice. 



£3~ 



H&- 




R. MoQUIDDY is a native of Coffee 
County, Tennessee, born in 1849, son 
of Thomas J. McQuiddy, a sketch of 
whom appears elsewhere in this work. He 
attended the common schools, and at the age 
of twenty began teaching, thus by personal 
effort securing a higher education at the Man- 
chester College in Coffee County. 

Mr. McQuiddy was married, in 1872, to Miss 
Ida C. Putnam, and in 1874 they came to Cal- 
ifornia and settled in the Mussel slough dis- 
trict, Tulare County. He took up 160 acres of 
railroad land, and was one of the incorporators of 
the Settlers' Ditch Company, organized to divert 
water from Cross creek. The country being so 
dry and farming unprofitable, Mr. McQuiddy 



328 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



returned to the occupation of teaching, which 
he followed for six years in Tulare and Fresno 
counties, and for three years was a member of 
the Board of Examiners for Tulare County. 
Owing to the land troubles with the railroad 
company, improvements were slow and the 
people were in an unsettled condition for sev- 
eral years. 

Having lost his wife in 1874, Mr. McQuiddy 
was married a second time, in the fall of 1879, 
near Han ford, to Miss Rebecca McMillan, a 
native of Louisiana. In 1880 he returned to 
farming, but in 1883, having previously sold 
his claim, he gave up agricultural pursuits and 
settled in Han ford, where he engaged in life, 
fire and accident insurance, and also in the real- 
estate business. In 1885 he was appointed 
Deputy Sheriff, which gave him an inclination 
toward the practice of law. In 1886 he was 
elected Justice of the Peace of Mussel Slough 
Township, which office he held for two years. 
Since that time he has engaged somewhat in 
the practice of law in the justice court, 
although devoting most of his time to the in- 
surance business, and to looking after collec- 
tions for outside parties. 

Mr. and Mrs. McQuiddy have two children: 
Inez, aged eleven years; and Edna, aged six 
years. He is a member of Hanford Lodge, 
-No. 264, I. O. (). F. For eight years he has 
been secretary of the People's Ditch Company 
one of the most important ditches of the Lu- 
cerne district. 

f TILES A. McLAUGHLIN, vineyardist 
and rancher at Lemoore, was born in 
Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1852, a son of 
Win. H. McLaughlin, a mechanic by trade. In 
1862 the latter moved to Pennsylvania, and in 
1866 to Mercer County, Illinois, where he fol- 
lowed his particular industry. Our subject 
lived at home until 1872, when he came to 
California, first settling at Woodland, Yolo 
County, as an employe upon the fruit ranch of 



R. B. Blower, one of the first raisin developers 
of California. In 1873 Mr. McLaughlin came 
to Lemoore and bought a claim for 160 acres 
of railroad land, where lie began farming, and 
in the spring of 1874 he received grape cut- 
tings from Mr. Blower, of Woodland. He set 
out about two acres to vines, and made the first 
raisins in that part of the valley. In 1878 lie 
sold his ranch and purchased his present place 
of forty acres, west of Lemoore. In the spring 
of 1879 he set out ten acres in fruit and vines, 
and has since added to the amount of twenty- 
eight acres, the remainder of the ranch being 
in alfalfa. His vines are in full bearing and 
are considered very line, as they produce two 
and a half tons of raisins to the acre. In 1888 
Mr. McLaughlin, in partnership with I. H. 
Ham and C. L. Dingley, of San Francisco, 
purchased 421 acres of land adjoining the town. 
In the spring of 1889 they set eighty acres to 
fruit-trees and vines, to which they have since 
added, and now have sixty acres in fruit and 
170 acres in vines, all doing well and just com- 
ing into bearing. Mr. McLaughlin superin- 
tends the ranch, and its fine condition is the 
most substantial evidence of its able manage- 
ment. 

Mr. McLaughlin built his handsome cottage 
home in 1889; and his tank-house adjoining, 
covering his artesian well, is both useful and 
beautiful. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. 
of Lemoore, and of the Farmers' Alliance. 
Active in all of his pursuits, he is deeply in- 
terested in the fruit interests of California. 

He was married at Lemoore, in 1876, to Miss 
Mary Wright, a native daughter, and the union 
has been blessed with two children: Wilmot 
Wright and Aimee Edna. 



■-=*»« 



»<-£=-• 




FARLEY was born in Montgomery 
County, Alabama, in 182S. His fa- 
^Wr?' 3 ' ther, J. C. Farley, a native of Massa- 
chusetts, was a merchant and farmer. He set- 
tled in Alabama in 1817, two years before 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



329 



Alabama became a State, and built the first, 
house of sawed lumber in the city of Mont- 
gomery. 

At the age of nine years young Farley went 
to Jamica Plain, Massachusetts, to attend the 
private school of Stephen Minot Weld, and 
remained five years. He then returned to his 
home, where, until 1851, he was engaged in 
teaching his younger brot hers and studying and 
reading law with a Mr. Harris. In 1851 he 
entered a law school at Tuskagee, Alabama, 
taught by Judge William P. Chilton; 1853 
found him in Jefferson, Texas, launching out 
upon a professional career. During one year 
of his residence in that place he edited the 
Jefferson Gazette. He met with flatterino- suc- 

o 

cess in the practice of law, and resigned his 
position as editor to give his undivided atten- 
tion to his profession. 

In 1861 Mr. Farley enlisted in Texas, in the 
Trans-Mississippi Department, entering as a 
private and being promoted to Lieutenant in the 
Ordnance Department. He subsequently be- 
came the ordnance officer of the division, with 
brevet rank of Major. He served all through 
the war and never received a wound. 

After peace was declared, he returned to his 
family in Texas and remained there until 1868, 
when he came to California. His first location 
in the Golden State was at Salinas, Monterey 
County. In 1874 he was elected District 
Attorney of Monterey Couuty, and in 1876 
Justice of the Peace and Police Judge of 
Salinas, and during his term of office wrote the 
city charter. In 1880 Mr. Farley removed to 
Downieville, Sierra County. From that place 
he was sent to the State Legislature for the 
general session of 1883 and the special session 
of 1884. After retiring from the Legislature 
he was seriously ill and came south for a milder 
climate settling in Fresno in 1887. In March 
of the following year he entered into a partner- 
ship with Judge Holmes, and is now engaged 
in a general law practice. 

Mr. Farley was married in Jefferson, Texas, 
in 1857, ti Miss Rosalie Reid, a native of Ala- 



bama. They are the parents of six children, 
all settled in California. 



tM. CLARK, one of the early pioneers of 
California, was born in Madison County 
s Mississippi, in 1831. He was educated 
in the private schools of that period, which 
were held in log cabins, and lived on the farm 
with his parents until he was nineteen years old. 

In January, 1850, Mr. Clark started for Cali- 
fornia, crossing Mexico to Mazatlan and thence 
by water to San Francisco, where he arrived in 
May of that year. He then went to Nevada 
City to join his father, who came West in 1849. 
For sixteen years he followed mining continu- 
ously, always with paying results, but never 
striking a bonanza claim. He came to Fresno 
County in 1867, and wa< engaged at the copper 
mine, at Buchanan, for about six years. 

In 1873, Mr. Clark was elected County Clerk 
and Recorder of Fresno County, assuming the 
duties of the office in March, 1874, at Miller- 
ton, which was then the county seat. In the 
fall of 1874 he moved the records to Fresno, 
and in September of the same year assisted in 
laying the corner stone of the new courthouse. 
In the interim his office was located in a cheap 
structure on the courthouse grounds. Mr. 
Clark held the office of County Clerk and Re- 
corder for eleven years. By 1884 the business of 
the office had increased so much that it was 
deemed best to separate the work of the clerk 
and recorder, and he retired. In 1885 he was 
elected to the Legislature, and since the expira- 
tion of his term of office he has devoted him- 
self to his private business, saying he has no 
further political aspirations. 

Mr. Clark formed a partnership with W H. 
McKenzie in abstract business, and since 1878 
they have carried on an extensive business, using 
the Dnrfee system of abstracts. In 1884 
Messrs. Clark & McKenzie bought a controlling 
interest in the Fresno Loan and Savings Bank. 
The capital stock, then $20,000, has been in- 



330 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



creased to $300,000, all paid up, and this bank 
now represents one of the leading institutions 
of its kind in the city. All through these 
years Mr Clark has continued his mining in- 
terests, now being a member of the Harron 
Gold Mining Company, the stock of whicli is 
all owned by Messrs. Clark, McKenzie & Hoxie. 
Their mine is located in the foothills, near the 
old county seat. They have recently erected a 
Huntingdon rotary mill with rock breakers, 
concentrators, and the latest improved ma- 
chinery, capacity of the same being equal to a 
ten-stamp mill. The quartz ranges from $25 
to $30 per ton. 

Mr. Clark was a member of the Board of 
School Trustees during 1886 and 1887. In 1887 
he was elected a member of the Board of City 
Trustees, which office he resigned in 1889, to 
make a trip East. In addition to his interests 
already referred to, he has rancli and city prop- 
erty. Mr. Clark is a prominent Knight Tem- 
plar, at this writing being Eminent Commander 
of the Eresno Commandery, No. 29. 

In Sacramento, in 1865, he was married to Miss 
Emma Gliddon, who died in Eresno, in 1880. 
His present wife he wedded in Eresno, Decem- 
ber 25, 1882. She :.as Miss Sadie Bemis, a 
native of Massachusetts. Mr. Clark is the 
father of four children, two sons and two 
daughters. 



- * : '" ^ , l ,, c f ; " 

fDWIN SWAIN BALAAM crossed the 
plains to this State with an ox team in 
1853, and as an old settler of Tulare County 
is justly entitled to honorable mention in the 
history now under consideration. 

Mr. Balaam was born in Arkansas, December 19, 
1841. son of George and Sarah (Swain) Balaam, 
natives of England. His father was born Decem- 
ber 4, 1805; came to the United States and first 
settled in Ohio, then in Kentucky, later in Ar- 
kansas and still later in Texas, coming with his 
family to California in 1853. He now resides 
in Cambria, San Luis Obispo County. Of the 



nine children born to him and his wife seven 
are living. 

The subject of our sketch was twelve years 
old when he arrived in California, and his edu- 
cation was obtained in Tulare County. He was 
married in 1863 to Miss Madora M. Glass, a 
native of Texas, and a daughter of Robert Glass, 
who came to California in 1853. Four children 
have been born to them, all in Tulare County, 
namely: Emma, wife of W. G. Davis; Albert 
S., Walter J. and Charles Frederick. 

In 1865 Mr. Balaam located 160 acres of 
land adjoining the farm on which he now re- 
sides. He improved it and lived on it ten 
years, after which he sold out and in 1875 built 
the Earmersville Hotel, which he conducted 
four years. He then removed to Tulare and 
built the Pacific Hotel, leasing it soon afterward 
and coming to his present location. His home 
place consists of eighty acres of choice land, 
which he has improved by planting and building 
and on which he is engaged in grain, fruit and 
stock-farming. Mr. Balaam was in early life 
a Democrat, but in later years espoused the 
cause of temperance and is now a Prohibition- 
ist. He is one of the worthy and reliable 
settlers of the county, and takes pride in its 
welfare and growth. 



gpLIJAH T. COLVIN, a rancher near Vis- 
YfifL alia, was born in Green County, Alaba- 
of* ma, in 1834, the son of Charnerand Mary 
(Coleman) Colvin, natives of South Carolina. 
The father was a farmer, and they had a family 
often children, only two of whom survive, the 
subject of this sketch and a sister, Mrs. Martha 
J. Fuller, who lives in Texas. Mr. Colvin's 
father died in Texas in 1854, and his mother in 
1840. In April, 1855, Mr. Colvin left the Elm 
Fork of the Brazos river, Texas, for California, 
via the Southern route, and in November ar- 
rived in Los Angeles County, where be rented 
land for one year. In 1857 he came to Tulare 
County and engaged in the stock business, at 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



331 



which lie has been, very successful. He tirst 
took up forty acres of Government laud in the 
foothills east of Visalia. At the present time 
he owns three sections of fine stock land at 
what is known as Colvin's Point, named for 
him, fourteen miles east of Visalia. Mr. Colvin 
has an interest in the Armory Hall, Visalia, 
and also owns valuable business property on 
Main street, and residence property in different 
parts of the city. 

While in Texas he married Miss Catharine 
Reynolds, a native of Alabama, and the daughter 
of Jesse W. and Ann (Collins) Reynolds, both 
natives of North Carolina. She was their only 
child. By this marriage there were eight chil- 
dren, only four of whom are living, — Joseph, 
who married Belle Clarkson; Wiley, who died 
in infancy; Ida. wife of R. R. Elrod; she died 
in 1882, being the mother of two children; 
Jesse, who married Olive Gregg; Lee Ora, now 
a student at Stockton; Ella, who died at sixteen 
years of age; Charner, who died at seventeen 
years and Leonidas J. The mother of these 
children died in 1882, and in 1888 Mr. Colvin 
married Mrs. Anne Fudge, a daughter of Will- 
iam Noland of Downieville, an early pioneer 
from Virginia. By her first husband she had 
two children, — Hattie and Willie. Mr. Colvin 
politically is a Democrat, and is a successful 
business man. 

tORENZO A. ROCKWELL was born in 
Canada, January 30, 1852, the descendant 
of an old English family. They trace their 
ancestry back to Norman origin. The first of 
the family who went to England was Sir Rolph de 
Rocheville, who accompanied the Empress 
Maud into England when she went thither to 
claim the throne during Norman conquests in 
1066. He afterward joined the fortunes of 
King Henry II., and received a large grant of 
land in the county of York, where some of his 
descendants reside at the present day. Their 
arms were: " Argent (white) upon a chief sable 



(black); three boars' heads couped (cut off), or 
(gold) langued (tongued) gules (red) crest upon 
a wreath of the colors of the shield, or boar's 
head, as in the arms." The motto was: " Tout 
pour mon Dieu et mon Hoi." 

During the reign of King James II. (we 
think), when so many sought a refuge in Amer- 
ica, where they could have the freedom to wor- 
ship God as they chose. Deacon William Rock- 
well was among those who landed on the shores 
of Massachusetts. He sailed across the Atlantic 
in the ship Mary and John, and landed on New 
England soil May 30, 1630. He brought with 
him his wife and sou, and they became the first 
settlers of Dorchester, Massachusetts. From 
this progenitor sprang the family of Rockwells 
in America. He was one of the first three 
selectmen of the town of Dorchester. He sub- 
sequently removed to Windsor, Connecticut, 
where he was deacon of the first church and a 
leading man in the settlement until the time of 
his death, May 15, 1640. The descendants of 
this man are now scattered all over the United 
States, Canada and other couutries. In the 
United States they occupy prominent positions 
as statesmen, college professors and ministers 
of the gospel. Not less than twenty of them 
have represented their States in the lower house 
of Congress, and six have occupied seats in the 
United States Senate. In the times of war the 
Rockwells have acted valiantly their part. 

Three of the descendants of William Rock- 
well were in succession called John Rockwell. 
Jonathan was of the fifth generation. The next 
descendant in direct line was Timothy Rock- 
well, born December 20, 1760. His son, Niram 
Wildman Rockwell, born August 12, 1797, re- 
moved from Vermont to Canada, and his son, 
Anson John Rockwell, born in Canada, was the 
father of the subject of this sketch. 

Mr. Rockwell's father and family moved from 
Canada to a farm near Coldwater, Michio-an 
where they resided two years. In 1871 they 
located in Iowa, where they also remained two 
years, and in 1873 came to Visalia, California. 
Here both father and son engaged in contract- 



332 



BISTORT OF CEhTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ing and building. Young Rockwell attended 
the normal school in Visalia three years, and 
after his graduation was engaged in teaching 
six years. In 1884 he came to Traver, then an 
embryo town, and since that time has been an 
important factor in its development, and is con- 
nected with much of its history. He opened 
the pioneer drug store of the town and is still 
conducting it. He was appointed the first 
Justice of the Pe ce and held the office nearly 
four years; was one of the organizers of the 
school district in the town, was elected one of 
the first trustees and has served as secretary of 
the board of trustees since the organization of 
the district. In politics he is a Republican, and 
an enthusiastic worker in the ranks of his party; 
has been a member of the Republican Central 
Committee for the past fifteen years; has been 
sent as a delegate to all the county conventions, 
and was a delegate to the three last State con- 
ventions (1886-'88-'90), and also delegate to the 
Congressional conventions. In the fraternal 
circles of Traver he is likewise popular, and 
there, too, is an enthusiastic worker. He is a 
charter member and was the first Master of the 
lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, which po- 
sition he held three years, and is a Knight 
Templar, having held important offices in all 
the lodges of Masonry. He is a charter mem- 
ber of the I. O. O. F., was the first conductor 
and belongs to all the branches of Odd Fellow- 
ship. He belongs also to the Eastern Star 
order and was first Patron or the Chapter; was 
the first Chief Ranger in the lodge of Foresters; 
and is Past Master in the A. O. U. W. He is 
president of the Traver Import Company. In 
addition to his other business enterprises, he 
has also interested himself in a fruit ranch, 
where he has erected buildings and planed 
vines and trees. He also built a nice resi- 
dence in Traver 

In 1880 Mr. Rockwell was united in marriage 
to Miss Ella Pennebaker, a native of Iowa and 
a daughter of W. G. Pennebaker, an early set- 
tler and prominent rancher of Visalia. Their 
union was blessed with one child, a son — Guy 



L. After four years of happy married life Mrs. 
Rockwell died. She was a most estimable lady 
and her loss is deeply felt. 

Mr. Rockwell is a man of high moral charac- 
ter, a pleasing and interesting writer and a 
fluent and easy speaker. His labors for the 
benefit of his town have been appreciated by 
his fellow citizens, and by all who know him he 
is highly esteemed. 



fOHN REICHMAN, cashier of the Farm- 
ers' Bank of Fresno, is a native of Ger- 
many, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
August 24, 1843. At the age of fourteen he 
came to America and located at New Orleans, 
where he availed himself of the educational ad- 
vantages offered him by an uncle residing in 
that city. Having a taste for business, he en- 
tered Dolbear's Commercial College, which at 
that time was the leading business college of 
the South. There he received an excellent 
business education and developed a marked 
adaptation for business life. The work of the 
bookkeeper, the expert accountant and the 
cashier came natural to him when very young, 
and, as subsequent^events show, his work in this 
field has been eminently successful. 

After his graduation at Xew Orleans he ac- 
cepted a position as bookkeeper and accountant 
in that city. In 1865 he removed to Houston, 
Texas, where he had a brother residing, with 
whom he entered business. From 1867 to 1874 
he had charge of the offices of a large wholesale 
grocery and cotton factorage business, and in 
the latter year he was elected by the city coun- 
cil, Secretary and Treasurer of that city, which 
responsible position he held for a period of 
twelve years, being frequently elected by an 
unanimous vote. Being recognized as an ex- 
pert accountant of ability, he was engaged by 
the parties in interest to examine into the books 
and affairs of a railroad town site company, 
the transactions running back for a period of 
twenty -five years, which employed his time until 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



333 



he left for California, in 1887. This work, in- 
volving over a million, was done so satisfactorily 
that the attorneys had him appointed auditor by 
the court before whom cases for settlement were 
pending, and all parties accepted his figures 
and settled and dismissed the suits. Another 
illustration of his ability as an expert account- 
ant may be briefly cited here. He was selected 
by the bondsmen of a defaulting tax collector 
who had absconded, to examine the books and 
tax rolls of his office in order to ascertain the 
amount of the defalcation and fix the liabilities 
of each of three sets of bondsmen, the party 
having been in office for three terms. He found 
the shortage to be over $40,000; his figures 
were accepted by the State and county and the 
bondsmen, and payment was promptly made ac- 
cordingly, — a very gratifying result and one 
that reflected credit on its author. For nine 
years Mr. Reichman was a member of the Board 
of Education and its secretary, and devoted much 
time and labor to the public-school question, as- 
sisting materially in the upbuilding of one of 
the finest school systems and school buildings 
in Texas. He was instrumental in the organ- 
ization of the Houston Homestead and Loan As- 
sociation and became its secretary and treasurer, 
which position he held for seven years, turning 
over the books to his successor with a paid up 
capital of $100,000. 

Being a lover of music he was always con- 
nected with some choral society, and in 1884 
was the president of the Texas Saengerfest. For 
many years he was a director in the Houston 
Volksfest Association and also served as presi- 
dent for two terms. Both of these institutions 
are social in their character, the former being a 
convocation of all the singing societies of the 
State in some city previously selected, every 
two years, at which vocal and instrumental 
music of a very high order is produced; the lat- 
ter arranges and manages in May of each year 
out-door feasts for young and old. These feasts 
have become very popular, having been cele- 
brated for more than twenty years. 

He is a member of the Masonic order, being 



a Past Master of Holland Lodge, No. 1, the old- 
est Masonic lodge in the State of Texas. 

On September 14, 1887, Mr. Reichman ar- 
rived in Fresno to accept the office of cashier of 
the Farmers' Bank of Fresno, which position 
he now tills. 

Mr. Reichman was married in 1867. He and 
his wife are the parents of one child, a very at- 
tractive little daughter. 

— ■—£*$«*-§--"' — ■ 

USTIN YOUNG is the popular landlord 
of the Piute Hotel, and one of the leading 
-■ citizens of Tehachapi. He is a son of 
Edmund Young, M. D., of Fruitvale, East 
Oakland, Alameda County, California. Dr. 
Young graduated in medicine at Syracuse, New 
York, and practiced his profession for a time, 
retiring in 1860. He is a native of Ya f es 
County, New York, and married Eleanor Bell, 
also of that county. They came to California, 
landing in San Francisco, May 6, 1865, their 
family then consisting of three sons and two 
daughters, of whom Austin Young is the oldest. 

Mr. Young was educated in the public schools 
of Solano county, and at Heald's business col- 
lege, graduating at the latter institution in the 
class of 1876. After leaving school he eon- 
ducted one of his father's farms for about six 
years; was employed one year as a shipping 
clerk at Port Costa, Coutra Costa County, and 
served as a letter carrier in the United States 
postal service, in San Francisco, four years and 
a half. Mr. Young located at Tehachapi, March 
1, 1889, and conducted the Golden Gate res- 
taurant about eighteen months, after which, in 
1890, he built and opened the Piute Hotel 
and bar. 

June 6, 1888, Mr. Young married Miss 
Marian Goyhen, of San Francisco. She is a 
daughter of Peter Goyhen, deceased, a native 
of south France. Mrs. Young was born in 
San Francisco on the 6th of May, 1862. She 
is a lady of tine domestic tastes and modern 
education, speaks the French, Basque, Spanish 



314 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and English languages fluently, and the grace- 
ful and quiet manner in which she fills the 
position of landlady of the new Piute Hotel is 
evidence of her social tact and executive ability. 
Mr. Young is a genial and social gentleman, an 
enterprising business man, and a popular citizen. 
His hotel is an orderly and favorite one — such 
an institution as no town of modern pretentions 
and aspirations can afford to do without. 



fOHN FRANKLIN FIREBAUGH, found- 
er of the village of Exeter, Tulare Coun- 
ty, California, was born in Virginia, 
December 12, 1846. His father, Benjamin 
Franklin Firebaugh, was a native of the Old 
Dominion, and his grandfather was a native of 
Pennsylvania, their ancestors having come to 
this country from Germany. 

Mr. Firebaugh was reared and educated in 
his native State, and when the great civil war 
came on he was taken into the Confederate 
ranks and was under the command of Major 
Chrisfman. He was participant in one of the 
battles fought in the Shenandoah valley, but 
was most of the time in service at Richmond, 
Virginia. 

In 1868, in company with his father and 
family, he came to California, making the jour- 
ney by water. His father subsequently died in 
the San Joaquin valley. Mr. Firebaugh came 
to his present location in the fall of 1875, and 
took up a quarter section of Government land. 
He purchased another quarter section from the 
railroad company and also acquired other lands, 
making a total of 560 acres, which he devoted 
to the raising of grain. In the spring of 1889 
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company was 
building its east branch. Al this time Mr. 
Firebaugh sold a part of his lai ds to Mr. D. 
W. Parkhurst, and they deeded to the railroad 
company one half of 240 acres of land on the 
condition they would build a depot and make a 
town site. The name of Exeter was given to 
the station by the railroad company. The site 



is a splendid one, ten miles and a half from 
Visalia, twenty miles from Porterville and fifty- 
two miles from Fresno. It has a wide tract of 
grain land to the west i.nd is flanked by rocky 
hills. Mr. Firebaugh built a fine residence in 
1889, where he resides with his family. 

Mr. Firebaugh has a half interest in the San 
Joaquin roller-process flouring mills, located 
west of Exeter on the People's Consolidated 
ditch. This mill is in a flourishing condition 
and does the business of the vicinity. Mr. 
Firebaugh is a public spirited, energetic and 
enterprising business man, and is held in high 
esteem by the citizens of this new town. He 
is a liberal Democrat and belongs to the Far- 
mers' Alliance. 

He was married in 1873, to Miss Mary E. 
Davis, daughter of Edwin Davis, one of the 
early settlers of Tulare County. Five children 
have been born to them, all in Tulare County, 
namely : Minnie, Luther, Edna, Elmer and 
Clarence. 



fAMES WALLACE OAKES was born in 
Canada West, September 1, 1836. His 
father, Hammon Oakes, was born and reared 
in Canada, and his grandfather, James Oakes, 
who was of French and German descent, was a 
lumberman on the St. John river. New Bruns- 
wick. Mr. Oakes' father married Isabella Phil- 
ips, a native of Canada. Here people, how- 
ever, were New Yorkers. Of their twelve 
children, three died when quite young and seven 
are still living. James W. was their fifth child. 

o 

He was reared and educated in Norfolk County. 

At the age of nineteen Mr. Oakes went to 
Iowa and worked there as a farmer, a part of 
the time doing job work, breaking up the prai- 
ries of Lowaand Missouri, using seven j'okes of 
oxen to one large plow. 

In 1858 he started from Leavenworth and 
crossed the plains to California. That year the 
Indians were troublesome and menaced them 
frequently, but the party arranged themselves 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



335 



for fight and the Indians withdrew. After a 
journey of three months, Mr. Oakes and his 
party arrived in this State, and he at once 
sought the mines. He followed mining nearly 
all the time for eleven years, both placer and 
quartz mining, in El Dorado and Butte coun- 
ties, being at Oroville, Cherokee Flats, Grass 
Valley and Nevada City. Sometimes he was for- 
tunate and other times the reverse, his experi- 
ence being similar to that of the majority of 
miners. 

In 1868 he came to Tulare County, rented 
lands and farmed in that way several years. He 
now owns a nice home and valuable farm of 280 
acres, where he is raising cattle, . hogs and 
horses. His attention is especially given to the 
raising of trotting horses, both the John Frank- 
lin and Bay Rose breeds, and he is the owner of 
some valuable stock. 

Mr. Oakes was married in 1873 to Mrs. Mag- 
gie Allen, a native of Arkansas. By her for- 
mer husband, a native of Missouri, Mrs. Oakes 
has one son, William Byron Allen. 

Politically Mr. Oakes is a Democrat; has 
served as deputy county sheriff two years and 
as United States deputy marshal three years. 
He is a member of the A. O. U. W., and is a 
reliable and worthy citizen of Tulare County. 



-==s* 



+*— 



fUDGE SAMUEL ASHE HOLMES, Fres- 
no, California, was born in Wilmington, 
North Carolina, December 20, 1830. His 
father, Owen Holmes, was a lawyer of Wil- 
miugton and a man of marked ability. He was 
elected Superior Judge of North Carolina in 
1836, by the General Assembly, but declined 
accepting the office as he was engaged in a very 
large practice. He was Democratic elector in 
the Harrison- Van Buren campaign in 1840. He 
died at Wilmington June 6, 1840, in his forty- 
fifth year. 

After the death of his father, Samuel was 
sent to Fayetteville, North Carolina, to live 
with a maiden aunt and to attend the academy 



of Rev. Simeon Colton, where he remained un- 
til 1847. In that year he entered the University 
of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, and graduated 
in 1851. The following year he commenced 
the study of law in the office of Hon. James C. 
Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy under President 
Franklin Pierce. In 1853 young Holmes went 
to Hillsboro, North Carolina, and entered the 
law office of Messrs. Nash & Bailey. Judge 
Nash was at that time chief justice of the State. 
In 1854 Mr. Holmes was admitted to prac- 
tice in the county courts, and in 1855 to all the 
courts of the State. Judge John Stanley, a 
Democratic candidate for Supreme Court of 
California, was a member of his class. 

in 1855 the subject of our sketch began the 
practice of his profession in Wilmington. The 
following year he was elected a member of the 
Legislature of North Carolina. In 1868 he 
moved to Washington County, Mississippi, re- 
tired from practice and devoted himself to agri- 
cultural pursuits on a cotton plantation of 1,000 
acres. In 1861 he volunteered in the Twenty- 
eighth Mississippi Cavalry as a private, and 
served in that capacity until the close of the 
war. He then returned to his plantation, and 
for three years continued the cultivation of cot- 
ton; but, with free negroes, who would not work 
steadily, it was no longer a profitable business, 
and he gave it up. 

In company with four others, he came to Cal- 
ifornia in April, 1868, making the voyage via 
the Isthmus of Panama, and landing in San 
Francisco May 3, 1868. They came to Fresno 
County in July and founded the Alabama Colo- 
ny near the present town of Madera. Judge 
Holmes bought lumber in Stockton, built a 
house and sent for his family that fall. Stock- 
ton was the nearest town for supplies and Mil- 
lertou, thirty-five miles away, was the nearest 
post office. The Judge purchased about 4,000 
acres of land; but, from a series of dry years, 
support became impossible on the ranch, and in 
1879 he was forced by circumstances to curta'^ 
his farming interest. In 1878 he was elected 
delegate from Fresno County to the con titn- 



336 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



tional convention at Sacramento, held Septem- 
ber 28, 1878, to formulate the new constitution. 
In 1879 be was elected tbe first Superior Judge 
of Fresno County under tbe new constitution, 
and occupied tbat ] osition until January, 1885, 
when he retired from the bench. In the fall of 
1889 he was re-elected to the same office, taking 
his seat January 5, 1891. 

Judge Holmes was married in Areola, Alaba- 
ma, January 6, 1855, to Miss Mary W. Strud- 
wrick. Of the ttn children born to this worthy 
couple, only three are living, namely: Betsy, 
wife of W. J. Pickett, deputy sheriff of Fresno 
County; Owen, engaged in the real-estate busi- 
ness in Fresno; and William Ashe, who is now 
attendiug school. 



fEREMIAH SHIELDS, one of the solid 
men and a pioneer of the Tehachapi valley, 
lias, by dint of his own industry and perse- 
verance, illustrated what a man with these qual- 
ities and virtues may accomplish in California. 

Mr. Shields was born in Ireland, January 1, 
1844; came to America in 1867, at the age of 
twenty-three years, with comparatively no 
means. In 1869 he landed in California, hav- 
ing since his arrival in America worked along 
the line of the Union Pacific in Wyoming and 
Utah territories. In San Joaquin he tried his 
hand at farming, and in 1870 commenced work 
for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. In 
1876 he came to Tehachapi, since which time he 
has continuously held the position of railroad sec- 
tion boss of section 13, Los Angeles division, 
having charge of one of the most crooked and 
heavy pieces of road on the entire line. His 
long service with the company speaks volumes 
for his skill as a track man and shows tbat his 
labors have been appreciated. 

Mr. Shields purchased a tract of land lying 
ilong the road about two miles below Tehach- 
api station in 1878. From time to time he 
has voided to his possessions until he now owns 
1,000 acres of good agricultural and grazing 



lands. This season (1891) he has 200 acres in 
grain. He ranges about 150 cattle, ten horses 
and other stock. 

February 19, 1873, Mr. Shields married in 
Sacramento, Miss Catharine Shields, no relative 
of bis, however. They have six children: James, 
Henry, George, Jeremiah. Edward and Hugh. 
Mr. Shields is a public-spirited and piogiessive 
citizen. He takes a lively interest in matters per- 
taining to the public good; is now serving as 
School Director for Tehachapi district. 

tD. and D. S. EWING, gentlemen well 
known throughout Fresno County, Cali- 
° fornia, are natives of Callaway County, 
Missouri. Their father, H.N. Ewing, is a farmer 
by occupation. He visited the gold mines 
of California in 1852, but returned to Missouri 
and remained there until April, 1882, when he 
brought his family to this State and settled in 
Fresno. 

A. D. Ewing was educated in the common 
schools of Missouri, and graduated at Spanld- 
ing's Commercial College, Kansas City, in 1880. 
He then gave his attention to the hay and grain 
business in that city, continuing there about 
two years. He sold out in January, 1883. and 
came to California, purchasing twenty acres of 
land in the Fresno colony and devoting his 
time to cultivating it in fruit, vines and alfalfa. 
In 1887 he sold out, went to San Francisco and 
took a course of study in the Pacific Business 
College. Returning to Fresno, he accepte- a 
deputyship under B. A. Hawkins, Superintend- 
ent of County Schools. In tbe fall of 1888, 
Mr. Ewing was elected County Tax Collector, 
assuming tbe duties of the office on January 1. 
1889. For two years he has performed the 
work of this office in a manner that has reflected 
much credit on himself. He was married at 
Kansas City June 2, 1890, to Miss Mollie W. 
Mundy. Socially he is connected wit'i the I. 
O. O. F., Fresno Lodge, No. 186. 

D. S. Ewiug was educated in tbe ward schools 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



337 



of Missouri, and came to California with, his 
parents in April, 1882. He remained on the 
ranch with them until 1888, when he entered the 
Pacific Business College of San Francisco and 
pursued a course of study. Returning to Fresno 
in the fall of that year, he was appointed Dep- 
uty City Tax Collector, and on January 1, 1889, 
he received the appointment of Deputy County 
Tax Collector by his brother A. D. Ewing. He 
is a member of Fresno Lodge, JSo. 409, I. O. 
G. T. 

The brothers have recently purchased a forty- 
acre ranch in the Nye-Marden colony, near 
Fowler, which they are planting in vines. 

tC. ALBERTS is a sturdy pioneer of Cal- 
ifornia. He came to this State in 1849 
9 and was one of the original settlers of the 
town of Columbia, Tnolumne County. 

He was born in Hanover, Germany, May 25, 
1824, the son of a clergyman of the Dutch Re- 
formed Presbyterian Church, and one in a family 
of three sons and three daughters. At tne age 
of twenty-six years he sailed to America, com- 
ing as second officer of a merchant sailing vessel. 
After mining until 1854, he went to Stockton 
and did carpenter work for a time. He then 
joined the United States Coast Survey and 
served the Government four years. Next spent 
eight months in San Francisco, after which, in 
1858, he went to Crescent City, California, and 
subsequently spent seven years at Jacksonville, 
Oregon. 

In 1861 Mr. Alberts married Jane Franklin, 
a native of Illinois. In 1865 they removed to 
Santa Cruz, California, and later to Ventura 
County, where he was one of the first settlers of 
the Santa Clara valley. There they remained ten 
years, at the end of which time they came to their 
present home in tlje vicinity of Greenwich, 
where they own 700 acres of the best soil in 
Kern County. Mr. Alberts is interested in 
farming and stock-raising. 

He and his wife have an orderly family of 



four sons and three daughters, all reared to hab- 
its of industry and frugality. Mr. Alberts 
ranks among the best citizens of his locality. 



fACOB DANIEL CRESS.— This gentle- 
men, who is one of the enterprising horti- 
culturists of Tulare County, is a native of 
Illinois, born August 25, 1845. His grand- 
father, Jacob Cress, a native of North Carolina, 
removed to Illinois in 1818, and there, in that 
same year, his son, Jacob Cress, Jr., was born. 
Arriving at manhood, he was united in mar- 
riage to Helena Sherer, a native of his own 
State, and to them eleven children were born, 
nine of whom are living, the subject of this 
sketch being their third child. He was reared 
and educated in Illinois, and there learned the 
trade of harness-making. 

In 1869 he came to California. For six 
years he worked on ranches in Sutter County, 
and subsequently spent a year and a half in 
Oregon. In 1888, in connection with a part- 
ner, he purchased forty acres of fruit land, 
seven miles northeast of Traver and three miles 
and a half west of Dinuba, the property being 
then a stubble-field. Mr. Cress planted thirty- 
five acres of raisin grapes, and the second 
year gathered three tons of grapes from the 
young vineyard. The present crop is estimated 
at from twenty to thirty tons. On the remain- 
ing five acres he has built a comfortable resi- 
dence and planted a variety of fruit trees, many 
of them being now in bearing. Umbrella trees 
in the front yard, two years old, now measure 
twenty inches around the trunk near the ground. 
The firm is Gregory & Cress, Mr. Cress having 
the management of the vineyard, and to his 
skillful attention is due its success. In 1890 
Mr. Cress married Miss Phama Anderson, a 
native of Missouri, daughter of J. D. Ander- 
son, who resides near them. Politically, Mr. 
Cress is a Republican. He belongs to the Far- 
mers' Alliance and is a Royal Arch Mason, bav. 
ino- held several offices in his lodge. A man of 



338 



HISTORY OF CENT UAL CALIFORNIA. 



good judgment, energetic and progressive, be 
is a desirable acquisition to the community in 
wbich he has taken up bis abode. 



SKED W. FICKERT.— There are few pio- 
neers of Kern County whose names are more 
familiar to the people of the Kern river 
and Tehachapi valleys than that heading this 
biographical sketch. Having come to the county 
when it was in its infancy of development, be 
located in Bear valley, and laid the foundation 
for bis present home and family estate. He 
was then in the prime of a vigorous manhood 
and has devoted the best years of bis life to 
opening up and fostering the material develop- 
ment of one of the finest valleys in the State of 
California. 

Mr. Fickert was born of German parents, in 
the province of Prussia, August 27, 1830. His 
father, Gotlieb Fickert, was a mechanic by trade 
and a successful contractor on the government 
works in Prussia. He also made some of the 
most elaborate public improvements in the city 
of Coburg, Prussia. Fred, who was then a 
restless and ambitious youth, chose the lot of 
sailor and went before the mast at about fiiteen 
years of age. He lived a seafaring life for 
nearly five years, at the expiration of which time 
he sailed from the city of Hamburg to New 
York, as provision master on board a sailing 
vessel, reaching the great American port in 
1850. Here he spent about one month, and 
then embarked for California, via Cape Horn, 
reaching San Francisco in the latter part of the 
same year. He made only a brief stay in San 
Francisco, however, and proceeded directly to 
the mining regions of California, svhere, like 
many others, he hoped to carve out his fortune 
from the quartz ledges or water courses of the 
mountain ranges. His time up to about 1865 
was spent in the mountain regions of the upper 
Kern river country and the counties of Sierra, 
Butte and Yuba. In 1863 he discovered the 
world renowned Sierra Gorda mine, located the 



same and formed a mining district. Owing to 
serious Indian outbreaks, he was compelled to 
abandon the same for the safety of bis family 
before he derived any practical benefits from bis 
discovery; others in time took up and prosecuted 
the work, reaping large fortunes from the ben- 
fits of his enterprise and hard labor. 

In the spring of 1865 he made a trip to Kern- 
ville, wbich was then attracting attention as a 
mining center. The following fall be went to 
Havilab, where he remained until late in the 
year 1869. Meeting with only moderate suc- 
cess, he decided to abandon mining as an occu- 
pation, and accordingly came over the Tehach- 
api range, explored the country and visited Bear 
valley. Its beauty, fertile soil and adjacent 
grazing country attracted his eye and he decided 
on a location here. He purchased a squatter's 
right to 160 acres of agricultural land of James 
Williams, Esq., took up his residence on it and 
has been prominently identified with the valley 
since then. From time to time he has added to 
his landed estate until he now owns upwards of 
8,000 acres. At the time of his location in the 
valley he found only one actual settler, namely: 
J. L. Hosac, who still resides there. The wisdom 
of Mr. Fickert's choice for a home is proven by 
the eminent success he has enjoyed, and also the 
general good health of his family. Ilis domains 
extend well over into the San Joaquin valley 
to the north, where he holds some fine tracts of 
good orange-producing land, lying in the ther- 
mal belt of the foothills, wbich are abundantly 
supplied with water. His large bands of stock 
used to range at will over vast tracts of open 
country; but with the progress and growth of 
the country, all of wbich he welcomes, has come 
the occupation and fencing of so much of these 
lands that he now confines his herds mostly to 
his own domains. He has at this writing about 
1,600 head of cattle, thirty to forty horses and 
other stock as well. 

Mr. Fickert was married in San Francisco, 
December 19, 1861, to Miss Mary Glenn, a 
native of Barney's Slough, Ireland. She is one 
of six sisters of the family who have come to 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



339 



America and become permanently located and 
identified with its material progress, she having 
made the journey to the United States in the 
fall of of 1859 with a brother-in-law, Charles 
Boland, of San Francisco (now deceased). Mrs. 
Fickert is a lady of strong individuality and ex- 
ecutive ability and has proven a faithful and 
loving wife and mother. They have six chil- 
dren living, all of whom have enjoyed the bless- 
ings of a well-regulated home and a good edu- 
cation. Of this family, Louis, the eldest, was 
born in San Francisco, October 3, 1863; Louise 
E., in Havilah, December 16, 1866; others of 
the family were born in Bear valley; Nellie, 
October 11, 1869; Charles, February 23, 1872; 
Clara, July 11, 1874, and Fred, July 23, 1876. 
Thomas and Frank are deceased. 

The Fickert home is known by all to be a 
place where the friend as also the stranger is 
always hospitably received and entertained. 
When generations have passed from the scenes of 
active life and this beautiful valley shall have 
advanced to the dignity of a princely paradise, 
the name of this pioneer family will still stand 
boldly out on the pages of local history as the 
founder of the settlement, growth ?nd prosper- 
ity of lovely Bear valley — one of the most 
charming of the many beautiful mountain nooks 
of Central California. 



f{ C. ELLIOTT, of Fresno, was born in 
Benton, near Yazoo City, Mississippi, in 
I s 1856. His father, James H. Elliott, was 
a machinist and contractor by trade, but for 
many years was Justice of the Peace of Benton. 
Young Elliott was educated in the private 
schools of Benton, after which, for one year he 
taught a public school on the Big Black river. 
He then returned to Benton and engaged in 
mercantile business with his brother, W. H. 
Elliott, in a family grocery store, where he re- 
mained for two years. He sold his interest in 
the business in April, 1879, and in January, 
1880, went to Yazoo City to accept the appoint- 



ment of under sheriff, by his brother-in-law, 
W. H. Stubbleiield, then sheriff of that county. 
After serving in that capacity four years, he 
went to Pickens, Mississippi, as bookkeeper and 
assistant postmaster in the general merchandise 
store of Wilbur Bros., remaining there about two 
years. 

In April, 1886, Mr. Elliott came to the Pa- 
cific coast, passed the summer in Seattle and 
returned to Pickens in September. The latter 
part of that same year he came via the Sunset 
route to California, arriving in Fresno Decem- 
ber 27, 1886. On March 1, 1887, he accepted 
the appointment of deputy recorder, under C. 
L. Wainwright, and was reappointed by Mr. 
Wainwright's successor, T. A. Bell, in 1889. 
In partnership with W. L. Cuilins, Mr. Elliott 
owns a ranch of forty acres northeast of Fresno. 
This land is set out to Muscat and Malaga 
vines, and on it is a residence and outbuildings. 
These gentlemen are also interested in city 
property. 

•r^^gRSs-seJs^ ■ As* 




H. MoKENZIE, a prominent business 
man of Fresno, was born at Fort Mil- 
ler, Fresno County, California, March 
10, 1857. His father, James McKenzie, came 
to California in 1852, and was prominently en- 
gaged in stock-raising. Young McKenzie was 
educated in the public schools of Fresno County, 
and lived at home until 1874, when he received 
the appointment of deputy sheriff, under J. S., 
Ashman, and came to Fresno to reside. In 1876 
he was appointed deputy assessor, under J. A. 
Stroud, and occupied that position until 1880 
being then elected to the office of County As- 
sor for a term of four years. 

In 1878 he became associated in the abstract 
business with A. M. Clark (whose biography 
appears elsewhere in this work), and since Mr. 
McKenzie's retirement from office they have 
carried on the business quite extensively. The 
Fresno Loan & Savings Bank was incorporated 
on January 28, 1884, with capital stock of §20,- 



340 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



000. During that year Messrs. Clark and Me- 
Kenzie bought a controlling interest in the bank, 
and Mr. McKenzie became its cashier and mana- 
ger. In 1885 the stock was increased to $50,- 
000, and has since been increased to $300,000. 
Under Mr. McKenzie's efficient management it 
now ranks among the first banks of the city. 
When Fresno was incorporated in 1885, our 
subject was appointed City Treasurer, and was 
re-elected in 1887 and 1889. Besides his vari- 
ous interests already referred to, Mr. McKenzie 
also owns stock in the Harron Gold Mining 
Company, whose mine is located in the foot- 
hills, twenty-eight miles east of Fresno. His 
partners in this company are A. M. Clark and 
J. C. Hoxie, the latter being manager of the 
mine. A Huntingdon rotary mill has recently 
been erected, and the work is being pushed 
forward with very satisfactory results. 

Mr. McKenzie was married at Healdsburg, 
Sonoma County, California, in 1879, to Miss 
Carrie E. Hoxie. 

Socially Mr. McKenzie is connected with the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a 
member of Fresno Lodge, No. 186. 



fLWOOD OLIVER LARKINS, a member 
of the bar of Tulare County and president 
of the Board of Trade of the city of Visa- 
lia, was born in East Liverpool, Ohio, December 
16, 1854 His father, John Boles Larkins, was 
a native of Birmingham, Pennsylvania, born in 
1832. His grandfather, Henry Larkins, who 
was many years a business man of Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, removed to East Liverpool, Ohio, 
where he died in 1858. He had married Miss 
Mary Oliver, a native of Pennsylvania and a 
relative of the Honorable Oliver P. Morton. 
Mr. Elwood Oliver Larkins' father, John Boles 
Larkins, was their fourth son, there being: five 
sons and two daughters, namely: Curtis, Joseph, 
James, John Boles, H. M., Jane and Elizabeth. 
Henry Larkins, the great-grandfather of the 
subject of this sketch, was born in the north of 



Ireland, but came from England to America 
before the Revolution, and was a soldier in the 
struggle for independence. John Boles Larkins 
and his brothers, Joseph and James, were inter- 
ested in starting the Liverpool Crockery Works, 
still owned and managed by the Sebring Bros., 
cousins of Elwood Oliver Larkins. Curtis Lar- 
kins was largely interested with the McDonald 
boys in the line of sleamers running from Pitts- 
burg to Cincinnati. John Boles Larkins mar- 
ried Miss Letitia McKee, of East Liverpool, 
Ohio, whose father was interested in business 
with Aaron Burr in Pittsburg. She died when 
her son, the subject of this sketch, was fourteen 
months old. John Boles Larkins was again 
married, to Miss Phoebe De Witte, of West Vir- 
ginia, and by her had six children. One of their 
sons, T. B. Larkins, is a conductor on the Chi- 
cago, Burlington & Quincy railroad. 

In 1876 Mr. Elwood Oliver Larkins graduated 
from the North Missouri State normal school 
at Kirksville. He was then elected principal of 
the schools at Laclede, Missouri, but resigned 
the position and came to California that same 
year, arriving at Visalia August 18. From 
that time until 1880 he alternately taught school 
and studied law. In 1880 he returned to Mis- 
souri, and was married to Miss Sallia C. Calla- 
way, of Waverly, Missouri, whose acquaintance 
he formed when at school, she being a graduate 
of the same class in 1876. She is a descendant 
of Flanders Callaway, who settled at Booneville, 
Missouri, with Daniel Boone. The Callaway 
family, originally from the State of Mississippi, 
were related to Daniel Boone. Mr. and Mrs. 
Larkins have four daughters, viz.; Zoe Portie, 
born in Fresno; Carol Letitia, Addie Tipton, 
and Cassandra Callaway, born in Visalia. 

After practicing law thirteen months in 
Fresno, Mr. Larkins was admitted to the Su- 
preme Court of California, and has been practic- 
ing most of the time since in Visalia, beino- 
associated with the Hon. Tipton Lindsey for 
the past live years; was formerly in partnership 
with the Hon. J. F. Wharton, of Fresno city. 
Mr. Larkins is not a partisan, but has generally 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



341 



associated himself with the Republican party in 
national and State issues, and has been a mem- 
ber of the County Central Committee on several 
occasions. He stumped Sutter County, Califor- 
nia, and a portion of the adjoining counties for 
Governor Perkins, and during the last campaign 
stumped Tulare County in favor of Governor 
Markham. He has passed all the ehaiis in the 
I. O. O. F., is a member of the A. O. U. W., 
and has represented his lodge in the Grand 
Lodge on several occasions. 

Mr. Larkins is now identified with the county 
of Tulare, and is somewhat interested in fruit 
culture, having great faith in the resources of 
the county. He is one of the many who have 
become convinced that the people, if they desire 
to attain higher prosperity, must raise such 
products as can be sold in the markets of the 
world. He believes that Tulare County and 
especially the lands adjoining Visalia are partic- 
ularly adapted to the production of stone fruits, 
the value of which, when once realized by the 
people of the East, will give the fruit-growers of 
their county a ready and remunerative sale for 
their products in the Eastern markets. 



IfSAAC HART is one of the first settlers of 
J Bear valley, Kern County, California. He 
^ was born on the line dividing Arkansas and 
the Cherokee Nation, January 6, 1836. The 
folic wing February his father, Josiah Hart, 
moved his family into the interior of Texas. 
Josiah Hart was a hunter and trapper and fol- 
lowed that occupation for many years. He 
hunted the buffalo and antelope in the Red 
River valley as early as 1826, shipping his 
game down the Red river to market points. 
He lived in Texas until 1852, when he came to 
Los Angeles County, California, leased a portion 
of the Azusa ranch and remained there until 
1854, when he located at Newhall. At the 
latter place he resided till 1858, keeping a public 
" stopping-place." In 1858 he became the first 
settler of Cutnmings valley, locating the present 



place of George Cummings. He spent the rest 
of his life in Cummings valley, dying May 28, 
1872. He was born in Hardin County, Ken- 
tucky, November 18, 1794; was a man of strong 
individuality and industrious habits and a born 
pioneer of the old times. 

Isaac Hart left home at about the age of nine- 
teen years, entered the Government land sur- 
vey and aided in establishing the line between 
the San Bernardino meridian and the Colorado 
river. He also assisted in correcting the Gov- 
ernment surveys of Kern and later (1855) San 
Bernardino and San Diego counties. He de- 
voted his time to mining in the Kern river 
country up to about 1869, when he located in 
Bear valley where he has since resided. He 
owns 320 acres of agricultural land in Bear 
valley and ranges a limited number of cattle. 

Mr. Hart was married, in old town Tehach- 
api, October 28, 1870, to Miss Annie Eliza 
Butts. They are the parents of nine children. 
Such, in brief, is a sketch of one of Kern 
County's pioneers. 



& 



j& 



■^■'': 



**h 




ILLIAM JOSIAH ELLIS, of Tulare 
County, was born in Washington County, 
Illinois, July 10, 1834, the son of Rev. 
Dr. Thomas O. and Sarah (Babb) Ellis, both 
natives of Missouri. When the subject of this 
sketch was a boy his mother died, and his father 
married again, and by his second wife had four- 
teen children. In 1840 he moved to Missis- 
sippi, and in 1846 to Upshur County, Texas, 
where he engaged in the practice of medicine 
and the drug business. In 1852 he moved to 
Smith County, Texas, following the same busi- 
ness three years, and then moved to northwest- 
ern Texas. His death occurred in Fresno 
County, California, in 1879. 

William was educated in the common schools, 
finishing his literary pursuits a^ the high school 
at Tyler, Smith County, Texas. July 15, 1855, 
he married Miss Elizabeth Jane Leonard, a na- 
tive of Pope County, Arkansas, and daughter of 



342 



HISTORY OV VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Samuel and Mary (El rod) Leonard. After his 
marriage Mr. Ellis farmed for some years, and 
was elected Justice of the Peace in township 
No. 2, Parker County, Texas. April 7. 1857, 
he started for California in a large train by the 
southern route, and in November arrived at El 
Monte, Los Angeles County, from which point 
he went to San Bernardino County, and bought 
land near old San Bernardino. The next year 
he sold out and moved to Los Angeles County, 
where he raised one crop. He subsequently 
moved to San Luis Obispo County, where he 
lived four years; the railroad depot and resi- 
dence portion of the city of San Luis Obispo are 
on land once owned by him. Pie sold out theie 
in 1863, and went to Lower California, and after 
a year's sojourn there moved to Tulare County. 
At first Mr. Ellis worked by the day and mined, 
and has seen some of the rough side of those 
early days. After his labors and adventures in 
the Kern river mining district, he came to the 
San Joaquin valley, and engaged in farming in 
different places. In 1869 he was elected County 
Assessor and served two years; in 1879 he was 
elected County Superintendent of Schools, which 
office he held three years; he also taught school 
four years in primitive days. He also served 
for four years as deputy sheriff and county 
jailor. Mr. Ellis owns at present a section of 
land in the foothills, devoted to stock-raising. 

The members of his household are: Thomas 
E., who died July 29, 1857, near Tucson, Ari- 
zona, on the way to California; Mary E., now 
Mrs. John M. Stone, of Fresno County; Samuel 
N., who married Eliza J. Cortnei ; Sarah A., 
wife of William E. Russell, of Traver; Havilah 
J., wife of Morgan P. Elam, of Fresno County; 
Isabella J., wife of Frank Scog-crms, of Fresno 
County; John W., who died in January, 1864, 
en route to Mexico; Georgia S., wife of Alvah 
R. Peugh, of Tulare County; and Rose May, 
now Mrs. John W. Miller, of Stockton. Mr. 
Ellis has for many years been an active and con- 
sistent Christian gentleman, and a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His 
walk and conversation have always been such at 



" becometh godliness," and he is a " living epis- 
tle, known and read of all men." As he and 
the companion of his youth walk together down 
the shady side of the hill of life, hand in hand, 
they can look back on a life well spent, their 
children well settled and useful members of so- 
ciety, and wait in patience and with joy the 
" Master's call." 



^-^ 



fB. BATZ, of Onyx, was born in Fulton 
County, Indiana, in a town near Roehes- 
ter, January 25, 1852, a son of Benjamin 
Batz, a millwright and a native of Pennsylvania, 
who located in Indiana about 1845. He was 
married September 26, 1848, to Miss Clarissa 
S. Rice, a native of Ohio, born September 19, 
1828. They brought up six children,— three 
sons and three daughters, of whom J. B., our 
subject, is the second born. 

His father having died in February, 1863, 
leaving a widow and four children, he left home 
at about fifteen years of age and learned the 
trade of carpenter in Indiana, and followed the 
same until he was twenty-one. In 1874 he 
came to California, having Bpent two years in 
Kansas, where he followed his trade and clerked 
in a general merchandise store. Upon coming 
to California he spent two months in Sacra- 
mento County, following his trade. He then 
came to Kern County and was employed by W. 
W Landers two years and nine months; next 
he clerked in Kernville for J.J. Murphy fifteen 
months, then for I. Michels at the Big Blue 
Mine store three years. He also located a ranch 
(now Patrick O'Brien's), of 240 acres, proved 
up on the same and sold it to O'Brien Bros, 
lie clerked for Scodie until the fall of 1888. 
In 1889-'90 he was under sheriff, appointed by 
Sheriff W. J. Graham; since then he has clerked 
for Mr. Scodie. He now has a 160-acre ranch, 
on which is a good new residence. Mr. and 
Mrs. Batz took atrip East in 1887. Her maiden 
name was Sophia E. Smith, and they were mar- 
ried December 24, 1879. They have had three 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



343 



children, two of whom are living, — Daisy M. 
and Vernon S. St. Clair S. died in infancy. 

He is a representative Odd Fellow, having 
become a member of Kernville Lodge, No. 251, 
in 1879; has held every office in the lodge, and 
has represented it four times in the Grand 
Lodge of California,— 1882, 1889, 1890 and 
1891. He is the present District Deputy and 
Grand Master. He is a member of the A. O. 
U. W., which was organized in Kernville, 1879, 
and consolidated about three years ago with 
Justice Lodge, No. 81, located in Bakersfield, 
and in this lodge he has filled the principal 
offices. 



---#?•* 



8N#- 



tEOPOLD GUNDELFINGER, the efficient 
cashier of the Bank of Central California, 
is a native of Germany, born in Wurtem- 
burg, March 22, 1853. At the age of thirteen 
he emigrated to America, settled in New York 
and there received his education. He entered 
upon a business career in La Crosse, Wisconsin, 
from which place he went to McGregor, Iowa. 

April 1, 1872, is the date of Mr. Gundelfinger's 
arrival on the Pacific coast. After stopping a 
few months in San Francisco, he opened an 
establishment in Plumas County, in the north- 
ern part of California. He came to Fresno on 
the 1st of July, 1874, accepted a position in the 
store of Jacob & Co., and remained with that 
firm several years. While in their employ he 
went to Kingsburg and opened a branch store, 
of which he had the management for eight years, 
until it was closed out. After that he spent a 
j'ear in Europe, returning to California the lat- 
ter part of 1886. About this time the present 
flourishing Bank of Central California was es- 
tablished, and he became one of its directors and 
the cashier, positions which he still fills. He is 
also one of the stockholders of the corporation 
of Louis Einstein & Co.. the well-known pio- 
neer store of Fresno. In a quiet and unassum- 
ing way Mr. Gundelfinger has been closely 
identified with the interests of this city. He 



organized the fire department in Fresno, for a 
long time having in charge the hook and ladder 
company. 

September 15, 1887, he wedded Miss Minnie 
Rowe. They have one child, a daughter. 



PT. ALFORD, Fresno, was born in Ralls 
County, Missouri, in 1853. His father, 
° James L. Alford, was extensively en- 
gaged in general farming and stock-raising, 
owning 400 acres of land. 

The subject of our sketch was educated in 
the subscription schools of Missouri, and subse- 
quently took a business course at Heald's Busi- 
ness College, San Francisco. He came to 
California in 1871, and was employed in Fresno 
County on the stock-ranch of his uncle, J. G. 
James, for one year. He then bought 500 
sheep and continued in the business two years. 
At the end of that time his flock numbered 
1.600 sheep, and he sold out, clearing $2,500. 
All this occurred before he reached his twenty- 
first year. In 1875 he bought 100 horses and 
drove them to Battle Mountain, Nevada, but in 
this venture he lost money. He returned to 
Fresno County in 1877 and took charge of his 
uncle's ranch, remaining on it until 1887 and 
still having the management of it in connection 
with his other business. 

In 1888 Mr. Alford started a market on 
Fresno street, between I and J streets, and in 
1889 sold a one-half interest in it to J. W. Coff- 
man, and since then they have been doing a 
prosperous wholesale and retail business under 
the firm name of Alford & Coffman. They own 
640 acres of land in the western part of the 
county, which is stocked with 400 head of cattle. 

Mr. Alford was married in Missouri, in 
1875, to Miss Dellie Briggs. They have three 
children, Lena May, Claude and Onida, all liv- 
ing at home. Mr. Alford was appointed a 
member of the City Council, December 1, 1890, 
to till the unexpired term of J. N. Albin, de- 
ceased. He is a member of Fresno Lodge, No. 



344 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



247, F. & A. M., and of Yo Semite Lodge, No. 
171, A. O. U. W. 



§R. WILLIAM JETER PRATHER, oldest 
son of Rev. R. R. Prather, native of North 
Carolina, was born May 11, 1827. The 
family home was in Guilford County, where the 
subject of our sketch lived until he reached his 
twentieth year, attending public and also private 
schools at various times. At the age of twenty 
he went to Florida on a prospecting tour, re- 
maining, however, only a short time. Return- 
ing North, he made a visit to the western dis- 
trict of Tennessee, where he had relatives and 
where he lived for eight months. 

In the spring of 1849 he crossed the plains 
to California, the trip to the Sacramento river 
consuming six months. He engaged in mining 
more or less for three years, and then settled in 
Yolo County, took up a tract of 160 acres of 
land and turned his attention to farming. After 
living there six years, he went to Sacramento, 
where he commenced the study of dentistry. 
In the absence of a dental college, he was obliged 
to seek private instruction, and located himself 
with prominent members of the profession both 
in Sacramento and Woodland. He was one of 
the pioneers of the latter place, having built a 
house there before the town was incorporated. 
After practicing for a number of years in Wood- 
land, Dr. Prather came to Fresno County on a 
tour of inspection. He located a piece of farm- 
ing land and lived on it for a few months; re- 
turned to Woodland in the fall of 1878, closed 
up his matters there, and in the fall of 1880 
came to Fresno County, where he has continued 
to reside ever since. It was not until 1883, 
however, that the Doctor located in Fresno. He 
then opened his dental office in the Donahoo 
building, where he remained for some time. 
Then he removed to the Fiske building, and re- 
mained there until burned out in 1888, and 
thence came to his present headquarters in the 
Fresuo Loan & Savings Bank building. He has a 



large and lucrative practice, and stands high in 
the profession. The Doctor has a small vineyard 
and also a stock-farm adjacent to the city, in 
which he takes a great interest. 

His first marriage was in October, 1853, to 
Miss Margaret Lawson, a native of Missouri, 
by whom he had nine children, six of whom are 
now living. Mrs. Prather died in 1879, and 
December 13, 1883, Dr. Prather wedded Miss 
Mary Healey, a native of Wisconsin. This 
union has been blessed with two children — a 
girl and a boy. 

He enjoys the distinction of being one of the 
pioneers of California, and is a member of the 
Pioneer Society of San Francisco. He is also a 
member, and one of organizers of California 
State Dental Association. 



Jj|> ST. GEORGE HOPKINS, M. D., Fresno, 
IMj a d escen dant of John Hopkins, of Revo- 
lts® lutionary fame, was born in Winchester, 
Virginia, in October, 1835. His grandfather, 
John Hopkins, was a Colonel in the Revolu- 
tionary war, being in command of the Third 
Virginia regiment. He met and whipped Colo- 
nel Tarleton, of the English service, regarding 
which Tarleton speaks in his memoirs as being 
the only time he was ever whipped. Before the 
war Colonel Hopkins was a receiver of titles 
and money, under the Georges, for the country 
then known as the great Northwestern Terri- 
tory. John Hopkins, the father of our subject, 
was born at "Hill and Dale," his father's plan- 
tation, and became an eminent lawyer of Vir- 
ginia, practicing in all the courts through the 
State. He was a Democrat and was frequently 
urged to accept public office, but he considered 
his professional duties too extensive and im- 
portant to be given up, and continued in the 
practice of law until the time of his death in 
1842. 

Young Hopkins attended the private schools 
of Virginia, and was also a student in the Uni- 
versity of Virginia and the University of Penn- 




^-^U^l 






HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



345 



sylvania, being a graduate of that institution. 
From the latter he graduated in the academic 
and medical courses in 1855, after which he 
lived in hospitals for eighteen months as physi- 
cian and surgeon. He then went to sea, em- 
ployed by the Government as surgeon, and for 
three years his time was spent on the Ncth 
Sea, the North Atlantic and between New York 
and Liverpool. In 1859 he settled in Phila- 
delphia, where he engaged in the practice of 
his professi n until the opening of the war. 
Being a Southern gentleman, he went South 
and enlisted in the Stonewall Brigade, and was 
made a commissioned officer with rank of 
Major. He served through the war; was on 
the staff of several Generals in the Confederate 
service; was on General Daniel Ruggles' staff 
when he surrendered at Atlanta, Georgia. 

In May, 1865, Dr. Hopkins went to Win- 
chester, Virginia, on parole, and having secured 
the second executive clemency issued by Presi- 
dent Johnson, at the request of Major-General 
Hancock, Major-General Torbert and Major- 
General Ayers, he went to Baltimore in Octo- 
ber, 1865, and again took up the practice of 
medicine, remaining there until 1870. In that 
year, by request of William Nye, Republican 
Senator from Nevada, he came West, located at 
Virginia City, Nevada, and engaged in practice 
there for eight years. In 1878 he removed to 
Oakland, California, and made his home there 
until 1881, when he came to Fresno. 

The Doctor was married in Baltimore in 
1866, to Miss Catharine Dunnington. a lady 
noted for her beauty and amiable qualities. 
She died in Oakland in 1880, leaving four chil- 
dren. To escape painful associations and settle 
among his own countrymen, the Southern peo- 
ple, Dr. Hopkins came to Fresno. For a time 
he led a quiet life, but gradually resumed prac- 
tice and finally opened an office, and is now 
actively engaged in professional work. At this 
place, in 1886, he wedded Miss Annie M. Fos- 
ter, a native of California, and by her has two 
children. The Doctor is a prominent Mason, 
having reached the thirty-second degree in that 



order. He was Deputy Inspector and delegate 
to the Supreme Council of the Earth. He has 
also taken the Scarlet and Patriarch degrees of 
the I. O. O. F., and is a member of the A. 0. 

u. w. 



H. COLE. — In a volume of history, such 
as this, in which are recorded not only 
the events of interest in the past, but the 
movements which have led up to the present 
condition of affairs, there can be no more enter- 
taining topic to the best class of readers than 
that which treats of the building up of a pros- 
perous, enterprising city. Important cities and 
trade centers are only partially the result of 
necessity. The progressive spirit of the found- 
ers of one locality will place it in advance in 
the race as against another with better natural 
advantages which has no public-spirited men to 
look after its interests. Fresno, with the de- 
velopment of irrigation, enjoyed the advantage 
of a very good site for a future commercial 
center, and whatever else was lacking has been 
supplied by a coterie of as determined men of 
push and energy such as is not equaled in all 
the past history of California. Of this band of 
energetic spirits the opinion of his fellow citi- 
zens has accorded to S. H. Cole, whose name 
begins this article, a place in the very foremost 
rank; and certainly thepublishers of this volume 
may be permitted to add that while all have 
done grandly, certainly none have given so much 
of their own time so unselfishly for the good of 
Fresno, and with no other object than her ad- 
vancement, than the subject of this mention. A 
brief outline sketch of his career, therefore, fol- 
lows here as a matter of course, and as a neces- 
sary portion of Fresno's contribution to the 
history of Central California. 

Mr. Cole is the descendant of German ances- 
try. He was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, 
about sixteen miles from Cincinnati, July 17, 
1838, his parents being Adam and Elizabeth 
(Shull) Cole. In 1840 the parents moved to 



340 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Switzerland County, Indiana, and in that locality 
made their home for many years. The subject 
of this sketch received the advantages of the 
best educational facilities obtainable in his boy- 
hood days, but he was compelled by force of 
circumstances to give up regular attendance at 
school at the age of fifteen years. He had been 
reared to farm life, and on leaving school de- 
voted his entire time to agricultural pursuits. 
He assisted his father in conducting the farming 
work until 1856. when, branching out on his 
own account, he purchased half of the home 
place. For several years thereafter, he pur- 
chased, sold and improved considerable property. 
For the purpose of investigating the climate and 
resources of Kansas, which State was then re- 
ceiving much attention, he spent the winter of 
1871-'72 there, returning in the spring to In- 
diana. Soon afterward, he saw in the New York 
Sun an advertisement of Charles Nordhoffs 
now well-known book, entitled " California for 
Health, Pleasure and Residence," issued by 
Harper Bros. Mr. Cole was greatly impressed 
by the contents of this interesting work, so much 
so indeed, that he determined to sell his property 
in Indiana, and move at once to California, 
which resolution was promptly carried out. 
Although the change of residence was quite an 
undertaking, entailing a loss in the disposal of 
his Indiana farm and a heavy expense en route, 
he has never regretted the step, but now says, 
"The half was not told in that volume of Mr. 
Nordhoffs." 

Arriving in California on a slow freight, Mr. 
Cole and his family went to San Francisco. 
There he met a gentleman who had visited the 
San Joaquin valley, and from him ascertained 
that there was plenty of Government land to be 
had in Fresno County, and to this point Mr. 
Cole directed his steps, arriving in Fresno 
September 27, 1873. He had to sell his 
greenbacks for gold at 85 cents on the dollar, 
and paid $13 gold for fare from San Fran- 
cisco to Fresno. At that time the only hotel in 
the place was a French one near where the pio- 
neer store of Louis Einstein now is, opposite the 



depot of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. 
Mr. Cole states that the clerk of the hotel es- 
corted hiin from the station to the hotel with a 
lantern and gave him the best room in the house. 
He at once engaged in farming, locating near 
the foothills, fifteen miles northeast of Fresno, 
on 320 acres of Government land. In May, 
1882, he determined to go north on a tour of 
inspection, and after a three months' visit to 
the region surrounding Puget Sound he re- 
turned to Fresno, being more than ever satisfied 
with California. Mr. Cole invested in some 
very valuable fruit property, and for a time was 
actively engaged in fruit and gr. in raising. 

In November, 1886, he moved into the city 
of Fresno, being influenced in this course largely 
by the desire to give to his children the educa- 
tional advantages afforded by the schools of the 
city. While a resident of the outside districts, 
he had taken a deep interest in the matter of 
irrigation, on which the prosperity of the county 
so largely depended; and it was soon seen that 
he had determined to be more active in worki. g 
for the advancement of Fresno. As soon as he 
was fairly located in the city, he established 
himself in the real-estate business, and the very 
next summer consummated, among other oper- 
ations, a deal of large proportions, the sale of a 
2,000-acre tract. Later on, he associated with 
himself his brother, J. A. Cole, and his nephew, 
F. M. Chittenden, under the firm name of Cole, 
Chittenden & Cole, and this firm was continued 
until the erection of the new building of the 
Farmers' Bank took away their office facilities, 
and the partnership theretofore existing was dis- 
solved, our subject retiring from the firm in 
October, 1888. He still continued, however, 
in the performance of his duties as Notary 
Public, to which position he had been appointed 
as one of the last official acts of the late Gover- 
nor Bartlett, and two years later Governor 
Waterman reappointed him to the position for 
a term of four years. 

In January, 1889, J. H. Hamilton resigned 
from the Municipal Board of Fresno, and, partly 
through a desire to recognize the work of Mr. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 



347 



Cole in behalf of Fresno, as well as to place him 
in a position where his energetic services could 
be made most available, lie was chosen by the 
unanimous vote of the Board to till the vacancy. 
Before the next election, which occurred in 
April, 1889, the city was divided into wards, 
and Mr. Cole, without the formality of a nomi- 
nation, was elected to represent the second ward 
in the City Council of Fresno, by the unanimous 
vote' of all citizens of whatever political party. 
He was chosen as chairman of the Street and 
Finance Committee, and the initiative in all 
matters of that nature in the great reign of im- 
provement which followed, at once devolved on 
him. Bonds to the extent of $100,000 had been 
voted for the construction of a sewer system, 
and a contract let to the amount of $85,000, 
though as yet but little of the right of way had 
been secured; but he carried through this very 
essential part of the programme in a manner 
which was extremely advantageous to Fresno, 
and which reflected great credit on his energy 
and watchfulness of the city's interests. As an 
instance of the favorable terms he made in this 
matter it may be mentioned here that on one 
160-acre tract, where $1,000 was asked for right 
of way, and where it was expected that amount 
would be required, Mr. Cole exerted himself to 
such an extent that he was enabled to secure 
that particular right for $500. The amount of 
the bonds was expended in the work undertaken, 
and a total of $100,000 utilized on the sewer 
system of the city during Mr. Cole's incum- 
bency of the chairmanship of the Street and 
Finance Committee, and to such good effect was 
this money expended that it may safely be said 
that no municipality has ever gotten a more 
thorough and satisfactory return for its money. 
This, however, is by no means the sum of the 
permanent improvements effected in his depart- 
ment under his chairmanship. During its term, 
the whole of the eleven blocks of splendid pave- 
ments have been laid. The pavements of Fresno 
are not excelled in the world, consisting of three 
inches of bituminous rock on an eight-inch con- 
crete foundation, the work being performed in 



the most approved manner. There have also 
been twenty miles of street sidewalk built, 
graded and curbed during this time, and amono- 
the other improvements of the same period may 
be mentioned the fire alarm system, and the 
unexcelled street-sprinkling plant. 

On the 20th of April, 1891, at the reorgani- 
zation of the Board, Mr. Cole was elected presi- 
dent of the City Council, and as Mayor of the 
city he has well borne the honor of his position. 
Being reluctant, howe er, to retire from the 
active working field of his old position, one of 
his first official acts in his new capacity was to 
appoint himself back to his old position as 
chairman of the Street and Finance Committees. 
On the 18th of April, 1891, an election was held 
for the purpose of voting on the proposition to 
bond the city in the sum of $50,000 for the 
construction of a new and commodious brick 
high school building; and as the issue was suc- 
cessful, Mr. Cole will have these bonds to sign 
as one of his duties. 

It is not merely in his capacity as a city 
official, however, that Mr. Cole has been per- 
forming his untiring work for Fresno. He 
took an active part in the organization of the 
Fresno County Board of Trade, which was con- 
summated in January, 1887, and was one of the 
charter members of that organization which has 
done so much for this city and county. From 
the first he was one of the most enthusiastic 
members of the board, and became recognized 
as one of its mainstays, whose enthusiasm did 
not dwindle as time progressed. In September, 
1890, he was elected secretary of the board, to 
take the office on the first of October following, 
and certainly every one conversant with the facts 
recognize the fact that no mistake was made in 
that action. Following this, he was elected as 
executive committeeman from the Fresno or- 
ganization to the State Board of Trade, and has 
charge of the local exhibit in the State board 
rooms. In his various capacities as an official, 
and as an interested private citizen, Mr. Cole 
has been a great practical benefit to this com- 
munity, and his earnest, honest personal conver- 



348 



HI STOUT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



sation with visitors to the city, lias resulted in 
many very desirable acquisitions to the citizen- 
ship of Fresno city and county. He has also 
been a liberal contributor toward new enter- 
prises, among the late:-t of these being the 
mountain railroad; and in his capacity as Mayor 
of Fresno he took a prominent part in the 
ceremonies attending the commencement of 
work on that road, July 4, 1891. 

Besides the positions already mentioned, Mr. 
Cole held the office of Justice of the Peace in 
1881, an appointment by the Board of Su- 
pervisors, but resigned therefrom in 1882, when 
leaving for his trip north in that year. In 1889 
he was solicited by a number of influential in- 
timate friends to accept the nomination for 
State Senator from this district; but, thanking 

o 

his friends, lie declined the proffered honor, re- 
minding them of the fact that he was chosen by 
the votes of both the leading political parties to 
do some work for Fresno on the municipal 
board, and that that work was yet uncompleted. 

Mr. Cole is on intimate terms with the lead- 
ing business men and representative citizens 
generally of this community, who respect him 
as well for the strict integrity of his public and 
private life, as for the tireless energy he has 
displayed in advancing the welfare of all, and 
for his undoubted natural abilities. 

Thrice married, Mr. Cole rejoices in a large 
family of children. By his first marriage to 
Clarissa Hageman, of Indiana, there were four 
children, three of whom are living, namely : 
C. M. Cole, Mrs. C. A. Owen, and Adrian S. 
Cole. The oldest of these, Mr. C. M. Cole, is 
the largest grain farmer of the county, and has, 
in 1891, 10,000 acres of grain. This young 
in in inherits the energetic qualities of his 
father, and has attained his present position in 
life through his own efforts. Our subject mar- 
ried for his second wife, Mary Margaret War- 
field, al.-o of Indiana. By this marriage there 
were no children. His present wife was Maggie 
J. Griffin, who was born in Union County, Indi- 
ana, but reared in Iowa. They are the parents 
of six children, namely: Orrell A., Robert W., 



Eva B., Alice L., Charles Chester, and Mary 
Augusta. 

In closing this brief sketch it is but justice 
to the subject to refer to one feature in his 
career, that is much to his credit. In his entire 
lifetime he has never been a principal in a law- 
suit; and during the whole time of his connec- 
tion with the local government of Fresno the 
city has never been sued. As a trustee he has 
always favored and followed the precepts adopt- 
ed in his private business; and, while being uni- 
versally recognized as one of the most zealous 
upholders of the interests of the city, he has 
always favored the consideration of all just 
rights of individuals as well as corporations 
whenever there has been any occasion for friction 
or clashing of interests. This has inspired in 
the parties a confidence in the fairness of his 
intentions which has always as yet resulted 
in honorable compromise and ultimate sat- 
isfaction to all concerned. One of the 
most delicate matters which comes within 
the province of the governing bodies of a 
city is the handling of corporations having 
large interests there so as to retain the friend- 
ship and good-will of those who control the 
capital that is necessary to keep the various 
branches of industry in operation, while at the 
same time demanding of them the bearing of 
their proper proportion of the burdens of the 
community. On this line of duty Mr. Cole has 
shown signal ability. His firmness of character 
has never been better displayed than on the 
national holiday of 1891, when he adhered to 
his purpose in protecting the lives and property 
of citizens by preventing the explosion of tire- 
works, against considerable influential opposi- 
tion, and was afterward congratulated by many 
from that same opposition for his firm stand 
and the consequent leading part he had taken 
in making Fresno's celebration of the occasion 
of that year the most successful by all odds in 
her history. In concluding it will not be out 
of place to say that the uniform courtesy as 
the city's chief executive, displayed alike to 
citizens and strangers, has done much to- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



349 



ward spreading abroad a good impression of 
Fresn o. 



fR. REILY, M. D., a prominent physician 
of Fresno, was born in Callaway County, 
Missouri, in 1838. His father, Samuel 
Reily, was a pioneer of 1821 to Missouri, and 
was an extensive farmer, owning from 500 to 
1,200 acres of land. Dr. Reily was educated 
in the public schools of Missouri and at West- 
minster College, which is the Presbyterian col- 
lege of the State, situated at Fulton, the county 
seat of Callaway County. Owing to broken 
health he did not graduate. 

In 1857 he began the study of medicine, and 
in 1859-60 he attended the Missouri Medical 
College at St. Louis, under the direction of Dr. 
Joseph N. McDowell, Professor of Surgery 
and a man of great prominence in his pro- 
fession through the West. After completing 
two courses of study, Dr. Reily joined his 
brother, Dr. William C. Reily, in Pettis County, 
Missouri, and with him began practice, remain- 
ing until June, 1861, when he joined the Mis- 
souri State troops, under General Price, in sym- 
pathy with the Confederate cause, as Assistant 
Regimental Surgeon. Later he enlisted in the 
Confederate service; was sent on a recruiting 
expedition to Central Missouri, and was there 
captured and paroled. 

In the spring of 1863 Dr. Reily came to 
California via the Isthmus route, and at once 
started, in company with a number of young 
men, to return south through Arizona. While 
waiting at Visalia for others who desired to 
join them, he was thrown from a buggy and his 
left leg broken. This accident necessitated the 
mortification of seeing his companions depart 
without him. In May of that year, and while 
yet wearing splints, he formed a partnership 
with Dr. William A. Russell, at Visalia. They 
continued a successful and extensive practice 
until 1867, when our subject gave up his pro- 
fessional duties to look after mining interests 



in Kern county. After six months' experience 
and a loss of property, he resumed the practice 
of medicine. In 1871 he settled in Bakers- 
field, Kern County, then a town of 200 inhab- 
itants, now an active business center with a 
population of 3,600. During the early history 
of the town it was so malarious that there were 
not more than enough well people to care for 
the sick; but time and cultivation have ex- 
hausted the malaria, and the town is now as 
healthy as any part of the valley. 

Nearly twenty-eight years of his life have 
been spent in the practice of medicine and sur- 
gery in the great San Joaquin valley. In Feb- 
ruary, 1889, the Doctor came to Fresno. He 
purchased an improved vineyard of forty acres 
on Cherry avenue, thirty-two acres being in. 
Muscat vines and the rest in fruit and alfalfa. 
This property is located one mile south of the 
city. In 1890, the first season of picking, he 
marketed eighteen tons of raisins. The Doctor 
still practices in a limited way, but gives the 
most of his time to his vineyard. 

Dr. Reily's wife was Miss Ellah P. Maze, a 
"native daughter of the Golden West," and 
daughter of Mr. S. M. Maze, a wealthy citizen 
of Santa Clara County, California, who came to 
the coast in 1849. They have no children. 

Dr. Reily is, at time of writing this 
sketch, president of the Fresno County Medical 
Society. 



fESSE MORROW, a prominent citizen of 
Fresno, was born in Canton, Ohio, in 1827. 
He was reared on a farm and educated in 
the public schools, remaining at home until he 
reached the age of fourteen. He was then 
apprenticed to the trade of saddler and harness- 
maker at Paris, Ohio, where he served three 
years, after which he returned home and assisted 
his father on the farm until July 4, 1849. 

While thus quietly employed in agricultural 
pursuits, the wonderful stories about California 
and her rich treasures of gold reached him and 



350 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL C^ILIFORXI A. 



inspired him with a spirit of adventure. He 
joined an emigrant party to cross the plains for 
Salt Lake City, there expecting to winter; but 
the Mormons were so dictatorial and belligerent 
that life itself was unsafe in their midst: so a 
small party was formed and they pushed on to 
California by the Southern Pass. At the Big 
Muddy they found one foot of snow and • the 
party broken np. Nothing daunted, Mr. Morrow 
with six others took food and blankets on their 
backs and continued their way westward, com- 
ing through Cajon Pass. There he traded his 
rifle for a beef to supply the party with food. 
They jerked the meat and took it with them on 
their way north. After crossing Kern river, 
and while in camp at Posey creek, they were 
approached by two men, the only surviving mem- 
bers of an earlier party of sixteen who had been 
attacked by Indians. All then returned to 
Kern river, where they met a train, among the 
number being Dr. Lewis Leach. Thus re-en- 
forced, they again pushed forward. At Woodville, 
Tulare county, they came to the sceneof the above 
mentioned slaughter and found fourteen bodies, 
which they buried. They camped through the 
night, under guard, and. after shooting wild cat- 
tle to supply food, continued on to King's river! 
camped at Smith's feny, then went forwaru to 
San Joaquin river, where they met Major Lane 
and a portion of the party hired by him to work 
his mines above Ft. Miller. The Indians, how- 
ever, were so troublesome that the Major was 
frightened away. Mr. Morrow and party then 
bought a mining outfit and continued to work 
through that year, meeting with success. He 
mined at Fine Gold Gulch and on the San Joa- 
quin river until 1856, when he went to Los 
Ange'es and engaged extensively in the stock 
business. He bought 1,100 head of cattle, 
drove them to the San Joaquin valley, and on 
King's river continued the business until 1874, 
keeping an average of 500 head. In 1875 Mr. 
Morrow turned his attention to sheep raising on 
the plains between King's and San Joaquin riv- 
ers, his flock numbering from 4,000 to 20,000, 
In this business he was engaged until 1882, 



when hi' sold out. In 1874 Mr. Morrow was 
instrumental in building the Southern Pacific 
Hotel, which in 1876 came into his possession, 
and which he still owns and leases. At one 
time he was extensively interested in money 
loaning, and through poor securities he lost 
about $160,000. 

Mr. Morrow was married at San Joaquin, in 
February, 1857, to Miss Mary I. Davis, a native 
of Texas. They have three children. The fam- 
ily moved from the ranch on King's river to 
San Jose, where they resided fourteen years and 
where the children were well educated. They 
now reside in Fresno. 

Mr. Morrow has been more or less interested 
in mining ever since he came to California, and 
he thinks the outlook to-day as favorable as in 
1849 to the careful prospector. 



■&m 



iggu 



■•"•• 



*#-- 



■fcETER T. BRADY.— The subject of this 
Wm> sketch is a native son of the Emerald Isle. 
^t He was born in County Meath, Ireland, 
March 17, 1839, son of Bryan Brady, a black- 
smith by trade. Peter T. learned the same 
trade with an older brother, and in 1868 emi- 
grated to America. After a brief sojourn in 
Connecticut, he came direct to California and to 
Kern County. Like the most of new-comers to 
this State at that time, Mr. Brady had his expe- 
rience in the mines. However, he only mined 
about a month; located in Havilah, where he 
conducted a blacksmith shop five years. Dur- 
ing the gold excitement at Kernville he again 
sought the mines, and when mining interests 
declined there he located on a ranch on South 
Fork of Kern river, where he has 160 acres of 
farming land. 

Mr. Brady married Miss Mary E. Irving 
daughter of Robert Irving, deceased. She is a 
native of San Francisco and of American par- 
entage. Their union has been blessed with five 
children: Bernard Philip, Robert James, Peter 
John, Patrick Eugene and Katie Susan. 

Mr. Brady is a man of business enterprise 



HISTORY OF GENT HAL CALIFORNIA. 



351 



and industry. Besides developing his ranch, he 
conducts Mr. Scodie's well equipped black- 
smith shop at Scodie, besides his own, during the 
summer months. 

When the biographer styled Mr. Brady a 
"native son of the Emerald Isle," the phrase 
called up in the memory of the latter the fol 
lowing reflections: 

"The great feature of our destiny as traced in 
our history is that it was the will of God and 
our fate that a large portion of our people be 
constantly either driven from the Irish shore or 
obliged by the course of circumstances or appar- 
ently of their own free will to leave. The 
'Irish Exile' is a name recognized in history; 
the 'Irish Exile' is not a being of yesterday or 
of last year. We turn over these honored pages 
of history until we come to the very brightest 
pages of the national records, and still we And 
emblazoned upon the annals of every nation of 
the earth the grand and the most honored 
names of the ' Exile of Erin.' Aud I, O 
mother, far away from thy green bosom, hail 
thee from afar as the prophet of old beholding 
the fair plains of the promised land, and pro- 
claim this day that there is no land so fair; no 
spot of earth to be compared to thee; no nation 
rising out of the waves so beautiful as thou art; 
and that neither the sun nor the moon nor the 
stars of heaven shine down upon anything so 
lovely as thee, O Erin." 



►>*< 



J||ICH ARD HOOPER, deceased, was a na- 
fjKK tive of Cornwall, England, and a -carpenter 
m!^ by trade. He was born August 7, 1825 ; 
and emigrated to America in 1856. He was 
married in England, and brought with him to 
this country his wife and one child, the former 
dying soon after his arrival in Illinois. For 
his second wife he chose Miss Jane Cox, who 
was born in Marion, Williamson County, Illi- 
nois, April 14, 1842, daughter of Thomas Cox 
of that place. 

By this latter union five children were born. 



two in California, and the older ones in Illinois, 
viz.: Thomas R., January 31, 18G6; Elizabeth 
J., September 23, 1867; John L., February 19, 
1870; Bertha E., March 29, 1879; and Albert 
M., July 7, 1881. 

In 1870 Mr. Hooper came to California, and 
located in Tulare, where he worked at his trade 
about eight months. He then removed to 
Kernville, Kern County, and engaged on a 
modest scale in merchandising, at the same time 
pursuing his trade. 

Richard Hooper, a man of industry and fru- 
gal habits, left to his family the imperishable 
legacy of an honorable name, aud they sustain 
the good reputation they have ever borne in the 
community. They have received liberal school- 
ing, and have thus far taken honorable places in 
the business world. J. L. is at the head of the 
mercantile house of J. L. Hooper & Co., Kern- 
ville; and Thomas R. is a graduate >>f Heald's 
Business College in San Francisco, attended the 
State Normal School at San Jose, and is a mem- 
ber of the Kern County Board of Education. 
Elizabeth J., the eldest daughter, is an ac- 
complished young lady, a graduate of the same 
school, and is a proficient stenographer. Others 
of the family are studious and aspiring. 



►SmH 



J. MEADE was born in Brunswick 
County, Virginia, in 1848, and was 
educated in the Virginia Military In- 
stitute. 

In January, 1864, he enlisted in Company I, 
Third Regiment Virginia Cavalry, and joined 
Wickham's Brigade in the Army of Virginia. 
He served valiantly in many important engage- 
ments, among which was the battle of Five 
Forks. Twice he was wounded, not, however, 
being disabled. At the time of the general sur- 
render he was off on scout duty, but came in 
later and surrendered. 

After the war closed Mr. Meade engaged in 
farming in Brunswick County, Virginia, con- 
tinuing there until December, 1868, when he 



352 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



started for California, making the voyage via 
the Isthmus of Panama, and landing at San 
Francisco on the first day of February, 1869. 
From there he went to Stanislaus County with 
Colonel Dancy, and was on a stock ranch until 
1871, when he returned to Virginia to visit 
friends. In 1872 he came back to California, 
went to the Dancy ranch and worked there a 
year, coming to Fresno County in 1873. Here 
he superintended the stock ranch of Friedlander 
& Chapman until 1877, and then for a short 
time had charge of J. D. Patterson's sheep 
ranch, of abont 10,000 sheep. Next he was 
employed to superintend the grain and stock 
ranch of W. S. Chapman, remaining there until 
1879, when he was elected Constable. He held 
that office until 1884, was then elected Sheriff 
and Tax Colector of the county, and re-elected 
in 1886. Mr. Meade bought property on Mari- 
posa street, Fresno, in 1878, which is now very 
valuable. He also owns a number of lots at the 
corner of H and Tuolumne streets, where his 
residence is located. 

Mr. Meade was married in Plainsberg, Mer- 
ced County, California, in 1876, to Miss Ada 
Bidford, a native of the Golden State. Their 
union has been blessed with two children. 



£•£#- 



fA. HARALSON, one of the leading mem- 
bers of the bar of Kern County, has been a 
9 resident of California since 1879. He was 
born in West Point, Troup County, Georgia, 
October 17, 1853. His father, John A. Haral- 
son, was by occupation a civil engineer and 
farmer, and his mother, nee Elizabeth Rison, 
was born in Mississippi, a daughter of Richard 
A. Rison, late of Tehachapi, Kern County, 
California. 

Mr. Haralson was educated in the University 
of Georgia, at Athens, finishing the junior 
course of study in 1876. He then studied law 
and taught school; was admitted to the bar of 
the Supreme Court of that State in 1873, and 



to the bar of the State of California in 
March, 1880. 

Before leaving Georgia Mr. Haralson was 
married, in that State, in 1879, to Miss Arrie 
C, daughter of Eli Davis, a large cotton planter 
of White Sulphur Springs. They have three 
children, — John A., Arrie C. and Alexander 
Hamilton. 

— - . .g - n i r - 3» « — 



ILLIAM B. WALLACE.— Among the 
prominent citizens of Tulare County 
I - of^J who are deserving of more than a pass- 
ing notice on these pages, is the gentleman 
whose name heads this sketch, — an honorable 
member of the bar of Tulare County, and 
Superintendent of the Visalia schools. 

Mr. Wallace was born in Platte City, Platte 
County, Missouri, May 1, 1849. His father, a 
physician by profession, was a native of Vir- 
ginia, the descendant of Scotch ancestors, who 
settled in the Old Dominion at an early day. 
His mother, nee Hester Ann Frizell, was born 
in Kentucky. Her ancestors were English 
people, who came to the colonies with Lord 
Baltimore and settled in Maryland. In 1849 
Dr. Wallace came to California and located in 
Placerville with his wife and two little children, 
a son and daughter, of whom William B. was 
the youngest. A year later the father died. 
The mother survived him seven years, her death 
occurring in 1858. 

Young Wallace was thrown upon his own re- 
sources at the age of ten years. He attended 
the public schools of Sacramento County, and 
also the State normal school. His higher edu- 
cation, however, he has by reading and study 
obtained himself, he being what might be 
termed a self-educated man, with superior men- 
tal attainments. For some years he was en- 
gaged in teaching in Sacramento, El Dorado 
and Amador counties, and during that time 
took up the study of law. He came to Tulare 
County in 1876, and to Visalia in 1881, being 
admitted to the bar in 1882, and at once enter- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



353 



ing upon the practice of his profession. In 
1884 he was elected on the Democratic ticket 
District Attorney, and served two years. Since 
then he has had his office in the courthouse, 
where he continues the practice of law. He has 
several times been elected to city offices, and 
was chosen to till his present position, — that of 
Superintendent of City Schools, — in 1890. He 
was a member of the city council when the 
tine school edifice of Visalia was planned and 
built, and to its erection he gave his earnest 
support. 

Mr. Wallace was married in 1884 to Miss 
Mary A. McCutchan, a native of California, by 
whom he has two children, — a son and daugh- 
ter, — Bruce and Ethel. He owns the pleasant 
home in which he resides with his family. 



fUDGE J. F. WHARTON.— Among the 
honored deceased of Fresno County, we 
find the name of Judge J. F. Wharton. 

He was born in Clermont County, Ohio, 
August 3, 1844, sou of W. S. Wharton, a tan- 
ner and saddler. In 1856 his father and family 
moved to Shelby County, Missouri, where, in 
connection with farming, he carried on his 
trade, and under his instruction young Wharton 
learned saddlery and harness-making. They 
purchased tanned goods of Jesse Grant, father 
of U. S. Grant, who was an intimate friend of 
our subject and under whose advise he chose 
the profession of law. 

At the breaking out of the war, though but 
seventeen years of age, Mr. Wharton volunteered 
in the Union army, the Fourteenth Missouri 
Cavalry, and remained in service to the end of 
that memorable struggle. A youth though he 
was, his natural adaptability to military service 
soon brought him promotion, and for brave and 
soldierly bearing he won the office of Lieutenant 
of the company in which he entered as a private. 
He was in some of the most heated contests and 
was the recipient of many encomiums from 



General Vandever and all the officers of the 
company. 

At the close of the war he attended the Mis- 
souri State Normal School at Kirksville. After 
graduating he engaged in teaching for six years, 
being unusually successful, and at the end of 
that time turned his attention to the study of 
law, his youthful ambition. 

The Judge was married in Shelby County, 
Missouri, March 27, 1870, to Miss Mary L. 
Hatfield, and in 1873 they moved to Nebraska, 
where they remained until the spring of 1875. 
Then on account of the failing health of his 
wife, he moved to California and settled in 
Colusa, where he became interested in the pub- 
lication of the Colusa Independent, a weekly 
paper which ranked well among the weekly 
journals of the day. His wife's health con- 
tinued to fail. He sold his business interests 
and devoted all his time to caring for her until 
her death, which occurred in the fall of 1876. 
He again engaged in teaching, at the same time 
pursuing the study of law and becoming inter- 
ested in politics. Though in a strongly Demo- 
cratic community, as a Republican he became 
favorably known to the people of that county 
June 16, 1878, he was married at Colusa to 
Mrs. Fannie E. Turner, who survives him, as 
also do their five children, who reside at home. 
Previous to his marriage he was admitted to 
practice in the courts. 

In 1881 Judge Wharton moved his family to 
Fresno. His talent in the practice of law won 
for him many clients, and his courteous bearing 
among his fellow men gained for him numerous 
friends. In 1882 he received the Republican 
nomination for Assemblyman, and, notwith- 
standing the minority of his party in the county 
of over 700, he was elected by a substantial 
majority. He served the county earnestly, 
faithfully and creditably in the Legislature, and 
his services earned for him the universal re- 
spect and confidence of the people, which he 
retained to the time of his death. In 1886 he 
received the nomination for District Attorney, 
but his impaired health prevented his making 



354 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



any effort to secure the election, though he car- 
ried more than his party strength. In 1886 he 
formed a copartnership with his nephew, F. H. 
Short, for the practice of law. As a member of 
the Fresno Irrigating Committee, which occu- 
pied one entire session of the Legislature at 
Sacramento, Mr. Wharton had much to do in 
shaping the irrigation laws of the State. 

In June, 1888, Judge Wharton was attacked 
with sciatic rheumatism, and after a lingering 
and painful illness he passed away in March, 
1889. The Bar Association met on the day of 
the funeral and, after passing appropriate reso- 
lutions, court was adjourned, and in a body the 
Bar attended the funeral services. 



tSAAC MARTIN, a rancher and one of the 
Assesors of Kern County, California, is a 
^ native of County Down, Ireland. He was 
born November 20, 1848, and in 1866 emi- 
grated to America with his uncle, Dr. Breeze, a 
physician of San Francisco. 

Mr. Martin came from Los Angeles to Kern 
County in 1873. He is a druggist and chemist 
by occupation and followed the business in San 
Francisco and Los'Angeles and latterly in Kern 
County at Havilah. The years 1866 to 1870 
Mr. Martin spent in San Francisco. At Havi- 
lah he was associated with Dr. Sweet in the 
drug business in 1874. Since then he has de- 
voted his time and attention to farming and 
mining in Kern County, and has been very 
successful in his undertakings. He owns 160 
acres of land on section 28, in the South Fork 
valley. At present Mr. Martin is Deputy As- 
sessor of Kern County, under A. T. Lightner. 



-<%* 



«*s=- 



§R. EDWIN FREEMAN was born in Mil- 
ton, Queen's County, Nova Scotia, Jan- 
uary 1, 1834. His ancestors were of a 
branch of the Freeman family that emigrated 



from England to Massachusetts, settling at Cape 
Cod during the colonial period, and thence re- 
moved to Nova Scotia. 

After completing his collegiate education he 
turned his attention to the study of medicine. 
In 1854 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where his 
elder brother, a physician, was residing, and, 
pursuing his studies, graduated in medicine in 
1857. He was the Demonstrator of Anatomy 
until 1860, when he was appointed Professor of 
Anatomy in the Eclectic Medical Institute of 
Cincinnati. In the summer of 1862 he served 
as Assistant Surgeon with the Second Regiment, 
Home Guards, on duty at Covington and New- 
port, Kentucky, for the defense of Cincinnati. 
November 7, 1862, after examination by the 
Medical Board at Washington city, he was ap- 
pointed Assistant Surgeon, United States Vol- 
unteers, by President Lincoln, and ordered for 
duty with the Army of the Potomac then before 
Fredericksburg, Virginia. Assigned to duty 
with the artillery of the Ninth Army Corps, he 
participated in that memorable battle. He was 
with that army corps at Fortress Monroe and 
Newport News, on the James river, and then 
for several months in the summer of 1863 in 
central Kentucky. He was appointed a member 
of the Board of Examiners for Assistant Sur- 
geons, United States Volnnteers, to meet at Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio; but, his orders having been 
changed, he went with the Ninth Army Corps 
to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where, under Gen- 
eral Sherman, they were interposed between 
Grant and Johnson who were endeavoring to 
raise the siege. He was there prostrated with 
the fever which was then so prevalent, but re- 
covered and returned with the troops to the 
North. He was with the same command in East 
Tennessee, and was in the siege of Knoxville 
and the battle of Fort Sanders, December, 1863, 
After that he was on duty in the hospital at 
Knoxville. In February, 1864, he was ordered 
to Columbus, Ohio, for duty in the hospitals. 
March 30, he was commissioned by the Presi- 
dent as Surgeon, United States Volunteers. 
Continued ill health caused him to offer his res- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



355 



ignation from the service, which was accepted 
April 19, 1864. 

In June, 1864, he was married to Miss Ro- 
sella A. flicker, eldest daughter of Major El- 
bridge G. Kicker, of Locust Corner, Clermont 
County, Ohio. In 1866 he was appointed Pro- 
fessor of Anatomy in the Eclectic Medical Col- 
lege of the city of New York, and removed to 
that place. In 1870 he was appointed Profes- 
sor of Surgery in the same college. In 1871 
he was again apppointed Professor of Anatomy 
in the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, 
and, as the harsh air of the coast did not agree 
with him, he returned to Cincinnati. He con- 
tinued lecturing in the college and attending to 
the demands of a large practice until 1887, 
when failing health led him to give up his busi- 
ness and seek a change of climate. He came 
to California and directly to Eresno. He 
bought a ranch near the city and built a house, 
where he resides with his family. In the city 
he has an office, where, with his son, Dr. E. R. 
Freeman, he is engaged in the practice of med- 
icine and surgery. His family consists of two 
sons, E. R. and Z. F. Freeman, and one daughter, 
Zella M. Freeman. 

During the period of his residence here the 
Doctor has witnessed great changes in Fresno 
and surrounding country. The rapid extension 
of vineyards and orchards in this valley and 
the remarkable growth of Eresno are subjects 
upon which too much cannot be said. The 
Doctor regards this climate as favorable for those 
suffering with pulmonary troubles. 

S. BADGER, Deputy County Clerk 
of Fresno County, is a native of Cold 
< 9 Springs, Mississippi, born in 1865. 
He came to California with his parents in 1871 
and located at Cottonwood, Shasta County, 
where his father, Charles T. Badger, carried on 
a general merchandise store. In 1873 they 
moved to Madera, Fresno County, where he 




operated Captain Mace's hotel and remained un- 
til 1885, then coming to Fresno. 

The subject of our sketch was educated in the 
public schools of Fresno County, combining 
work and study as opportunity offered In the 
spring of 1881 he was employed in Fresno by 
A. M. Clark, County Clerk and Recorder, and 
did office work in summer and attended school 
in winter for a period of three years. He re- 
tured to Madera in 1885, started a notion store 
and conducted it successfully until he was 
burned out in 1887; came back to Fresno, was 
appointed Deputy Sheriff under O. J Meade, 
and served in that capacity until the expiration 
of Mr. Meade's term of office in 1888. Mr. 
Badger made a visit to his brother in Washing- 
ton Territory that year. Returning to Fresno 
in 1889, he was appointed Deputy County 
Clerk, under A. C.Williams, and is now occupy- 
ing that position. 

Mr. Badger was married in Fresno, July 8, 
1888, to Miss Mary E. Funderburk, and resides 
in a comfortable home on Abbey street. He is 
a member of Company F, Sixth Infantry, Na- 
tional Guards of California, Captain C. Chis- 
holm in command. 



P. PETERSON, it is safe to say, is one 
of the most enterprising business men 
of Kern County. Few have been as ac- 
tive in building up and developing the material 
interests of the Kern river country as he. Mr. 
Peterson is a native of Denmark, born in La- 
soe, October 10, 1841. His father being a 
sailor, the son was reared in that calling and fol- 
lowed the sea for many years. He shipped 
from Hamburg to San Francisco on board a 
merchant vessel in 1862, engaged about one 
year in the United States Revenue service, and 
in 1864 abandoned the sea. He devoted his 
time to mining in the Kern river district one 
year; later, about six months, in Havilah. For 
two years he operated a stationary engine in a 
quartz mill at Havilah, after which he returned 



356 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



to Kernville and engaged in the same calling 
for a brief time. He was then interested there 
in various enterprises until 1872, when he built 
and conducted a hotel, doing an extensive busi- 
ness. This he discontinued in 1884, and spent 
the year following in the northern part of the 
State. 

In 1885 Mr. Peterson bought his ranch on 
the South Fork of the Kern river. Of this 
farm 320 acres are in section 20, township 26, 
range 24, and 200 acres are in sections 17 and 
18. He owns other tine tracts of land in Kern 
County, making a total of 1,100 acres. He 
ranges about 300 head of cattle, thirty horses 
and forty pigs, and there are few ranches in the 
country superior to his. In addition to his agri- 
cultural interests Mr. Peterson also owns and 
operates the stage line running from Caliente 
to Kernville; also aline running from the latter 
place to Onyx, making tri-weekly trips. And 
in connection with this business he has the con- 
tract for carrying the United States mail. 

Mr. Peterson stands high in the public esti- 
mation as a prompt and scrupulous business 
man. 



•**-§- 



H|EWIS M. HOWELL, one of the reputable 
fXjf farmers of Tulare County, California, is a 
■^^ native of Missouri, born in St. Charles 
County, August 19, 1831. His father, Thomas 
Howell, was born in South Carolina, March 14, 
1783, and removed to St. Louis, Missouri, 1797, 
when that city was a small place. His ances- 
tors ranked among the old families of South 
Carolina, and two of the Howells were officers 
in the Indian wars. Thomas Howell married 
Susana Calloway, daughter of Flanders Callo- 
way, and granddaughter of Daniel Boone, the 
famous Kentucky pioneer. They became the 
parents of fourteen children, seven sons and 
seven daughters. All grew to maturity and five 
are now (1891) living. The subject of our 
sketch was nest to the youngest child. He was 
reared and educated in Missouri, and for some 



time was engaged in steamboating on the river. 
In 1864 he went to Montana, where he spent 
fourteen years. During that time he was en- 
gaged in the mercantile and flouring-mill busi- 
ness, had a large trade, and filled many Govern- 
ment contracts. He was also engaged in the 
stock business. 

Mr. Howell married Elizabeth J. Wallace, 
also a native of St. Charles County, Missouri, 
and to them were born eight children, seven of 
whom are liviug. Their names are as follows: 
Maggie, wife of John G. Lewis; Willie; Lizzie, 
wife of James M. Cann; Lewis, Eliza, Mary 
and Charles. 

In 1878 Mr. Howell came to California and 
settled in San Jose; three years later sold out 
and removed to Healdsburg, Sonoma County, 
where he invested in property and lived three 
years. At the end of that time he sold out and 
returned to San Jose, which continued to be his 
home until 1884, when he located in Tulare 
County. He then purchased his present ranch, 
240 acres of land within the city limits of Vis- 
alia. This is chiefly a hay and 6tock farm. Mr. 
Howell has forty dairy cows, aud makes large 
quantities of cheese. Across the street from 
his place is a commodious and well-equipped 
cheese factory. His property is well improved 
with good home and substantial farm buildings, 
and all the surroundings indicate thrift and 
prosperity. 

Mr. Howell is a Master Mason, and in politics 
is a Democrat. 



§ETH BROOKS HUNT has been a resi- 
dent of" California since 1861, and of Vis- 
alia since 1871. 
Mr. Hunt is a native of Maine, born on Kimi- 
nebeck river, six miles below Augusta, June 
10, 1839. His ancestors were descended from 
the Pilgrim fathers who landed on Plymouth 
Rock, and his parents, Ephraiin and Phebe (Hunt) 
Hunt were cousins. Of their six children he 
was the fourth born. His father died in Maine. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



357 



Coming to California in 1861, Mr. Hunt lo- 
cated at Sacramento, where, for five years, he 
was engaged in the carriage manufacturing bus- 
iness. From there he removed to San Joso, 
conducting his business in that city five years. 

In 1868 he married Miss Mattie Jones, a 
native of Santa Clara County and a daughter of 
Zachariah Jones. Her parents came to this 
State in 1846, and her mother is still living, 
she being one of the oldest pioneer women in 
the State. The Donner party were entertained 
at their home when they finally reached Califor- 
nia. In 1871 Mr. Hunt came with his family 
to Visalia, and established his carriage and 
blacksmith business here. In 1879 he moved 
into his present shop, corner of Main and Lo- 
cust streets. The comfortable home on Court 
street, in which they reside, he built in April, 
1874. Five of the six children born to them 
are still living, namely: Louise A., Evaline, 
Claud A., Lillie B. and Clarence. 

Mr. Hunt is a worthy member of the A. 0. 
U. W., and has been connected with the Pres- 
byterian Church ever since its organization in 
Visalia. He rendered efficient aid in building 
their house of worship and their parsonage, and 
has been a trustee of the church for the past 
fifteen years. When the Republican party was 
organized he joined its ranks, cast his first pres- 
idential vote for John C. Fremont, and has since 
remained loyal to that party. He is thoroughly 
identified with the best interests of Visalia, and 
is regarded as one of her most worthy citizens. 



•& 






]ff|R G. L. LONG, the most prominent home- 
inlJJ °p a thic physician of Fresno, was born in 
%? Mercer, Pennsylvania, in 1858. His 
father, a farmer by occupation, moved to Iowa 
in 1878, continuing there his agricultural pur- 
suits. 

Dr. Long received his education in Pennsyl- 
vania, and after moving to Iowa he engaged in 
teaching in the public schools. On account of 
ill health he sought the balmy climate of Cali- 



fornia, coining to this coast in 1882. At first 
he settled on a wheat ranch in Merced County, 
where, after ten months' exercise in the bright 
sunshine and pure air, his health improved. In 
1883 he entered the Hahnemann Medical Col- 
lege, San Francisco, and graduated at that insti- 
tution in 1886. He began the practice of his 
profession in Lone Pine, Inyo County, and that 
same year was married there to Miss Ruth 
McElroy. They have one child, F. Ruth Long, 
born April 1, 1888. In the spring of 1887, 
Dr. Long moved to Fresno, where he has con- 
tinued in practice, with very satisfactory results, 
being the leading practitioner here in his par- 
ticular branch of medicine. He is very studi- 
ous and devotes himself to a thorough under- 
standing of his profession. 

He is a member of Merced Lodge, No. 208, 
I. O. O. F. 

-—g-***§~~ 



fT. HILTON, proprietor of the California 
Carriage Shop, N Street, Fresno, was 
® born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, in 1852. 
His father, F. H. Hilton, a tanner and shoe 
manufacturer, removed with his family to Cali- 
fornia in 1868, arriving at San Francisco, May 
1. He located at Centerville, Alameda County, 
where he still resides, working at his trade and 
running a shoe store. 

F. T. Hilton was educated at Yarmouth, and 
after coming to this State he learned the trade 
of blacksmith at Centerville. He conducted a 
shop there for eighteen months and then went 
to San Francisco, where, in the carriage factory 
of Mr. Cunningham, he learned the finer 
branches of his trade. "While in business at 
Bakersfield he contracted malaria and was com- 
pelled to seek a higher altitude. Then, at the 
mining camp of Kernville, he did a satisfactory 
business for four years ; but the mines failed, 
the town was abandoned, and Mr. Hilton moved 
to Bodie, Mono County, another mining camp. 
Ten years later the mines of that place failed, 
and again he was obliged to seek another 
location. 



358 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



In 1889 our subject came to Fresno, par- 
chased 50 x 125 feet on N between Fresno and 
Mariposa streets, built a shop and here launched 
out in a thriving business. He deals in coal, 
iron, hardware, blacksmith materials and hard- 
wood carriage materials, and builds light and 
heavy carriage work. His business here has 
increased beyond his capacity, and it is his inten- 
tion soon to enlarge his works. 

Mr. Hilton was married at Cornwall station, 
Contra Costa County, California, August 11, 
1877, to Miss Alice R. Whitney, daughter of 
William E. Whitney, a pioneer of '49, who, as 
a contractor, was engaged in building the Cen- 
tral Pacific railroad. To Mr. and Mrs. Hilton 
three children have been born, two of whom are 
living, namely : May S. and Leslie Allan Hilton. 

Mr. Hilton is a member and Master Work- 
man of Yo Semite Lodge, No. 171, A. O. U. W. 



-5«-** 



WfllOMAS H. SMITH.— The beautiful 
•MW South Fork valley, Kern County, Cali- 
spi fornia, owes its marvelous development 
and prosperity to such pioneers as Thomas H. 
Smith — -men of sterling traits of character, hon- 
esty of purpose and great energy. 

Mr. Smith was born in Bristol, England, June 
6, 1824. His father, William Smith, a profes- 
sional accountant, emigrated to New York citv 
in 1837 ; bought property and located on Luno- 
Island. He brought a family of ten children 
with him to this country, and of these the sub- 
ject of our sketch was the fifth born. He en- 
joyed excellent school facilities and availed 
himself of a good English education. In 1853 
he came to California and went into the store of 
his brother, who came to California in 1849 and 
erected the first house of merchandise in Oak- 
land, opened and conducted a store at Temescal, 
three miles from the now city of Oakland, which 
he continued about four years. In 1858 he 
removed to Visalia. where he lived three years, 
adn from there came to his present home in the 



South Fork valley, few settlers having preceded 
him to this place. 

Mr. Smith was married December 25, 1853, 
in Washington County, Ohio, to Miss Sophia 
Whitlock, daughter of Samuel Whitlock, a 
prosperous farmer of that State. They have 
three children living: Sophia, wife of J. B. Batys, 
Henrietta, wife of James H. Powers, and 
Thomas S., a single son, residing at home. 



-=*+< 



><-£=- 



E. RYAN, one of the successful real-es- 
tate men of Fresno, is a native of Ma- 
coupin County, Illinois. He is one of a 
family of seven children, and dates his birth in 
the year 1841. Receiving excellent educational 
advantages, he graduated at the Presbyterian 
College, Greenfield, Illinois, in 1858, after which 
he entered upon a business career. He estab- 
lished a dry-go jds and clothing business at 
Girard, in his native county, which he carried 
on with fair success for a period of eighteen 
years. During this period Mr. Ryan was active 
in all matters looking toward the development 
of the town, and was one of its prominent citi- 
zens. At one time he was a candidate before 
the people for Assemblyman, but was defeated 
at the polls after a close election. 

In 1876, he moved to Nebraska, and was en- 
gaged in business there a year and a half. From 
that State he removed to California, settling in 
Stockton, where he resided two years. We next 
find him located at Modesto, Stanislaus County, 
engaged in the real-estate business. Three 
years later he became a citizen of Fresno; this 
was in December, 1883, and he has since con- 
tinued to reside here. 

Mr. Ryan was engaged in various enterprises 
since his settlement in Fresno, and has been a 
witness to the remarkable development of this 
vicinity. He first engaged in contracting work, 
and later opened a piano, organ and stationery 
business. In connection with S. N. Straube he 
is now conducting a real-estate business, the firm 
name being Straube, Ryan & Co. He has never 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



s:>9 



taken an active part in politics except on one 
occasion, when he was the Republican candidate 
for Justice of the Peace. His opponent was 
Judge Hill, who had been an incumbent of the 
office for eight years, and on election day de- 
feated him at the polls by three votes. 

September 1, 1870, Mr. Ryan was wedded to 
Miss Mattie MacGee. a native of Jerseyville, 
Illinois. Their two children are Lela and Wade. 
Mr. and Mrs. Ryan are both members of the 
First Presbyterian Church of Fresno. 



=**. 



»»$=— 



fRANCIS M. SPONOGLE, M. D., who 
holds a prominent position among the 
physicians of Fresno, was born at Millers- 
burg, Ohio, in 1852, son of Joshua Sponogle, 
an extensive farmer and stock-raiser, also 
principal of the high school for a number of 
years, being a highly educated gentleman, 
speaking German and French fluently. 

The Doctor was educated in the Millersburg 
high school and in the Academy of Science at 
Hayesville. He began his medical studies at 
Millersburg in 1870, under the instruction of 
Dr. William M. Ross, a prominent physician 
and surgeon of that locality. During the win- 
ters of 1873, 1874 and 1875 he was a student 
in the medical department of the University of 
Wooster at Cleveland, Ohio. In 1875 he began 
practicing in order to secure fnnds to finish his 
studies, which he did in 1876, graduating at 
Wooster University. 

After completing his college course, the Doc- 
tor came West, located at Battle Mountain, 
Nevada, and was there engaged in the practice 
of his profession until 1881. He was appointed 
County Physician for Lander County, Nevada, 
which position he held for five years, and re- 
signed when he came to California. On com- 
ing to this State he settled in Healdsburg, 
Sonoma County, continuing his practice at that 
place till 1884. Feeling the need of a higher 
education, he then went to New York and 
attended lectures at the Long Island College 



Hospital, graduating in 1885. After that he 
attended the New York Polyclinic, taking a 
full course and receiving from that school a 
certificate as an honorary and life member, and 
receiving a diploma. In the fall of 1885 he 
entered the Bellevue Hospital College, took a 
full course of lectures, performed hospital work, 
and received a diploma in the spring of 1886. 
He also took four special courses on surgery 
and four courses on physical diagnosis and dis- 
eases of women, receiving special diplomas 
from English, German and French specialists. 
A special course on urinary analysis and med- 
ical and toxological chemistry, under the in- 
struction of Professor Ogden Doremus, of 
Bellevue Hospital College; also, a special course 
on histology and pathology and use of the 
microscope, and a special course on the eye, ear 
and throat under foreign and American teachers. 
He stood so high in surgery at Bellevne that 
Professor Dennis selected him and one other 
from a class of 165 to perform a difficult case 
of surgery before the class. During the sum- 
mer of 1886 he took a full course of lectures in 
the New York Post-Graduate School, and re- 
ceived his diploma in the fall of 1886. 

Having thus carefully prepared himself in 
the East for his professional duties, Dr. Spon- 
ogle returned to the Pacific coast, and again 
began practice at Healdsburg. He was mar- 
ried in 1886 to Miss Libbie Briggs, a native of 
California, a very estimable young lady and 
highly educated. In April, 1888, he moved to 
Fresno and established himself in a spacious 
office in the Griffith building, and in this city 
he has continued to reside, actively engaged in 
the practice of his chosen profession. He is an 
active member of both State and county med- 
ical societies. 

Since coming to Fresno, Dr. Sponogle has 
invested in ranch and city property. He re- 
sides at No. 1332 J street. In fraternal circles 
the Doctor is also prominent, being a member 
of Santa Rosa Chapter, No. 45, Royal Arch 
Masons; the subordinate lodge and encamp- 
ment of I. O. O. F.; Vineland Lodge, K. of P., 



360 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




and the Raisiua Chapter, No. 86, Eastern Star. 
He is also connected with the Mono Tribe, No. 
68, I. O. K. M., and Fresno Lodge. No. 3455, 
Knights of Honor, being District Deputy of 
the latter lodge, and District Medical Exam- 
iner; also Medical Examiner tor the German 
Lodge of Hermann's Sohne for the city of 
Fresno. 



ILLIAM H. SCRIBNER, who figures 
prominently in the history of Bakers- 
field, California, was born in Green- 
ville, Darke County, Ohio, July 27, 1849. His 
father, Franklyn Scribner, was a native of the 
same place, and a son of Abraham Scribner, who 
located there in 1811. The latter was a pioneer 
merchant, Indian trader and land speculator. 
He took an active part in the Indian wars of 
the northwestern territory, and has been pointed 
out in history as the man who, under Colonel 
Richard M. .lohnson, killed the noted Indian 
chief, Tecumseh. Franklyn Scribner grew up 
on the frontier, learned the shoemaker's trade. 
and succeeded his father as a merchant in his 
native town. When the civil war broke out 
he left home and business and enlisted his serv- 
ices for the protection of the old flag and the 
preservation of the Union, acting the part of a 
brave soldier until the close of that struinde 

DO 

After the war he returned home, resumed busi- 
ness and continued therein until durino- the 
declining years of his life. He is now living in 
quietude in the beautiful little city of Green- 
ville. To him and his wife, nee Elizabeth Young, 
five children were born, William H. being the 
oldest. The others are: Edwin F., a merchant 
of Downey, this State; Charles C, in the real- 
estate business in Bakersfield; J. W., with his 
brother in mercantile business, and Cora, the 
wife of J. W. Smith, Bakersfield. 

The subject of our sketch spent his boyhood 
and early youth in his native town, and im- 
proved the educational opportunities then 
afforded. At the age of thirteen he appren- 



ticed himself to learn the trade of watchmaker 
and jeweler. In the spring of 1865, when the 
last call for troops was made, he enlisted. Being 
under age, however, he was never mustered into 
service. In 1866 he went to Attica, Indiana, 
where he continued work at his trade and re- 
mained for several years. Too close application 
to his business there seriously impaired his eye- 
sight and somewhat his health. 

March 1, 1874, he was married, at Terre 
Haute, Indiana, to Miss Fannie Davis, and on 
the third of that month they started tor Cali- 
fornia. Bakersfield was then in its infancy, 
and here they took up their abode. In connec- 
tion with J. P. Low, Mr. Scribner established a 
jewelry business and also carried a stock of sta- 
tionery, confectionery, etc., under the firm name 
of Low & Scribner. Since that time Mr. Scrib- 
ner has been engaged in business here, meeting 
with almost unexampled success. With the 
marvelous growth of Kern County and Bakers- 
field the good name and influence of the house 
of W. H. Scribner has spread, and his fortune 
has correspondingly increased. From year to 
year, as he has been financially prosperous, his 
capital has been promptly invested in local im- 
provements, both public and private. He was 
one of the directors of the Kern Valley Bank; 
was a promoter and organizer of the excellent 
water system of Bakersfield. of which he has 
acquired a one-half ownership; was an organ- 
izer and is now a member of the Southern Hotel 
Association, which built and furnished the orig- 
inal Southern Hotel, and rebuilt the same after 
its destruction by tire, Julv, 1SS9. at an expense 
of upwards of $116,000. In that tire Mr. 
Scribner also sustained other losses; but, with 
unbounded faith in his chosen citv, he at once 
began the work of rebuilding. A solid brick 
business block now occupies the site of his less 
pretentious one. It fronts on Chester avenue, 
and the second story composes a portion of the 
Arlington Hotel. Another brick block owned by 
him is one adjoining the Southern Hotel. He 
also owns a large amonnt of other valuable 
property in Bakersfield, which nets him a hand- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



361 



some profit. In politics he is a Republican; is 
Chairman of the Republican County Committee 
and a member of the Republican State Central 
Committee; has, however, always refused to 
run for office, although repeatedly solicited to 
do so. He is, indeed, a man of remarkable 
versatility. While it might seem that his time 
is wholly taken up with his extensive business 
operations, yet he finds time for other pleasures 
and pursuits. He is fond of reading and spends 
many hours in his library and with his family. 
Few men are possessed of a greater fund of 
general information and entertain broader views 
on the various questions of the day than he. 

His marriage at Terre Haute has already been 
referred to. Mrs. Scribner's death occurred 
January 15, 1878. On December 26, 1881, he 
wedded Miss Nellie O'Donnell, the daughter of 
a California pioneer. By his present wife he 
has three daughters. The family home, a model 
of comfort and convenience, is located at the 
corner of K and Twenty-first streets,. 



If|R. A - G- DEARDORFF.— This gentleman 
iW) * s one °^ *-^ e distinguished physicians of 
%? Fresno, and is justly entitled to represen- 
tation on these pages. 

Born in Douglas County, Oregon, September 
14, 1854, the Doctor was a pioneer of that sec- 
tion of the West. His father, a native of Iowa, 
came to California in 1849 during the mining 
excitement, and finally settled in Oregon. 
Our subject attended school at Wilbur, Oregon, 
the institution there being a branch of the well 
known Willamette University. In 1878 he 
went East to Keokuk, Iowa, where he entered 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, gradu- 
ating with honor in 1882. He soon settlsd in 
Jefferson, Oregon, and there engaged in the 
practice of medicine from the spring of 1882 
until the fall of 1885. Then after a temporary 
residence in Salem, Oregon, he moved to 
Fresno, where he has since resided, devoting h,s 
entire attention to the practice of his profession. 

23 



He enjoys a very large family practice in this 
city, and the confidence and respect of the best 
people. 

The Doctor has invested in some choice vine- 
yard land near the city, and also owns valuable 
property in Fresno. He is public-spirited and 
much interested in the development and future 
prosperity of the country in which he has cast 
his lot. 

Dr. Deardorff was married in 1879 to Eliza- 
beth M. Harmon, a native of Pennsylvania 
whom he had the good fortune to meet during 



his college life. 



>>%■££ - 



V. ROBERTS.— Throughout Kern County 
the name of J. V. Roberts is a familiar 
^C 3 one, he being known as an early pioneer 
of the Kern river valley. He was one of the 
first white settlers in Walker's Basin, which 
spot he first visited in 1854. Previous to that 
he had spent some time in the San Joaquin 
valley and one year in Los Angeles County, buy- 
ing cattle. He purchased about 300 head, 
drove them to Tehachapi, spent one year there, 
and then, in 1855, proceeded to Walker's Basin. 
The country at that time was in its virgin dress 
of nature and made up one vast stock range. 
The land was not then surveyed and neither the 
farmer's plow had disturbed its soil nor the 
woodman's ax had marred the glories of its for- 
est beauty. Mr. Roberts made a location and 
raised some hay and grain, but sojn afterward 
sold his improvements to the late William 
Light tier, and removed still further on to the 
frontier, to his present place. That occurred in 
the fall of 1860, and he at once went to work 
to develop and beautify his ranch. 

Mr. Roberts was born in Hamilton, Butler 
County, Ohio, December 25, 1825. His par- 
ents were New Jersey people of Scotch and 
Welsh origin. Young Roberts seemed to have 
been born with the instincts and ambitions of a 
thorough pioneer. He left his native home at 
the age of eighteen years and went to Kentucky. 



362 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



From there he joined the army of the United 
States, and was in the leading battles of the 
Mexican war. He spent one year in Texas and 
from there came to California and to the San 
Joaquin valley. His experiences in Kern County 
have been those of a successful business man. 
He has accumulated a good bank account, broad 
acres of fine land and about 400 head of cattle, 
and has a bright and amiable family. He is a 
man of correct habits and modest demeanor, 
and is respected by all who have the pleasure of 
his acquaintance. 



|ILEY MONROE WILSON was born in 
1ffi\f Oneida County, New York, June 13, 1832, 
*sfj\ son of Lathrop M. and Prudence (Hun- 
gerford) Wilson, both natives of Connecticut. 
Grandfather Roger Wilson was also a native of 
that State. Mr. Wilson was the second of the 
the children born to his parents, and when he was 
ten years of age the family removed to the town 
of Wayne, Cass County, Michigan, where he 
was reared. While in New York he received 
some schooling, but after they located in the 
new State of Michi- an his educational advan- 
tages were meager. 

In 1853, upon reaching his majority, like 
many other men of ambitious natures, he was 
attacked with the gold fever and directed his 
course toward the new El Dorado of the West. 
After his arrival in California, Mr. Wilson was 
engaged in mining in several localities, and at 
first only made his expenses. In Sierra County, 
however, he was more successful, but sold out 
his interests there to avoid litigation. Next he 
worked in the silver mines of Nevada, and also 
carried on blacksmithing there very successfully. 
He then returned to California and purchased a 
section of land in Santa Clara County, improved 
the property and resided on it fifteen years. In 
1881 he removed to Fresno, bought twenty 
acres of fruit land, built a nice home and planted 
the property to fruit and vines, which are now 
in full bearing and bringing in a handsome 



income. In the meantime he sold his Santa 
Clara County property, and in 1886 he pur- 
chased the Traver mill, at Traver, Tulare 
county. This he has improved by putting in a 
full roller process. 

In 1864 he was united in marriage i:o Miss 
Hattie B. Barrows, a native of Flint, Michigan. 
Three daughters have been born to them, 
namely: Kitty Blanch, wife of Richard Will- 
iams; Lenora Lois, wife of Luther S. Hubbard, 
has one daughter and resides in Fresno; and 
Alice M. The last named, through a sad acci- 
dent, met her death at the age of ten years. 
They were on a vacation in the mountains, and 
in some unaccountable manner she wandered 
away and was lost. After ten days of most 
anxious search, her remains were found in the 
river where she had been drowned. 

In politics Mr. Wilson is a Republican, hav- 
ing voted with that party since Mr. Lincoln was 
first a candidate for the presidency. 



R. HIGGINS, the well-known photog- 
rapher of Fresno, was born in Canada, 
in 1845. In 1864 he came to California, 
his family having located here two years previ- 
ous to that time. He made the voyage via the 
Isthmus of Panama, the trip consuming twenty- 
one days, nine days less than the steamer now 
requires to make the journey. On his arrival 
in San Francisco, in March, 1864, he entered 
the high school and took a busiuess course. He 
subsequently attended the business college, 
where he acquired a thorough practical educa- 
tion, his schooling advantages having been lim- 
ited in Canada. While pursuing his studies, 
Mr. Higgins also devoted some time to work in 
photography with his brother, who was estab- 
lished in that business in the city, and, devel- 
oping no little ability in that direction, he 
adopted the business himself. 

Locating in Sacramento, he did a successful 
photographic business there for three years. 
Then he divided his time between working for 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



363 



several of the leading galleries in San Francisco 
and making periodical trips to the interior, un- 
til September, 1882, when he came to Fresno. 
He did not remain here long, however, and a few 
months later went back to San Francisco. In 
the spring of 1884 he again came to Fresno, 
and this time established himself permanently 
in the photograph business, which he still con- 
ducts. He is the pioneer photographer in Fresno 
and his work is justly celebrated throughout the 
valley. 

Mr. Higgins is actively identified with the 
fire department of Fresno, and was the prime 
mover in the organization of the present depart- 
ment, which was effected in October, 1887. In 
March, 1889, he was elected chief of the depart- 
ment, and to him is generally conceded the 
greatest measure of credit for its present high 
state of efficiency, good management and ex- 
cellent descipline. 

He was married in 1876, to Miss Williams, 
a native of California. They have one child. 

— »^-»g~>+j~!«~'~ — 

KiOULS WHITEN DALE, one of the thrifty 
'Wi rancriers °f Tulare County, California, 
^^ was born in the State of New York, Sep- 
tember 13, 1853. He is the son of Frederick 
and Clara (Faubel) Whitendale, both natives of 
Germany, and is the second born of their eight 
children. He was reared on his father's farm, 
working in summer and attending school in 
winter. At the age of fifteen years he went to 
the lumber woods of Pennsylvania, theie becom- 
ing inured to hard work, and remaining five 
years. Then he removed to Missouri, and from 
that place came to Tulare County, California ) 
where he worked for wages for one of the 
prominent farmers of the county, the gentleman 
who subsequently became his father-in-law. 

In 1884 Mr. Whitendale married Miss Eliza 
Chatten, daughter of Richard Chattel). He 
has built a good residence upon his property 
four miles east of Visalia, and he is com- 
fortably situated, engaged in raising cattle, 



hogs and horses. He owns auother ranch 
of 320 acres, eleven miles south of Visalia. 
He and his wife are the parents of two beau- 
tiful children, William and Ida. 

Mr. Whitendale is a member of the I. O. O. 
F. Politically he is a Democrat. 



h i-. hT » ; h ; . ? i«. «»-. ■■- 

§AVE HIRSHFELD, one of the lead- 
ing merchants of Kern County, is a native 
of Germany. He came to California as a 
boy in 1871 and landed in Santa Ana, where he 
received his first business experience. In the 
following year he went to Lower California, dur- 
ing the placer-mining boom, and remained there 
for a little over two years, when he returned to 
American soil, and shortly afterward to Bakers- 
field, where he has remained ever since. He 
became a member of the firm of Hirshfeld Bros. 
& Co.. which firm established for themselves a 
reputation for fair dealing and trustworthiness in 
every hamlet in the county. Mr. Dave Hirsh- 
feld dissolved his business connections with his 
former associates and established for himself the 
Pioneer Store, on the first of September, 1890. 
This store is one of the most complete establish- 
ments in Central California. It occupies a 
spacious, new and solid brick building, con- 
structed especially for the present occupant. 
The stock contained in this building is the largest 
in Kern County. The proprietor has local 
buyers in San Francisco and in the East, who 
supply him daily with new and fashionable 
goods, which enables him to give his customers 
the best for the least money. The store is 
lighted with six electric arc lights, which gives 
it the brilliancy of day at night. Four lines of 
the rapid cash transmitter forward the cash 
receipts to the cashiers' desks. Improved ele- 
vators are used for the handling of heavy goods. 
The Pioneer Store has the best ventilated base- 
ment in the city. It is 58x100 feet, and is 
filled with heavy goods. 

Dave Hirshfeld occupies an enviable position 
as a business man in Kern valley, and his sue- 



3G4 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



cess is due mainly to that sterling trait of char- 
acter, — that he never misrepresents anything in 
business, and that he never resorts to the 
" Cheap John " way of doing business in hold- 
ing out five cent inducements in order to gain 
$5 advantage over the unwary. Mr. Hirsh- 
feld takes a lively interest in home affairs which 
tend to forward the material interests and devel- 
opment of his town and vicinity, and as a citi- 
zen and social companion, is highly esteemed. 



~. . i g . 2n; . |i «~w . 

HOMAS JEFFERSON JANES, as a 



J pioneer of 1849, and as a man proiui- 
^ nently connected with the stock interests 
of California, merits more than a passing notice 
'on the pages of this volume. 

Mr. Janes was born in Pike County, Mis- 
souri, November 18, 1826, son of William and 
Mary Ann (Lear) Janes, natives of Kentucky. 
They emigrated to Missouri in 1812 and took 
up their abode on the frontier. In 1830 they 
moved to Benton County, purchased land three 
miles from Warsaw, the county seat, where they 
lived until the death of Mr. Janes, February 
17, 1844, at the age of fifty-five years. 

The subject of our sketch remained at home 
on the farm until he reached his majority, re- 
ceiving what education he could from the mea- 
ger facilities then afforded. On the breaking 
out of the gold fever, his ambitious nature was 
enthused, and May 4, 1849, lie left Warsaw for 
the El Dorado of the West. Equipped with ox 
teams, his party made the journey via the 
northern route, passing Goose lake in Oregon 
and coming into California by the old emigrant 
trail. They arrived at Lassen's ranch on the 
23d of September, and at Sacramento on the 
6th of October. Mr. Janes went to the mines 
on Weaver creek, where he wintered and did 
some mining. From exposure incurred, he was 
taken sick and in the spring of 1850 went to 
San Francisco for the benefit of his health. May 
of that year found him in the Santa Clara val- 
ley, engaged in teaming and farming. He was 



one of the first to engage in farming in that 
valley, and he remained there until 1858, when 
he returned to Missouri, embarking at San 
Francisco and making the voyage via Panama, 
New Orleans and St. Louis, thence to Warsaw, 
his former home. There he intended to remain, 
but he soon became disgusted with the country 
and climate, and in May, 1859, again started 
across the plains for California. The company 
in which he traveled was composed of about 
forty men, women and children, among them 
being three brothers and four sisters of Mr. 
Janes, also two men who crossed the plains 
with him in 1849. On this trip Mr. Janes 
brought with him 100 head of cattle. Crossing 
by the Humboldt river, they passed the big 
trees of Calaveras County and came by Stock- 
ton to San Jose, arriving October 1. In the 
spring of 1860 he brought his cattle to Tulare 
County and settled on Tnle river, three miles 
west of his present ranch, where he remained 
until the high waters of 1862 changed the river 
bed. In the spring of 1863 he moved to his 
present location. 

Mr. Janes was married in Santa Clara County, 
California, September 5, 1861, to Miss Mary 
Jane Truett, a native of Tennessee. In 1867 
he homesteaded eighty acres and in 1872 pre- 
empted 160 acres, which formed the nucleus of 
his present landed interests. He continued in 
the stock business until 1873, when free crraz- 
ing was cut off by the passage of the " no- 
fence'' law. Then he sold his cattle, number- 
ing 1,000 head, and engaged in the sheep 
business with a band numberino- 2,200. This 
number he subsequently increased to 4,400. and 
followed the business about ten years, when he 
sold out. He increased his land-holdings to 
1,300 acres, but as his three sons reached their 
majority he settled land. on them, and his own 
ranch now numbers only about 800 acres. Since 
1865 Mr. Janes has done more or less farming, 
usually sowing 300 acres in grain, and in a 
modified way is still engaged in the stock busi- 
ness, keeping horses, mules, cattle and a few 
sheep. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



365 



Mr. and Mrs. J a es have five children living: 

o 

William Isham, Madison Monroe, Thomas Wal- 
ter, Estella and Blanche K. His present large 
and handsome residence was built in 1882, and 
is surrounded by a family orchard and vines that 
were planted in 1876. In the spring of 1891 
Mr. Janes planted a raisin vineyard of twelve 
acres. He is a man who has given close atten- 
tion to his own personal affairs, has been cau- 
tions in his judgment and careful in his invest- 
ments, and as a result his efforts have been re- 
warded with success, and he has the respect and 
esteem of his fellow citizens. 



§R. ROBERT CURTIS (GARDNER is one 
of the youngest, as well as one of the 
ablest, members of the dental fraternity of 
Fresno. He is a native of TJniontown, Fayette 
County, Pennsylvania, born May 11, 1867, his 
parents being Jesse Beeson and Margaret (Kerr) 
Gardner. His father was a well-known public 
man in that State, and for eight years held the 
office of Prothonotary. He also has an enviable 
military record in the active service of his coun- 
try, having served as a Major in the war with 
Mexico, as well as acting in the same capacity 
in the war of the Rebellion. He is now a resi- 
dent of TJniontown, Pennsylvania. The mother 
of our subject is, however, deceased, her death 
having occurred about 1873. After her death, 
R. C. Gardner, whose name heads this article, 
went to live with an aunt in Clinton, Illinois, 
but returned to Pennsylvania three years later. 
His early education was received in the schools 
of Illinois and Pennsylvania. At the age of 
fifteen years he again went West, and this time 
made his home at Petersburg, Illinois, with an 
uncle named James Moore, who wao the pioneer 
miller of that place. Eight months later he 
went to Jacksonville, Illinois, and there attended 
the Washington high school, where he was 
graduated in 1884. After that event he made 
his home again at Petersburg, and there began 
the study of his present profession with a promi- 



nent dentist of that place. A year later he 
went to the western metropolis, and began 
attendance at the Chicago College of Dental 
Surgery, where he was graduated in the spring 
of 1888. 

Having completed his studies and prepared 
himself for a professional career, Dr. Gardner 
came to California and located at Fresno, at 
once beginning the practice in which he is now 
so successfully engaged. 

In August, 1889, he formed a business part- 
nership with Dr. W. J. Prather, with whom he 
is now associated. Jointly these gentlemen 
enjoy a very extensive patronage, being highly 
esteemed both by their professional brethren 
and the public at large. 

In August, 1890, Dr. Gardner was united in 
marriage with Miss Mary R. Tennant, a native 
of San Jose, California, and they reside in their 
attractive home, recently erected in Fresno. 



— =1* 



*^>- 



fAMES B. MORRIS was born in Missouri, 
September 27, 1838. His parents were 
Thomas and Mary (Golden) Morris, both 
natives of Tennessee, the former a descendant 
of French 'ancestry. James B. is the seventh 
of their nine children, three of whom are living. 
He was reared and educated in Missouri and 
there learned the carpenter's trade, which, as a 
contractor and builder, he has followed the most 
of his life. ' 

When the civil war broke out, Mr. Morris 
enlisted in Company B, Sixth Missouri Cavalry, 
and, after serving in it six months, joined the 
First Missouri Battery and served in it until 
the close of the war, without being taken pris- 
oner or receiving a wound. He participated in 
the battles of Oak Hill, Mansfield, Louisiana, 
Jenkins' Ferry and in many smaller fights. 
After the close of the war, he returned home 
and again gave his attention to his trade. 

In 1875 Mr. Morris came to California and 
direct to Visalia. For twelve years he was en- 
g-ao-ed in contracting: and building here and 



360 



IlItiTOIiY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



during that time erected many of the best 
houses in the city. In November, 1889, in 
partnership with Mr. McDermot, he bought the 
grocery and provision store which they have 
since successfully conducted. They do a thriv- 
ing business and number among their customers 
the best citizens of Visalia. Mr. Morris pur- 
chased property in this city at the corner of 
North and Willis streets, remodeled the house, 
and now has a comfortable home, in which he 
resides with his family. 

He was married, in 1862, to Miss Mary Z. 
Smyth, a native of Missouri, who has borne him 
a daughter, Sadie E. Mr. Morris is a worthy 
number of the Masonic fraternity. Politically 
he is a Democrat. He has held the office of 
Justice of the Peace in the city of Visalia. 
Like all good Calil'ornians, he is interested in 
the growth and prosperity of this State, and is 
justly proud of the advancement she is making. 



fATHAN W. MOODEY.— This gentle- 
man has been a resident of Fresno since 
1873 and has been prominentlj' identified 
with its best interests. For the position he fills 
and for the valuable services he has rendered 
to the public, Mr. Moodey is justly entitled to 
a representation in the history of this section of 
California; indeed a history of Fresno would be 
incomplete without some reference to him. 

He was born near Dayton, Ohio, March 9, 
1852, and while qnite young removed with his 
parents to Illinois, where they established their 
home. There young Moodey was sent to the 
best schools in the locality, and his education 
was finished at the town college. Having com- 
pleted his studies, he entered a paper mill to 
learn the trade, and remained there three years. 
At the end of that time a serious fire destroyed 
the mill and he was left without employment, 
so he turned his attention to the hardware trade. 
In 1874 he came to California and located in 
Fresno. For two years he was employed by 
the railroad company as night agent. Then he 



entered the post office. At that time the office 
was a primitive looking affair, there being no 
lock- boxes, for the good reason that there was 
no use for any. To-day an observer will notice 
the remarkable change that has taken place in 
the workings of this institution. It is a fact 
that in Fresno County, 60x150 miles in area, 
there are more rented post-office boxes than in 
any other county in the State of California, not 
excepting Los Angeles or San Francisco. Mr. 
Moodey first entered the post office as a sub- 
ordinate. Under the administration of President 
Arthur he was appointed Postmaster, which office 
he resigned after the change of party in power 
in 1885. During President Harrison's admin- 
istration he was reappointed to his old office, 
which he now occupies. Mr. Moodey's manage- 
ment of this important branch of the Govern- 
ment at Fresno is eminently satisfactory and 
reflects great credit on his ability as an official. 
In 1886 [he was the Republican nominee for 
sheriff, and, although defeated, ran far ahead of 
his ticket, the county then being strongly Dem- 
ocratic. 

Mr. Moodey was married in 1883, and he 
and his wife are the parents of two bright chil- 
dren, a son and a daughter. 



§EROY N. WOOD, a prominent business 
man of Visalia, Tulare County, California. 
is a native of the State of New York, born 

November 17, 1852. His ancestors were Eile- 
en 

lish people who settled in this country many 
years ago and became residents of New York 
and Massachusetts. His father, Norman Wood, 
a native of New York, married Miss Louisa 
Roper, who was born in Pennsylvania. Her 
ancestors also came from England and settled in 
America during colonial times. To Norman 
and Louisa Wood five children were born, Leroy 
being the second. 

Mr. Wood was reared and educated in Sauk 
County, Wisconsin. He learned the mercantile 
business in Beatrice, Nebraska, and clerked 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



367 



there from 1872 till 1874. He then came to 
California, spent two years as a clerk in Bakers- 
field, Kern County, after which he opened a 
store on his own account at Glennville and was 
successfully engaged in business there from 
1877 till 1883. At the end of that time he sold 
out and moved to Gilroy, Santa Clara County, 
where he conducted business seven years, at the 
same time being interested in a business at San 
Francisco. 

In 1890 Mr. Wood came to Visalia and pur- 
chased the business of Stevens & Co., one of the 
leading general merchandise firms of Visalia. 
This store is a double one and is 113 feet deep, 
and in the rear of it is a store house, 60 x 100 
feet. He does a large business, employs eleven 
men, and has a trade that extends out fifty miles 
to the east. 

Mr. Wood was married in 1877, to Miss 
Mary Campbell, a native of California. They 
have five children, all born in this State, viz.: 
Mark, Ford, Norm, Julia and Louisa. 

In his political views Mr. Wood is a Repub- 
lican and a protectionist. He is associated with 
the I. O. O. F. Although he lias been a resi- 
dent of Visalia only a short time, he has made 
many friends here, and is highly esteemed by 
all who know him. 



PHILLIPS.— In this rapidly de- 
\m veloping country of ours where oppor- 
tunities for all are equal some make 
swifter strides toward prosperity than others, 
and their wonderful success may be attributed 
to natural ability and tact combined with reso- 
lute will and persistent determination to suc- 
ceed. The subject of this sketch is one whose 
business career is worthy of note. Mr. Phillips 
is to-day one of the youngest bank officers in 
the State of California; and the phenomenal 
success he has achieved during the years of his 
residence here justly entitle him to honorable 
mention in this volume. 

He was born in Mississippi in 1851. Early 




in life he was sent to school, and until he reached 
his fifteenth year his studies received his close 
attention. At that time he became a clerk in a 
store at Canton. In the winter of 1867 he 
was chosen a page in the State Senate, which 
position he occupied four months. Then he was 
employed by a large cotton firm at Vicksburg, 
Mississippi, and remained with them until 
1870. December of that year found him en 
route to California, seeking new fields of labor. 
He arrived in Fresno County, January 1, 1871, 
and immediately entered upon a business career, 
a career which the score of years succeeding has 
shown to be of marked success. 

Young Phillips, then twenty years of age, 
engaged as a clerk in a general merchandise 
store at Centerville, and was variously employed 
there until 1874, when he came to Fresno. 
Here he secured a position with the firm of 
Kutner, Goldstein & Co., now one of the 
most prominent business houses in the valley. 
In 1877 he was admitted as a partner of the 
firm, and for four years and a half conducted 
the Centerville branch store. The firm con- 
tinued to prosper, and as an investment of their 
profits they established the Farmers' Bank of 
Fresno. Mr. Phillips then gave most of his 
time and attention to work at the bank, as- 
suming the position of cashier, which he held 
until 1887. He was in that year elected vice- 
president and manager, a position he fills at the 
present time. To mention the enterprise with 
which Mr. Phillips is actively engaged or in 
some way connected would be to mention many 
of the most important ones in Fresno. He 
helped to establish the Fresno Ice Works in 
1874; was instrumental in organizing, and is 
now director of, the Fresno Gas Light Company; 
was the first secretary of the Fair Ground As- 
sociation; is at present a director of the 
Fresno Water Company, and has an interest in 
the Fresno Bonded Warehouse. 

Mr. Phillips possesses many pleasing traits of 
character, and his amiable qualities have won 
for him a large circle of friends. 

He was married October 10, 1880, to Miss 



3G8 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Elizabeth B. Pressley, of Sonoma County, 
daughter of Judge John B. Pressley. Mr. and 
Mrs. Phillips have one child, a son, eight years 
of age. 

- --^4§s»-*# — 

(LIAS JACOB, a pioneer business man of 
Visalia, Tulare County, came to California 
in 1852. He was born in Germany, of Ger- 
man parents, in 1841, his father being a merchant 
of that country. When he arrived in California, 
a lad of twelve years, he obtained employment in 
a dry-goods store in Stockton, where he remained 
until 1856. He then ventured into the San 
Joaquin valley, spent one year at Millerton, then 
the county seat of Fresno, and from there came 
to Visalia and took charge of the store of his 
brother-in-law, II. Mitchell, till 1859. His 
brother-in-law dying in that year, he became his 
successor, enlarged the store and continued the 
business until 1876, and during that period 
opened several other stores in Fresno and Tulare 
counties. 

In 1876, on account of declining health, he 
retired from mercantile pursuits and gave him- 
self up entirely to farming and stock-raising, the 
change having fully restored his health. His 
industry from that date became almost a passion, 
so much so that the ramification is endless, 
clearing up new fields and opening up every 
industry pertaining to grain, fruit and live 
stock. The aid he had given during the days 
of his mercantile life to the opening of irrigat- 
ing ditches is yielding him golden fruit, as the 
lands he then acquired have become of great 
value by reason of the water supply. The lands 
he is now using for grazing and wheat cultiva- 
tion, from the present indications, are soon to 
be transformed into orchards and vineyards. 
The demand for small holdings seems to increase 
to the extent that it will no longer he profitable 
to retain large tracts. Mr. Jacob owns through- 
out Tulare County a total acreage of 45,000 
acres, the largest tract being 8,000 acres, all 
sowed to wheat this year. On some of his 



tracts he has made as many as eight artesian 
wells, which average a flow of 280,000 gallons 
of water in twenty-four hours, the water being 
used for both irrigation and stock purposes. 
An inventory of his stock shows that he hats 200 
horses and mules, 2,000 cattle and 12,000 sheep. 
He has erected a number of buildings in the 
city of Visalia. which are all rented. 

Although Mr. Jacob has given close attention 
to his own affairs be has also done much toward 
shaping the political destiny of his county, but 
lias declined everything in the shape of office, 
although he could have had anything in that 
line which he wished. His political affiliations 
have been with the Democratic party, and lie 
has rendered the party efficient services, having 
been a member of both the county and State 
Democratic committees. He is an active and 
honored member of the Masonic fraternity, and 
has reached the royal arch degree. He re- 
ceived the appointment from the Grand Master 
of the State to take the part of orator at the 
lying of the corner-stone of the new county 
courthouse, which position he filled most 
acceptably. 

Mr. Jacob is a good looking gentleman, and 
what is greatly to be wondered at he is still a 
single one. 

He is an enthusiast in regard to the resources 
of Tulare County and her immense supply of 
water, which he says is sufficient to irrigate 
every acre of her land susceptible of irrigation. 
He sees a bright future for the county, and has 
such love for it that he will go almost any 
length to advance its interest. 



•■ S - x - 3 " 



fD. EDWARDS, a successful and prom- 
inent member of the Fresno Bar. was 
Q born in Missouri, in Clay County, in 
1846, one in a family of three children. He 
attended school at the William Jewell College 
at Liberty, pursuing his studies there until the 
war broke out. when he enlisted in the Con- 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



369 



federate army, remaining in the ranks until 
peace was declared. 

The conflict over, Mr. Edwards settled down 
to the study of law in the office of Dickson & 
Hough, Memphis, Tennessee. He subsequently 
opened an office of his own and began the prac- 
tice of his profession at Union City, Tennessee. 
In 1876 he directed his course toward Cali- 
fornia and sought a home among the activities 
of the west coast. He located in Tulare Coun- 
ty, and continued the practice of law in that 
vicinity for two years, after which he moved to 
Fresno County, where he has since resided. 

At different times Mr. Edwards has filled 
various offices of public trust. At Union City, 
Tennessee, he was the City Attorney for three 
terms (six years). In Fresno County he served 
as Deputy District Attorney from 1878 to 1882, 
and as District Attorney from 1884 to 1885, 
declining a renomination for the latter office. 
Mr. Edwards 1 rare abilities as a lawyer have 
placed him in the front ranks of his profession, 
and he not only has the high regard of his as- 
sociates at law, but also of the community at 
large. 

Mr. Edwards resides in his delightful country 
home, located five miles northeast of Fresno, 
consisting of 100 acres, eighty of which are in 
bearing vines. Besides attending to his pro- 
fessional duties, Mr. Edwards also finds time to 
devote to the care and improvement of his vine- 
yard. Tills beautiful estate, known as "Sandias 
ranch," is one of the most attractive in the 
valley, and the visitor who lingers to admire its 
beauty will be welcomed in a most cordial man- 
ner by the owner, who is a true type of the 
Southern gentleman. 



fAMES EDWARD DENNY, one of the 
well and favorably known citizens of Visa- 
lia, has been a resident of California since 
1854. Briefly stated, a review of his life is as 
follows : 

Mr. Denny was born in Bond County, Illi- 



nois, June 1, 1835, son of James and Mary 
(White) Denny, both natives of North Carolina. 
The Dennys had their origin in Ireland, while 
the Whites originated in Wales. Several of 
Mr. Denny's people served in the Black Hawk 
war, and three of his brothers fought in the 
civil war, one of them being killed. His par- 
ents had nine children, eight sons and one 
daughter, nearly all of whom are living. The 
subject of our sketch was educated at home and 
at the college at Macomb, McDonough County, 
Illinois. 

One of his brothers had come to California 
in 1850 and established himself in a prosperous 
business in Sierra County, and 1854 Mr. Denny 
came West, joined him at Forest City, and there 
they remained together five years. From that 
place Mr. Denny went to Kingston, on the 
King's river, Fresno County, and, in company 
with another, purchased a ferry boat and kept 
a hotel and store, the overland stage making 
that one of its stopping places. In 1859 Pres- 
ident James Buchanan appointed him the first 
Postmaster of the place, and Mr. Denny gave it 
the name of Kingston. 

From Kingston Mr. Denny came to Visalia, 
purchased an interest in a livery stable with 
Mr. Cady, and conducted the business until 
1865, when he sold out and went to Millerton, 
Fresno County. At that place he was engaged 
in the mercantile business until the winter of 
1867— '68 when there came a flood that swept 
the town away, and he lost all he had. Return- 
ing to Visalia, he clerked for R. E. Hyde till 
1871. Then for a year he kept the Visalia 
House, after which he went East. Coming back 
to California, he located at Portersville and took 
charge of the store of D. R. Douglas, remaining 
thus employed until 1873, when he was elected 
Clerk, Auditor and Recorder of the county. He 
served two years and was then elected Recorder 
and Auditor, afterward acting as Deputy Treas- 
urer two years. Again he turned his attention 
to the general merchandise business, being a 
partner with John Crowley until 1882, when 
he was elected County Recorder. At the expi- 



370 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ration of his term of office he engaged in the 
drug business with Mr. Griggs, now the firm 
of Griggs & Co., and sold out in 1886. About 
that time he was nominated on the Republican 
State ticket for Comptroller of State. That, 
however, was the off year with his party and he 
was not elected. He is now engaged in the real- 
estate business and fanning, owning a ranch of 
1,080 acres, ten miles north of Visalia, where he 
is raising grain. 

Mr. Denny resides in a pleasant home on 
Church street, fronting the courthouse square. 
He was married in 1^66, to Miss Jennie Drou- 
illard, a native of Iowa, and of the four children 
born to them, two — Mabel and Lawrence — are 
living, the others having died in childhood. Mrs. 
Denny died in 1880, and the home is now pre 
sided by over Miss Mabel. Mr. Dennyis a blue 
lodge, royal arch and Knights Templar Ma- 
son, and is also associated with the A. O. U. W. 



-*#- 



^=7- 




DENICKE is of German descent, born 
in the Province of Hanover, Prussia, 
in 1840. In 1849 his parents came to 
America and located in New York city, where 
they made their home for many years, and where 
the subject of this sketch was reared and edu- 
cated. After finishing his studies, he became 
a bookkeeper and was connected in that capac- 
ity with several large houses in New York, be- 
ing thus occupied when the civil war broke out. 
Mr. Denicke joined the Sixty-eighth New 
York Infantry, and left for the seat of war in 
1861. During one of the early battles he was 
wounded and captured by the rebels in Vir- 
ginia and was sent to Libby Prison. After two 
or three months of prison life he was paroled 
and sent home. He subsequently joined the 
One hundred and Thirty- Second New York 
Infantry, then detached, and was ordered 
to report at Georgetown for instructions in 
signal service. During this period Mr. Den- 
icke for a time had charge of the entire signal 
corps of instructors, commanding twenty-live 



officers and several hundred men near Cumber- 
land, Maryland. He received hie discharge 
from the service on September 18, 1865, and 
returned to New York, his former home. 

Following the example of thousands of men 
in the Empire State and New England, Mr. 
Denicke turned his face to the setting sun, de- 
termined to try his fortune in California, about 
which so much had been said and written. In 
company with his sister and brother-in-law he 
arrived in San Francisco, where he followed va- 
rious pursuits for several years. In 1881 he 
came to Fresno, and has since made this his 
home. 

He owns a fine vineyard of eighty acres, lo- 
cated three miles and a quarter east of Fresno, 
and 800 acres of grazing land further removed 
from the city. He is extensively engaged 
in raising wine and raisin grapes and figs, 
being the pioneer in the proper curing of tig^ 
All his products he ships to various points in 
the East, and in fact all over the country, his 
fig crop being put up in a way which has given 
its owner a wide reputation. 

Mr. Denicke is one of the representative cit- 
izens of the community, and is held in high es- 
teem by all who know hiru. He is unmarried. 






§ILLUM BALEY. — Among the long resi- 
dent citizens of Fresno County, who hold 
a high place in the esteem and regard of 
the community, the gentleman whose name 
heads this sketch is entitled to honorable men- 
tion. Coming of the old Virginian 6tock, he 
bears the impress of the Southern gentleman, a 
synonym for good-breeding wherever found. 
His birthplace was at a point in Gallatin County, 
Illinois, on the Ohio river, between Flynn'a 
and Ford's Ferry, where he was born June 19, 
1813. He was not reared there, however, as, 
two years later, the father removed the family to 
Missouri, where he was one of the farmers 
and stock-raisers of those early days, and a uni- 
versally respected man in that community. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



371 



The subject of this sketch, an active lad of 
thirteen, went back to Illinois, and in Sangamon 
County, near Cotton Hill, and only a few miles 
from Springfield, afterward made the State cap- 
ital, he went to work on a farm. For five years 
he remained there, and then went further west, 
to Pike County, where he engaged in similar 
work. In 1832, only about a year after his re- 
moval to Pike County, the trouble with the In- 
dians, which had long been brewing, culminated 
in what is known to history as the Black Hawk 
war, and in this our subject, then a youth of 
nineteen years, enlisted as a volunteer, and by the 
division of the command in which he entered 
became a member of Captain Petty's company. 
He served with the regiment to which he be- 
longed until it finished its term of service, and 
was mustered out with the command at Hen- 
nepin, Illinois. He then went back to Pike 
County, and was there married in 1835, to Miss 
Catherine Decker, who died during the second 
year of their married life, leaving one son, 
Moses, who died in California in 1885. In 
1836 he returned to Missouri, where he again 
followed agriculture, and in 1837 he was there 
married to the companion of his later days — 
Miss P. E. Myers, a native of Jackson County. 

When the discovery of gold in California, by 
Marshall, electrified the civilized world, Mr. 
Baley was one of those who was affected and 
he was one of that brave body of pioneers, 
who in 1849 crossed the vast stretch of plain 
and mountain and desert intervening between 
his home and the far Pacific. For two years he 
followed the fortunes of the mines in this State, 
and then went back to rejoin his family in Mis- 
souri. The favorable impression of California 
formed during his two years of experience, 
however, caused him to decide to make it 
his ultimate place of residence, and in 1858, 
all preparations having been made, this plan 
was carried out. In his particular party, though 
others made the trip with them, were Mr. Baley, 
his wife and nine children, and his brother, W. 
R. Baley, and between them they had five 
wagons and the necessary ox teams to haul 



them, as well as about 100 bead of cows and 
stock cattle. The start from home was made on 
the 22d of April, and the southern route was 
chosen on account of the Mormon troubles 
about Salt Lake, which were then a matter of 
much moment. This precaution did not add 
much to their prospects of safety, however, as 
will be seen from a brief recital of a few of 
their hardships and dangers. No particular 
difficulty was reached until they approached the 
valley of the Colorado river, in which vicinity, 
the party under Mr. Baley joined that of L. J. 
Rose, now one of the prominent men of Cali- 
fornia. 

As the journey of the two parties was 
continued in company, we may l>e pardoned for 
here introducing the published account given 
by Mr. Rose of the experiences at this point, 
supplemented by our own narration from Mr. 
Baley's discription. Mr. Rose says, in sub- 
stance, that on reaching the summit of the moun- 
tain range bounding the valley of the Colorado, 
they saw the river, which seemed near at hand, 
but the mountain was so steep that they had to 
let their wagons down with ropes; and after 
reaching the valley or plain they began to suf- 
fer for want of water. The journey to the river 
consumed a whole day, and the sufferings of the 
party became so intense that some of them be- 
came insane from thirst. On finally reaching 
the river, the men unyoked the cattle and let 
them loose, and themselves rushed for the water, 
lying down in the river and drinking their fill, 
then, becoming stupefied, lay partly in the water 
and rested and slept. The heat was so great 
that the suffering of the party was indescriba- 
ble. The Mojave Indians came in upon them 
in a threatening manner, but they were recon- 
ciled for the time by presents of tobacco and 
trinkets. They killed cattle, however, without 
Tnolestation and wasted the meat. The second 
day the Indians came into camp, but as 
they were not given everything they wanted 
they retired. On the third day they failed 
to make their appearance, and the guide 
warned the party that the absence of the In- 



372 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



dians was an evil omen, whereupon they formed 
the wagons in a semicircle, with the river as 
their ba6e in the rear, and prepared to defend 
themselves against the treacherous savages. 
They saw large numbers of Indians crossing 
the river from the other side, and the following 
day, about 1 o'clock, over 800 of them attacked 
the camp. This attack was one of the most 
savage and determined in the history of In- 
dian warfare in the West, and waxed hot until 
night amid intense excitement and desper- 
ation of the Indians. The whites numbered 
sixty, of which Mr. Baley's party contributed 
seven men, including himself, and of this num- 
ber nine were killed and seventeen wounded. 
The redskins suffered frightful loss, for, as they 
swarmed against the whites in solid mass, they 
were simply mowed down by well-directed vol- 
leys, and when the fight was finished eighty- 
seven of their dead, were counted on the scene 
of carnage, while their wounded, as well, prob- 
ably, as some of the dead were carried away by 
their fellows. After the Indians had been 
beaten off, there was much worry as to the best 
course for the sturdy band of emigrants to pur- 
sue; and it was on the advice of Mr. Baley that 
the plan chosen was adopted, thus undoubtedly 
saving the lives of the party, who must ul- 
timately have succumbed to the overwhelming 
numbers of their foes. So they turned back 
toward Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the 
journey was accompanied with much suffering, 
the men walking, half barefooted, their feet be- 
ing lacerated with cactus thorns. At night 
they selpt under their wagons on the sand as 
soundly as on feather beds, in their joy for hav- 
ing escaped being massacred. 

At Albuquerque the emigrants lay up for 
some time. Mr. Baley and his immediate party 
remaining there for seven months, after which 
they again set out for California, which they 
reached this time, and without particularly 
noteworthy incident, although all such trips 
were necessarily attended with much of inter- 
est and many unusual experiences. Having 
reached Visalia, they stopped there long enough 



to rest themselves and brighten up their stock, 
after which they proceeded on to Millerton, then 
the seat of government of Fresno County, and 
there he located his family. As for himself, 
his time for the next four years was spent dur- 
ing the season at mining, principally on the San 
Joaquin and Fresno rivers. He was then elected 
Judge of Fresno County, and presided over the 
judicial affairs of the county at Millerton while 
the county seat remained there, and continued 
in the same position when it was removed to 
Fresno, until he had served twelve successive 
years in that capacity. It may be as well to 
mention here that Mr. Baley was not chosen to 
that position on account of any legal training, 
but. what was much more to his credit, from 
the fact that the people of the county at that 
early day had learned to respect him as a man 
of whose nature fairness and honor was an in- 
herent part, and they felt willing to entrust 
their litigation to his hands, knowing that their 
interests would receive earnest and honest con- 
sideration. How correctly this faith was placed, 
and how well the Judge fulfilled his trust may 
be recognized, even by those not conversant 
with the fact, when it is stated as an historical 
fact that, during the dozen years of his incum- 
bency of the Judgeship of Fresno County, not 
one single case of his was ever reversed on appeal. 
On his retirement from the bench. Judge 
Baley directed his attention to mercantile pur- 
suits, embarking in the grocery trade, and for 
eight years was one of the prominent merchants 
of Fresno. During this period, however, he 
was again called for a time to public life, being 
elected Treasurer of Fresno County, which of- 
fice he held for two years. In 1888 he retired 
from business cares, and at this writing, though 
having passed through a severe spell of sickness. 
he is arid looks a much younger man than a 
consideration of his years alone would indicate. 
Now, enjoying the respect and esteem of all his 
fellow-citizens, he enjoys the freedom from the 
restraints of active business and official cares, 
though still a worker, surrounded by an indus- 
trious family, most of whose surviving mem- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



373 



bers are residents of this county. Of the eleven 
children of the present marriage of Judge Baley, 
two are deceased, viz.: Elizabeth, who was the 
wile of the late J. Scott Ashman, who was for 
fourteen years Sheriff of this county; and Lewis 
Leach, who died in this city at the age of 
seventeen years. Those living are: Rebecca, now 
Mrs. M. Shannon, of Alameda; Catherine, now 
Mrs. Krug, whose husband is an architect and 
builder of Brazil, South America; Frances, now 
Mrs. Yancey, of this county; George; Belen G., 
now Mrs. McCardle, of Selma; Charles; Nancy 
J., now Mrs. Greenup; and Berthena, now Mrs. 
Judge S. H. Hill, both of Fresno. 

In concuding this brief sketch of one of the 
noteworthy men of Fresno County, it is fitting 
in this connection to say that Judge Baley has 
been for sixty-three years a consistent member 
of the Methodist Church, and that he was the 
organizer of the congregation of the Methodist 
Church, South, of Fresno, which commenced 
with a membership of five, all but one of them 
from his own family, and which has progressed 
until now it has 240 members. He also built 
the church edifice. 

The Judge is a life-long Democrat, and while 
he has never made himself offensive by bitter- 
ness toward those who differed with him 
politically, he can look back upon a long record 
of faithfulness to the principles and standard of 
the party of his birth and his choice. 



-=**« 



»*3=- 



PANIEL WOOD, a highly respected and 
widely known early settler of California, 
came to the State in 1850. 
Mr. Wood was born in Le Boy, Genesee 
County, New York, August 6, 1820, son of 
Daniel and Sally (Robinson) Wood, natives of 
Vermont. On the maternal side he is a de- 
scendant of the Pilgrim fathers. Mr. and 
Mrs. Wood had a family of six children, and 
they removed from ISIew York to Rochester, 
Racine County, Wisconsin, when the subject of 
this sketch was nineteen years of age. He con- 



tinued to reside there until 1850, when he came 
to California, arriving at Hangtown August 26. 
He saw Chicago as early as 1839. 

Like nearly all the others who came to Cali- 
fornia during the years that immediately fol- 
lowed the gold discovery, Mr. Wood had his 
experience in the mines, without any remark- 
able success, however. He also worked at saw- 
milling. In 1860 he came to Tulare County, 
and in 1863 purchased his present ranch of 160 
acres. Since then he has purchased and sold 
land several times. He also sold a portion of 
his first purchase, retaining 104 acres of well 
watered, black sandy loam, which is well im- 
proved and under a high state of cultivation. 
Thirty acres are devoted to vines and stone 
fruits, and the rest to hay and grain. Mr. 
Wood is having remarkable success as a horti- 
culturist, and relates something of his first 
experience in fruit culture. Other crops had 
failed on account of dry years; he was $2,000 
in debt, was greatly discouraged, aud turned his 
attention to his present occupation as a last re- 
sort. He planted two acres of strawberries, and 
in one year they brought him an income of 
$1,600. From that small beginning he has in- 
creased his operations, and his land is now worth 
a fortune to him. 

Mr. Wood was married January 1, 1865, 
to Miss Carrie Goldthait, who was born in 
Indiana and reared in California, her father, 
John Goldthait, having brought his family to 
this State in 1853. He is a veteran of the late 
war, and is now a resident of Salt Lake City. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Wood ten children were born, 
all native sons and daughters of the golden West. 
Two are deceased, and the others reside with 
their parents. Their names are as follows: 
Daniel G., George W., Rose M., Lillie A., May, 
Stella, Edna and Edward. Mr. Wood was con- 
verted at the age of fitteen, and became a mem- 
ber of the Baptist Church. The church of that 
denomination in Visalia having gone down, he 
united with the Methodist Episcopal, aud has 
long been an active and useful member, holding 
the offices of trustee and steward. He is also 



374 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



a licensed exhorter; is a Prohibitionist, and 
gives his earnest support to the temperance 
work. 

Mr. Wood has vivid recollections of his trip 
across the plains, and relates in a most interest- 
ing manner many reminiscences of the journey. 
Their party consisted of six men, seven horses 
and two 'wagons. Rochester, Wisconsin, was 
their starting place, and on the way they en- 
countered many hardships. They were attacked 
by the cholera, and his brother in-law died and 
was buried on the plains. Long before they 
reached their destination their provisions gave 
out, and they were much reduced for want of 
food. At one time, on the desert, they paid a 
bit a glass for stale water, and were glad to get 
it at that. For a sack of flour he gave $50 in 
gold. The flour was made into pancakes, and 
each one was given an allowance. Before reach- 
ing Hangtown they sold their last horse for $3, 
and when they arrived there Mr. Wood had only 
money enough left to buy a watermelon, which 
was a most salutary repast. 

During the forty- one years of his residence 
here Mr. Wood has witnessed the phenomenal 
changes California has undergone, and, like all 
good citizens, is justly proud of the great State 
in which he lives. He taught school several 
years in Mariposa, Merced and Tulare conn- 
ties, and for several years was a Justice of the 
Peace at Visalia. 



HOMAS E. HUGHES. —In Burke 
Wjjff County, North Carolina, June 6, 1830, 
^ the subject of this biography, " the father 
of Fresno," was born. 

The force of a character like that of Thomas 
E. Hughes, in shaping the destinies of com- 
munities, is one of the striking events of our 
times. To be born to greatness, wealth, or 
leadership, exacts no merit and elicits no praise; 
but to be born to the common lot, to toil as 
others toil, to acquire wealth and gain leader- 



ship, evinces force and commands our respect 
and admiration. 

Five years after the birth of Mr. Hughes his 
father brought the family from North Carolina 
to the wilds of Arkansas, and established their 
home in the frontier town of Hatesville. With 
no opportunities for schooling the son grew up 
and at the age of fifteen years entered the store 
of A. W. Lyon, an especial friend of the family, 
where he remained nearly six years. At the 
age of twenty he married Miss Mary Rogers, 
daughter of Rev. J. M. Rogers. Then for three 
years he was engaged in merchandising. 

In 1853, with his young wife, Mr. Hughes 
crossed the plains to California. He at once 
engaged in the stock business near Stockton, 
where he spent three prosperous years. At the 
expiration of that time the earnest solicitation 
of his wife's parents caused them to take their 
two sons, born in California, and return to 
Arkansas. After the birth of his son William, 
in February, 1858, his wife's health being deli- 
cate, for her sake they again undertook the trip 
across the plains. She improved in health until 
exposure, by the overturning of the carriage in 
a creek, brought on consumption, and her death 
occurred at Fort Lara.i.ie. Unwilling to leave 
the dead body of his wife there, Mr. Hughes 
brought it to Stockton for interment, arriving 
in California in the fall of 1859. 

He was accompanied on his trip by his 
father-in-law, and together they brought a num- 
ber of horses and cattle. Our subject then 
turned his attention to farming in Stanislaus 
County, where he met with success. In De- 
cember, 1866, he was married to Miss Annie 
E. Yoakum, and by her lias one daughter. In 
1867 he was elected County Clerk, serving his 
term with credit to himself and satisfaction to 
all concerned. He then embarked in wheat 
farming on a large scale, putting in 7,000 acres, 
mostly in Merced County. The dry season fol- 
lowed, and he lost all his property. The next 
five years he spent in San Francisco, engaged in 
the real-estate business. 

In June, 1878, he moved to Fresno County, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



875 



his sons taking charge of some sheep which he 
had on shares, and he himself continuing in the 
real-estate business. It was at this time that 
the remarkable traits in the character of Mr. 
Hughes began to be revealed. He saw what 
could be done with vines and trees on the rich 
land in Fresno County by irrigation, and he 
conceived the plan of getting control of large 
tracts then devoted to sheep pasture, and sub- 
dividing them into small lots and selling to ac- 
tual settlers on the easiest possible terms, 
usually on three or four years' time, and fre- 
quently without even the payment of interest, 
the improvement of the land being all he asked, 
its enhanced value affording all the security he 
required. He carried out this scheme, making 
a success of almost every venture. To record 
all his operations in this line would be to fill a 
book. It will be interesting, however, to make 
note of one of his first important transactions. 

In 1881 he purchased the Jansen estate of 
6,080 acres, now the nourishing Fresno colony, 
one mile south of the city of Fresno. This 
property Mr. Hughes bought for $6.50 per 
acre, or about that, without water. After deed- 
ing away, at the outset, over one-half of the 
land for water privileges on the other half, he 
advertised an excursion and sale of colony lots 
in the town of Fresno. In less than six months 
he had sold over $30,000 worth of land at $40 
and $50 an acre. He had previously sold a 
block of land for $12,000, the whole operation 
yielding a magnificent profit. 

With Mr. J. K. White, Mr. Hughes made an 
important purchase of 230 acres of land from 
the railroad company, included in the town site 
of Fresno, paying $25 an acre. They soon sold 
a small portion of it in town lots for money 
enough to pay for the whole tract, and realized 
about $1,000 an acre for the remainder, netting 
them over $100,000 on the transaction. 

Mr. Hughes is the owner of the Hughes 
Hotel, one of the finest in the State of Cali- 
fornia. He also owns much valuable property 
in the heart of the city. He is a director in 
the Bank of Fresno, and is actively connected 



with every enterprise of magnitude in the city. 
None are more public-spirited or more vitally 
interested in the welfare of Fresno and its sur- 
roundings than he. Always approachable and 
unassuming. Mr. Hughes is ever ready to help 
a good cause or enterprise. He is distinctively 
one of the leading spirits and useful men of 
Fresno County. 

—>■ :r==r3 «S|>»|. ■ £§» £ £=: ■ ■»- 

§B. CHASE, since 1875 a resident of Cali- 
fornia, is a native of Franklin County, 
° Vermont. His father, Aaron Chase, was 
a soldier of the war of 1812; his grandfather, of 
the same name, was in the Revolutionary war, 
and fought at Bunker Hill. He descends di- 
rectly from Pilgrim stock. Two of his uncles, 
by name Joel and Simon Chase, were likewise 
American patriots. The late Chief Justice 
Chase was a second cousin of our subject. 

Mr. Chase was reared ih his native town of 
Franklin, and entered the United States army 
from Plattsburg, New York, in August, 1862, and 
fought at the battle of Fair Oaks, and later at 
Mobile, under Burnside, as a gunner in light 
artillery, in the discharge of which duties he was 
rendered deaf by the constant roar of cannon. 
After nine months' valiant service he received 
an honorable discharge, on account of disabili- 
ties. He is an architect and contracting builder, 
having acquired his trade at Boston, where for 
thirteen years following his retirement from the 
army he lived and pursued his chosen calling. 
From Boston he came to San Francisco, then 
located in Colusa County, and built the first 
dwelling at the Willows, now in Glenn County. 
He later located in the Sierra Nevada moun- 
tains, built the Bunker Hill sawmills in Shasta 
County, which he owned and operated for five 
years. He disposed of this property and took 
up his residence in Los Angeles, where he did 
an extensive business as a contractor up to 1879, 
when he located at Bakersfield. Evidences of 
his enterprise, skill and architectural abilities 
are numerous in both Los Angeles and Bakers- 



37G 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Held, in the form of many fine business blocks 
and dwellings which he has designed and erected. 
Mr. Chase married Miss Marcina Weston, 
daughter of C. B. Weston, a war veteran and 
several times a member of the Vermont Legis- 
lature, and forty years a clerk of his town, Bel- 
videre, Vermont. Mrs. Chase died in 1882, 
leaving twochildreu, — Miss Maud, now eighteen 
years of age; and Waldo, a boy of ten years. 
For his second wife Mr. Chase married Miss 
Augusta Foth, a native of Milwaukee, Wis- 
consin. 

_ ^^^%^ 



A. COLE, a prominent business man of 
Fresno, was born in Switzerland County, 
Indiana, in 1842. In 1859 he moved with 
his parents to Kentucky, remaining on the farm 
with his father until 1869. His education was 
obtained in the common schools of Indiana and 
at Beach College, Kentucky, he being a graduate 
of that institution. 

In 1869 Mr. Cole left his Kentucky home 
and went to Kansas, taking up a Government 
claim in Riley County. Owing to the dry 
seasons, his venture was a losing one, and in 
1872 he emigrated to California, landing on Big 
Dry creek, Fresno County. Having lost what 
means he had in Kansas, he arrived in this State 
with no capital save a willing hand and a deter- 
mination to succeed. For some time he worked 
at mining and was variously employed, working 
by the day. As the years passed by he saved 
his earnings, and in 1879 purchased 640 acres 
of land, located ten miles northeast of Fresno, 
upon which he carried on wheat-farming, also 
renting additional land and harvesting from 
3,000 to 10,000 sacks per year. Mr. Cole 
has since added to his first purchase and his 
ranch now numbers 1,120 acres. He still con- 
tinues to rent some land, and sows from 1,000 
to 1,500 acres of wheat per year. In the fall 
and winter of 1884 and 1885 he was five months 
in plowing, and put out a crop of 1,500 acres. 
He and his nephew brought the first header and 



thresher to this valley in 1883, the machine re- 
quiring twenty-four horses to run it. During 
the following year it was in operation eighty- 
four consecutive days and cut nearly 3,000 acres 
of wheat. This ranch is now under the direct 
management of Mr. Cole's eldest son. 

In 1886 the subject of our sketch purchased 
a residence on Blackstone avenue, Fresno, 
where he has since made his home. At that 
time he engaged in the real-estate business an- 
der the firm name of Vincent, Chittenden it 
Cole, which, in the spring of 1890, consolidated 
with Sharp & Gordon, and the firm now carry 
on an extensive business. 

Mr. Cole has been married three times, twice 
into the Darnold family of Kentucky, each wife 
leaving one child. In 1882 he was married in 
Fresno, to Miss Sarah Russell, a native of Mis- 
souri. This union has been blessed with four 
children. 



-=S«K 



»*>£=- 



-p ; LOXZ<> P. DAVIS is one of the well- 
TpL known, popular and successful business 

•5?^ men of Bakersfield, — one of a class who 
by their own personal efforts have fought their 
own way to an honorable position among his 
fellow men, against many reverses, and as a 
citizen and business man commands the respect 
of all who know him. 

He was born in Arkansas, September 22, 
1853. His father, now a resident of Bakers- 
field, is a mechanic by trade, a veteran of the 
Mexican war, and has fought in all the Indian 
wars since that time, including the Seminole 
war in Florida. He is an intrepid and fearless 
man still, in his declining years, bearing the 
marks of an aggressive and uncompromising 
patriot and frontiersman. Mr. Davis' mother 
was by maiden name Miss Mary Farley, of 
Scotch ancestors, and, like her husband, was 
born and raised in Tennessee. They reared four 
sons and four daughters, six of whom reside in 
Kern County. Mr. Davis has for twelve years 
past lived at Bakersfield or in its vicinity. He 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



377 



married Miss Maggie Hope Taylor, a native of 
Yirginia, January 4, 1882, and they have two 
daughters and one son, — Myrtle, Elonzo and 
Pearl. 

Mr. Davis is the proprietor of the popular 
Dexter Livery and Boarding Stables, and also 
owns a ranch in Kern County. He is a public- 
spirited and open-handed son, father and hus- 
band. 



F. OATMAN, cashier of the First Na- 
tional Bank of Fresno, is a native of 
't° Dundee, Illinois, born in 1847. His 
father, Ira E. Oatman, came to California in 
1849, bringing his family with him and locating 
in Sacramento, — not, however, making that city 
his permanent residence until 1852. After 
working in the mines during the gold excite- 
ment from 1849 to 1852, he settled down to 
the practice of medicine at his home, which 
profession he followed with marked success up 
to the time of his death, which occurred in 
1889. 

At the age of fifteen years the subject of our 
sketch returned East to pursue his studies, at- 
tending the Northwestern University at Evans- 
ton, Illinois. Before completing the course at 
this university he enlisted in the army, in May, 
1864, with Company F, One Hundred and 
Thirty-Fourth Illinois Infantry. After the 
close of the war he decided to finish his studies 
at a business college, and entered such an in- 
stitution at Poughkeepsie, New York, where he 
graduated with honor. In 1866 Mr. Oatman 
came back to Sacramento. His first business 
experience was with the firm of Waterhouse, 
Lester & Co., of that city, with whom he was 
connected for two years. He rose rapidly from 
an humble position with the firm to that of 
manager, which office he filled one year. In 
1868 he became connected with the banking 
house of D. O. Mills & Co., and was with this 
well-known firm eleven years In June, 1879, 
he assumed the office of secretary and auditor 



of the Eureka & Palisade Railroad Company, at 
Eureka, Nevada, which company was controlled 
by D. O. and Edgar Mills, and filled this im- 
portant position for a period of nine years. De- 
cember 1, 1888, Mr. Oatman came to Fresno 
and entered upon the duties of his present 
position, that of cashier of the First National 
Bank. A man of sound judgment and varied 
experience in financial affairs, he discharges in 
a most satisfactory manner the important and 
difficult duties entrusted to him. 

He was married in 1880, to Miss Lucy R. 
Nichols, a native of Sacramento. They have 
two children. 

" •^Vs"^'*' 

JiOUlS GUNDELFINGER is a native of 
f yji "Wurtemberg, Germany, born in 1849. He 
^W^ came to America in 1868, and for three 
months made his home in New York city. Re- 
ceiving a liberal offer of a business position in 
San Francisco, he started for the West via the 
Isthmus of Panama. 

Fi-om 1868 until 1872 he was employed as 
bookkeeper for the wholesale liquor firm of 
Wormser Bros., in San Francisco. In the latter 
year he accepted a similar position in the whole- 
sale clothing establishment of Greenbaum Bros., 
and was with them two years. Then he was 
employed as bookkeeper for Levi Strauss & Co., 
a wholesale dry-goods firm. 

In September, 1877, he purchased the interest 
of H. D. Silverman in the pioneer firm of Sil- 
verman, Einstein & Co., Fresno, Mr. Silverman 
having died in August of that year. Since that 
time Mr. Gundelfinger has been connected with 
this firm and has witnessed a large and steady 
growth in trade. He is the active manager of 
the business, president of the stock company, 
and a faithful and energetic worker. The firm 
does business in their fine building at the cor- 
ner of Mariposa and Front streets, the site of 
the original one-story frame building which 
was occupied by the pioneer Otto Froelich. 
They do an immense business in wholesale and 



378 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



retail general merchandise, their trade extend- 
ing throughout the entire San Joaquin valley. 

Mr. Gnndelfinger was married in 1879, and 
has a family of three children, all sous. 



» i > * 2 > < £ * a i* 




•ALTER JAMES is a citizen well known 
throughout Kern County as a practical 
civil engineer and one of the chief pro- 
moters of the great canal water system of the 
county with which he has been identified for 
the past twenty years. 

lie was born in Marion County, Ohio, April 
22, 1837. His father, Judge Isaac E. James, 
was one of the pioneers, and figured prominently 
in the history of that portion uf the State of 
Ohio. The subject of this sketch, after securing 
a liberal education, spent some years traveling 
in New Mexico and among the western Indians. 
He returned to his native town in 1862 and en- 
listed in the Ninety-sixth Ohio Volunteers; was 
afterward transferred to the United States Sig- 
nal Corps, from which branch of the service he 
was honorably discharged at New Orleans, July 
4, 1865. He was present at the many battles 
leading to the surrender of Vicksbnrg and the 
defenses of the city of Mobile. In 1867-68 
he had charge of some farming operations in 
the San Joaquin valley near Hill's Eeriy. Wit- 
nessing the failures of the crops for several 
years in succession in this great interior valley, 
for want of sufficient rainfall, his attention was 
directed to the subject of artificial irrigation. 
He came to Kern County in the autumn of 
1871 and entered upon the work which has dis- 
tinguished him as one of the most efficient men 
in his line of work in the State. From 1874 
to 1876 he was County Surveyor. He has for 
years past superintended the construction of the 
irrigating works belonging to J. B. Haggin 
and the Kern County Land Company, which, 
with perhaps a single exception, are the most 
extensive and complete in the world, and he is 
still employed upon the same. 

Mr. James is a self-poised man, of un- 



assuming manners, and a popular citizen and 
employer. He was the Republican nominee 
for Assemblyman for the Seventy fifth Legisla- 
tive district of California in 1891, and in the 
election he polled a large vote, although his dis- 
trict was largely Democratic. 

In the autumn of 1865, at Marion, Ohio, 
Mr. James married Miss Lauretta Gillispie. and 
moved to Virginia City, Nevada, where he was 
employed with his brother, J. E. James, Jr., the 
noted civil engineer, and with him made many 
surveys and explorations, both in Nevada and 
California. He has an accomplished daughter, 
sixteen years of age, born in Bakersfield. 



^^ssr^l* 

fW. P. LAIRD, from early youth a resident 
of California, is a lawyer by profession, a 
citizen of Bakersfield and a leading mem- 
ber of the bar of Kern County. He was born 
at Mount Carroll, Illinois, May 28, 1848. His 
father, Peter Laird, was a stock-raiser and 
miner. He was born in Ohio and came to Cali- 
fornia, locating with his family in El Dorado 
County, in 1852. In his mining enterprises he 
was fairly successful. From El Dorado County 
he removed to Inyo County, continued his 
mining there, and there still resides, advanced 
to the age of seventy two years. For twenty- 
five years past he has made stock-raising his 
chief occupation. He married Miss Julia A. 
Lindsey, a native of Alabama, and of their two 
sons the subject of this sketch is the older and 
the only one living. 

Mr. Laird made the best of his advantages 
for schooling in El Dorado County, studying 
much outside of school hours, as opportunity 
afforded. Afterward he took a brief course of 
study at Sacramento, and after that the study of 
law in 1879, and was three times elected Dis- 
trict Attorney of Inyo County. During the 
administration of President Cleveland he was 
appointed Register of the United States Land 
Office of the independence land district, in 
which he was at the time a resident, and served 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



379 



four years in that capacity. He formed a law 
partnership with J. W. Mahon, of Bakersfield, 
in 1891, and has taken up his residence in that 
city. 

He was married in Inyo County in 1872, to 
Miss Henrietta McLaughlin, a lady of excellent 
domestic and social acquirements. They have 
three sons, — Joseph E., John L. and Rollin 
McLaughlin. 

Mr. Laird is essentially a self-made man. 
His natural love for books and desire to acquire 
knowledge inclined him to reading law as a 
matter of practical information, and he thus de- 
veloped a desire to adopt the profession. That 
he possesses the true instincts of a successful 
lawyer is evinced by the methods he pursues in 
his practice. He is a diligent student and makes 
it a rule to familiarize himself with the merits 
of every case entrusted to him, and seeks to have 
all legal difficulties settled on their merits. He 
is a man of plain, unassuming manner. In ex- 
amining witnesses in court his invariable rule is 
to treat them as gentlemen and courteously aid 
them in clearly and truthfully testifying as to 
the points at issue. His arguments in court 
are forceful and convincing in that they are 
concise, to the point, and bear marks of the con- 
victions of a candid and honest advocate. A 
large share of Mr. Laird's time in past years has 
been devoted to stock-raising. He has located 
at Bakersfield to- gratify a desire of almost a 
lifetime, namely, to practice the profession of 
law to the exclusion of other matters. 



►*Hf« 



fUDGE GEORGE A. BOURSE is a native 
of Hallowell, Maine, and a descendant 
from Puritan stock, his ancestors being 
among the early settlers of New England. On 
his father's side he is lineally descended from 
Francis and Rebecca Nourse, the first of that 
name who came from England and settled 
there. This Rebecca Nourse, an earnest Chris- 
tian woman, praised for her good works by all, 
was, at the age of more than threescore years 



and ten, one of the first victims of the Salem 
witchcraft delusion. Dr. Amos Nourse, father 
of the subject of this sketch, was elected to the 
United States Senate from Maine in 1857 to 
succeed Hannibal Hamlin, Governor elect. On 
the mother's side Mr. Nourse is a descendant of 
William and Annis Chandler, who came from 
England to Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1632. 
Joseph Chandler, who fought in the French and 
Indian war of 1756, and died in the service in 
1776, a captain in the Continental army, was a 
descendant of this couple, and an ancestor of 
Mr. Nourse. His son, John Chandler, Mr. 
Nourse's grandfather, enlisted in the Conti- 
nental army when a boy of sixteen, and in the 
war of 1812 was a brigadier -general in the 
army of the United States. In later years 
General Chandler was sheriff of Kennebec 
County; member of the Legislature of Massa- 
chusetts wh le Maine was a province of that 
State; president of the Senate of Maine when it 
became a State, and a Senator of the United 
States from that State from 1820 to 1829. 

Mr. Nourse was a student at Bowdoin Col- 
lege until his failing health compelled him to 
abandon study. He then went to Aroostook 
County in the northeastern part of Maine, 
where, in the latitude of Quebec, he took up 
land in the midst of the forest and cleared up a 
farm. Subsequently he engaged in lumbering 
in that region. In 1852 he turned his attention 
to the study of law, afterward graduating in the 
law school of Harvard University. He then 
came West as far as Minnesota, and began the 
practice of his profession at St. Anthony. While 
there he was City Attorney, then District- 
Attorney of Hennepin County, and the Repnh- 
lican candidate for Attorney General of the 
State in 1857. In 1859 he removed to St. Paul, 
and while there he received the appointment 
from President Lincoln of United States Dis- 
trict Attorney for Minnesota, which office he 
held until 1863, when he resigned to remove to 
Carson City, in the then territory of Nevada, 
the mining craze on the Comstock Lode being 
then at its height. 



ooO 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



While practicing law in Carson City, he was 
a member of the convention which framed the 
constitution under which the State became a 
member of the Union. His independence of 
character is well illustrated by his motion in 
the convention to strike out the word " white " 
from the qualification of voters, for which he 
could not ^et a second, although the members 
of the convention, with one exception, were 
unanimously Republican in their politics. 

In 1808 Mr. JN'ourse removed to San Fran- 
cisco, where, for sixteen years, he was one of its 
best known lawyers, having an especially high 
reputation for skill and learning in land titles. 
In 1884 he removed with his family to Fresno, 
where he had some landed interests, intending 
to become a fruit-raiser, and for some three 
years was planting and developing an orchard 
near Fresno, practicing law in the city while he 
waited for his trees and vines to come into 
bearing. During the boom some capitalists 
wanted his land for town lots more than he 
wanted it for the fruit: so the land was sold. 
He is still engaged in the practice of law in 
Fresno, being the attorney for two banks and 
having a large general practice. 

He was urged for nomination as Judge of 
the Supreme Court of this State by the Fresno 
County delegation, and had a strong backing 
from other counties in Central and Southern 
California, in the last Republican State Conven- 
tion; but the combinations for other offices, in 
which more interest was taken, defeated him. 



-=£- 



>+>$=- 



tLFRED J. PEDLAR, M. D.— Among the 
enterprising gentlemen who are deeply 
interested in the prosperity of Fresno, few 
have done more to promote the growth of the 
city than Dr. Pedlar. 

He was born in Yolo County, California, in 
1853, the son of J. and Sarah Pedlar, early 
pioneers of this coast, who came across the 
plains from Wisconsin to this State in 1850. 
His father engaged in mining in El Dorado 



County for many years, and died in Gilroy in 
1885. Sarah Pedlar died in 1801, in San Fran- 
cisco. The subject of this sketch was educated 
in the common schools and at Hesperian College, 
Woodland, Yolo County. At the age of seven 
teen he passed a rigid examination, after which 
he began teaching in the public schools of San 
Joaquin and Yolo counties. He taught eighteen 
months in Stockton, and while there began the 
study of medicine under a preceptor. In 1874 
he entered the Medical College of the Pacific, 
now known as Cooper Medical College, and 
graduated in 1877. His education proceeded 
under many difficulties, he being from the age 
of seventeen entirely dependent upon his own 
resources. 

After completing his medical course, Dr. 
Pedlar began the practice of his profession in 
Truckee. Two years later, in 1879, he removed 
to Fresno, with which he has since been iden- 
tified. He enjoys a large practice and has 
always been prominent among his medical 
brethren. 

The Doctor was married in Stockton, in 1878, 
to Miss Kittie E. Clifford. His residence, at 
No. 1019 L street, is among the most attractive 
and commodious in Fresno. It is a two-story 
frame building of the Queen Ann style of 
architecture, the most striking and unique fea- 
ture of which is the circular bow- window, ex- 
tending from the floor of the first story to the 
ceiling of the second, surmounted by a tower. 
The Doctor and his wife have one son living, 
Chester C, born in 1881. 

While Fresno was yet unincorporated, and it 
became necessary to provide protection from 
fire, Dr. Pedlar was selected as one of the three 
fire commissioners. He was one of the first to 
advocate Fresno's incorporation, and did as 
much to secure that result as any citizen within 
her limits. Since the incorporation, in 1885, 
he has been continuously serving the city in 
official relations, as Health Officer, member of 
the Hoard of Education and City Trustee, giving 
his time and labor without any other remuner- 
ation than the consciousness of aiding in the 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



381 



advancement of Fresno. In 1888 he was elected 
President of the Board of Trustees, the chief 
executive of the city. The direction of affairs 
in a newly incorporated city of 10,000 people 
required no small degree of executive ability, 
and Dr. Pedlar has been universally recognized 
as the right man in the right place. During his 
incumbency the sewer system has been com- 
pleted, which is considered one of the best in 
the State; and it was largely due to his indi- 
vidual efforts that the present style of street 
pavement was introduced. The walks are made 
of bituminous rock with concrete bed. 

In politics Dr. Pedlar is a Republican, and 
for many years he has been prominent in the 
local councils of the party. In the medical 
profession he stauds high. He is an active 
member of the State Medical Society, and ex- 
President of the County Medical Society. He is 
a member of Fresno Parlor, No. 25, N. S. Gr. W., 
and was Grand Lecturer in 1886. He was the 
first member of the A. (). 0. W. in the county, 
and it was through him that Yo Semite Lodge, 
No. 171, was instituted. 

— ,a> '■ > */f« i 2 | * S« a 1 " *" ■ 



fIRMAN CHURCH.— Among the veteran 
members of the legal profession of Fresno, 
we find the gentleman whose name heads 
this sketch. He was born in Siilclairville, New 
York, in 1828, and received his early education 
in the select schools of that locality. He lived 
at home and worked on the farm with his father 
until he was twenty-one years of age. His 
father, Daniel Church, moved to La Porte, 
Indiana, during Firman's youth. There our 
subject gave his attention to law. He completed 
his studies, and in 1855 was admitted to the 
bar. He then settled in Valparaiso and entered 
upon a professional career. In 1864 he was 
elected to the Legislature, and in 1866 to the 
Indiana Senate for a term of four years. In 
1871 Mr. Church moved to Chicago and asso- 
ciated himself with Judge Lyman Trumbull, 
which partnership was successfully and satis- 



factorily continued for a period of eight years. 
After the firm was dissolved, Mr. Church con- 
tinued his practice in Chicago and La Porte 
until 1886, when he came to California to 
transact some business, 'and was so pleased with 
the people and the climate that he brought his 
family to this State in June of the same year 
and settled in Fresno, not, however, engaging 
at once in business. In January, 1887, Mr. 
Church represented the Fresno Board of Trade 
at Los Angeles, as manager of the Fresno ex- 
hibit, and, with free wine and raisins, created a 
great sensation among the tourists, which re- 
sulted in much emigation to Fresno. Mr. 
Church then began the practice of his profes- 
sion in Los Angeles, but in the sp.ing of 1888 
returned to Fresno to be near his children, who 
are located there. He opened an office in Tem- 
ple Bar, where he is now actively engaged in 
professional duties. 

Mr. Church was married in La Porte, in 
1847 to Miss Augusta Freeman, and their union 
has been blessed with four ch.ldren, one son 
and three daughters. One of the latter, Mrs. 
A. C. Harding, still lives in Chicago; another, 
Mrs. T. A. Fisher, resides in Omaha; the other 
daughter, Mrs. J. M. Collier, resided in Fresno 
until in May, 1891, when she died. The son, 
Jesse F. Church, resides in Fresno, and is con- 
nected with the Fresno Daily Expositor as 
bookkeeper and manager of the business office. 

Mr. Church is a member of the Masonic 
order of Valparaiso. He is an ardent Uni- 
tarian and is President of the Unity Society of 
Fresno, in early days he was a Republican, 
but is now a Democrat, being opposed to tariff 
except for revenue purposes. 



t A. SMITH. — Among the large number 
of Eastern families who have crossed the 
.. ® plains to California with ox teams, may 
be mentioned one whose representative, — now a 
prominent citizen of Kingsburg and a well 



382 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



known and conspicuous figure in Fresno, — forms 
the subject of this biography. 

Mr. Smith was born in Johnson County, 
Arkansas, in 1850, and six years later the fam- 
ily removed AVest, settling in Calaveras County, 
this State. There he was reared and educated, 
and after finishing his studies became a teacher, 
following that occupation in his own neighbor- 
hood for a period of five years. While teach- 
ing, Mr. Smith served on the Board of Exam- 
iners in his district. For three years he was 
principal of the old Gilroy public schools in 
Santa Clara County — a school well known to 
every inhabitant of that locality. 

In 1878 he settled in Kingsburg, Fresno 
County, his present home. Here he was princi- 
pal of the public schools for three years and a 
half. At the end of that time he engaged in 
the warehouse and real estate business, in which 
he is now engaged. 

In educational, business and political affairs, 
he has taken an active part. For ten years he 
has been a member of the Board of Education, 
six years of which he was its president. From 
1886 to 1889 he was Justice of the Peace for 
Kingsburg. Me is a member of the Board of 
Directors of Centerville & Kingsburg Ditch 
Company, and is a stockholder in the Central 
California Bank of Fresno. He is a membei of 
the Masonic order, Knights of Pythias, Good 
Templars and the A. O. U. W- 

Mr. Smith was first married in 1876, by 
which marriage he had two sons, and his second 
marriage occurred in 1882. By the latter union 
he has one child, a girl. 

He is a gentleman of marked ability and 
occupies a prominent position in the community 
in which he resides. 



tRAIGIE SHARP, Jr., a prominent real. 
estate dealer in the city of Fresno, was 
born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1843, 
a descendant of Scotch ancestry His parents, 
aged seventy-five and seventy -nine years, are 



now residents of Hanford, Tulare County, Cali- 
fornia. In 1844 they emigrated from New 
Jersey to Elgin, Illinois, and later to Lamoille, 
same State, where they lived for many years. 
Sitting on the split log benches in the country 
schoolhouse near Lamoille, Mr. Sharp received 
the foundation of his education. He subse- 
quently attended Abingdon (Illinois) College, 
and Eureka College, Woodford County, Illinois. 

In 1864 he engaged in farming in Minonk, 
Illinois, and a year later joined his father in the 
sale of agricultural implements. Then he 
bought an interest in a merchant mill with 
Frank Burt, which partnership continued until 
1867, when he sold out to accept the position of 
superintendent in the building and operating of 
the Chicago, Pekin & Southwestern railroad. 
In 1888, while superintendent of the above 
road, he raised the money to grade, bridge and 
tie the Illinois Grand Trunk railroad, which 
was built the following fall, from Mendota to 
Prophetstown, Illinois. In 1870 he bought 
timber land and a sawmill in La Porte County, 
Indiana. The mill was in running order at the 
time of purchase, and he operated it extensively 
for three years. He also secured a large con- 
tract from the Government to furnish brush for 
harbor improvement work at Michigan City, 
which proved a financial success. 

October 9, 1871, Mr. Sharp married Miss 
Sarah A. Johnson, of Niles, Michigan, youncrest 
daughter of S. R. Johnson, general road master 
of the Michigan Central railroad. He took his 
bride to La Porte County, where they made 
their home for two years. In 1873 he sold his 
property there and bought timber land in Cass 
County, Michigan. To this place he moved his 
mill and named and founded the present town of 
Glenwood, located on the main line of the Mich- 
igan Central railroad. While there he secured 
a contract from the railroad company to furnish 
them 40,000 cords of wood, but owing to 
the open winter and the condition of the roads, 
he was unable to meet the contract and lost 
ahout $125,000 in building houses and plank 
roads to get out wood and lumber. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



383 



In February, 1877, he wound up his business 
affairs in Michigan and came to San Francisco. 
Before permanently locating, he journeyed from 
Mexico on the south to the north of British 
Columbia, visiting every county and valley on 
the coast. He then became general agent for 
the Wihon sewing-machine, and later for the 
Wheeler & Wilson, of Bridgeport, Connecticut) 
with headquarters at Portland, Oregon, working 
the entire northwest. He was very successful, 
and at Salem, Oregon, in 1878 took eleven first 
premiums and also the gold medal, besides sell- 
ing nearly 200 machines. 

In 1881 Mr. Sharp severed this connection 
closed up Frank Bros, house in Salem, Oregon 
and became general traveling agent for The 
West Shore, an illustrated paper published at 
Portland, Oregon. In 1884 he visited his 
parents in Hanford, Tulare County, California, 
and was so well pleased with the growth and 
improvements of this State that he sent for his 
family and settled in Hanford. At first he 
engaged with his brother in the hardware busi- 
ness, and later became associated in the real- 
estate business with W. G. Hawley, and after- 
ward, with F. A. Blakeley. 

In the fall of 1888 Mr. Sharp came to Fresno 
and formed the partnership of Thomas, Sharp & 
Manning. This firm put the Perrin colony, 
No. 1, of 7,000 acres upon the market. In 
1889 Mr. Sharp sold his interest to Messrs. 
Thomas and Manning and formed a partnership 
with Alex. Gordon, which, after thirty days, was 
consolidated with the firm of Vincent, Chitten- 
den & Cole, now the firm of Vincent, Chittenden, 
Cole, Sharp & Gordon, which firm is now doing 
an extensive business. During the year 1890 
they placed on the market the following named 
lands: Enterprise colony, 2,500 acres; Cale- 
donia colony, 640 acres; Perrin colony, No. 2, 
6,000 acres; Kutner colony, 960 acres; and 
Kutner & Peters colony, 320 acres. All these 
lands are irrigated, the water supply coining 
from King's river and being principally owned 
by the Fresno Canal & Irrigating Company which 
furnishes one-eighth cubic foot of water to 



every twenty acres. They have just put on the 
market Perrin colony, No. 4, of 12,000 acres, 
and No. 5, of 6,000 acres. 

Mr. and Mrs Sharp have four children, two 
sons and two daughters, all at home. They 
reside at No. 747 Q street, one of the many fine 
residences in Fresno. 

fHOMAS A. BAKER, a leading merchant 
of Bakersfield, and the Treasurer and Tax 
^F' Collector of Kern County, was born in 
Visalia, Tulare County, California, July 22, 
1859. He is the only surviving son of the 
late Colonel Thomas Baker, a pioneer of Cali- 
fornia, and a distinguished citizen of the coun- 
ties of Tulare and Kern, where, as may be seen 
in a biographical sketch printed elsewhere in 
this work, he spent the best years of his active 
and useful life. Young Thomas was afforded 
the best schooling advantages of his time, 

OCT ' 

which he improved. He graduated at the 
Washington College, Alameda County, in 1880, 
after which he returned to his home. On the 
10th of October, 1881, he was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Amie, daughter of J. Smith, 
Esq., of Los Angeles. She also is a native of 
the Golden State, and was born in Kern County. 

Mr. Baker soon drifted into the field of local 
politics, and in 1884]was elected Tax Collector 
of Kern County. In 1886 he was re-elected to 
the same office, and in 1888 was elected to the 
office of Treasurer and Tax Collector, the offices 
having been combined. In 1890 he was again 
elected to the same ofiice and is now filling that 
position. A fact worthy of note is, that Mr. 
Baker was retained in this office with practically 
no opposition, running as he did two or three 
hundred votes ahead of his ticket, which is one 
of the most substantial tokens of respect and 
esteem that an appreciative public can bestow 
upon a faithful and popular public servaut. 

Thomas A. Baker is a man of modest de- 
meanor, genial in his manner and temperate in 
his social habits. He is a member of Baker 



384 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Parlor, No. 42, Native Sons of the Golden 
West, which parlor was given their family name 
in token of the esteem in which they are held 
in the community. lie is also a member of the 
Knights of Pythias. 

Mr. Baker's mercantile establishment, a 
clothing and gents' furnishing goods store, is 
one of the largest and best conducted of its 
kind in Central California. 

Both as a business man and a public officer, 
Mr. Baker is prompt and active. He is 
thoroughly awake to the growing interests and 
importance of his home city and county, and is 
ever found ready to encourage any enterprise 
tending to their future growth and prosperity. 



f MANASSE, one of the pioneer mer- 
chants of Hanford, Tulare County, Cali- 
9 fornia, was born in Germany in 1853. 
At the age of sixteen years he emigrated to the 
United States and came direct to California. 
He located at Snelling, the old county seat of 
Merced County, and entered the employ of 
Simon, Jacobs & Company as clerk in their 
general merchandise store, remaining there 
until 1874. He then represented the firm in 
their small branch store at Grand View, a little 
village on the Southern Pacific railroad north of 
the present town of Traver. At the auction 
sale of town lots at Hanford, in February, 1877, 
Mr. Manasse was present and purchased a lot 
on Sixth street, between Douty and Harris 
streets. He then returned to Grand View, 
sawed his little store into sections and moved 
store and contents to Hanford, and thus estab- 
lished one of the pioneer stores of the town. 
Business was conducted in the name of Simon, 
Jacobs & Co. until 1885, when the firm was suc- 
ceeded by Manasse & Weisbaum, continuing 
very snccesfully until 1888, when the store 
building and contents were wiped out of ex- 
istence by a destructive fire, and in the settle- 
ment of affairs the firm dissolved. In 1889 the 
firm of Simon, Manasse & Co. was organized. 



and resumed the general merchandise business 
in a store at the corner of Sixth and Douty 
streets. Trade becoming so extended and 
greater facilities being needed, in the spring of 
1891 they built their present handsome store, 
50 x 150 feet, with basement same size, to 
which they moved in May of the same year. 
With enlarged stock and increased facilities, 
they control an extended trade through the 
valley, also operating a branch store at Coal- 
inga in the foothills of the Coast Range. 

Mr. Manasse was married at Hanford in 
1880, to Miss Lilly Weisbaum, a native daugh- 
ter of California. They are the parents of two 
children: Arthur and Beta. 

In 1877 Mr. Manasse was appointed the first 
Postmaster of Hanford, and held the position 
acceptably both to the Government and the 
people of Hanford for a period of five years, 
after which he resigned to attend to his increas- 
ing business interests. By a special election 
held August 8, 1891, the town of Hanford was 
incorporated as a city, and Mr. Manasse was 
chosen to serve as one of the council men. He 
is a member of the A. O. U. W. of Hanford and 
of the B. B. Society of Merced. 



T-XT T. MAUP1N, M. D., was born in 

1/ AM Columbia, Boone County, Missouri, 
Hpfj® i„ 1839. His father, William Mau- 
pin, was one of the pioneers of Missouri. He 
moved from Kentucky to that State in 1816, 
settling in Howard County, and going to Boone 
County in 1820, when it was infested by In- 
dians. He built the first house in Columbia, 
the county seat, in 1820, and carried on farming 
and trading. Mr. Maupin was a personal friend 
of Daniel Boone, for whom the county was 
named. 

The subject of this sketch was educated at 
the William Jewell Academic College at Lib- 
erty, Clay County, Missouri, graduating in 
1859. He then began reading medicine id Co- 
lumbia, taking one course of lectures at the St. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



385 



Louis College, after which he went to Phila- 
delphia and finished his medical course in the 
Jefferson College, graduating in the old- school 
of medicine and surgery in 1865. 

Returning to Columbia, Dr. Maupin entered 
upoD the practice of his profession. In Feb- 
ruary of the following year he was married to 
Miss Mary Matthews, a native of that city. 
Columbia is a college town of about 6,000 in- 
habitants and is known as the educational center 
of the State. There the Doctor continued to 
reside until 1887, and during that time was 
prominently identified with the best interests of 
the place. He was actively engaged in the 
practice of medicine and for many years was 
Health Officer; was also a member of the board 
of- curators of Stephens College of Columbia. 

In 1886 Dr. Maupin moved his family to 
California and settled in Fresno, where he in- 
vested quite extensively in city property. He 
also owns a vineyard of twenty acres located 
near the town. Immediately after his arrival 
here he began practicing and was alone until 
1890, when he formed a partnership with his 
son, J. L. Maupin, a classical graduate of the 
University of Missouri. The Doctor was elected 
president of the Board of Health in 1889, and 
Health Officer in April, 1891. He regards the 
city of Fresno at the present time one of the 
healthiest localities in the State, with no epi- 
demics and very rare cases of acute disease. 

He and his wife have a family of four children, 
one son and three daughters, all living at home. 

H. CHANCE was born in Andrew 
County, Missouri, April 7, 1840, and 
l^cp^l ° in the fall of 1846 his parents emi- 
grated to California. His father engaged in 
agricultural pursuits in Sonoma County for 
three years, and then, after trying his luck in 
the mines for a few months, went to George- 
town, El Dorado County, where he turned his 
attention to merchandising and was very success- 
ful. He, however, took a partner into the 



business with him, which proved a most dis- 
astrous move, for in less than two years the 
fortunes of Mr. Chance were completely 
wrecked. He died in 1852, leaving a widow 
and five children. 

The subject of this sketch attended school at 
convenient opportunities, and also assisted his 
mother in every way he could in the support of 
the family. He was a wage-earner until 1862, 
when he began farming on his own account, 
renting land near Stockton. Here he remained 
six years, after which he removed to Stanislaus 
County, purchased property and continued his 
farming operations there until 1877. In that 
year he came to Fresno County and engaged in 
farming on a larger scale than before, adding 
much to the wealth he had already acquired. 
In 1880 he entered mercantile life in Fresno, 
and also made some wise investments in real 
estate. 

For the past few years Mr. Chance has not 
enjoyed the best of health, and has gradually 
withdrawn from active business life, although 
having large interests in some of the enterprises 
of the city. He is a large stockholder in and 
vice-president of the First National Bank of 
Fresno. 

Mr. Chance was married, September 25, 1870, 
to Miss Mary Russell, a native of Missouri, who 
has been a resident of California since an early 
date. They have six children. 



«#** 



*& 



tBIA TAYLOR LIGHTNER.— There was 
not a pioneer of Kern County who lived a 
more active and exemplary life, and left 
to posterity a more honorable name than the 
late Abia T. Lightner, a man of great ambition, 
strength of character and keen sense of honor. 
As a pioneer citizen his influence was most sal- 
utary in shaping and regulating the social and 
civil affairs of the community in which he lived, 
developed a goodly estate and reared a large 
family. 

He was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Oc- 






386 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



tober 27, 1801. Bis father, Adam Lightner, was 
a merchant of Lancaster, of German ancestry, 
and a member of the German Lutheran Church. 
Abia T. Lightner removed to Ohio and located 
near Cincinnati, where, about one year, he con- 
ducted a cabinet-making shop. Later, in 1819, 
he removed to La Fayette County, Missouri, and 
located about twelve miles from the present 
town of Lexington, and continued the cabinet- 
making business. Here he married, July 1, 
1830, Miss Jemima S., daughter of William 
and Sarah (Scott) Snelling. Mrs. Lightner was 
born September 6, 1809, at Hopkinsville, Chris- 
tian County, Kentucky. William Snelling, her 
father, was a planter and a trader, and did an 
extensive business, purchasing, transporting 
and selling merchandise between Hopkinsville 
and New Orleans, navigating the Cumberland, 
Ohio and Mississippi rivers. His plantation, 
on which he kept a number of slaves, was one 
of the best in that region of countrj, and there 
he lived in affluence and reared his family of 
five sons and five daughters, all of whom lived 
to maturity. He died in the prime of life, at 
Natchez, Mississippi, of yellow fever while on 
one of his return trips from New Orleans. 
After this sad event the mother, three sons and 
two daughters (Mrs. Lightner being the young- 
est and the only one single) removed to La Fay- 
ette County, Missouri. William Snelling was a 
native of Virginia, born on the Potomac river, 
near the city of Washington. At the age of 
fifteen he became a soldier in the Revolu- 
tionary war, and fought all through that con- 
flict. His father, also named William, was a 
schoolmate and an intimate friend of George 
Washington. 

After his marriage, Abia Lightner engaged 
in the grist and saw milling business at Lexing- 
ton, on a large scale, and accumulated a good 
property. He suffered a severe loss of this line 
property by tire, and his Tnisfortune, together 
with ill health, turned his thoughts and face 
toward California. He, accordingly, with his 
wife and six children, crossed the plains in 1849, 
entering this State by the southern route. He 



located at San Jose, Santa Clara County, where 
he engaged in teaming and dealing extensively 
in hay and grain, his business extending be- 
tween San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento. 
Later, he removed to the little town of Santa 
Clara and leased and conducted a Baptist Sem- 
inary, hiring the teachers and assuming full 
control of the institution. Several years after- 
ward he tarned the lease over to other parties, 
closed out all his interests in that county and 
came to Kern County in 1855. He was one of 
the first miners at Keysville and gave that 
camp its name. In the fall of 1858, after having 
mined at that point about three years without 
success, he removed with his family to Walker's 
Basin and purchased the ranch, with all its 
improvements, of Robert Wilson. There 
he lived the life of an industrious, con- 
scientious and hospitable citizen until his death. 
He left home early one morning with a team 
and load of hay for Havilah mining camp, and 
by some mishap was probably thrown from the 
load and crushed beneath the wheels of his 
wagon in descending a hill, and evidently died 
almost instantly. This occurred on the 12th 
of February, 1867. Mrs. Lightner survives him 
and graces the old home (now in possession of 
William Lightner) as only an aged, faithful and 
loving mother, ripe with the experience of a 
useful and eventful life, can honor the house- 
hold of a son . 

Of their children seven are living, namely : 
Diana, born April 3, 1831, is the widow of 
Frank Barrows, and lives with her family at 
Bandon, Oregon ; Isaac, born July 6, 1835, is 
a mechanic, and resides at Napa, California ; 
William, born September 11, 1837, owns and 
lives on the homestead ; Daniel S.. born July 
17, 1839, is engaged in the milling business at 
Tehachapi, this county ; Mary F., born July G, 
1845, is he wife of D. W. Walser, of Walker's 
Basin ; Lavinia, now Mrs. Walker Rankin, also 
of Walker's Basin, was born October 17, 1847; 
and Abia T., of Bakerstield, this county, was 
born January 1, 1850, is Assessor of the county 
and is a leading business man. 





{7£4^- / /^^T? & S7Z^ 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



387 



William Lightner is a leading farmer of Walk- 
er's Basin. During his father's life, William 
was his " right-hand man," and aided him 
in the execution of his plans. After the father's 
death, he succeeded to the ownership of the 
family home, where he now lives. 

Mr. Lightner has been twice married. In 
October, 1870, lie married Mrs. Frances Combs' 
who died in November, 1876, leaving a daughter? 
Mary, now an accomplished young lad} 7 . Mr. 
Lightner married his present wife in 1880. 
Her maiden name was Helen Atchinson, and she 
is the daughter of Dr. W. A. Atchinson, of 
Bakersfield. 



}OYAL PORTER PUTNAM, deceased.— 

jSf It is with great interest that we review 
1 the lives of the early pioneers of Califor- 
nia, those men of iron nerve and muscle who, 
invested with the spirit of enterprise and ad- 
venture, left their homes in the East to seek 
name, fame and fortune in the undeveloped 
State of California. Among the great throng 
of emigrants who sought this coast during the 
years immediately following the gold discovery, 
we find the name of Royal Porter Putnam. 

He was born in the town of Covington, Penn- 
sylvania, August 5, 1837, and was the youngest 
son of Mr. Thomas Putnam, a merchant of the 
above mentioned town. His early life was 
passed at home. Educational facilities in those 
days being limited, his training was gained 
chiefly in the broad school of nature and ex- 
perience. Up to the age of twenty years young 
Putnam assisted his father in his country store, 
thus acquiring habits of industry and a knowl- 
edge of mercantile life which were of unspeak- 
able benefit in his later years. 

In 1857 Mr. Putnam was thrilled with a 
spirit of adventure, which is so predominant in 
the minds of the American youths, and, though 
but twenty years of age and unused to the hard- 
ships of life, he took leave of his family and 
home associations and started for New Orleans. 



At that place he joined an emigrant train about 
leaving for the Pacific slope. Nothing is 
known of the sufferings or hardships of this 
journey until the party reached Fort Yuma, 
where Mr. Putnam succumbed to a raging fever 
and was confined in the hospital for a period of 
six months, alone and among strangers. Re- 
gaining his health, he again pushed forward 
with unabated zeal and reached Los Angeles, 
where he was employed as a common laborer by 
Colonel Banning. As the tide of emigration 
was toward the north, he, too, soon started in 
that direction, going by the old stage line which 
ran from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Upon 
arriving at the stage station situated at the 
"Lone Cottonwood Tree," eighteen miles north- 
west of the present town of Porterville, he was 
offered employment as a common "'ostler," at 
about $30 per month; and from that date the 
fortunes of our young friend began to brighten. 
He continued the faithful employe of the stage 
company for many months, carefully hoarding 
his little stipend. In 1861, when the Kern 
river gold excitement waxed strong and travel- 
ers were frequent, Mr. Putnam invested his 
savings in the erection of a small hotel. He 
also located forty acres of swamp and overflow 
land, which he laid out in streets and town lots. 
At the same time he started a small store. He 
being familiarly known by the name of Porter, 
the new town, by mutual consent, was called 
Portersville, which common usage reduced to 
Porterville, and ere long it became a very im- 
portant center of the stock interests of the 
county. 

In 1864 Mr. Putnam visited the East, and 
was married at Bainbridge, New York, to Miss 
Mary Packard, returning soon afterward to his 
California home. From this time prosperity 
attended his every effort. In 1866 he built a 
more commodious store room, extended his 
landed interests from time to time, and acquired 
about 5,000 acres of land. As the town grew 
he did a more extensive and lucrative business, 
dealing in general merchandise and agricultural 
implements. 



388 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Mr. Putnam was in every respect an enter- 
prising and public-spirited citizen, ever ready 
to befriend the needy or aid the advancement of 
any measure which would benefit the town of 
which he was so significantly the founder. 
During the fall of 1889 he was stricken with a 
fatal disease, and passed away on the 21st of 
October, mourned by a devoted wife, two 
loving sons, and the entire community, his 
death being felt as a public bereavement. 

It was Mr. Putnam's last wish that his busi- 
ness relations should be continued, and that his 
mantle should fall upon the shoulders of his 
two sons, W. P. and F. O. Putnam. These 
sons were both born in Porterville, and have 
been reared and edui-ated with a view of follow- 
ing mercantile life. They attended the Berke- 
ley Gymnasium and the University of the 
Pacific, and secured their business education in 
actual experience in the store with their father. 
Before his death Mr. Putnam had planned a 
business block for store and hall purposes, and 
as far as possible his heirs have carried out his 
designs to the very letter. The handsome two- 
story brick structure, 75 x 100 feet, built after 
the Anglo-Swiss architecture, is now erected 
and stands as a monument to the memory of 
Mr. Putnam, an ornament to Porterville and a 
necessity to the Putnam brothers in the proper 
management of their very extensive mercantile 
business. 

W. P. Putnam was married at Porterville in 
March, 1890, to Miss Minnie Kinkade, and 
their union has been blessed with one child. 

F. O. Putnam is unmarried, and resides at 
home with his mother. Both gentlemen are 
members of Porterville Parlor, No. 73, N. S. 
G. W. 

iti . . B 

fEORGE WALTER WILLIAMS.— Prom- 
inent in the annals of the early history of 
California, and about the last surviving 
member of that heroic little company that 
raised the celebrated bear fia^ over the bar- 



racks at Sonoma, stands the subject of this 
sketch. 

He was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, No- 
vember 2, 1819. His grandfather, William 
Williams, was a soldier in the Revolutionary 
war, while his father, John C. Williams, then a 
strapping boy, remained at home and cultivated 
potatoes to feed the men. The educational ad- 
vantages Mr. Williams had were extremely 
limited, as the rule for those days was, •' Let 
boys work and secure their education from the 
handles of the hoe and plow. " Select schools 
were open three months in each year, but the 
boys could only attend when the farm work was 
completed and everything snug for the winter. 

At the age of twenty years, young Williams 
started out in life with his cousin, John Baley 
and both being supplied with abundant funds the 
first years were passed in idle recreation, travel- 
ing on the Mississippi river and through Ten- 
nessee, Mississippi and Missouri, seeing the 
sights and having a grand time. As their 
means became reduced, they cast about for a 
business engagement, and finally settled near 
Iowa City and opened a grocery store, purchas- 
ing their stock in St. Louis and freighting ninety 
miles by wagon. Business was good and dur- 
ing the two years they remained there they 
made a deal of money. 

In 1845 they sold out and started for Cali- 
fornia, their party numbering eight young men. 
They traveled from Independence by the Platte 
river, passing Ft. Laramie, Ft. Bridger and Ft. 
Hall, and overtook other emigrants. A party of 
thirty-two was there formed, and securing a 
guide, they pushed forward. Crossing the sum- 
mit, they followed the Humboldt river, entered 
California by Johnson's ranch, and arrived safe 
at Sutter's fort, then headquarters for the few 
Americans in the country, which was at that 
time under Spanish government. They sold 
their teams, and, and there being no money in 
the country, their credit was placed upon Sut- 
ter's books, through him all business being con- 
ducted. There were then about eighty Ameri- 
cans in the country, many Spanish along the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



389 



coast, and the interior infested with Indians 
and wild animals. Hunting and trapping were 
the chief industries. The first work Mr. Will- 
iams secured was a job of shingling a roof for 
Sutter, receiving $2 per day and board, which 
was considered large wages. He then went to 
Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) and worked 
at carpentering for Captain Leidesdorff, a mer- 
chant and sub-American consul, and remained 
there all winter, receiving $4 per day. 

In the spring of 1846, the Mexican war be- 
gan. Fremont had been driven out of the 
country, but was overtaken by Lieutenant 
Gillespie, who bore letters from Washington, 
District of Columbia, to Fremont, and the 
latter, with sixty men, returned to Feather 
river. After Fremont's departure the Mex- 
icans posted notices, ordering the attend- 
ance of all Americans at the Mexican forts 
upon a certain day. Lieutenant Gillespie 
advised the concentration of Americans in their 
attendance. Thus it was that Mr. Williams 
with sixteen stalwart companions assembled at 
the Mission of Sonoma. The order was then 
read by Jacob Leese, a Mexicanized American, 
that the Americans must leave the country 
within thirty days, and must not take an animal 
bearing a Spanish brand and must leave their 
rifles at the fort. 

This aroused the Americans, and each man, 
with his trusty rifle across his arm, was on the 
alert, while Jesse Beesley spoke for the party 
and said, " We don't wish to hear another 
d- — -d word." Then they withdrew and con- 
ferred with Fremont, who was under orders to 
make no attack until a date beyond the thirty- 
day limit. He, however, advised the capture of 
General Vallejo, who was friendly to the United 
State laws; and Mr. Williams was one of the 
twenty-eight men who performed the work. 
They advanced upon the old Mission of Sonoma 
and captured the men, barracks and nine pieces 
of artillery, without tiring a gun. The men 
were released and told to go and tight for their 
country, while the small American company 
held the fort. They then proceeded to General 



Vallejo's residence and were invited in to dis- 
cuss the situation. After deliberation the Gen- 
eral asked to withdraw. He presently returned 
in full uniform, and, presenting his gold mounted 
sword, said: "Gentlemen, I am overpowered 
and compelled to surrender." With eight men 
as escort, he was taken to Sutter's fort, while 
tweuty men remained in charge of the barracks. 
They immediately pulled down the Mexican 
flag, and discussion was then aroused over a 
new flag. Mr. Williams and a friend withdrew 
to a small store and purchased three yards of 
unbleached domestic cloth; and while Mr. Will- 
iams and Mr. Bradshawheld the cloth, William 
Todd, with a piece of red keil, commonly used 
as a pencil, drew the Lone Star of Texas and 
added to it the bear in a rearing position, as 
though sniffing danger, — which represented that 
little company of men in their responsible posi- 
tion. After the bear was drawn, as the flag 
looked so naked, Mr. Williams pulled off his old 
red undershirt, which was torn in strips and 
used in binding the flag. It floated triumph- 
antly over the fort at Sonoma until the stars 
and stripes were run up on the American man- 
of-war lying in the bay. 

The bear flag was hoisted June 14, 1846, and 
the men remained at the barracks about three 
weeks. Tom Fowler and Tom Cowan were sent 
for powder to a distant post, but were captured 
near Santa Rosa and murdered with horrible 
barbarity. This so enraged the little band of 
Americans, then numbering forty, that they 
vowed vengeance and pursued the Mexicans, 
overtaking them at Indian Ranch, San Rafael; 
but they were re-inforced and seventeen of the 
American party were surrounded by a party 
which they afterward discovered numbered 
eighty-eight men. A running tire was then 
kept up, the Mexicans shootiug without dam- 
age, while from the brave little band every shot 
meant a man. Eight riderless horses soon came 
up to the corral where the Mexicans had gath- 
ered about 200 horses with which to supply the 
army of Castro. AD these were captured and 
taken to the fort. Word was then sent to Fre- 



390 



HISTORY OF CENT HAL CALIFORNIA. 



mont, who came to Sonoma. At this time Mr. 
Williams was detailed to take the cannon to 
Sutter's fort, where Fremont's men would mount 
them for field service; but while there, Commo- 
dore Sloat, who lay in Monterey bay with his 
fleet along side of the English fleet, learned 
that the English flag would be raised the fol 
lowing morning, and without further delay the 
stars and stripes were flung upon the breeze. 
Mr. Williams remained with General Fremont's 
army until General Castro was driven out of the 
country and peace was declared by the signing 
ot th-5 treaty between Fremont and the Mexi- 
cans at the Cahuenga ranch, nine miles north 
of Los Angeles. General Fremont was then 
appointed military governor by Commodore 
Stockton and his men were discharged at the 
old mission of San Gabriel, about July, 1847. 
Mr. Williams then went to Santa Cruz, where 
in partnership with John Custer he rented a 
sawmill and operated it successfully, lumber 
then selling at $40 per thousand feet at the 
mill. After gold was discovered the excitement 
was so intense that all help deserted and went 
to the mines. Mr. Williams sold his interest 
in the mill to his partner, went to the American 
river and began mining on Mormon Bar. He 
had two partners and continued in business 
there until the fall of 1849, when the gold was 
measured in tin cups and struck off with a 
straight edge, Mr. Williams' portion being val- 
ued at $24,000. He then turned his attention 
to speculating in horses and cattle and made a 
deal of money. In 1859 he engaged in the 
sheep business, driving from Los Angeles and 
selling in and about the mines. In the spring 
of 1860 he came to Visalia, speculated in lands 
and loaned money. He, however, was too gen- 
erous to his friends, and lost heavily. In 1869 
he opened a restaurant in Portersville, on the 
present site of the Central Hotel, conducting 

with it a billiard room and continuing the busi- 
es 

ness five years. 

Mr. Williams was married in Portersville, in 
1861, to Miss Nancy Ann Coughran. In 1877 
they went to Goshen and started a public house, 



where they made money, until a disastrous fire 
swept away everything they had. They then 
returned to Visalia, and in October, 1883, set- 
tled on their present ranch, three miles west of 
Portersville. They have one son, James Mar- 
shall Williams, an unusually bright boy who is 
the pride and delight of his father's heart. At 
this writing he is attending the Pacific Meth- 
odist College at Santa Rosa. 



•«=**< 



>*-j — 



E. GREELEY, a Kern County farmer, 
came to California in 1877, from Michi- 
gan. His father, Noah Greeley, was a 
native of New Hampshire, whence he emigrated 
to Michigan in 1838. He had a family of nine 
children, of whom the subject of this sketch 
was the fourth; and he was born in 1838, at 
Lenawee, in the latter State. From eighteen to 
twenty-three years of age young Greeley dealt 
in cattle. He then (August, 1861) enlisted in 
the Eleventh Michigan Infantry, and served 
through the war of the Rebellion, being mus- 
tered out in October, 1865. He was promoted 
from grade to grade to the Second Lieutenancy 
of Company F of his regiment. He then took 
the Captaincy in the Fifteenth Colored Regi- 
ment, serving in the army altogether four years 
and three months. He was at the battle of 
Stone River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, etc., 
being under General Thomas in the Fourteenth 
Army Corps. After his discharge he returned 
to his native home in Michigan and engaged in 
the dairy business for awhile, and then in mill- 
ing at Morenci, which he followed three years, 
when he sold out and soon after came to Cali- 
fornia. Later he sent for his family, since when 
he has followed various occupations. He was 
engaged on a hog ranch a couple of years with 
"Sol." Jewett. He then pre-empted 160 acres 
of Government land near Bakerstield, to which 
he has made additions by purchase until he 
owns 240 acres, under fine improvements. 
He married Miss Emma Bitner, of Ohio, 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



391 



daughter of John Bitner, a native of Cumber- 
land County, Pennsylvania. 

Captain Greeley is an active, enterprising 
and thrifty business man, takes an active inter- 
est in politics and the public welfare of his 
county and State, as every good citizen should 
do, but he is not a seeker for office or public 
favor. Mrs. Greeley is a lady of unusual am- 
bitions, fine domestic tastes, feminine graces, 
and Christian fortitude. They have six chil- 
dren, all of whom are qualified by good training 
and thorough education to occupy creditable 
and exalted positions in life. 



—=$<+• 



j... . 



+>£»- 



SHOMAS WALLER, a prosperous farmer 
of Kern County, was born in Germany in 
1831, emigrated to America in 1847, and 
lived seven years in Buchanan County, Mis- 
souri, where he engaged in farming. He emi- 
grated to California in the spring of 1854, and 
followed mining in Trinity County until 1855. 
He then removed to Los Angeles County and 
followed farming until 1857, when he moved to 
Tulare County, where he was engaged a short 
time in mining. Aside from a brief time spent 
in Arizona in 1864, he has to the present time 
been a continuous resident of Kern County 
He owns 160 acres of farming land here, eighty 
acres of which is under improvements. He is 
an active and trusted citizen, and is a member 
of the local Board of Trustees of his school dis- 
trict. 



tNDREW WHEATON GRAY, a Cali- 
fornia pioneer of 1850, was born in New 
Berlin, Chenango County, New York, 
March 31, 1816. At the age of sixteen years he 
began thinking of self-support, and to that end 
was apprenticed to a hatter at New Berlin, but 
after one year he was taken sick and was obliged 
to give up that line of business. He then went to 
Wayne County, Pennsylvania, and in the out-of- 



door exercise connected with lumberiiic he was 

o 

restored to health. His first speculation was in 
buying a raft of logs, running it down the Dela- 
ware river to Philadelphia, and there finding a 
purchaser; but the market proved dull at the 
time, and he lost $100, which then seemed a 
large amount of money. He then bought tim- 
ber land, selling the logs at Trenton, and con- 
tinued in the business, together with farming, 
until 1846. His family had increased by eight 
children, and with them and his faithful wife, 
he emigrated to Janesville, Wisconsin, where he 
settled upon Government land four miles west 
from town and began farming. Here a terrible 
affliction came upon him: his children were all 
afflicted with whoopingcough, and through 
poor medical attendance complications set in, 
and in two short months five of his little ones 
passed away! 

Mr. Gray then sold his claim and settled near 
the town. With the gold excitement of 1850 
he left his family at Janesville, and crossed the 
plains for California. He came with a large 
train of 100 wagons, crossing by Sublette's cut- 
off, and landing at Hangtown. Instead of min- 
ing, Mr. Gray began butchering at the mouth of 
Hangtown canon, and was succeeding well 
when from poison oak he was taken sick and 
had to give up the business. Upon recovery of 
health, he began mining on Bear river and 
throucrh the several mining localities. He met 
with the usual success of miners, always making 
good wages by steady application, but in the 
larger enterprises of damming rivers and turn- 
ing streams he lost heavily. He found one 
piece of gold worth $96, and his richest crop- 
pings amounted to $360 per day. He followed 
that occupation until 1853, when he was again 
taken sick, after which he started for the East by 
steamer and the Nicaragua route. Returning 
to Janesville in the spring of 1854, he moved 
his family to Fillmore County, Minnesota, pur- 
chased land, and began farming. During the 
Pike's Peak gold excitement of 1860, Mr. Gray 
with three sons joined a large train and started 
for the Peak. They met many returning pros- 



392 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



pectors who reported the find a failure, which 
brought uncertainty to the minds of the emi- 
grants, and many turned back. Mr. Gray, with 
his sons and a few friends, changed their course 
and started for California, by the North Platte 
river, but he was again taken sick and barely 
able to reach Placerville. He found a physi- 
cian, and as soon as able to travel, although very 
weak, he started for home by steamer and the 
Isthmus of Panama. His sons wished to return 
with him, which he would not allow, preferring 
they should improve the possibilities offered in 
California. He had great faith in the Ameri- 
can people in that they would aid him in his 
weakness should he need attendance. He was 
kindly cared for, and in due time arrived at his 
home in Minnesota. About the year 1864 he 
sold out and moved to Johnson County, 
Nebraska, where he bought 240 acres and 
engaged in farming, and also planted an orchard, 
which proved to be the second best in the 
county. There he remained twelve years, but 
as many of his children had settled in Califor 
nia he decided to join them. Selling his farm 
he came to Tulare County, purchased town lots 
in Lemoore, and built for himself a cottage home 
within easy reach of his children, who are set- 
tled about him. He has not engaged in active 
business, excepting an occasional deal in town 
lots and real estate. 

Mr. Gray was married in Wayne County, Pa., 
December 20, 1834, to Miss Maren da Purdy, 
a native of the same county. They have six 
children living: Enos F., a prominent lawyer 
at Fremont, Nebraska; Reuben Purdy, a 
rancher near Lemoore; Harvey P.. a horticultu- 
rist near Armona; Mary M., wife of George 
W. Cody, a rancher near Grangeville; Joseph- 
ine, wife of J. H. Ham, a business man of 
Lemoore and Tulare; and Wheaton A., Judo- e 
of the Superior Court at Visalia. Mr. and 
Mrs. Gray have passed through a married life 
of fifty-seven years, an uhusuallj' blessed expe- 
rience, and in their old age are made happy by 
the prosperity of their children, who are gath- 
ered about them. M>\ Gray began life a Dem- 



ocrat, but disapproving of slavery, upon the nom- 
ination of Martin Van Buren as President, he 
endorsed the " Free-Soil" platform, which was 
later merged into the Republican party. He 
was a member of the last Territorial Lecisla- 
ture in Nebraska, and also of the first State Leg- 
islature, but he has now retired from politics 
and an active life. This year, 1891, he wa6 
elected Superior Judge. Though seventy-tive 
years of age, he is hale, hearty and active, with 
mind unimpaired and energies all alert. He is 
a fine type of American manhood, which, hav- 
ing passed through the trials and hardships of 
pioneer life, with forces unabated, is now pass- 
ing a peaceful old age in the enjoyment of all 
the comforts of life, and within easy access of 
his dear ones. 



fUDGE N. R. PACKARD.— There is prob- 
ably no name more familiar to the people of 
Kern County than that of N. R. Packard. 
He has been a resident of California since the 
summer of 1874, and during his residence in 
the State, has figured prominently in the civil 
history of Kern County. 

Judge Packard was born in Trumbull County, 
Ohio, July 20, 1833. His Father, Thomas 
Packard, was a native of Delaware, and a fanner 
by occupation. He became a pioneer of Ohio, 
and there reared a family of eleven children, the 
subject of this sketch being next to the young- 
est. They subsequently removed to Marshall 
County, Indiana, and located at Plymouth. 
There they had much sickness, death entered the 
family and thinned its ranks. 

In 1862 he left his home in Marshall County, 
Indiana, and crossed the plains to the far West, 
and for several years was variously employed at 
different places; for two years and a half he 
was engaged in hotel-keeping and mining in 
Idaho; spent some time in Oregon, and while 
there, served four years as clerk of Wasco 
County. He came to Kern County in 1874, 
being one of the very first settlers of Caliente, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



393 



which was for several years the terminus of the 
Southern Pacific railroad. For a number of 
years he was Justice of the Peace, and as such 
became well known throughout this region of 
the country. In 1876 he located at Bakersfield, 
as Deputy County Clerk under F. W. Craig, 
Esq., now of Sumner, serving two years under 
him, and the following four years under his 
successor, A. T. Lightner. In 1884 he was 
elected Clerk, and is now serving his fourth term 
of office. 

Judge Packard has been twice married. In 
1851 he wedded Miss Mariah Woodbury, 
daughter of Calvin Woodbury, a farmer of 
Plymouth, Indiana. She died in 1858, leaving 
one son, Orlando M., now of Plymouth, Indiana. 
His present wife was by maiden name Catha- 
rine A. Cummins, and was a daughter of Harri- 
et 

son Cummins, of the same town. Her chil- 
dren, three in number, are Ida B., now Mrs. 
Morris Hifschfeld, of San Francisco; Thomas 
J., Deputy Sheriff of Kern County; and Her- 
bert L., Deputy County Clerk. 

The Judge has -shown his faith in Kern 
County by making investments in property 
here. His home in Bakersfield is one of the 
most attractive ones in the town. His political 
affiliations have always been with the Demo- 
cratic party. He has been chairman of the 
County Central Committees for ten years, and 
for four years has been a member of the State 
Central Committee; was a delegate to the last 
State Convention. 



D. KNUPP, the genial real-estate, ab- 
stract and insuarance agent at Visalia, 
° began business here in 1872. His office 
is on Main street, in the Hotel block, where he 
may be found willing and ready to attend to the 
wants of any and all who may wish to invest in 
real estate in the counties of Fresno, Tulare 
and Kern. Since his advent into Visalia, Mr. 
Knupp has won for himself a host of friends, 
and by his energy and enterprising spirit has 

25 



made for himself an enviable reputation as a 
business man. He has been prominently con- 
nected with many of the public enterprises of 
the city and vicinity. In 1887 he put in the 
first electric-light plant in the city, which was 
subsequently consolidated into the Electric 
Light and Gas Company, in which Mr. Knupp 
is the largest stockholder and the secretary of 
the company. He also took a leading part in 
the building of the Visalia and Tulare railroad, 
procuring the right of way and furnishing ma- 
terials, etc., and in this company he is also a 
heavy stockholder. In partnership with his 
brother he owns a large ranch near Porterville, 
also valuable fruit land near Visalia, and con- 
siderable town property. His residence is on 
the corner of Willis and Locust streets. 

Mr. Knupp is a native of St. Charles, Mis- 
souri, born July 20, 1856, the son of Valentine 
Knupp, who was a merchant in St. Charles. In 
1872 Mr. Knupp graduated from the Glasgow . 
high chool, and in 1876 graduated from 
Heald's Business College in San Francisco. 
Politically he is a Democrat, and was a delegate 
to the National Convention at St. Louis, in 
1888, from the Sixth District. In 1881 he was 
married in Visalia. to Miss Nellie Cutler, a 
daughter of Hon. John Cutler, one of Tulare 
County's early pioneers. 

~~.+f»*~>£~f»-'~>- 

fp|| LINDER, incorporator and manager of 
ffff the Linder Hardware Company, Tulare, 
■^vi® California, was born in Germany in 1854- 
At the age of seventeen years he emigrated 
with friends to the United States. He came to 
California in 1870, via the Isthmus route, and 
landed in San Francisco. There he secured a 
position as clerk with Treadvvell & Co., one of 
the leading hardware and agricultural imple- 
ment establishments in the State, and during 
the five and a half years he remained with the 
firm became thoroughly acquainted with all the 
details of the business. 

Mr. Linder was married in 1875 to Miss Ad- 



804 



HISTORY OP CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



eline L. Palmer, a native of California. [n 1875 
he bought a ranch of 320 acres at San Pablo, 
('(intra Oosta County, and followed grain farm- 
ing for about three pears, alter which he rented 
his ranch and returned to the hardware business 
as salesman and bookkeeper for the firm of D. 
M. Osborn & Co., of San Francisco. In 1886, 
without Bevering this connection, Mr. hinder 
purchased an interest in the hardware business 
of Thomson & Harlow, Tulare, and in 1887 he 
came to Tulare to identity himself with the 
business. A few months later he purchased 
the remaining interest and subsequently incor- 
porated under the name of the Under Hardware 
Company, lie retaining the management ot the 
bnBl'neSS. The] are importers of heavy and shelf 
hardware, agricultural implements, wagons and 

hardwood lumber, and carry on an extensive 
business, with salesrooms on the corner of K 
and Kern streets 

Mr. Under is aUo identified with the Pack- 
wood Vineyard i\r Fruit Company, and he owns 
a ranch of three hundred and twenty acres, fully 
improved in vines and trees. 

Mr. and Mrs. Under have three children 

Qracie, George and Edith. He is one of the 
enterprising citizens nf the town, and during 

the few years of hi- residence here has won a 
large circle of friends. 



fETEK GARDETT, a venerable pioneer of 
California, is a native of the German 
lun pi re, born in Prussia, December 27, 
1824: his early years were spent as a navigator. 
Arriving in California in 1850, he engaged in 
raining until 1860, when he located in Kern 
County. He has taken an active part in the 
agricultural development of the county, and was 

oi f its organizers. He has always confined 

himself quietly to his adopted calling, that of 
farmer and Stock- rai.-er. engaging in politics 
only when duty seemed to prompt him to do so 
upon the earnest solicitation from his friends in 
public interest. He owns 520 acres of land on 



Poso Flats. He is universally esteemed and his 
judgment in matters of public concern are re- 
garded as a criterion. 

Mr. Gardett married his wife in San Fran- 
cisco in 1871. Her maiden name was Amelia 
Agnes Augusta Weber, and she is a native of 
Saxony, Germany. They have four children, 
two sons and two daughters. At the time of 
writing a post office is established at Poso Flats, 
and Mrs. Gardett is commissioned Postmis- 
tress. 

— r-#H»^# 



tLFRED DARE BARLING, assistant 
cashier of the Fresno Loan and Savings 
Bank, was born in New York State, April 
24, 1850. In the year 1865 the family home 
was removed to Michigan, where the subject of 
this mention received his education, graduating 
at the well-known Ann Arbor University. 
While in college he gave especial attention to 
the study of civil engineering, and as subse- 
quent events have shown his selection of this 
department of work was a wise and happv one. 

In September, 1873, Mr. Barling came to 
California, settling for a time in Merced County, 
where he was engaged with the Farmers' Canal 
Company, of which organization he had entire 
charge for the time. During the seven years 
he was employed by this company he gave his 
closest attention to duty, and never lost a day's 
pay. While connected with the company he 
constructed and developed the irrigating ditch 
that. Crocker & Huffman now own. He was 
also instrumental in organizing the first irrigat- 
ing scheme that was operated in Merced 
( lonnty. 

Mr. Barling was employed by the Mexican 
Central Railroad Company in 1880, and, as 
chief of the party, went to Mexico, their oper- 
ations extending from San Bias to Guadalajara, 
much of the work being difficult and dangerous. 
After remaining with this company fourteen 
months, he went to San Francisco and there su- 
perintended the building of the great wharf of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



395 



the South Pacific Coast railroad, two and three- 
fourths miles in length, containing a double 
track and roadway. 

In 1883 he came to Fresno County, where he 
has since resided. He is at present assistant 
cashier of the Fresno Loan and Savings Bank, 
and he also devotes a portion of his time to the 
raisin industry, owning 160 acres of bearing 
vines, and conducting the El Modelo Packing 
House, from which were shipped in 1890, ninety 
car loads of packed raisins. 

Mr. Barling was wedded in 1873, to Miss 
Mary Reno, a native of Michigan. He ascribes 
much of his success in life to Mrs. Barling's 

o 

excellent advice and sound judgment in busi- 
ness matters. 



fT. BAKER, the pioneer druggist of Han- 
ford, Tulare County, California, is a na- 
a tive of Muscatine County, Iowa, born in 
1848. His father, a native of Ohio, became 
one of the early settlers of Iowa, and was there 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. 

After securing a common- school education, 
young Baker started out in life at the age of 
seventeen years; went to Moscow, same county, 
and in the employ of his cousin, M. Baker, began 
the study of the prescription business, remaining 
there until 1870. He then came to California 
to join his uncle, Martin Baker, a practicing 
physician of Visalia, and to take charge of his 
drug store and business. In 1873 he bought 
an interst in the store, but sold it in 1875 and 
accepted the position of prescription clerk in 
the drug store of Mr. Bishop, at a salary of 
$125 per month. Here he faithfully performed 
his duties, often working eighteen hours a day. 
Wishing to start business for himself, he at- 
tended the auction sale of town lots at Hanford, 
in February, 1877, and purchased lots on Sixth 
street. He immediately built a small store for 
the drug business, and his was the first building 
completed and the first store to open its doors 
in the present prosperous town of Hanford. On 



March 26, 1879, fire devastated Hanford, and ' 
Mr. Baker's stock was entirely swept away, he 
sustaining a loss of $6,000. He then rebuilt in 
brick with increased facilities and enlarged his 
stock, and prosperity attended his business en- 
terprises. July 11, 1887, the town was again 
visited by fire, and Mr. Baker sustained a still 
greater loss, this time about $18,000. With 
renewed energy he set about rebuilding, and 
erected his present fine brick building, 50x70 
feet and two stories high. The upper story is 
divided into offices, and has a hall 38x40 feet, 
which is occupied by different secret orders at 
stated intervals. Mr. Baker has an outside cel- 
lar, 21 x 40 feet, brick-lined and cemented and 
made fire-proof, which he uses for the storage 
of miscellaneous drugs, and his fine storeroom 
contains one of the largest and most complete 
stocks of medicines. 

Mr. Baker was married at Visalia in July, 
1875, to Miss Mary Lindsey, a native of In- 
diana, and to their union has been added two 
children, George R. and Leila A. He is a 
member of Hanford Lodge, No. 189, A. O. U. 
W., and has been Receiver of the lodge for eight 
years. On Seventh street Mr. Baker owns a 
lot 100 x 150 feet, where he located his attract- 
ive and comfortable home. 



^ T. HENDRICKS is a native of Atchison, 
Kansas, born December 25, 1859. His 
father was one of the pioneers of that 
town, settling there about 1852, before the town 
existed. Young Hendricks was educated at the 
common schools of Atchison County, and in the 
Commercial Business College, Leavenworth. 
At the age of sixteen years he began his own 
support as clerk in a grocery store at Wyan- 
dotte. After clerking two years he began learn- 
ing the tinner's trade with Plankington & Ar- 
mour, remaining with that firm until June, 
1881, when he came to California. 

Arriving in this State Mr. Hendricks joined 
his brother, J. D. Hendricks, a dentist, at Hoi- 



aim 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



lister, San Benito Count}'. Under the instruc- 
tions of his brother. Mr. Hendricks began the 
study of dentistry, and by clo6e application, 
with the opportunities offered for practical de- 
monstration, he became skilled in the profession. 
Alter two years and a half spent with his 
brother, he opened an office of his own at Sel- 
ma, Fresno County, later at Kingsburg, and in 
September, 1885, at Hanford. At the latter 
place he is permanently located, and is promi- 
nently identified with the best interests of the 
town. His practice is botli operative and me- 
chanical, and his ability is well proven by his 
increasing patronage. Not neglectful of prop- 
erty interests, he has homesteaded 190 acres 
of land on the west side, and he also owns 160 
acres of timber land in Mariposa County. Dr. 
Hendricks is a prominent leader in the fire de- 
partment of Hanford, was foreman of the or- 
ganization three years, and in July, 1889. was 
elected chief of the department. In the de- 
structive fire of 1887, Dr. Hendricks became so 
engaged with the fire company that he entirely 
forgot his own interests, and while he was fight- 
ing the fire in one locality the flames were de- 
stroying his office and dental instruments in 
another quarter of the town; but, not becom- 
ing discouraged at this, he refitted his office as 
soon as the building was rebuilt, and to-day lie 
; s one of the leading dentists of Tulare County. 

— ~- "g ' 3 " S ' l '-~ 



fAMES GRANT MURRELL, M. D., a 
prominent resident of Glennville and a lead- 
ing physician of Kern County, is a native 
of Georgetown, South Carolina, born March 11, 
1845. His father, Rev. James Murrell, was a 
Methodist clergyman, and his mother, Delia 
Smith, also a native of Georgetown, was a lady 
of culture and Christian fortitude. Dr. Mur- 
rell was the fourth in a family of twelve chil- 
dren. His father died after living a useful and 
busy life, in 1890, at the age of eighty-five 
years, and his mother is still living, spending 



her declining years at her South Carolina 
home 

The Doctor received such early schooling as 
the system in his native State afforded, and at 
about twenty years of age lie left home to carve 
out his own fortune. He made his way to New 
York city and Boston, where he was engaged 
in business for about twelve years, during which 
time he took up the preliminary study of medi- 
cine. He finally came West and took a course 
of medical study at the California Medical Col- 
lege of Oakland, at which institution he gradu- 
ated in 1881. He first practiced his profession 
in Placer County, later at Woodbridge, in San 
Joaquin County, and in 1882 located at Glenn- 
ville, where he has since remained. He was 
married January 1, 1890, to Mrs. Alice, widow 
of the late Robert F. Wilkes, and eldest daugh- 
ter of the venerable Monroe Minter, of Glenn- 
ville. Dr. Murrell is a self-made man, having 
won his success in life by dint of perseverance 
and unceasing professional industry. His prac- 
tice is an extensive one, and is a substantial 
evidence of his professional skill. 



fRED A. DODGE was born in the town of 
Dunham, McHenry County, Illinois, De- 
cember 2, 1858. His father, Elisha 
Dodge, was a native of Vermont, and his 
mother, Susan (Smith) Dodge, was born in New 
York. 

Fred A. was reared on a farm, and until 
seventeen years of age his educational facilities 
were limited to the district schools. Then he 
attended the high school at Harvard, Illinois, 
tor a number of terms. In 1878 lie went to 
Iowa and entered the office of the Parkersburg 
Eclipse, then being published by his brother, 
Frank L. Dodge, and began to learn the print- 
er's trade. In 1880 he became a partner in the 
publication of the paper, and subsequently be- 
came sole editor and manager. In 1887 he 
sold his paper and removed to Hanford, Cali- 
fornia, entering the office of the Hanford 8< rUi- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



397 



nel, established by Frank L. Dodge in 1886. 
He purchased a one-half interest with his 
brother, and is now editor and manager of the 
paper. Mr. Dodge has made investments in 
real estate, and is engaged in farming oper- 
ations in Fresno and Tulare counties, being 
interested in about 1,000 acres of land, besides 
much town property in Hanford, both improved 
and unimproved. 

In 1883, in Parkersburg, Iowa, Mr. Dodge 
wedded Miss May F. Davis of that city. They 
have one child, — George Raymond. 

Mr. Dodge is a member of Beaver Camp, No. 
876, Modern Woodmen of America, Parkers- 
burg. He is an able and efficient editor, and 
through his paper exerts a marked influence for 
good in the community where he resides. 



M. BURNETT was born in Benton 
"fljiWM County, Missouri, fn 1848. His 
^5#^° father, Harden Burnett, was a Cali- 
fornia forty-niner, and lost his life in the mines. 
In 1859 young Burnett came to this State with 
some relatives, with whom he lived in San 
Jose until he win seventeen years of age. He 
then began learning the blacksmith trade, and 
in 1868 owned and operated a shop at Hollis- 
ter. He was married at that place in 1872, to 
Miss Floretta Churchill, a native of Illinois. 

In the fall of 1874 Mr. Burnett came to 
Tulare County, and bought a ranch of 1,400 
acres, located six miles south of Tulare, where 
he began farming and stock-raising, dealing 
quite extensively in horses, cattle and sheep. 
This industry prospered under his management, 
and he devoted his attention closely to it until 
1884, when he moved to Tulare in order to get 
the benefit of educational facilities for his chil- 
dren. He built a cottage at the corner of F and 
Inyo streets, in which he resides, still, however, 
continuing to manage his ranch, which he has 
reduced by sales to 700 acres. Mr. Burnett 
was one of the incorporators of the Tulare 
County Bank, which began business in July, 



1890, and he was elected vice-president of the 
institution. He is also engaged in a general 
real-estate business. 

Mr and Mrs. Burnett have three children, — 
Frank Walter, now in college at Sacramento, 
and Mvrtle Maud and Howard Earl, who are lay- 
ing the foundation for a higher education. Mr. 
Burnett is a member of Oak Lodge, No. 75, 
Modern Woodmen of the World. 



Jj||ETER CLAASEN JURGENS, Postmaster 
Ifff of Traver, Tulare County, California, was 
^t born in El Dorado County, this State, 
October 23, 1861. 

Mr. Jurgens is a son of Jasper Jurgens, who 
was born on the island of Heligoland, near the 
city of Hamburg, in 1815, and came to Cali- 
fornia in 1849. Previous to leaving his native 
isle, he was married to Miss Annie Claasen, a 
native of the same town, and they came to 
California together, settling in Sacramento. 
He afterward removed to a place seven miles 
from Coloma, engaged in mining, and also 
opened a store and bought gold, remaining there 
till 1868. He was United States gauger for 
several years, owned a farm, and was bv trade a 
carpenter. To him and his wife seven children 
were born, of whom four, — two sons and two 
daughters, — are living. The subject of this 
sketch is next to the youngest child. 

Mr. Jurgens was educated in the public 
schools of Sacramento, and came to Traver in 
1884, when it was an embryo town. He then 
occupied the position of station agent, assistant 
postmaster, and agent for Wells, Fargo & Co. 
In 1887 he became a member of a joint-stock 
company for the sale of general merchandise. 
He was its secretary and treasurer two years. 
The company also dealt extensively in grain, 
and the failure of Dresback, the wheat king, 
caused the failure of the firm. After that Mr. 
Jurgens acted as bookkeeper for Epenger & Co. 
He was subsequently appointed Postmaster, 
and took charge of the office in July, 1890, it 



398 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



being consumed by fire three weeks afterward. 
The Government effects, however, were rescued. 
He then built the present office, and supplied 
it with new boxes and all necessary conveniences. 

In 1886 Mr. Jurgens wedded Miss Josie 
Holtz. who was born in San Francisco County, 
daughter of William Holtz, an early settler and 
influential citizen of Alameda County. Two 
children have 1 eeu born to them, both dying 
in infancy. Mr. Jurgens is ably assisted in the 
office by his wile. He is a Notary Public, and 
also conducts an insurance business. 

In politics Mr. Jurgens affiliates with the 
Republican party. At one time he served as 
census marshal and took the census of the 
Kaweah judicial township. He is prominently 
associated with the Native Sons of the Golden 
West, having become a member at Sacramento, 
in the third parlor instituted in the State, and 
havincr assisted in the organization of the Fresno 
and Visalia parlors. He is a charter member 
of the A. O. U. W. at Traver, and has been Re- 
corder of the order since its organization here. 
Public-spirited and thoroughly identified with 
the interests of his town, he is justly proud of 
the progress in development already made in 
this section of the State of California, and has 
great faith in its future. 



RA ILSBACK ranks with the California 
pioneers, having been a resident of this 
State since 1852. 
Mr. Railsback was born in Warren County, 
Indiana, in 1830, and remained at home on the 
farm until he was twenty-one years of age. At 
that time, in company with bis brother, William 
Railsback, he came to California. They took 
the steamer at New York, crossed the Isthmus 
by the Nicaragua route, and below Acapulco 
were wrecked, losing all their possessions, but 
no lives. After a detention of three months at 
Acapulco, they crossed by the Nicaragua route 
and arrived in San Francisco in May, 1852. 
They at once went to Sonoma County and began 



ranching. A few months later they bought a 
team on credit and commenced splitting and 
hauling lumber to Petaluma and elsewhere, and 
thus paid for their team. In the winter of 1853 
they put in a crop of potatoes, paying three 
cents per pound for the seed, which produced 
heavily, and they were offered two cents and a 
half for the crop, but were advised to hold on 
for higher prices. Instead of increasing, the 
value of the potatoes depreciated, and they 
bought hogs to eat up their crop. After the 
hogs were fattened they did not bring the price 
paid for them, so the labor of the year proved 
a failure. The following year they planted 
potatoes and wheat and started a small dairy. 
In 1854 Mr. Railsback was married to fiiiBB 
Nancy C. Raynard, a native of North Carolina, 
who crossed the plains to California in 1853. 
In 1862 he disposed of his ranch and dairy in- 
terests to his brother, and went to Fraser river 
during the gold excitement. With a partner 
he took out $75 per day, but the claim soon 
ran out. Mr. Railsback then returned to 
Sonoma County, bought 320 acres of land and 
resumed farming, dairying and the stock busi- 
ness, and, with only occasional departures in 
other lines of business in San Francisco, he 
made the above ranch his home until 1876, when 
he sold out and came to Grangeville and pur- 
chased 640 acres of Government land. He 
passed through the exciting scenes of the land 
league and railroad troubles, maintaining a 
neutral position. He made additional land 
purchases and was largely interested in farming 
and the stock business, raising hogs and horses, 
breeding the Clydesdale and Normon stock. At 
one time he owned 1,280 acres of land, a por- 
tion of which he has sold and divided among 
his children. At this writing he owns 550 
acres, 300 of which are in alfalfa, ten in peaches, 
ten in raisin grapes and thirty in French prunes. 
He sells his peach crop on the tree for $100 per 
acre. Mr. Railsback keeps about one hundred 
head of horses and a Norman stallion, Prince, 
and his average number of hogs is about 200 
bead. On his ranch is an artesian well 590 feet 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



399 



deep, with a steady flow of tine water, which, 
having been analyzed, shows valuable medicinal 
properties. 

Mr. and Mrs. Railsback have seven children: 
Mary E., now Mrs. A. W. Lane; George W. ; 
Frank A.; Ada, now Mrs. C. L. Newport; 
Walter U. ; Sherman, and Oscar, — all settled on 
ranches in the Lucerne district. 

Mr. Railsback was one of the incorporators 
of the Bank of Hanford, in 1887, and in 1891 
helped organize and incorporate the Farmers' 
and Merchants' Bank of Hanford, of which he 
was elected president. As a financier and busi- 
ness manager he holds an enviable position 
among his townspeople. 

^+3~£# 

fOHN SCOTT was born in Ralls County, 
Missouri, in 1832. In 1843 his father 
emigrated to the territory afterward called 
Iowa, and in 1844 to St. Joseph, Missouri, 
where he followed farming and his trade, that 
of a general mechanic. Young Scott was edu- 
cated in St. Joseph, and remained at home until 
1849, when he was seized with the California 
gold fever. 

Accompanied by his older brother, Andrew 
Scott, he started across the plains for the new 
El Dorado, making the journey with an ox 
team and arriving at Sacramento, August 20, 
1849. After selling their team they started for 
the mines at Sutter's mill, taking with them a 
blanket, gold-pan and a few traps. They walked 
fifty miles before reaching Weaver creek, where 
they found miners at work. Stopping, they 
asked a dirty miner if they were getting plenty 
of gold. With a nod toward a kettle simmer- 
ing over a slow fire, he replied, " Enough to get 
grub." Mr. Scott not understanding what he 
meant, the miner told him they were cooking 
it in that kettle. This struck to the heart of 
our young friend and gave him a feeling of 
home-sickness. The idea of enduring such 
deprivations and only securing "grub" in re- 
turn, was too much for him, and he and his 



brother decided to save their money and pre- 
pare for an early trip home. They, however, 
soon overtook another miner, who was ladeu 
with a sack of dirt containing gold-dust, and 
who told them that the miners they had just 
past were making $50 per day. At this their 
spirits brightened and they proceeded to Coloma 
for supplies. While his brother was cooking 
some beefsteak near a running stream, John 
panned out a little sand and brought a " color " 
which delighted his heart. After eating their 
frugal meal, he dug a hole about three feet deep 
and picked up a nugget which he sold for $6. 
This gave them courage, and- they continued 
mining six months. After this they started a 
mining store at Mosquito, which they continued 
with marked success until April, 1851, when 
they returned home via the Nicaragua route. 

In the spring of 1852, Mr. Scott again vis- 
ited California, this time corning alone, as his 
brother preferred to remain in the East. He 
again crossed the plains, and landed at Rich 
Bar, on the Feather river, where he followed 
mining a short time. He then established a 
butcher business at American Flats, and con- 
ducted it two years, after which he managed 
the store of Forester & Lassbach until 1858, 
when he returned to the East, this time making 
the trip by the Isthmus of Panama. They 
arrived at New York just twenty-one days after 
embai-king at San Francisco. Mr. Scott spent a 
short time in New York city, then went to 
Cleveland, Ohio, and from there to Ft. Leaven- 
worth, Kansas, where his mother resided. After 
a visit at home, he went to Atchison to seek 
employment; and in several occupations, as 
clerk, coustable and deputy marshal, was en- 
gaged for a number of years. 

Mr. Scott was married, at ELwood, Kansas, in 
1860, to Miss Louisa Searcy. In 1863 they 
left Atchison, moved to Irving, and engaged in 
farming and operating a sawmill, remaining 
there until about 1866, when they moved to 
Geary City, Kansas. At the latter place Mr. 
Scott established a general merchandise busi- 
ness, which he conducted successfully until 



400 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



1875, when he returned to California. Settling 
at Santa Paula, he opened a general merchan- 
dise store and remained there until 1887, when 
lie sold out and moved to Flacerville, the old 
camping-grounds of his mining days, the mem- 
ory of which had always lingered pleasantly in 
his mind. Disappointments frequently attend 
return visits, and Mr. Scott decided not to make 
a permanent settlement. In 1888 he visited 
Porterville and surrounding country, and the 
result was that he located at Piano. He pur- 
chased land, erected a fine store building in 
town and a handsome residence on the hill some 
little distance OBt, and is now doing a general 
merchandise business and is comfortably situ- 
ated. 

Mr. and Mrs. Scott have six children: Angie 
A., now Mrs. John La Rue; Robert E., Louisa 
B., Eugene L., Josephine B. and Jennie G. He 
is a member of Palmyra Lodge, No. 151, E. & 
A. M., of Placerville. 

#^€B"^# 



tOUIS BRANSFORD McWHIRTER was 
born in Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1856, but 
was taken by his parents to Nashville, 
Tennessee, when quite young, where he spent 
his youth and early manhood. During the 
greater portion of the period covered by the 
civil war he was inside the Confederate lines, 
and as his father, as well as his uncles on both 
sides, was an officer in the Confederate service, 
he spent much of his time about the camps at 
Dalton, Georgia, and other places. 

After attending several excellent schools in 
Virginia, he took a law course at the Vander- 
bilt University. Before entering the profession, 
however, he visited Europe, where he spent a 
year and a half, traveling extensively through 
Great Britain and on the continent with Prof. 
Charles A. Smith, who is now Professor of 
Greek in the Vanderbilt University. 

On his return to America Mr. McWhirter 
began the practice of the law in the office of 
Guild & Dodd, in Nashville, Tennessee; but 



shortly afterwards being appointed Assistant 
Commissioner of Mines, Immigration Statistics 
and Agriculture for the State of Tennessee, he 
accepted that position and at once took charge 
of all the newspaper work in that department. 
While living in Tennessee he was actively in- 
terested in politics, and became interested 
financially in more thau one newspaper. In 
1884 he was appointed Commissioner from 
Tennessee to the World's Fair at New Orleans, 
Louisiana, and was reappointed Commissioner 
to the second Exposition at that place, which 
kept him in New Orleans a greater portion of 
the time until the latter part of 1886. 

AVhile at this Exposition Mr. McWhirter be- 
came so much impressed with the magnificent 
exhibit from California that he subsequently 
determined to make California his home, and 
early in 1887 he left Nashville for the Pacific 
coast, and has since resided in Fresno. His 
first venture in this city was in the newspaper 
business. He helped to establish the Daily 
Democrat, and was its editor-in-chief and part 
owner. Selling his interest in this paper in 
August, 1888, he shortly afterwards became the 
editor of the Expositor, owned by J. W. Fer- 
guson. 

In 1889 Mr. McWhirter was married to Mir-s 
Nannie Blasingame, a member of • one of the 
oldest and wealthiest families in the San Joa- 
quin valley. Her father, the late J. A. Blasin- 
game, was a native of Alabama, and served as 
a volunteer soldier from that State in the Mexi 
can war. He located in California in 1849, and 
his family have lived in Fresno County since 
1857. 

Shortly after his marriage Mr. McWhirter 
engaged actively in the practice of the law, and 
has since given his entire attention to it. Few 
men have been as active in politics as he. An 
ardent Democrat, he has never been a candidate 
for office, though none have given more time 
and money for the accomplishment of party 
success. A Democrat of the Bourbon school, 
warmly attached to Jefferson ian principle.-, be- 
lieving that party lines should be drawn in all 



HJS10RT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



401 




elections, he demands that the candidates of his 
party shall always be honest. He regards a 
public office a public trust, and thinks that a 
public official should always conduct himself in 
such a manner as to be above suspicion. 

Mr. McWhirter was chairman of the Demo- 
cratic Executive Committee of this county 
during the heated campaign of 1890, which re 
suited in a largely increased majority for his 
party. 

In 1891 it was mainly through his influence 
that a party ticket was nominated in the city of 
Fresno, the first movement of the kind in the 
history of the city, and a sweeping Democratic 
victory was the result. 



*•£=- 



W. HELM, M. D., of Bakersfield, is a 
native of Morrisville, Fauquier County, 
Virginia. J. G. Helm, his father, a 
farmer by occupation, was a native of the same 
town, where he still resides. Of his four sons, 
Dr. Helm is the oldest. The Doctor received 
a good common-school education, and during 
such time as could be spared from his duties on 
the farm, perfected himself in some of the 
higher branches of school knowledge. At 
twenty -four years of age he left the farm aud 
went to Hunt County, Texas, where he taught 
school. Finally he engaged in the drug busi- 
ness and took up the study of medicine. In 
1878 he entered the medical department of the 
Columbia University at Faris, Texas, from 
which he received his diploma, and there com- 
menced practicing medicine in 1879. In the 
spring of 1880 he removed to Runnels County, 
Texas, and was one of the pioneers who located, 
platted and established the present lively town 
of Runnels, in that county. He had previously 
figured prominently in the organization of Run- 
nels County. He remained at Runnels until 
August, 1887, when he came to California, 
located at Lemoore, Tulare County, and prac- 
ticed his profession. In October, 1890, he 
took up his residence in Bakersfield and opened 



his office in the Hirshfeld block, where he is 
building up a lucrative practice. 

Dr. Helm was married November 27, 1879, 
to Miss Mollie Hathaway, a daughter of J. W. 
Hathaway, who is a farmer and a leading citizen 
of Hunt County, Texas. Dr. and Mrs. Helm 
have three sons and one daughter. The Doctor 
is a genial, open-hearted and open-handed gen- 
tleman, and is deservedly popular in the com- 
munity. 



fj. PACKARD, a prominent citizen of 
Bakersfield, was the first white male 
.- ° child born in Boise City, Idaho, Octo- 
ber 11, 1863, a son of Judge' N. R. Pack- 
ard, the popular County Clerk and Recorder of 
Kern County, a sketch of whom appears else- 
where in this work. He received a good com- 
mon-school education and took a business course 
of study at Heald's College, in San Francisco, 
and at Sackett's College, Oakland. He has re- 
sided in Kern County since 1875, being in 
public life ever since he attained his majority, 
as Deputy County Clerk and Recorder under 
Judge Packard for five years, and deputy, or 
under sheriff, for several years. He is a mem- 
ber of the firm of Packard & Howell, searchers 
of records. Mr. Packard has made a faithful 
and competent official, and merits the confidence 
and esteem of the public. Is also one of the 
principal owners in the Bakersfield and Sumner 
Street Railroad Company. Has been Chief of 
the Bakersfield fire department for three years. 



T. BROOKS, one of the pioneers of Cali- 
fornia, was born in Jackson County 
Georgia, in 1822. His early life was' 
passed on a farm near Columbus, to which his 
parents had moved in 1829, and as he ap- 
proached manhood he first learned the butcher's 
business, and subsequently the trade of car- 
penter, which he followed until 1850. Febru- 



402 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ary 11 of the same year he started for Califor- 
nia, going first to New Orleans, where he em- 
barked on the steamship Ohio, on her first trip 
to Chagres, and was one among 600 passengers. 
From Chagres our subject crossed the Isthmus 
to Panama on foot, and there re-embarked on 
the steamship Tennessee, on her first trip up 
the coast, she having just arrived around the 
Horn. They arrived in San Francisco in April, 
1850, after which Mr. Brooks went to the 
mines at Sonora, and followed mining about 
five years. In 1852 he bought an interest in a 
sawmill on Hangtown creek, one of the oldest 
mills in the State, which he operated for two 
years in connection with his mining interests. 
In 1855 he went to Sacramento County, rented 
lands on the river, and engaged in the vegetable 
business, which he followed until the extrava- 
gant rents consumed the profits; next he went 
to the plains in the same county, but the land 
being too dry he returned to the river and ran 
a dairy one season; then, in 1865, he came to 
King's river and settled on what was supposed 
to be Government land; but after five years of 
labor and improvement a Spanish grant was 
floated over him and he had to leave, but was 
allowed to take what improvements were port- 
able. He then crossed the river and purchased 
160 acres on the south side, established his 
home, and engaged in the stock business. Be- 
fore the fence law was adopted, in 1873, Mr. 
Brooks lost about 100 head of horses, which 
were stolen and driven off, no trace of them 
ever being discovered. He has since continued 
the stock business, and also farms from 150 to 
300 acres on the outside. He has made but 
few improvements in the line of fruit-raising, 
preferring the old business, to which he has 
devoted a large part of his life. 

Mr. Brooks was married near Hangtown 
(now Placerville), to Miss Frances Foster, a 
native of Alabama. Her father, John C. Fos- 
ter, was one of the California pioneers of 1849. 
Mr. and Mrs. Brooks have eight children, viz.: 
Susan A., now Mrs. Jeff Hames; Charles H; 
Georgiana, a teacher in the Excelsior school 



district; Edward L.; Mary, now Mrs. J. N. 
Bowhay; A. Bert, William A. and Wesley W. 



fRED HAERING, one of the successful 
ranchers, three and a half miles northeast 
of Hanford, was born in Switzerland, in 
1831. He was reared on a farm until his eight- 
eenth year, when he came to the United States, 
first settling in St. Louis. There he found em- 
ployment in a tobacco factory, but preferring 
an agricultural life he went to Clayton County, 
Iowa, where he bought 145 acres of land, and 
engaged in general farming and stock-raising. 
In 1878 he sold out and came to California, first 
stopping in Sonoma County, where he engaged 
in farming; but the soil and climate being so 
different from the East his first efforts were a 
failure. In 1881 he came to Tulare County 
and bought his present ranch of 200 acres, 
where his efforts have been more successful. He 
now has 120 acres in alfalfa, nine acres in or- 
chard and vineyard, and is also engaged in the 
stock business, keeping horses, cattle and sheep. 
Mr. Haering was married in Hanford. in 
1883, to Mrs. Anna M. Hochstrasser, nee Brug- 
ger, a widow with three children, and a native 
of Switzerland. He dates the commencement 
of his prosperity at the date of his marriage, 
and his handsome two-story house, built in 
1890, with his well-kept ranch and happy home 
relations, are the best evidence that his union 
strengthened the purpose of his life. 



fAMESSAXTON BOYD, a respected oiti. 
zen of Traver and an early pioneer of Cali- 
fornia, was born in Arkansas, January 3, 
1827, son of James and Sarah (Laramore) Boyd, 
natives of that State. lie is the only survivor 
(if their seven children. After his mother's 
death his father was married a second time and 
had three other children, two of whom are still 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



403 



living, whose names are Othias B. and Susan A. 
Boyd. 

The subject of our sketch learned the car- 
penter's trade and worked at it until the break- 
ing out of the Mexican war. On June 19, 
1846, he enlisted in Company F, an Arkansas 
regiment, and was under Generals Wool and 
Taylor. He fought at the battle of Buena 
Vista, was a part of the convoy of General 
Wool, and remained in Mexico four months 
after the fighting ceased. Being honorably dis- 
charged, he returned home, and on August 
13, 1847, was united in wedlock to Miss Mary 
M. Little, a native of East Tennessee. 

Mr. Boyd continued work at his trade until 
1852, when he went to Josephine County, 
Oregon, and worked at mining until June 5, 
1863. From there he went to Crescent City 
and worked there for a time. On September 
15, 1852, he arrived at Gold Hill, Placer 
County, California, where he engaged in min- 
ning one year. He then returned East, start- 
ing October 5, 1854, making the journey by 
water and reaching home December 13. Until 
1859 his time was occupied in working at his 
trade. In that year he again undertook the 
long journey across the plains, driving a team 
of seven oxen and three cows, this time being 
accompanied by his wife and little family, 
which then consisted of five children, — James 
A., Mary Elizabeth, Brackin, Edward, and 
Cortis Jackson. When they arrived in Cali- 
fornia they settled in Napa County and remained 
there one year; 1861-'62 raised two crops in 
Placer County; from 1863 till the spring of 
1867 lived in Calaveras County; arrived in 
Tulare County, September 27, 1867, and the 
following year moved to Stokes valley. At the 
latter place Mr. Boyd purchased for $100 an 
unsurveyed elaim, and lived and farmed there 
for seven years. When the land was surveyed 
it went to the railroad company, after which he 
moved to section 12 and purchased 160 acres 
of land, paying for it $2,000. He subsequent- 
ly bought 160 acres more from the railroad 
company, made his home there and was engaged 



in agricultural pursuits until 1886, when he 
sold out and moved to Traver. Here he pur- 
chased several lots and built a comfortable resi- 
dence; also went into the grocery business, and 
in eighteen months sold out to his son, James. 
He also owns a twenty-acre fruit ranch, located 
one mile north of town. After coming to Cali- 
fornia, three other children were added to their 
family circle, namely: George Warren, Cath- 
arine Isabella and Litha Ann. All their chil- 
dren, except Brackin E., — who deceased in the 
year 1876, — are settled in this vicinity and oc- 
cupy honorable positions in life. 

In politics Mr. Boyd is a Democrat, has 
served as deputy sheriff and deputy assessor of 
the county. He is a member if the Christian 
Church and aided materially in the building of 
their house of worship in Traver. 

Looking back over three decades, Mr. Boyd 
vividly recalls many experiences connected with 
his overland journeys and numerous incidents 
that occurred during his pioneer days here. Did 
not want of space forbid it would give us pleas- 
ure to publish a more extended account of his 
life. Still hale and hearty, kind and obliging, 
he is a fair specimen of the California pioneer. 
Not the frost of many winters, but, rather, the 
sunshine of many summers has whitened his 
locks and at the same time developed his gen- 
erous nature. 

|J|IXO:N L. PHILLIPS, Hanford, Tulare 
Wffl County, California, was born in Yazoo 
W^ City, Mississippi, June 12, 1858. His 
father, S. M. Phillips, was a prominent lawyer 
of Mississippi. During the Mexican war he 
was Colonel of the First Mississippi Regiment, 
and among his most intimate friends were 
Zachary Taylor and Jefferson Davis. Upon the 
declaration of civil war in 1861, he joined the 
Confederate army as captain of a company in a 
Mississippi regiment. Through exposure at 
the engagement at Fort Pickens, he contracted 
a severe cold which resulted in pneumonia and 



404 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



caused his death in the fall of 1861. He left 
a widow and children to mourn his loss. In 
1863 the family moved to Madisonville, and 
among the earliest recollections of young Phil- 
lips is the passage of General Sherman's vast 
army on his memorable raid to the sea, being 
three days and nights in passing the house. 

Dixon L. Phillips received his education 
chiefly at home, attending the public schools 
only three months each year. He, however, 
made rapid progression as is evinced by his 
reading Latin at the age of thirteen years. In 
the fall of 1872 the family emigrated to Califor- 
nia and settled at Centerville, Fresno County. 
The ravages of the war having left them about 
penniless, Mrs. Phillips turned her attention to 
teaching school for a livelihood, and in this she 
was ably assisted by Dixon L., who taught 
mathematics, although at that time under fifteen 
years of age. In 1873, with his brother, B. R. 
Phillips, he planted the first crop of cotton 
grown in Tulare County, which was very suc- 
cessful. In 1874 the family moved to Fresno, 
and he worked at painting, carpentering, tinning, 
or any honest labor to assist in the support of 
the family. In the fall of 1877 he attended one 
term of school at White River, and, after suc- 
cessfully passing an examination before the 
County Board of Education, he received a cer- 
tificate to teach in the public schools of the 
State, being at that time under nineteen years 
of age. Securing his certificate in March, 1878, 
he used this as a stepping-stone to the law, 
teaching in winter and studying during the 
summer with Sayle, Tnpper & Tupper, of 
Fresno. He was admitted to practice in the 
Thirteenth District Court, June 16, 1879. He 
opened his first office at Centerville in July, 
1880, and was appinted Deputy District At- 
torney under W. D. Grady. 

In April, 1881, Mr. Phillips moved to Han- 
ford, where he has since resided, engaged in the 
practice of his profession. He was married in 
Oakland, California. December 28, 1882, to 
Miss Florence C. Miller, a native of Kentucky 
and a daughter of Theo. Miller, a prominent 



lawyer of that State. In 1884 he bought prop- 
erty in Hauford on Eighth street, and built his 
residence. To him and his wife four children 
have been born : Mary Louise, Florence, Esther 
and Lawrence Miller. 

Mr. Phillips has been twice appointed Dis- 
trict Attorney of Tulare County — first, under E. 
J. Edwards in 1881, during the troublous days 
of the land league excitement; and lie was 
three weeks in trying a merchant for violating 
the Sunday law. Several of the agitators in 
defense of the law were hung in effigy. Mr. 
Phillips is a member of Lucerne Council, No. 
103, Young Men's Institute. For two years lie 
was president of the council, and in August, 
1890, was elected by the sixth Grand Council 
as Graud First Vice-President. He is also 
retained on the committee on laws and super- 
vision. 

fY. BAKER, ? prominent citizen of 
Tulare County and one of the founders 
9 of the town of Traver, dates his birtli in 
Rock Island County, Illinois, Apr.l 13, 1842. 
lie comes of German ancestry and is a son of 
Thomas Jefferson and Catharine (Yaple) Baker, 
both natives of New York, his mother's ances- 
tors having originated in Holland. To his par- 
ents thirteen children were born; eight grew to 
maturity and five are still living, Peter Yaple 
Baker being their youngest child. He was 
reared and educated in his native place until he 
reached his seventeenth year. He had the mis- 
fortune to lose his parents when a small boy, 
his father dying in 1847 and his mother in 
18-19. 

In 1859 Mr. Baker came to California and 
sought his fortune in the mining districts of 
Placer County. Previous to his coming here 
he had been working as a farm hand in Illinois 
for seven dollars per month, the usual price 
paid for that kind of labor there then, receiving 
his money in paper currency. Upon hi- arrival 
in the mines he had a one-dollar bill left, which 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



405 



was a cariosity to the miners, but which was 
of no intrinsic value where the yellow gold was 
so plenty. Mr. Baker began work at three dol- 
lars per day, and from the last of 1859 to the 
first of 1861 he saved from his mining opera- 
tions about $1,500. Then the great excitement 
of the war came on. He became deeply inter- 
ested in the Union cause, and in September, 
1861, enlisted in the California Volunteers, 
expecting to go East. He first enlisted in Com- 
pany C, and afterward as a veteran in Company 
G, Second Infantry. They, however, were re- 
tained on the coast, and did efficient duty in 
keeping the Indians in subjection at Fort Coll- 
ville and in Humboldt County and at the In- 
dian reservation in Del Norte County. 

At the close of the war Mr. Baker was hon- 
orably discharged and returned East. He set- 
tled in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, where 
he farmed and dealt in real estate for nine years. 
While there he was elected County Surveyor 
and County Clerk and also served two terms in 
the State Legislature, 1868-'69. He came back 
to California in 1875, and for a time was em- 
ployed in surveying and making colored maps 
of Stanislaus and Tulare counties, for which 
work he received fair compensation. Then for 
six'years he was engaged in the real-estate and 
abstract business at Visalia. In 1882 he or- 
ganized the " '76 " Land and Water Co., and 
became the superintendent of construction of 
its canals. This canal is 100 feet wide at the 
bottom, with a slope of from one to three feet, 
five feet deep and conveys 1,400 cubic feet of 
water every second. At this writing (1891) it 
supplies 130.000 acres of land with an abun- 
dance of water for irrigating purposes, and it 
is expected that in time it will cover 300,000 
acres of land. It is the largest canal in the 
United States. The company purchased 30,000 
acres of land at four dollars per acre, have sold 
large quantities of it, and its present value is 
$100 per acre. In 1887 Mr. Baker sold his in 
terest in it, and in 1888 became largely inter- 
ested in the formation of the Alta Irrigation 
district, being one of its directors from the 



start. In 1890 the people of the Alta irrigation 
district purchased the canal and they are now 
engaged in putting water on the whole tract. 

Mr. Baker owns a farm of 400 acres, located 
two miles and a half east of Traver, where he 
has built a nice residence and where he is en- 
gaged in raising fruit, grain, alfalfa and fine 
stock. His specialty in cattle is the Holstein 
breed, and he is the importer of some fine speci- 
mens of this stock. His horses are Electioneer 
stock, he being the owner of " P. Y. B," an 
animal of great merit. Fifty acres of his land 
are demoted to raisin grapes and ten are in 
French prunes. He has 200 date trees, four 
years old, grown from seed. In addition to all 
this, Mr. Baker continues his real-estate busi- 
ness and has an office at Traver. 

In 1867 he was married to Miss Josephine 
Smith, and by her had one daughter, Josephine 
L. After seven years of happy married life 
Mrs. Baker died, in 1874. Two years later he 
wedded Miss Augusta Ferguson, and their union 
has been blessed with two sons, Max E. and 
Ray W. 

Mr. Baker is a member of the A. O. U. W. 
and of the G. A. R. He is Quartermaster of 
the Sixth Regiment of National Guards of Cali- 
fornia. They are equipped by the State, and he 
has the matter of supplies to attend to. In 
politics he has always been a stanch Republi- 
can, having cast his first presidential vote for 
Abraham Lincoln. 

Having helped to found the town of Traver 
and develop the resources of the surrounding 
country, Mr. Baker takes a just pride in the 
progress already made and has great faith in its 
future. 



fP. DUNCAN, M. D.— Prominent among 
the young professional men of Hanford, 
° Tulare County, California, is the subject 
of this sketch, who was born in Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, in 1849. He is of Scotch descent, 
his ancestors being among the early settlers of 



406 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Louisiana. His father, Robert C. Duncan, a 
native of Louisiana, emigrated to Pittsburg 
about 1820, and was there engaged in the mer- 
cantile business. His mother was Nancy (Pat- 
terson) Duncan, a daughter of Nathaniel Pat- 
terson, a surveyor and engineer, who was prom- 
inently connected with the platting of land and 
laying out of the city of Pittsburg. 

N. P. Duncan was educated in the Beaver 
Academy and the Washington and Jefferson 
College. He then commenced the study of 
medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. David 
Stanton, of New Brighton, Pennsylvania, and 
graduated at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, 
New York city, in 1871. He then began prac- 
tice at Eno, Pennsylvania, where he remained 
until 1873, when he came to California. After 
spending two years in traveling over the State, 
he practiced one year in Fresno, and in 1876 
located at Leinoore, Tulare County, where he 
was subsequently married to Miss Mary A_ 
Craniner, a highly educated and accomplished 
lady and a native of Calaveras County, Califor- 
nia. The Doctor enjoyed a successful and lucra- 
tive practice at Lemoore, and remained there 
until 1884, when he moved to Hanford, pur- 
chased property at the corner of Doughty and 
Eighth streets, built a handsome two-scory resi- 
dence, which is ornamented by attractive lawns, 
and established his permanent home. He is en- 
gaged in a general practice of medicine and 
surgery. By holding his patrons at Leinoore 
and in the AVest Side districts and extending a 
helping hand to those at Goshen, Traver and 
Tulare on the east, his professional engagements 
cover a broad area of country. 

The Doctor owns 160 acres of land in the 
River Lawn country, which is irrigated by the 
Crescent ditch, and he has forty acres of vine- 
yard south of Lemoore. He is a member of 
Hanford Lodge, No. 189, A. O. U. W. To the 
Doctor and Mrs. Duncan one child has been 
born, a bright little son, who at the age of five 
years suffered a fall while at play in Leinoore 
which caused his death. 

Having practiced about fifteen years in the 



Lucerne district, Dr. Duncan considers it a 
locality of great longevity, free from all epi- 
demics; and the malarial diseases, being of mild 
form, are very susceptible of treatment and 
seldom fatal. 

PR. S. W. WOODY.— There are a very 
few of the early settlers of Kern County 
who have seen more of pioneer life, both 
prior to and after locating in California, than 
the venerable Dr. S. W. Woody. He is a native 
of Franklin County, Virginia, born near Rocky 
Mount, March 10, 1826. His lather. Henry 
Woody, was a farmer by occupation, and was 
principally engaged in the production and man- 
ufacture of tobacco, living as he did in the re- 
nowned tobacco-producing belt of the Old Do- 
minion State. He descended from English an- 
cestors, and married Miss Catharine, daughter 
of Reese Hughes, a resident of Franklin County, 
and of the same neighborhood. He was of Irish 
parentage and a planter. The Hughes families 
were owners of large numbers of slaves and were 
of the staid old Virginia stock. They left Vir- 
ginia and located with their families in Calla- 
way County, Missouri, in 1833, bringing their 
slaves with them, and continued the production 
of tobacco. Henry Woody had a family of seven 
children, all of whom attained their majority, 
and Sparrell W., the subject of this sketch, was 
the first-born. The family continued their res- 
idence in Callaway County about three years 
and finally located in Osage County, about four- 
teen miles due east from Jefferson City, the 
capital. It was there that the family was reared 
and educated, and here on the old Missouri 
homestead the mother spent the sunset of her 
busy and faithful life, passing away in Febru- 
ary, 1843. The family then broke up and the 
subject of this sketch left home, returned to 
Callaway County and commenced the study of 
medicine, under Dr. W. E. Dillard, an eminent 
physician of Williamsburg. The years 1845 to 
1848 inclusive were spent in the study of med- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



407 



icine, the winters being spent in attending 
medical lectures in St. Louis. He graduated in 
the medical department of the University of 
Missouri, in the class of 1848. This was a class 
of about twenty young men, among whom were 
Dr. liodgins, of Illinois, and Dr. Winthrop H. 
Hopson, the latter of whom became an eminent 
divine and a leader in the Christian Church, 
doing wonderful work for the cause in some of 
the leading cities of the Western and Southern 
States. Dr. Woody practiced medicine one year 
in Missouri, and finding it not a congenial pur- 
suit started, in 184=9, for California, and reached 
Sacramento in September of that year. He then 
proceeded to Auburn, Placer County, and en- 
gaged in mining for about three years, with fair 
success, and then engaged in the hotel and 
livery business. In 1858 he left and spent one 
year in the Sandwich Islands, a portion of which 
time he spent in the Government custom house 
at Honolulu. He returned in 1859, spent a few 
years in San Francisco, later one year at Visalia, 
and then located near the present site of the 
city of Bakersfield, in Kern County, in the fall 
of 1860. Here he met Miss Sarah, daughter of 
Christian and Orpheus (Green) Bohna, whom he 
married May 20, 186 L. Mr. Bohna was a 
German by birth, a blacksmith by trade, and 
emigrated to America in 1832. He located in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised a family of eleven 
children, all born in the United States. Mrs. 
Woody was born near Warsaw, Missouri, June 
13, 1845. 

The great freshet of 1862 flooded the entire 
country now known as Kern Island, and Dr. 
Woody removed to his present home, then 160 
acres of Government land, section 24, town 25 
south, range 29 east. Here he has lived and 
reared his family, consisting of the following: 
Eugenie L., now at home; Nettie L., now Mrs. 
1ST. W. Howard, whose husband is a farmer of 
Tulare County; Victoria V., now Mrs. Clark 
C. Greene, same place; Stonewall A., and 
Elmer H. 

Dr. Woody is a man of sterling traits cf char- 
acter, an influential citizen, and commands the 



highest respect of those who know him; is a 
kind and indulgent husband and father. The 
Woody voting precinct, and Woody post office 
have both been given his name as a mark of the 
confidence and esteem in which he is held by 
the public at large. He is unostentatious and 
courteous in his manners, and is hospitable to 
all who visit the Woody home. Dr. and Mrs. 
Woody and three daughters are members of the 
Christian Church of Glennville. He is a liberal 
and consistent Democrat, and in every way an 
honored and valuable citizen. 

fUTHBERT BURREL, a prominent rancher 
of Tulare County, came to California in 
1846, arriving on the first of October. A 
brief sketch of his career is as follows: 

Mr. Burrell was born in Wayne County, New 
York, November 28, 1824, son of George and 
Mary (Robinson) Burrel, natives of Northum- 
berland County, England. His grandfather, 
Cuthbert Burrel, was an English squire, and his 
great-grandfather's name was Thomas Burrel. 
The subject of our sketch was the fourth in a 
family of nine children, five of whom are still 
livina. In 1834, when he was ten years old, 
the family moved to Plaintield, Will County, 
Illinois. There he was reared and educated. At 
the age of twenty-two he came across the plains 
to California, driving an ox team, and being six 
months, lacking twelve days, en route. Their 
captain was Stephen A. Cooper, an experienced 
frontiersman. 

Mr. Burrel was in service under General 
Fremont six months, during which time was pro- 
moted to sergeant, and after his discharge went 
to Sutter's Fort. There he found the wagon in 
which he crossed the plains, and in it traveled 
to Yount's in Napa County, taking with him one 
of the children of the Donner party. He then 
went to Sonoma, where he was employed by 
Salvador Vallejo to cover a house; remained 
there during the summer of 1847, and for his 
work received $100 in cash, 100 firkins of wheat 



408 



HISTORY OK VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and 200 heifers. In 1848 he was making hay 
in Suisnn valley. One day Johnny Patton 
brought down five or six hundred dollars' worth 
of gold in a little bed-ticking sack, remained 
with the hay-makers for dinner and told them 
about the find. They decided not to return to 
the field, sold their interest in the hay and 
started for the mine. It was not until five 
years afterward that Mr. Burrel received his 
pay for the hay, then getting it in gold dust at 
$8 per ounce. He mined off and on for three 
years. The most he ever mined in one day was 
$112; the largest piece of gold he found weighed 
five ounces, and his usual day's work amounted 
to $16. 

Upon leaving the mines, Mr. Burrel pur- 
chased land in Green valley, Solano County, 
where he farmed and raised stock until 1860. 
He then sold out, received his pay in cattle, 
and took them — 1,311 head — to Elkhorn ranch, 
Fresno County, where he remained eneaered in 
the stock business until the fall of 1869. His 
cattle, which were then estimated at 4.000 
head, he sold for $103,000, the parties paying 
$23,000 down and agreeing to pay $20,000 
every six months, they having the use of his 
ranch of 20,000 acres. It was six years, how- 
ever, before he received all the payments, and 
with the interest it amounted to a laro-e sum of 
money. 

In 1871 Mr. Burrel returned to the States. 
From 1871 until 1874 he was not actively en- 
gaged in any business. In the meantime he 
suffered a stroke of paralysis and came near 
losing his life. In 1874 he purchased 1,000 
acres of his ranch in Tulare County, located five 
miles northwest of Visalia. Since then he 
bought another thousand, and now has 2,000 
acres of tine farming land all in one body. For 
five years his nephew, FraDk Burrel, ran the 
ranch. He then 6old out his interests and died 
soon afterward of consumption. During these 
years the subject of our sketch resided with his 
family in San Jose. He was married, in 1873, 
to Mrs. Adalza (Haycock) Adams, widow of 
Frank Adams. Their union has been blessed 



with five children, the tiivst two being twins. 
Three of the children are living, namely: Vernia 
Jennet, May and Lewella. They have an ele- 
gant home in San Jose, corner of William and 
Third streets, where they make their head- 
quarters. 

Mr. Burrel belongs to the Pioneer Society of 
California. Previous to the war he was a Dem- 
ocrat; since then his political views have been 
in harmony with Republican principles. He is 
a director of the San Jose First National Bank, 
and also of three other banks. He still has 
Fresno County interests, owning 1,800 acres of 
land there. In Mr. Burrel we find a true type 
of the California pioneer. He is the same 
plea-ant, kind-hearted, hospitable man that he 
was in the early history of this State. 



fOSEPH WERINGER, of Bakersfield, is a 
native of Vienna, born February 3, 1855, 
and emigrated to this country in 1878. 
May 14, 1885, he married Mrs. Lucy P. Miller, 
the widow of E. Miller, who was for several years 
an active citizen of Bakersfield. Mr. Weringer 
is the proprietor of the City Brewery in Bakers- 
field, in connection with which he conducts a 
pleasure resort, wine rooms and bowling alley; 
doino- in his line an extensive business. Decem- 
ber 30, 1890, Mr. Weringer suffered the loss of 
his wife, her death occurring suddenly, almost 
without warning. She left a family of eleven 
children, nine of whom were by her former 
husband. 



fUGENE CLARENCE DUNN, B. Ph., 
M. D., Secretary of the Fresno County 
Medical Society, and one of the leading 
physicians in the city of Fresno, was born in 
Hamilton County, Ohio, August 2, 1854. His 
father, Rev. T. S. Dunn, was prominently con- 
nected with the Methodist Church, and an influ- 
ential member of the Cincinnati Conference. 




• 




z^/iy /,/ cc ** 



-^^ 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



409 



Oil account of failing health, he came to Cali- 
fornia in 1860 and settled in San Jose, where he 
soon became foremost in the conference and 
among the Methodist clergy of the Pacific 
coast. Owing to continued ill health, he was 
obliged to retire in 1886; but, hoping to resume 
his duties, he would not be superannuated, so 
he accepted the relation of supernumerary. He 
bought a fruit ranch near San Jose and gave his 
attention to its improvement, but this change 
did not bring about the desired restoration, and 
he passed away on the 24th of February, 1889. 

Eugene C. was educated in the public schools 
of California until he reached the high school 
grade. Then he spent two years in the Meth- 
odist Collegiate Institute at Napa, completing 
his studies at the University of the Pacific, 
which is the oldest university on the coast and 
under the management of the Methodist Church. 
At this famous institution he graduated with 
high honors, and received the degree of B. Ph. 
Mr. Dunn then entered the Medical College of 
the Pacific, now Cooper Medical College, and 
spent two years there in the study of medicine, 
after which he went to New York city and 
graduated in the University of the city of New 
York, March 8, 1881. He then came West and 
located in Tombstone, Arizona, beginning the 
practice of his profession the first of April. 
After continuing there one year he was offered 
the position of Railway Division Surgeon on 
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, with 
headquarters at San Marcial, New Mexico. As 
the result of his very laborious duties in a 
smallpox epidemic in the fall of 1882, the 
doctor's health was broken down. He gave up 
practice and spent tlree months in traveling. 
With restored health he returned to Tombstone, 
again took up his professional duties and was 
the leading practitioner there for several years. 
During 1887 and 1888 the doctor was County 
Physician of Cochise County, having charge of 
the county hospital at Tombstone. 

On account of his father's death, in February, 
1889, and to be near his mother and sisters, 
Dr. Dunn came to California to reside. June 

26 



1, 1889, he opened his present handsome office 
at 1131 I street, in the Kutner & Goldstein 
building, Fresno. 

While a resident of Tombstone, Dr. Dunn 
was married, July 6, 1884, to Miss Sybil D. 
Eastin, a native of California. He is a stock- 
holder in -the La Favorita raisin vineyard, which 
consists of 320 acres, and which was set out in 
vines in the spring of 1890. Although a resi- 
dent of Fresno'only a short time, the Doctor has 
identified himself with the best interests of the 
place, and as a physician and citizen stands 
high. In addition to his other professional 
duties, he is Secretary of the Board of United 
States Pensioning Examining Surgeons, and 
also of the Fresno County Medical Society. 

fASPER HARRELL, president of the Bank 
of Harrell & Son, Visalia, is among the 
number of those early pioneers who braved 
hardships, privations and perils in helping to 
open up civilization on the Pacific coast. He 
was born in Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 
1830, the son of Edward Harrell, who was born 
in the year 1800, and died in California, June 
7, 1889. The subject of this sketch had no 
educational advantages whatever, but by careful 
reading and observation he has become a thor- 
ough, practical and well informed man. In 
1850 he left New Orleans by steamer for San 
Francisco, and for two years after becoming a 
citizen of the Golden State he engaged in 
mining in Tuolumne County. He subsequently 
went to Los Angeles, where he was engaged in 
the stock business. After two years there Mr. 
Harrell came to Visalia and purchased large 
tracts of land, where he has since been exten- 
sively engaged in stock-raising. At the present 
time he owns over 6,000 acres of land, seven 
miles north of Visalia, where he resides. As a 
stock man he has been very successful, more so 
than any other man in the limits of Tulare 
County. His spirit of enterprise is shown by 
the magnificent three-story bank building on 



410 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the corner of Court and Main streets, Visalia, 
erected in 1889, at a cost of $35,000. He has 
further shown his interest in the city by build- 
ing eight two-story residences on Court street. 
Pie also owns some of the most valuable prop- 
erty in the city of Los Angeles, among which 
may be mentioned the Nadeau Hotel and a tine 
residence on the corner of Pearl and Orange 
streets. He owns a one-half interest in the 
Sparks-Harrell Company, a land and cattle cor- 
poration owning 75,000 acres of land in Ne- 
vada and 11,000 acres of land in Williamson 
County, Texas, and running 30,000 head of 
cattle on the Nevada land, and 3,000 head of 
cattle on the Texas land. In 1889 Mr. Harrell 
was elected president of the Visalia and Tulare 
Piailroad, and it is but stating the facts briefly 
to say that no other man has been more promi- 
nently identified with the city of Visalia than 
has Jasper Harrell. 

Of his private life it may be said that he was 
married in the fall of 1857, in Visalia, to Miss 
Martha Bacon, a native of Missouri, and daugh- 
ter of Fielding Bacon. This union has been 
blessed with a son and daughter— Andrew J., 
of the banking firm of Harrell & Son, and Vic- 
toria, wife of Henry Fleishman, of the Farmers' 
and Merchants' Bank in Los Angeles. Mr. 
Harrell is a plain, quiet, unassuming, practical 
man; has never held a political office in his life, 
and never belonged to a church or any secret 
organization. He is and always has been a 
stiong and intelligent supporter of the princi- 
ples and doctrines of the Democratic party. 



H. DODDS, a rancher two miles south 
of Hanford, was born in Carrollton, 
S° Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1835. 
His father, Thomas Dodds, was extensively en- 
gaged in handling tobacco, having large ware- 
houses for that purpose. Our subject lived at 
home until eighteen years of age, and then 
went to Atlanta, Illinois, opening a grocery 
store, which he continued successfully until 



1859, when he crossed the plains with ox teams 
for California. He started with a few friends, 
but as the Indians were very hostile that season 
the party joined other emigrants upon the . 
plains for mutual protection. They passed 
through several skirmishes w T ith Indians, but by 
using every precaution they arrived safely at 
Placerville. Mr. Dodds began mining at 
Georgetown, and was very successful; but, not 
liking the business, he withdrew in 1860 and 
went to the vicinity ot Stockton, to engage in 
the stock business. Then, the war coming on, 
he enlisted, in September, 1861, in Company A, 
Third Regiment, California Volunteer Infantry. 
Upon the organization of thecompany, Mr. Dodds 
was elected Orderly Sergeant, under Captain 
Ketch nm and Colonel Connor. Companies A 
and B were sent to Humboldt County, Cali- 
fornia, to relieve the regulars, who were sent 
East, and the remainder of the regiment went 
to other localities. This so disgusted the boys 
that they raised a purse of $35,000 to pay their 
expenses East, provided they were allowed to go 
to the front; but the higher powers decreed 
otherwise and they were obliged to accept the 
lesser responsibilities of guarding the forts on 
the frontier. Company A performed valiant 
work in Humboldt County, in fighting the In- 
dians, having killed and captured about 600. 
The scene of battle was on Eel river, and the 
people of that locality presented the company 
with a handsome flag, as an expression of their 
gratitude. After subduing the Indians the 
company returned to Stockton, and were then 
forwarded to Fort Churchill, Nevada, and there 
Sergeant Dodds was promoted Second Lieuten- 
ant of Company F, and ordered to report to 
headquarters of the regiment at Camp Douglas, 
near Salt Lake City, where they were ordered 
soon after enlistment, to prevent any aprising 
of the Mormons. July, 2, 186-i, our subject 
was promoted to First Lieutenant of Company B, 
but Colonel Pollock ordered his continuance with 
Company F; and in the absence of the Captain 
Lieutenant Dodds took charge of the company 
and mustered them out of service in November, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



411 



1864. Previous to his departure from Fort 
Churchill, Nevada, to Camp Douglas, Utah 
Territory, Company A, to which Mr. Dodds 
formerly belonged, requested permission of the 
commanding officer to fall out under arms at 
10 o'clock a. m. The request was granted, and 
Mr. Dodds was also invited to be present, when 
to his surprise, they presented him with a 
sword bearing the inscription on gold plate: 
"Presented to Lieutenant W. H. Dodds by 
members of Company A, Third Infantry, Cali- 
fornia Volunteers;" also sword belt, cap trim- 
mings and epaulettes. After closing the busi- 
ness of the company, Lieutenant Dodds started 
for the East by stage coach, and passed seven- 
teen days and nights in the stage en route. He 
then visited his old home, after which he tried 
to re-enlist and get to the front, but was unsuc- 

o 

cessful. 

In February, 1865, he went to New York, 
and there took steamer to return to California 
by the Isthmus of Panama. After arrival in 
San Francisco he did not engage in active busi- 
ness until the spring of 1866, when, with five 
others, he went to Soldier Meadows, in the 
Black Rock country, and under Government con- 
tract supplied hay to Camp McGary for about 
three years. Their quarters were built of rock 
and made fire-proof, as the Indians were very 
hostile, and all work was performed under 
guard, having about twenty men employed. In 
1869 he attended the silver excitement at 
"White Pine, Nevada, and subsequently engaged 
in farming' in Yolo County and Oregon. In 
the fall of 1876 he came with his wife to Lu- 
cerne district, and purchased 160 acres of Gov- 
ernment land. The country was then wild, 
barren and unproductive, and in the spring of 
1877 he went to the border of Mussel Sloughy 
rented 120 acres of laud, and put in a crop of 
wheat. Part of the land could be irrigated, 
and from that he received a large crop, which 
he sold at $2.40 per 100 pounds. As water was 
produced for irrigation he continued wheat 
farming, and gradually engaged in raising horses 
and hogs, which he has continued with farming 




to the present time, raising Norman horses and 
Poland-China hogs. In 1886 Mr. Dodds set 
out a family orchard of five acres, and has since 
planted a few vines, but his chief business has 
been stock-raising. He, however, will soon 
make a change and will plant extensively in 
fruit. 

He was married at Woodland, October 2, 
1876, to Miss Sarah A. Briner, a native of 
Iowa. They have two children, — William H. 
and George Larue. Lieutenant Dodds was for- 
merly very active in the Republican party, 
when to be an outspoken Republican was to risk 
one's life. Mr. Dodds has now retired from 
politics an i lives a quiet and retired life, in the 
discharge of his ranch and family duties. 

ILLIAM ENGLISH was born in Texas, 
January 17, 1842. His father, Joshua 
English, a native of Tennessee, emi- 
grated to Texas and became a pioneer of that 
State. He married Miss Candace Todd, a native 
of Georgia, who bore him ten children, William 
being the fourth child. He was reared and 
educated in Texas, and when seventeen years of 
age came to California. 

Upon his arrival in California, Mr. English 
located in Tulare County, landing in Visalia, 
April 27, 1860, and for the past thirty-one 
years has made his home in this county. The 
first ranch he owned was 320 acres on Tule 
river, and after residing on it four years he sold 
out and purchased forty acres of land where he 
now lives. On it he has built a comfortable 
home and made other improvements. He also 
owns a ranch of 160 acres of land, and is giving 
considerable attention to raising cattle and 
horses. 

Mr. English was married to Mrs. Mary 
Bowen, nee Jones, a native of California, by 
whom he had six children: only two of whom 
are living, Katie and Maud. The former is now 
the wife of Mr. Ernest Smith. After twelve 
years of happy married life Mrs. English died, 



412 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and in 1883 Mr. English wedded Miss Minnie 
Dunn, also a native of California. By ber he 
had three children, Grace, Blanch and Eva. 

Mr. English is one of the worthy and reliable 
citizens of the county. He belongs to the 
Fanners' Alliance, and in politics is a Demo- 
crat. 



fW. AGEE, dealer in drugs and medi- 
cines, Grangeville, was born in Andrew 
* County, Missouri, in 1866. He sec- 
ured a common-school education in his na- 
tive county, and resided with his parents on a 
farm until twenty years of age, when he came to 
California and settled on a ranch at Grange- 
ville. Later he entered the store of Agee & 
Ayers, as clerk, and subsequently bought the 
drag store of E. N. Ayers, and commenced 
business. He next studied pharmacy under 
Dr. B. R. Clow, and now manages his own pre- 
scription department, carrying a large stock of 
drugs, proprietary medicines, stationery, cigars 
and druggists' sundries. 

Mr. Ao-ee was married in Idaho Territory, in 
January, 1889, to Miss Katie Kellogg, a native 
of Andrew County, Missouri. To this union 
has been added one child. Inez. Mr. Agee has 
identified himself with the town by purchasing 
residence property, and is now building up a 
very prosperous business. 



Tif'l; J- GRAHAM, one of the active citi- 
~":\k\l\ zt ' ns °f Ivern County, was born in 

'^fen 3 Calaveras County, this State, Novem- 
ber 13. 1859, was educated at Santa Ynez, 
Santa Barbara County, and learned the black- 
smith's trade, which he successfully followed at 
Bakerstield for several years. He was married 
April 11, 1878, to Miss Agnes, daughter of P. 
J. and M. A. Sullivan, who are amongst the 
earliest and respected pioneers of San Jose, 
Santa Clara County. In 1888 Mr. Graham was 



elected Sheriff of Kern County, on the Demo- 
cratic ticket. His administration of the affairs 
of his office were eminently satisfactory, and lie 
retired from its duties with an Honorable official 
record. Michael Graham, father of ex-Sheriff 
Graham, came to Kern County during the 
Clear creek gold excitement, about 1867. He 
was an old placer miner in Calaveras County, 
and spent a short time in Los Angeles prior to 
taking up his residence at Havilah. He was a 
native of Ireland, emigrated to America at about 
eighteen years of age and located n Rhode Is- 
land, where he entered merchandising on a 
modest scale, in the city of Providence. There 
he married his wife, Helena Hanna, also a na- 
tive of Ireland. They had seven children, six 
of whom were born in this State, and all but one 
are living. 



§OHN WORSWICK, a rancher and vine- 
yardist of G range vi He, was born in Man- 
; Chester, England, in 1847. His father was 
a dry-goods merchant of that city. Our subject 
was educated in the common schools, after which 
he worked in his father's store until his seven- 
teenth year, and then came to the United States 
with the intention of joining his brother, 
William II. Worswick. at Brantford, Canada: 
but on arrival in New York he was taken in 
hand by some of the sharpers, who secured all 
his money, and then shipped him to sea on board 
a whaler. After seven months, and while at 
Fayal, in the Azores Islands, our subject 
escaped and re-shipped on board a schooner to 
work his passage back to England. Landing at 
Bristol, and having loaned his savings to a 
companion, he was without funds and had to 
walk to Manchester, a distance of 200 miles. 
Thus, returning to his home after an absence 
of over one year, he gathered experience which 
will never be forgotten ! In 1866 he again set 
forth and joined his brother at Erie, Pennsyl- 
vania, where he began work as fireman on the 
Philadelphia & Erie Railroad, and later on the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



413 



Erie and Pittsburg railroad. After five years 
of service he was promoted engineer, and for 
two years thereafter ran an engine. He then 
resigned that position and went to Panama, 
where for three years he was engineer on the 
Panama railroad. In 1876 Mr. Worswick 
came to California, and at Grangeville joined 
his mother, — his father being deceased, — 
who purchased a ranch of 80 acres, where he 
resided until his marriage, in September, 1881, 
to Miss Laura S. Callaway, a native of Califor- 
nia. He then settled upon his ranch of 172 
acres south of Armona, where he engaged in 
wheat-raising and the stock business, continu- 
ing until 1885. In that year he set twenty 
acres in fruit and vines, being among the first 
to improve so large an acreage, which he subse- 
quently increased to the amount of eighty-six 
acres, selling the remainder of his ranch. His 
fruit trees and vines are now in full bearing, 
and represents one of the finest ranches in his 
locality. He has also improved and sold other 
ranches, and continued in the stock business, 
having an average band of thirty-five head. 

Mr. and Mrs. Worswick have two children: 
Miriam and Imogene. Mr. Worswick has been 
secretary and director of the Last Chance Ditch 
since 1883. He is a member of Lemoore 
Lodge, F. & A. M., and in his political views 
is a Republican. 



^MEOKGE THYARKS, one of the most 
TOST 8UCce § s t' u l vineyardists near Grangeville. 
wl Born in Waddens, Germany, in 1841, he 
remained at home until fifteen years of age, 
when he started for America, arriving in New 
York in August, 1856, without friends and de- 
pendent upon his own resources. He secured a 
clerkship in a grocery store, and remained in 
New York until 1859, when he started for Cal- 
ifornia, via the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in 
San Francisco on the morning of St. Patrick's 
day, 1859, on the steamship John L. Stephens. 



He then entered a select school, paying $10 per 
month to learn the English language; but after 
four months his capital was exhausted, and he 
was obliged to begin work. He found employ- 
ment in the hardware store of H. B. Gleason, 
where he remained three and a half years, after 
which he started a general merchandise store at 
Antioch, Contra Costa County, in partnership 
with M. Hamburg, continuing until September, 
1865. He then sold out and subsequently 
started a store at Summerville, in partnership 
with William T. Cruikshank. In 1867 Mr. 
Thyarks returned to Antioch and bought out 
his old partner, M. Hamburg, and the firm of 
Thyarks & Cruikshank operated both stores 
until 1869, when the firm dissolved and our 
subject retained the store at Antioch. He then 
bought the store building of H. K. Beede, and 
continued in business. In November, 1875, he 
sold out and went to San Francisco, and connected 
himself with Lewis Hentrich, a pork-packer, 
remaining until December 31, 1879. He then 
opened a store in Menlo Park, which he con- 
ducted about eighteen months, and then took his 
family East for a visit, and afterward took a 
trip to Germany, to visit the scenes of his child- 
hood. On his return to California he settled at 
Hanford, Tulare County, and January 1, 1882, 
entered into partnership with Simeon Jacobs 
& Co. After one year Mr. Thyarks with- 
drew and bought his present ranch of forty-six 
acres near Grangeville, part of which was then 
in orchard. After grubbing out the trees he 
began planting vines, and now has twenty acres 
in vines, ten acres in peaches and the remainder 
in alfalfa. 

He was married in San Francisco in 1874, to 
Miss Maggie Fink, a native of New York city, 
and they have four children: Emma M., Bern- 
hard W., Henrietta L. M., and George V. In 
1889 Mr. Thyarks built a substantial two-story 
house, and his vineyard is now one of the oldest 
and most productive in that locality. He makes 
a custom of packing his own fruit, commencing 
with fifty boxes of raisins in 1884. His crop 
of 1890 was over 2,000 boxes of twenty pounds 



414 



IIISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



each. He personally supervises bis ranch, and 
thus secures the best possible results. 



-.. ■£ . ] ■ i t . ; .—. 

tARRISON F. PEACOCK, of Hanford, was 
born in Oneida County, New York, in 
1836. He was the youngest child in a 
family of twelve children, ten of whom still sur- 
vive, — five brothers and five sisters. His father, 
Joseph Peacock, a native of England, came to 
Oneida County in 1808, and settled in that 
brotherhood of Quakers. He died in 1840, 
leaving his widow and a large family to mourn 
his faithful guidance and support. Our subject 
lived with his mother until nine years of age, 
and was then bound out with his brother-in-law, 
who was then living in Wayne County. At 
the age of fifteen years he commenced his own 
support, and was engaged in farm life until 
1863, when be enlisted at Walworth, Wayne 
County, in Company B, Ninth New York 
Heavy Artillery, under Colonel William Sew- 
ard. They were then forwarded to the Depart- 
ment of the Potomac, and in 1864 were in the 
siege of Petersburg and the Wilderness. At 
Frederick City they had a sharp eight-hours 
fight with General Early, who outnumbered 
them three to one, and they were obliged to re- 
treat. In this exposure our subject was taken 
sick, and for six weeks was confined in the 
hospital at Washington, District of Columbia. 
He then reported to his regiment at Shenandoah 
valley just before the fight at Winchester, 
where he displayed signal bravery, thirty men 
from his company being killed, though he mar- 
velously escaped. Continuing in service until 
the close of the war, they were then sent to 
New York city, and reviewed before the city 
hall, and in September, 1865, were paid off and 
mustered out of State service. He was paid 
to October 10, 1865. Then he went to Hart's 
island. 

Mr. Peacock then went to his mother's home 
in Madison, Wayne County, which he had pro- 
vided for her with the amount received at the 



time of his enlistment. In the fall of 1866 he 
went to Benton County, Iowa, and there en- 
gaged in mason work. After acquiring a 
knowledge of the business he began contracting 
and building, in which he was successfully en- 
gaged until the spring of 1869, when lie started 
for California. Taking a steamer from New 
York and crossing the Isthmus at Panama, he 
then re-embarked on the steamer Montana for 
San Francisco. On arrival he began investiga- 
tions toward finding his brothers, who came to 
the State in the early '50s. After traveling 
through several counties he finally found his 
brother Ezra in the Berreyessa valley, Napa 
County, and there remained until the fall, when 
he went to Solano County and engaged in mason 
work and farming. In 1872 he went to Clover- 
dale, Sonoma County, and started a feed stable, 
and in 1874 he came to the Lucerne district, 
where he took up 160 acres of railroad land 
five miles southeast of Hanford. With the in- 
coming water he began fanning, put in a crop 
of corn and secured a large yield. He then 
gradually worked into wheat, alfalfa and the 
stock business, and has since added eighty acres 
to his original purchase. He now has 100 acres 
in alfalfa, 6 acres in vines and orchard, and the 
remainder in grain. 

He was married in Santa Rosa to Miss Re- 
becca J. Bonham, a native of Iowa, and to this 
union has been added three children, — Mary 
A., George E. and Grace G. Mr. Peacock is a 
member of McPherson Post, G. A. R. 



R. MACMRUDO,of Bakersfield, was 
born in Richmond, Virginia, May 27, 
'•° 1852. His father, C. W. Maomnrdo, 
was for many years treasurer of the Richmond, 
Fredricksburg & Potomac Railway Company. 
He was a native of Virginia, as was also Mrs. 
Macmurdo, the mother of our subject. Of their 
twelve children W. R. was the second youngest. 
He was educated at Randolph- Macon College, 
of Ashland, Virginia, and took a thorough 




HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



415 



course of mechanical and civil engineering. 
Previous to earning West he was engaged in 
railway engineering. He came to California 
and directly to Kern County in 1875. In part- 
nership with W. A. Johnson he did general 
surveying for about three months, when the part- 
nership ceased, and from that time for about 
eight years was on irrigating work, establishing 
routes, grades, etc., for the various canals which 
comprise the elaborate and efficient irrigating 
system of Kern County. In 1877 Mr. Mac- 
mnrdo was elected County Surveyor for Kern 
County, and has held the position continuously 
to the present date. His long term of service, as 
demanded by the people, is gratifying evidence 
of the high esteem in which he was held as a 
public official. His thorough and ever avail- 
able knowledge of the minute and complicated 
detail of all matters pertaining to his office is a 
rare and valuable acquisition in a public servant, 
and especially valuable to the people while their 
county is new and assuming definite and per- 
manent geographical shape. He owns a com- 
fortable home in Bakersfield besides valuable 
lands about twelve miles south of the city. 

Mr. Macmurdo was married December 27, 
1880, to Miss Fannie, daughter of F. W. Craig, 
a prominent figure in Kern County's history 
and a popular citizen of Sumner. Mrs. Mac- 
murdo is a native daughter, being born at Mil- 
lerton, Fresno County. They have three sons 
and two daughters: Ann F., Fredericka, Wirt 
"W., Merri weather B., and Mercer D. 

#^-S^ 



§R. CLOW, M. D., resident physician of 
the town of Grangeville, was born in 
Lyons, Wayne County, New York, Oc- 
tober 13, 1854. His preliminary education was 
received at the public schools and in the acad- 
enry of his native town. At the age of eighteen 
years he went to Memphis, Missouri, and began 
reading medicine under the preceptorship of 
Dr. P. E. Minckler, a Canadian physician of 
considerable prominence, with whom he began 



his practice. He subsequently located at Mar- 
cella, Arkansas, where he was married in 1880, 
to Miss Mary L. Hill, of Nashville, Tennessee. 
In 1881 Dr. Clow took one course at the Eclec- 
tic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, Ohio, the 
oldest eclectic college in this country, chartered 
in 1845, and for thirty years under the presi- 
dency of Prof. J. M. Scudder. After complet- 
ing his course Dr. Clow pursued his practice 
until 1883, when he returned for a second 
course, after which he resumed his practice at 
Moody, McLennan County, Texas. In 1884 he 
attended clinics at the Bellevue Hospital College 
in New York city. Returning to Moody he 
continued his practice until the fall of 1888, 
when he took a third course at Cincinnati and 
graduated. In June, 1889 he moved his family 
to Grangeville, and has since followed a general 
practice in that locality and the surrounding 
country. Besides his town property the Doctor 
owns forty acres adjoining the Lucerne vineyard, 
which is fully planted in vines and trees. 

Mr. and Mrs. Clow have three children, — 
Mattie B., Abby L. and Scudder B. The Doc- 
tor is a member of the Masonic order of Han- 
ford and of the Farmers' Alliance. 



-JmS- 



SRANZ BUCKRE[JS,one of the prominent 
citizens of Kern County, is a native of Ba- 
varia, Germany, born November 30, 1845. 
He received his education in the public schools, 
and was subsequently graduated from schools of 
surgery in his native country. He has also a 
practical knowledge of mediciue, gained from 
extensive reading, observation and valuable ex- 
perience as hospital steward in New York city 
and Brooklyn, Nesv York, which brought him in 
most intimate professional relations with many 
eminently successful medical men. Mr. Buck- 
reus was twenty-six years of age when he em- 
barked for the new world. His inherent de. ire 
for greater liberty and a wider field of develop- 
ment and usefulness were the motives which 
prompted him to leave the "Fatherland" in 



416 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



July, 1871. The years intervening between 
1871 and 1875, the time of his tirst coming to 
Bakersfield, were spent in New York city and 
Brooklyn, New York. Not finding such a busi- 
ness opening as his educated tastes would nat- 
urally dictate, he opened in the old Arlington 
hotel a first-class barber shop. It proved an in- 
stitution above all others that Bakersfield at 
that time most needed, and a profitable stroke 
of enterprise for its proprietor; and for the lat- 
ter reason Mr. Buckreus continued in that busi- 
ness for eight years. His intellectual attain- 
ments, fund of general information, culture 
and unassuming manners and temperate habits 
of life gathered around him a host of friends, 
and for the past eight years he has held the po- 
sition of superintendent of the Kern County 
Hospital, and for six years past has held the 
offices of Coroner and Public Administrator. 
He holds these positions by what might be 
termed common consent of the people, as there 
is probably not a man more competent to till 
those positions; and the faithfulness, care and 
discretion with which he conducts the affairs of 
his office are characteristic of the honest and 
conscientious public servant that he is. 

fOHN HOLMES HUNTLEY, a well-to-do 
and much respected citizen of Visalia, has 
been a resident of California since 1852. 
Mr. Huntley was born in New York, Sep- 
tember 7, 1829, son of Oliver D. Huntley, a 
native of Rhode Island and a descendant of 
Scotch ancestors, who settled in America at an 
early day. His mother, nee Mary Stark, was a 
native of Connecticut, and a daughter of Joshua 
Stark, also of that State, and of Scotch ancestry. 
To Oliver I). and Mary Huntley sis children 
were born. After her death Mr. Huntley mar- 
ried her sister, by whom he had six children, 
two dying in infancy. One son, Charles H., 
was an Adjutant in the Thirty second Iowa, 
served in the late war, and was killed. John 
Holmes Huntley was the third child of the first 



family. He was reared and educated in Mont- 
gomery County, and after he grew up was em- 
ployed as a clerk in a law-book store in Albany, 
New York. 

At the age of twenty-three he started for the 
Golden State, and upon his arrival here engaged 
in mining in Tuolumne County. After this he 
turned his attention to farming, and later be 
came a dealer in cattle, buying and selling. 
When the war broke out he enlisted in the Sec- 
ond California Cavalry, and acted for a time 
as Sergeant-major, their active service being 
against the Indians. After his discharge he 
returned to the mines, and remained there a 
while. In 1866 he came to Tulare County, 
and engaged in a money-loaning and speculat- 
ing business, buying county warrants at Visalia 
and also at Bakersfield. At that time the 
county paid its bills largely wuh county war- 
rants, and Mr. Huntley advanced the cash and 
held the warrants till due. Later in his history 
he has invested in lands in Kern and Tulare 
counties, and has been engaged in raising cattle. 
He now owns, including his home place, 720 
acres of land. 

Mr. Huntley was married, August 23, 1879, 
to Miss Ninnetta R. Willfard, a native of South- 
ampton, England. They have two sons, — 
Willfard H. and Chester S. Politically Mr. 
Huntley is a Republican. For five years he 
held the important office of United States As- 
sessor of Internal Revenue for the counties of 
Tulare, Fresno, Kern and Inyo. He is a mem- 
ber of the G. A. R. 



fOSEPH PEACOCK, whose name stands 
synonymous with the water development 
and ditch interests of the Lucerne district, 
was born in Oneida County, New York, in 
1830. His father, Joseph Peacock, a native of 
England, came to the United States in 1808, 
and settled in Oneida County, being one among 
that brotherhood of Quakers. He died when 
our subject was but ten years of age, and he 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



417 



was thus early thrown upon his own resources. 

He was employed by one of the Quaker sisters, 
with whom he lived until 1852, when he started 
for California via the Nicaragua route. After 
arriving at San Francisco he went to Siskiyou 
County, and there joined his two brothers, 
Ezra and Allen, and with them mined and 
farmed until 1860. Then, going to Solano 
County, he pre-empted land and farmed until 
1867. In that year he moved to Napa County, 
and engaged in stock farming until 1874, when 
he journeyed southward, visiting friends in Mer- 
ced County, who were about making a change. 
They came south together, agreeing to settle 
upon the first sandy-loam land in the valley 
where they could get free water for irrigation. 
The Mussel Slough country was decided upon, 
and there they set their stakes upon railroad 
land, as the Government land was all taken up. 
After locating his family Mr. Peacock connected 
himself with the Lake Side Ditch Company, in 
the fall of 1874. The main ditch being com- 
pleted he commenced work on the tributaries, 
and thus worked out his stock and secured water 
for his ranch, but the flow was insufficient until 
1876, and little could be grown. In 1876 he 
was appointed superintendent of the Lake Side 
ditch, and proved himself so efficient a man- 
ager that in January, 1878, he was also ap- 
pointed superintendent of the People's ditch. 
Finding the management of both impossible he 
gave his entire attention to the latter, and re- 
signed his position on the former. Mr. Peacock 
was a firm but quiet manager, and was enabled 
to settle many grievous difficulties which had 
existed anions? the stockholders. After five 
years of faithful service he was called as 
superintendent of the " 76 " Land and Water 
Company, who owned 30,000 acres of land and 
the largest irrigating ditch in the State. He 
remained with them seven years, which is sub- 
stantial proof of his faithfulness. He has now 
retired from active life and joined his family 
upon the ranch, which his sons have been 
managing. He has 120 acres of his original 
purchase, four miles southeast of Hanford, 



eighty acres of which is pasture, fourteen acres 
in vines, and the remainder under cultivation. 
Eighty acres further south is in alfalfa, and 
there are twenty acres two miles north of Traver, 
in the " 76 " district, ten of which is in vines 
and the remainder in trees and alfalfa. 

Mr. Feacock was married in Solano County, 
in 1864, to Miss Baunah Bonham, a native of 
Iowa. They have ten children, viz.: Harrison 
R., Clara, now Mrs. George M. Dopkins; 
Molly, Elisha, Frank, Walter, Belle, George, 
Myrtle and Edna. 



-<^4 



»**=- 



S^ON. D. M. PYLE, of Mountain View, 
fSJ Kern County, is a native of Vermillion 
w(fi County, Indiana, where he was born April 
20, 1851. His father, William Pyle, a farmer 
by occupation, came to California in 1852 and 
located at Sutterville, three miles below Sacra- 
mento, and in 1855, when our subject was four 
years old, his mother brought him and sister to 
California, where they joined the head of the 
family. The latter died in March, 1890, sixty- 
six years of age. He had eleven children, eight 
of whom reached maturity, and seven are still 
living. 

The subject of this sketch was educated at 
the University of the Pacific at Santa Clara, 
California. After leaving college he learned 
the tinner's trade, at which he wnrked three 
years. He then taught school between four and 
five years in Santa Clara County. In 1871 he. 
married Miss Mary, the daughter of Hon. 
Thomas Rea, of Gilroy. Mr. Pyle engaged in 
the stock and dairy business some six years at 
Gilroy, during which time he was elected to 
the State Assembly, where he served in the 
regular session of 1885 and in the extra session 
of 1886. In 1886 he was elected Supreme 
Representative of the American Legion of 
Honor of the State of California, and was 
present at the session of the Council which con- 
vened in Boston. After making a general tour 
of the United States he returned, and in Feb- 



418 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ruary, 1887, lie moved to Kern County, locating 
at Mountain View, eight miles and a half south- 
west of Bakerstield, where he is engaged in the 
nursery business. He is a man of practical 
business affairs, a first-class agriculturist and a 
recognized authority on horticulture. He has 
recently been selected to represent Kern County 
on the State Board of Horticulture. As a leg- 
islator for Santa Clara County Mr. Pyle dis- 
played much administrative ability Being 
well educated, intelligent and of the strictest 
intergity, he is held in the highest estimation 
by all who know him. 

#?~6B-£# 



tOUIS EINSTEIN, a native of Germany, 
was born August 10, 1847. At the age 
of eighteen he came to America and en- 
gaged in the dry-goods business at Memphis, 
Tennessee. 

In 1866 a relative of his, who resided in San 
Francisco, sent for him to come West, and he 
accordingly directed his course toward that city. 
Arrived there he engaged as bookkeeper for the 
firm of Wormser Bros., remaining with them 
some time. He subsequently went to Portland, 
Oregon, and established a wholesale liquor 
house. Three years later he returned to Cali- 
fornia, arriving in the San Joaquin valley in 
January, 1871. He at once associated himself 
in business with E. Jacob, of Visalia, under the 
firm name of Jacob & Einstein. This success- 
ful firm operated two branch houses and did a 
large business throughout the valley. In June, 
1874, the pioneer business of Otto Froelich, 
Fresno, was purchased by them, and Mr. Ein- 
stein removed to this city, then only a village. 
With his partners he has operated the pioneer 
store, increasing its business from year to year, 
until now it has assumed enormous proportions. 
H. D. Silverman, who was originally interested 
in one of the firm's branch stores at Centerville, 
was associated with Mr. Einstein during the 
first years of the business in Fresno, the firm 
name being Silverman & Einstein. Mr. Silver- 



man dying in August, 1877, Mr. Louis Gundel- 
finger purchased his interest in the business, 
and the firm name was changed to Louis Ein- 
stein & Co. The partners have an equal in- 
terest, and the business management has con- 
tinued the same up to the present day, although 
Mr. Einstein devotes most of his time to bank- 
ing affairs, and is not actively engaged in the 
store. 

In December, 1888, this firm formed a stock 
corporation, using the same name as before, the 
capital stock being $200,000. This pioneer 
store is located in the heart of the town, and at 
one time it contained the post office, express 
office and telegraph office. The postmaster, C. 
W. De Long, so Mr. Einstein states, received a 
salary of only $12 per annum. He eventually 
accumulated a fortune. In 1875 the brick 
building which the store now occupies was 
erected, and was the third brick building in the 
city. 

Besides being closely identified with the bus- 
iness above described, Mr. Einstein also has 
large interests in other enterprises. He is the 
founder and president of the Bank of Central 
California, which was organized February 26, 
1887; is a stockholder of the Fresno Railroad 
Company; Treasurer of the King's River and 
Fresno Canal Company; a stockholder of the 
San Joaquin Coal Mine Company, and a mem- 
ber of the Board of Trade, of which organiza- 
tion he was at one time the president. 

Mr. Einstein was married in 1882, and has a 
family of four children. 



B. BUTLER, M. D., the leading physician 
of the town of Lemoore, was born in 
^P 1 ® Owen County, Indiana, in 1847. His 
father, George W. Butler, a prominent stock- 
driver, was a native of Virginia, where his an- 
cestors settled in an early day, who became 
prominent in political and civil life. A. B. 
Butler, the seventh son in a family of ten, was 
educated at the State University at Blooming- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



419 



ton. When but five years of age his father 
died, and when sixteen his mother passed away, 
after which he went to Nebraska to join his 
brother, David Butler, a pioneer of that State. 
He was also its first Governor, and was honored 
with two re-elections. He died on March 10, 
1891. 

Our subject began the study of medicine at 
Pawnee City under the preceptorship of Drs. 
A. S. Stewart and G. G. Gere, with whom he 
remained about five years. He began practice 
at the age of twenty-four years, in Jefferson 
County, Nebraska, a very poor county but a 
fine opportunity to gain practical experience. 
While there the county passed through two 
grasshopper scourges and three droughts. The 
Doctor secured his medical education at inter- 
vals, as circumstances would permit, and grad- 
uated at the Missouri Northwestern Medical 
College, at St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1880. 

In 1881 Dr. Butler came to California, land- 
ing at Port Harford, San Louis Obispo County. 
He then started for Grangeville, where he 
arrived with twenty-five cents in cash; his ward- 
robe was on his back, and a small grip contained 
his instruments. Thus equipped and among 
strangers, he started his California life, and by 
persevering effort and successful practice has 
built up an extensive business. In 1886, as 
proof of the appreciation of his townsmen, he 
was nominated to the State Legislature by the 
Republican party, and through his popularity 
he overcame a Democratic majority of 400 
votes. The nomination was again tendered 
him, but he declined. He remained at Grange- 
ville until March, 1890, when he moved to 
Lemoore with a view of settling up his business 
affairs, but his patients followed him and he was 
obliged to resume his practice. He has just 
taken in as a partner Dr. C. Patton, of St. 
Louis, who will attend to much of the driving, 
while Dr. Butler will give more time to his 
extensive office practice. 

He was married in Pawnee City in 1869, to 
Miss Mary E. Crow, a native of Illinois. They 
have six children, viz.: David, Mabel, Benja- 



min R., Blanche, George W. and Alice. The 
Doctor is a member of the F. & A. M. of 
Lemoore. He has a ten-acre vineyard near this 
city, and is also interested in mining in the 
White river country with Dr. Duncan, of Han- 
ford, but his profession is the one aim and 
object of his life. 

— * — > -#H" c t ; ' < ; == =: "- 

§A. LEONARD, one of the active and 
enterprising business men of Bakers- 
° field, was born at Utica, New York, July 
18, 1860; left home at twenty-one years of age, 
came West, and took up his residence in Bakers- 
field in 1882, where he was employed for a time 
on a ranch. In October, 1886, he established 
the livery business, in which he is now engaged. 



fW. WALSER.— There is not a pio- 
neer of Kern County whose name is 
31 more familiar throughout Central Cali- 
fornia than that of D W. Walser. His life in 
California has been a most active, and in part a 
successful, one. He came to Kern County a 
young man when the country was new and 
undeveloped, and has taken a prominent part in. 
its advancement. 

He was born in Jefferson City, Cole County) 
Missouri, February 9, 1834. His father was 
reared on the Yadkin river in North Caroliua, 
where our subject's grandparents lived during 
the Revolutionary war, his ancestors taking a 
prominent part in that war, and also in the war 
of 1812. 

Mr. Walser crossed the plains from Missouri 
to California in 1852 with an ox team, spending 
four months and seventeen days in making the 
trip. He located in El Dorado County, and for 
four years was engaged in the placer mines with 
varied successes and reverses, — " nearly always 
reverses." He has said that he reflects upon 
those four years as being nearest a failure of any 
four years of his life, as he came out of the 



420 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



mines without having obtained either '• fun, 
money or glory." In 1856 he went to Tulare 
County and worked for wages at "Cow Town," 
now Visalia. That county then cast only about 
300 votes. He soon purchased beef steers, drove 
them to the mines and sold them, which busi- 
ness he continued until 1864. That year he 
was married to Miss Mary Lightner, daughter of 
Abia T. Lightner of Walker's Basin, Kern 
County, and that same year came to his present 
location. His place for many years prior to 
that time was known as Harmon's hay grounds. 
Here he embarked in stock-raising, and has 
made the business, with that of farming, a signal 
success. In 1866 he was appointed one of four 
commissioners to organize Kern County, to be 
taken from Tulare and Los Angeles counties, 
and in July of that year the board met at 
Havilah and appointed the first officers to hold 
an election and divide the county into voting 
precincts. With some of the most important 
business enterprises in the county he has been 
prominently connected; is one of the organizers 
of and a stockholder in the Bank of Bakersfield, 
an institution of $250,000 capital; and, in 
company with S. W. Wible and J. J. Mack, is 
helping to develop one of the largest fruit farms 
in Central California, a detailed mention of 
which will be found in a biography of Mr. 
Wible in this work. 

Mr. Walser is a man of strong traits of 
character. He is a utilitarian in the most prac- 
tical sense of the word. He believes in and 
encourages industry and frugality, and has little 
respect for the half-hearted worker and pro- 
ducer, and no use at all for a lazy man. He 
holds very decided and sometimes radical opin- 
ions on the topics of the day, and, as a rule, is 
outspoken and "square-toed" in expressing 
them. 

The Walser home is most picturesque in its 
location, the residence being one ot the finest 
and most complete in its interior arrangements 
in Kern County. Mrs. Walser, like other mem- 
bers of her father's family, grew up in Kern 
County, she being only ten years of age when 



they located at old Keysville. At the Light- 
ner home good books suited to both the young 
and the old were ever in reach of all, and the 
children almost unconsciously became self- 
taught. The influence of good literature is 
consequently seen and enjoyed in her home. 
The "latch string" of the Walser abode is 
always out, the stranger receives kind treatment 
there, and friends and acquaintances are sure of 
a royal welcome. 



■ « v « 3i ' S * „v * ' 



B^S G. LACY, manager of the Hantord Mill 
fllfl an< ^ Electric Light Plant, was born in 
~*M 3 Suffolk County, Massachusetts, in 1835. 
His father, David Lacy, was a native of 
Canton, Massachusetts, where he became 
promiuent as a wholesale manufacturer of 
edge tools and hardware. Our subject left 
home at the early age of sixteen years aud went 
to Geneva, Illinois, where he learned the 
machinist's trade in the house of E. Danforth, 
manufacturer of mowers and reapers. In 1857 
he moved to Fort Scott, Kansas, where he 
engaged in the milling business, erecting both 
flour and saw mills, which he operated about 
eighteen years. In 1875 be came to California, 
settling at Visalia, where for fourteen years he 
was engaged in mechanical engineering, in mill- 
ing and running threshing and farm machinery. 
In 1889 Mr. Lacy came to Uanford, in the em- 
ploy of J. H. Johnson, of Visalia, to superintend 
the construction of a steam flour mill, he having 
unlimited authority to build according to his 
own ideas. The mill, four stories high, is 
equipped with the improved roller machin- 
ery, with the capacity of 100 barrels per day. 
In the spring of 1891 Mr. Johnson put in an 
electric-light plant, after the Eiison incandes- 
cent system, with a capacity of 1,000 lights, six- 
teen-candle power each. After two months the 
business so increased that larger engines were 
required, and he added new machines and boil- 
ers with a capacity of 130-horse power, and will 
double the capacity ot' lighting machinery. The 



HISTORY OF GENT UAL CALIFORNIA. 



421 



mill is kept steadily running, with a home 
market sufficient to consume all the flour. 

Mr. Lacy was married at Geneva in 1854, to 
Miss Emma Winship, a native of New York, 
and they have four children, — Clara, now Mrs. 
James Dempsey, of Kansas; .Richard, Lora and 
Mell. The latter superintends the working of 
the electric-light plant. Mr. Lacy has a twenty- 
acre fruit ranch near Visalia, with town prop- 
erty at Hanford, where he resides, and is a faith- 
ful and competent manager of the interests 
which he has in charge. 



T. SCOTT is ranked among the progress- 
ive young men of Fresno. His business 
career of five years in this State has been 
marked with eminent success, and as a man of 
prominence in his city a biography of his life 
is given in this work. 

Mr. Scott was born in Madison, Madison 
County, Florida, in 1850, son of M. L. Scott, a 
land owner and planter residing on the border 
of that city. Our subject received his educa- 
tion in one of the private schools of Madison, 
and at the early age of sixteen years com- 
menced his mercantile career as a clerk in a 
general merchandise store in Madison, remain- 
ing in the employ of one firm until 1872. In 
that year he went to Hearne, Texas, as head 
salesman, under E. G. Wheeler, general super, 
intendent of the distributing store of Douglas 
Brown, Reynolds & Co., contractors of the 
International railroad from Long View to Aus- 
tin, Texas. He was afterward sent to Sherman, 
Texas, to take charge of a branch store. At 
that place he speculated a little in town prop- 
erty and made quite a stake. In the spring of 
1873 he was transferred to Long View, and 
there remained until the completion of the 
road. He was then offered a responsible posi- 
tion by H. M. Hoxie, general superintendent of 
the road; but, having the Black-Hills fever, he 
went to Cheyenne, and in speculation there lost 
everything he had. In 1875 he went to Vir- 



ginia City, Nevada, in the employ of Evans 
Bros., as cashier and general assistant. He sub- 
sequently turned his attention to the shoe busi- 
ness, in which he was engaged for three years. 
Wishing to devote his time exclusively to 
stock speculation, he gave it up. As a specu- 
lator, Mr. Scott was bold and daring, making a 
fortune in a single transaction, and perhaps los- 
ing at the very next turn. This life he con- 
tinned about ten years, when, feeling that there 
was no stability in the business, he closed out 
his interests, and with a few thousand dollars 
started for California. 

While in Virginia City, Mr. Scott was mar- 
ried, in 1878, to Miss Kittie Ambruster, a native 
of Germany. In 1885, with wife and family, 
he arrived in California, and, after carefully 
traveling over the State looking for a place to 
settle, he decided that Fresno County offered 
greater opportunities than any other locality 
he visited. Wishing an out-door life, with 
great foresight, although at a price which was 
then considered exorbitant, he purchased a forty- 
acre tract of Prof. C. C. Stratton, improved in 
orchard and vines, for the cash valuation of 
$8,000. With the push and enthusiasm which 
characterizes Mr. Scott's life, he began the 
higher cultivation and improvement of his 
property. He built a handsome cottage, sub- 
stantial outbuildings, etc., and in many ways 
greatly enhanced its value. Here he resided 
until 1888, when, with restored health and a 
desire to return to mercantile life, he sold his 
ranch at an average price of $400 per acre. 

His next venture was in the grocery business, 
at 1032 and 1034 J street, where, with his usual 
push and energy, it became the leading house 
in Fresno. His business soon grew to such 
proportions that he needed more space, and he 
secured the spacious storeroom under Barton's 
Hall, corner of J and Fresno streets, and after 
fitting and furnishing he moved his stock 
thereto in the fall of 1890. He now has one of 
the most fully equipped and elegantly appointed 
grocery stores in Central California, with condi- 
ments to suit the most aesthetic taste, all 



422 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



arranged and displayed in the most fascinating 
manner. 

Mr. and Mrs. Scott have one child, — Lillie, 
born September 1, 1881. Their residence is 
located at 1120 M street, and is one of the most 
attractive homes in the city. Mr. Scott also 
owns other resident property in Fresno. He 
justly feels proud of the success he has won at 
this place, but considers the same opportunities 
open to all who have push, energy and foresight 
to improve them. 



NIEDRAUR, one of the influential citi- 
zens and a leading merchant of Bakers- 
field, is one of the few who came to the 
town when it was a mere hamlet, engaged in 
business on a modest scale, took an active and 
aggressive part in its business, social and muni 
cipal development. He is a native of Bavaria, 
Germanj-, and came to the United States in 
1853, with his father, who located in Bryan, 
Ohio. His father was a skillful mechanic and a 
cabinet-maker by trade. He had four sons, all 
of whom learned the business. One emigrated 
to Texas just prior to the opening of the late 
Rebellion, where he still lives, and two others 
are residents of Bryan, Williams County, Ohio. 
Mr. Niedraur learned his trade at Bryan and 
there pursued it as an occupation until 1862. 
At twenty-one years of age he joined the Union 
army by enlisting in the Thirty-eighth Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry, as a musician — as alto cor- 
netist. Subject to an act of Congress, which 
ordered the discharge of all musicians from the 
United States army, he was mustered out late 
in the fall of 1863, when he started for the 
West. On his way to the Pacific slope he spent 
one year in Idaho, where he engaged in the 
hotel business. He later engaged in the same 
business in Montana. He then went to Vir- 
ginia City, where he engaged in the cabinet- 
making business for two years. In 1869 he 
located in Bakerstield. Here he first engaged 
in the contracting business, as a builder, and 



drifted into the cabinet- making and general 
inside finishing work. This business has grown 
until Mr. Niedraur is the leading cabinet-maker 
and furniture dealer in the Kern valley. To 
these lines of business has been added a tine 
undertaking department, including marble 
monuments. Mr. Niedraur owns one of the 
finest brick business blocks in Bakerstield, occu- 
pied principally by his extensive stores on the 
ground floor. A large portion of the second 
floor is occupied by a tine new public hall known 
as the Niedraur Hall. 

Mr. Niedraur was married August 6, 1878, 
in Bakerstield, to Miss Lucy Williams, aud they 
have one son and a daughter living. 

Mr. Niedraur is a most estimable citizen, a 
man of the strictest business integrity and high 
financial and social standing. 



1|EV. N. W. MOTHERAL, of Hanford.Tu- 
fKi ^ are County, was born near Nashville, in 
■"^ill Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1833. 
His grandfather, of Scotch-Irish descent, settled 
at the fort which marked the present site of 
Nashville in an early day. Our subject was 
educated at Cumberland University, at Lebanon, 
Tennessee, which was at that time the leading 
University of the Southwest. He gradnated in 
the academic course in 1852; subsequently re- 
turning to the University to complete his theo- 
logical course, he graduated in 1857. He then 
took a pastorate ne^ir Columbia, Tennessee, 
where he officiated until 1862, when he volun- 
teered as a private in the Ninth Battalion, Ten- 
nessee Cavalry, under Colonel George Gant. 
On the organization of the regiment our subject 
was elected Chaplain. He saw active service, 
and was taken prisoner at Fort Donelson, and 
for eight months was confined at Camp Morton, 
near Indianapolis. After being exchanged, 
and as his health was impaired, he did not en- 
gage in regular service. 

In January, 1865, Mr. Mothers! returned to 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



423 



church work near Pulaski, Tennessee, and also 
at Columbia, same State, having charge of one 
or both parishes until 1868. He then went to 
East Tennessee, re-established the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church at Chattanooga and Cleve- 
land, which had been abandoned during tbe 
ravages of war, and remained in church work in 
Tennessee and Alabama until 1880; then, owing 
to pulmonary trouble in his family, he began 
looking about for a more healthful climate, and 
through scientific articles decided that a dry 
atmosphere was desirable. He was attracted 
to the soil and climate of the Mussel Slough 
country (now known as Lucerne valley), through 
circulars sent out by the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road Company, and on arriving purchased a 
settler's claim to 120 acres of railroad land, and 
later completed the purchase from the company. 
He then built the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church of Hanford, and officiated as pastor until 
Christmas, 1890, when he resigned, and on 
January 1, 1891, took the pastorate of the Le- 
moors Church. The salary of the struggling 
churches have been necessarily small, and Mr. 
Motheral had to eke out his meager support 
through his efforts in agriculture, which he has 
continuously followed, accompanied by the 
breeding of Holstein cattle and thoroughbred 
Kentucky horses. In 1884 he set a small acreage 
to fruit, which he has gradually increased, and 
now has seventy-five acres in fruits and vines, 
and the remainder in alfalfa; he also has a one 
third interest in 120 acres five miles north of 
Hanford, 110 acres of which is in vines and 
prunes. 

Mr. Motheral has been three times married, 
his last wife being Mrs. Emma L. Miot, to 
whom he was married at Jacksonville, Florida, 
in June, 1869. Of their children three still 
survive, viz.: Graham, Daisy L. and Raphael. 
Mr. Motheral was elected Entomologist of the 
State Board of Horticulture in J tine, 1889, and 
is now Horticultural Commissioner and Ento- 
mologist of Tulare County. He has been en- 
gaged in the ministry thirty-five years, and he 
cherishes with great pride the family Bible, 



published in 1779 and handed down to him 
through succeeding generations. 

gSAAC A. RITCHIE, of Grangeville, Tulare 
m County, was born five miles east of Walton, 
•^ Hants County, Nova Scotia, May 12, 1846. 
He left home at the age of thirteen years, and 
since that time has earned his own support,— 
first by farming until his fifteenth year. He then 
went to Bath, Maine, and learned the trade of 
blacksmith, with A. R. Cahill, which he followed 
in that city until in January, 1868, when he 
started for California, via the Isthmus of Pana- 
ma. On arrival at San Francisco he went to 
Stockton, and first secured work with W. P. 
Miller, a carriage manufacturer, for a short time, 
and subsequently settled at Van Valer's Ferry, 
across King's river, on the 28th day of August, 
1868, where he operated the ferry for Andrew 
Yan Yaler, and also ran a small blacksmith shop. 
On the sale of the ferry in the fall of 1869, Mr. 
Ritchie moved to Kingston and operated a shop 
until the fall of 1873, when he moved to Visalia; 
next, in 1875, he settled at Lemoore, and in 
August, 1880, came to Grangeville. Finding 
land very high, and leasing impossible, he 
bought out a small shop, and secured the lease 
for two years in order to get a start. In 1882 
he bought town property, and built a residence, 
but soon after settling in his new house it was 
destroyed by fire, together with the furniture 
and contents. He afterward rebuilt, and lived 
very comfortably with a satisfactory business. 
He gradually began acquiring land, and in 1886 
he built a new, large and well-arranged shop, to 
meet the requirements of his increasing busi- 
ness, on the same block with the dwelling, and 
sold his old place. 

In the fall of 1888, after an absence of almost 
twenty-one years, Mr. Ritchie took a trip East 
to visit his home in Nova Scotia, and while ab- 
sent his house was again destroyed by fire, with 
all its contents. On his return be built his 
present fine residence, to which he moved in 



434 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



July, 1889, and in the fall of the same year re- 
tired from business, selling his stock and tools, 
and leasing his shop. In 1890 he built a small 
residence close to the shop, which was occupied 
by his brother. On July 16, 1891, while Mr. 
Ritchie and family were absent in the mountains, 
he was the third time visited by fire, destroying 
the blacksmith shop and dwelling! He now 
owns thirty-one acres of land, all in fruit and 
vines, and to these interests he now gives his 
entire attention. 

Mr. Ritchie was married the first day of July, 
1875, to Miss Emma Jeffrey, a native of Illi- 
nois. They have six children, namely: George 
A.. Nora M., Lottie M., Frank J., Lizzie E. and 
Weston G. 

Mr. Ritchie compares with astonishment the 
present prosperity of the country with its con- 
dition in 1868, when he first settled on King's 
river, then a wild arid unbroken plain, and now 
thickly populated, and midst its vine and fruit 
interests supports a bustling and prosperous 
community. 

fEORGE M. POTTER, of Lemoore, is a 
native of Connecticut, born in 1834, but 
his earliest recollections are of Rome, Nesv 
York. His father, Jared C. Potter, purchased 
300 acres near Rome and farmed for thirteen 
years, and then moved to Phcenix, where he 
died, at the age of eighty-four years. George 
M. Potter lived at home until about nineteen 
years of age, and then followed boating on the 
Erie Canal, between Oswego and New York 
city, until 1853, when be started for California 
by steamer, by way of the Isthmus of Panama. 
On arrival at San Francisco he went to the 
mines at Coloma, where he followed mining 
three years, netting $2,000. Retiring from that 
business he engaged in fanning on the Co- 
sumnes (" Macosma ") river, and subsequently 
pre-empted 160 acres at Liberty, which he 
fanned until 1861. In that year he sold 
out and returned to the States. In 1863 he 



again visited California, settled upon the Co- 
sumnes river, and farmed until 1S75, when lie 
came to the Mussel Slough district and bought 
160 acres of railroad land. He then helped 
build the lower Kind's river ditch, and after 
securing water he began farming quite exten- 
sively, and also engaged in the raising of stock. 
He has subdivided eighty acres of his ranch 
into small tracts and sold to settlers, thus form- 
ing the Potter colony. He still owns eighty 
acres, fifteen of which is in fruit and vines. 

Mr. Potter has been twice married, first on 
the Cosumnes river, and again at Visilia, in 
1878, to Miss Emma Adams. He has had rive 
children, — by his first wife Jared C. and George, 
and by his second, Belle, Sadie and Vera. He 
is a member of Lemoore Lodge, A. O.' U. W., 
and in politics is a Republican, from the casting 
of his first ballot. 



J^OVERN LEE MOORE, the founder of 
Wji the town of Lemoore, was born in Green 
^P^ Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, in 
April, 1822. His father, Rynear Moore, was a na- 
tive of New Jersey, and a mechanic by trade. 
He, however, never learned a trade, but by natural 
ability became a genius in many departments. 
In t he war of 1812 hs served his country as 
drummer boy, and thus heralded to victory the 
army under General William Henry Harrison. 
The mother of our subject, Sarah (Cook) Moore, 
was also a native of New Jersey, her family 
having been among the early settlers of the 
State. 

Lovern Lee Moore s f ands among the self- 
educated men of our country. Not being privi- 
leged with school facilities his education was 
mainly of his own seeking. His mother being 
somewhat of an invalid and his father having 
spent much of his time with her. his attention 
was early turned toward the study of medicine. 
and when but fifteen years of age the country 
people came to him for medical advice. At the 
age of seventeen years Mr. Moore began teach- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



42) 



ing, and thus earned a little money with which 
to pursue his education. He then gave up 
medicine and began reading law, purchasing 
Blackstone's Commentaries and other standard 
works to properly guide his legal aspirations. 
Subsequently he entered the law office of Umb- 
staetler & Stanton, at New Lisbon, county seat 
of Columbiana County; but after two years he 
gave up law as a profession, owing to failing 
health, although he had been elected Justice of 
the Peace of Green Township, which position he 
held eight years. He then returned to the study 
of medicine, and it was his own prescriptions 
which eventually relieved his maladies. Upon 
his recovery he studied under the preceptorship 
of his brother, Dr. John Harrison Moore, but in- 
stead of graduating his attention was turned to- 
ward mercantile life. He started a store in 
Green Township, which, after about seven years 
burned out, and left Mr. Moore somewhat in- 
volved, but which he cleared by his later success. 
He had the confidence of a large business ac- 
quaintance, who proffered goods to again estab- 
lish him in business, but he decided to try the 
West, and to that end he emigrated to Angola, 
county seat of Steuben County, Indiana. With 
his wife they set forth by wagon to cover the 
distance, passing through Monroe City to visit 
friends. There Mr. Moore gained the idea of 
the marble and tombstone business, and by draft- 
ing ideas upon paper he secured samples, think- 
ing they might be useful. On arrival he decided 
to start the business, and by procuring the serv- 
ice of a professional stone-cutter he became 
very successful. His enterprise and push were 
observed by the leading merchants, who cane 
to him and offered him a partnership interest, 
which he accepted, provided they would enlarge 
their store buildings, and thus be enabled to in- 
crease their facilities. This being accomplished, 
the firm of Wickwire, Jackson & Co. was formed, 
and with great energy and discretion Mr. Moore 
worked out his schemes for extension. By pur- 
chasing wool, farm produce and trading in real 
estate, business began increasing and the repu- 
tation of Angola became famed throughout the 
27 



surrounding country. This attracted other mer- 
chants, and Mr. Moore decided that the trade 
would be soon overdone' and he sold out his in- 
terest at a largely increased valuation. He next 
bought a hotel in town, which he built up by 
increased patronage, and in less than a year he 
sold out at a net profit of above $3,000. 

Dr. J. H. Moore then came to that town, and 
with him our subject entered a partnership, 
opened a drug store, and led a medical life for 
three years; then, selling his interest, he went to 
Fremont, same county, and followed a mercantile 
life successfully for many years, his sales some 
years reaching $100,000. At the breaking out 
of the war Dr. Moore offered a bounty of $5 to 
every volunteer from his township, and in this 
way he expended a great deal of money. His 
wife also took an active part during the war by 
soliciting supplies for the " boys " at the front, 
the hospitals and the freemen. In 1865 Dr. 
Moore sold his interests and took a trip through 
the South, and upon his return, owing to fail- 
ing health, he moved to Sturgis, Michigan, to 
educate his children and to take a much needed 
rest. But he gradually worked into a medical 
practice through the solicitation of friends, and 
at last opened a store, which he continued until 
1874. In that year he came to California with 
his family to enjoy the more temperate climate, 
and passed his first winter in San Francisco. 

While visiting a friend in a professional way 
in the Mussel Slough district, Dr. Moore became 
enamored with the country and bought 160 
acres, the site of the present town of Lemoore. 
In the fall of 1875 he subdivided a part of his 
land and started the little town of La Tache, 
which was soon settled, and the people changed 
the name to Lemoore after its distinguished 
founder. 

He was married in Green Township, in 1845, 
to Miss Ellen Ralston, a native of Pennsylvania, 
and they have two children, — Emma A., now 
Mrs. J. H. Fox; and Laura, Mrs. B. K. Sweet- 
land. The gentlemen are both merchants at 
Lemoore. Since his advent into California, Mr. 
Moore has not engaged actively in business. 



426 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



He was interested in the Lower King's River 
ditch, and was at one time president of the com- 
pany. He has been interested in farming and 
in the raising. of some tine horses and cattle; 
and has also set forty acres in vines. He has 
made several trips East iu the settlement of bus- 
iness affairs. The Fort Wayne Medical College 
presentt-d to Dr. Moore an honorary diploma, as 
evidence of his distinction in the profession in 
which he has so successfully labored. 



fEORGE McCOLLOUGH.- Among the 
early pioneers of California whose experi- 
ence has been largely in the mines and 
upon the frontier, we find the name of George 
McCollough. 

He was born in Beaver County, Pennsylva- 
nia, in May, 1823. His father, William McCol- 
lough, a farmer, emigrated to Crawford County, 
Ohio, in 1S30, and settled among the friendly 
race of Wyandotte Indians, there continuing 
his farming operations. George received a lim- 
ited education, learned the trade of carpenter 
and lived at home until he reached his twenty- 
first year. Then he went to Iowa and worked 
at his trade until 1850, when, following the tide 
of emigration, he came to California. He 
joined Dr. Mansfield and John Brown at Cedar 
Rapids, Iowa, and with five horses and a light 
wagon started for the Pacific coast, across the 
plains, by the Platte riverand Sublette's cut-off, 
entering the Golden State by the Carson route. 
Without serious adventure they arrived at Sac- 
ramento, August 4, 1850. They passed the 
winter in their mining camp on Shaw's fiats, 
meeting with the usual ups and downs of all min- 
ers. In thespringofl851 they separated, but Mr. 
McCollough continued mining until 1852. At 
that time he went to Oregon, mined and ran a 
pack freight train until 1854, when he returned 
to the mines of California, having less money 
but more experience than when he went north. 
He settled on the Merced river, mined through 



the winter and in the spring of ls55 came to 
Fresno County. 

After mining here for three years, he, in l y -" s . 
in partnership with William II. Crook, engaged 
in the stock business, having ten head of milch 
cows and supplying milk to the miners. In 
1859 he sold his interest in the stock and pur- 
chased a sawmill on the San Joaquin river. In 
1861 he bought a lumber business, conducting 
it and also operating the mill with good results 
until 1872, when he sold out and went to Ne- 
vada. In January of the following year he re- 
turned to Fresno station, and engaged in the 
lumber business until 1*77. At that time he 
started the first water works, the snpply coming 
from deep wells. This business he followed 
until 1886, without great success, when he sold 
his plant, and since then has not been engao-ed 
in active business. 

Mr. McCollough was married in 1870 to Miss 
Caroline Green. Owing to incompatibility, 
however, they separated, and since retiring from 
business he has passed his winters at the Grand 
Central Hotel at Fresno. During the summer 
months he visits the coasts and travels through 
different States and territories. Mr. McOolloiudi 
says he has quit fighting for the future, and the 
present is provided for. He is a great linguist 
in the Indian tongue, speaking the language of 
six tribes. He has lived in every mining camp 
between Seattle and San Diego, but has never 
carried a revolver or been held up, though he 
has frequently seen the trees decorated with the 
bodies of robbers and highwaymen. 

§ AMU EL S. GUY, M. D., of Visalia, was 
born in Kingsbury, Washington County ^ 
New York, January 18, 1818. His ances- 
tors on his father's side were of English-Iri&h 
origin; his great-grandfather came from north 
Ireland about the middle of the last century. 
His grandfather served in the war of the Rt'\ - 
olntion, first as a member of the old Continental 
Guards of Rhode Island, and then in New York. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



427 



After the war he retired to a farm in Kings- 
bury, where he lived tor more then sixty years, 
and died at the advanced age of ninety-two 
years. Dr. Guy's father was born on the same 
farm, and lived in the neighborhood until 1859, 
when he died, at the age of seventy-three years. 

The subject of this sketch received a fair 
common-school education in his native town, 
but in his eighteenth year became dissatisfied 
with farm life, and yearned for a more liberal 
education. Without pecuniary resources of his 
own, but resolved upon the attainment of bis 
object, he pursued his English and classical 
studies for four years, chiefly under private 
tutors, and meanwhile supporting himself. In 
1840 he removed to Buffalo, New York, where 
he pursued the study of law and medicine until 
the fall of 1844. Deciding then upon medicine 
as his profession, he attended his first course of 
lectures at the Albany Medical College, during 
the winter of 1844-'45. The interval between 
that and his second course was spent with Dr. 
J. W. Richards in Troy, New York, as assistant 
and student, and in 1846 he graduated at the 
Albany Medical College. Immediately after 
his graduation, Dr. Guy formed a partnership 
with Dr. Case of Albany, an old and experienced 
physician. As nearly all the work, and but lit- 
tle of the emoluments devolved upon him, he 
separated from Dr. Case after three months and 
settled in Brooklyn. 

During his first year's practice, he was in- 
troduced to P. P. Wells, who invited his atten- 
tion to homeopathy. His growing dissatisfac- 
tion with allopathic treatment induced him to 
lend a ready ear to the suggestion of Dr. Wells, 
and to bestow upon the claims of homeopathy 
a close and careful examination. In one year 
he became convinced of the truth of the sys- 
tem and accordingly adopted it as the basis of 
his medical practice. In 1850, when the public 
mind was excited on account of the discoveries 
of gold in California, Dr. Guy made partial ar- 
rangements to dispose of his business and em- 
bark in the speculation. Wiser counsels pre- 
vailed, however, and lie continued his practice. 



In 1853 he became identified with the Native 
American movement, and took an active part 
in it, as in the gubernatorial canvass of New 
York in 1854. He served as treasurer of the 
State committee, and personally raised much 
of the funds used for carrying on the campaign. 
The non-success of his party hindered his ap- 
pointment to a lucrative position. In 1856 he 
served as a delegate to the convention which 
met in Philadelphia aud nominated Mr. Fill- 
more for the Presidency. Since then he has 
taken an active part in politics. 

Dr. Guy continued in a large and lucrative 
practice until 1859, when, his health failing, 
he purchased the property known as the 
■' Chancellorsville Plantation," in Spottsylvania 
County, Virginia, and moved there with his 
family May 1, 1859. The following month he 
delivered the annual address before the Ameri- 
can Institute of Homeopathy in Boston. He 
continued in Chancellorsville until the spring of 
1861, when the great Rebellion was precipi- 
tated, and the frank avowal of his sentiments 
brought upon him the suspicions and obloquy 
of his neighbors, which developed into open 
persecution. Determined if possible to re- 
move his family to the North, he was compelled 
to have resource to stratagem, and finally suc- 
ceeded in escaping with them, and reached 
Washington city May 16. His property of all 
kinds, which he was compelled to leave behind, 
was destroyed by his persecutors. Returning 
to Brooklyn, utterly penniless, but not disheart- 
ened, he resumed the practice of medicine. 
During the continuance of the great national 
struggle, he used all his influence and exerted all 
his power in favor of his Government. In June, 
1866, the American Institute of Homeopathy, 
whose sessions had been suspended during the 
war, resumed its work in its annual session at 
Cincinnati, when Dr. Guy was elected to pre- 
side over its deliberations. He had built up a 
large and valuable practice, but his health again 
failing he was obliged, in 1866, to discontinue 
the duties of his profession. The Hahnemann 
Life Insurance Company had just been organ- 



428 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ized, and he accepted its general agency for the 
State of New York. In 1869 lie left this com- 
pany to assist in the organization of the Home- 
opathic .Mutual of New York. In this business 
he continued until the spring of 1870, and find- 
ing his health greatly improved he resumed the 
practice of medicine in Brooklyn. In 1871 the 
Doctor's health was entirely restored by the use 
of compound oxygen, and since that time he 
has adopted this as a special branch of office 
piactice in the treatment of chronic diseases. 

Dr. Guy came to San Francisco in 1888, 
where he remained about a year, and on March 
27, 1889, he located in Visalia, as the only 
physician of the homeopathic school, and has 
at present a large and growing practice. He 
has identified himself with the Kaweah Co- 
operative colony, located on the north branch of 
the Kaweah river. This colony is practically 
carrying out the national idea as taught by Ed- 
ward Bellamy, a full history of which colony 
and its workings appears elsewhere in this work. 

Of Dr. Guy's private life, it is only neces- 
sary to write that he has reared a respectable 
family, his sons holding positions of honor and 
trust in Philadelphia and Far liockaway, New 
York. 



■j^ICHARD HUBBARD STEVENS, 

l |Kt a prominent citizen of Visalia, came to 
^\ California in 1863. 

Mr. Stevens was born in Barr.et, Caledonia 
County, Vermont, April 30, 1841, son of Solo- 
mon Stevens, a native of the same town. Their 
ancestors were early settlers in this country. 
Mr. Stevens' father was a tanner and currier; 
condncted a saddlery business and was also in- 
terested in farming. He married Miss Sally 
Cnshman, a native of Vermont and a daughter 
of Clark Cnshman, they being descendants of 
Robert Cnshman, one of the Pilgrim Fathers 
who came to this country in the Mayflower. 
Both the Stevens and Cushman families were 
members of the Congregational Church. The 



subject of this sketch was the youngest of the 
twelve children born to Solomon and Sally 
Stevens, of whom only three are now living. 

Mr. Stevens was educated at the St. Johns 
bury Academy. His first experience in busi- 
ness was obtained in the store of hi6 brother, 
in Lacon, Marshall County, Illinois, where he 
worked three years. His brother, who had 
charge of the business in Vermont, enlisted in 
the Union army, and, in order to take charge of 
the home property during his absence, Richard 
H. returned to Vermont. 

As already stated at the beginning of this 
sketch, Mr. Stevens came to California in 1863. 
In San Francisco he followed various pursuits, 
meeting with poor success and ill health, the 
climate not seeming to agree with him. In the 
fall of 1869 he came to Visalia to see the coun- 
try and to seek employment, and obtained a 
position in the store of Douglas & Co. Being 
pleased with his situation, in 1871 he purchased 
a one-fourth interest in the establishment. 
The firm subsequently met with reverses, and 
as some of the partners wished to drop out, 
from time to time he purchased more interest, 
in the business until, in 1885, he had become 
sole owner. In 1886 he took Mr. Abraham 
Hamerslag as partner, which association existed 
until January, 1891, when they sold out. The 
business had grown, under the able management 
of Mr. Stevens, from a small country store to 
a large concern with a stock of goods worth 
$100,000, customers often coming a distance of 
forty miles. Mr. Stevens ha^ made several 
very creditable improvements in the city of Vis- 
alia. He built the tirst tine brick business block 
in the town, and conducted his business in it 
The main building is 37 x 115 feet, two stories, 
with a two-story brick warehouse 40x90 feet, 
in the rear. He also built one of the finest resi- 
dences in the city. In the large and well-kept 
grounds surrounding it Mr. Stevens has dis- 
played rare taste for the artistic and the beauti- 
ful, and his home is an attractive one indeed, 
exceeded by few, if any, in California. He has 
the pleasant satisfaction of recalling the fact that 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



429 



a part of these grounds were purchased by him 
on the installment plan when he was working 
for wages, soon after his settlement in Visalia. 

Mr. Stevens is the owner of several ranches 
in Tulare County, and is engaged in farming 
and raising horses and cattle. 

He was married in 1886 to Miss Mattie M. 
Roberts, a native of Macomb, McDonough 
County, Illinois, daughter of J. C. Roberts, of 
that State. 

He is associated with the Masonic fraternity, 
and has held all the offices in the order, in- 
cluding that of High Priest. Politically he is 
a Republican. 



J. WOODWARD.— This gentleman is 
conspicuous among the prominent citi- 
•^W 1 ® zens of Fresno, and his success in busi- 
ness operations since he came here in 1885, has 
been extraordinary, and demonstrates what can 
be accomplished when active and fearless enter- 
prise is coupled with good judgment and a 
knowledge how to handle large operations 
judiciously. 

Mr. Woodward is a native of Illinois, born in 
Clinton. De Witt County, April 29, 1849, and 
his boyhood days were spent in a home of luxury. 
His father, a prosperous and well-to-do dry- 
goods merchant, was overtaken by reverses, his 
store and stock being entirely destroyed by fire 
in 1858. A few years later, before fully recover- 
ing from this disaster, Mr. Woodward, Sr., 
died, leaving his son, O. J., as the only support 
of his widowed mother and a sister younger than 
himself. However, young Woodward was en- 
abled to continue his studies, and at the age of 
twenty he graduated with honor from the high 
school. Then he taught a country school for 
one term, after which he entered the boot and 
shoe store of Jacob Vogel, at a salary of $25 
per month. At the end of three years and a 
half his employer failed in health and projected 
a visit to Germany. Before going he made his 
clerk a partner, and entrusted him with the 



entire management of the business during his 
absence. This partnership lasted six years. 
Then they sold their stock, and in 1880 Mr. 
Woodward visited California on a prospecting 
tour. Returning to his home in Illinois, he 
again engaged in his former business, and car- 
ried it on alone for three years. Then he formed 
a partnership with his old associate, Mr. Vogel, 
leaving him in charge of the business and going 
to Arizona, where he purchased and operated a 
stock ranch. After a lapse of eighteen months, 
Mr. Woodward sold the ranch at a handsome 
profit. From Arizona he went to Los Angeles, 
California, and later came to Fresno. He de- 
termined to make this place his future home, 
and in 1885 located here. 

Ever since he took up his abode in the city of 
Fresno Mr. Woodward has been identified with 
its best interest. He immediately invested in 
lands and establish jd himself in the real-estate 
business. He possesses rare business sagacity, 
quick perception, sound judgment and fine ex- 
ecutive ability, and the foremost business men 
of this city were not slow to recogaize and ap- 
preciate these qualities in him. Ere long he 
was chosen cashier of the First National Bank, 
and afterward its president, which important 
position he now fills. He is also a stockholder 
and director in the Bank of Selma. Mr. Wood- 
ward practically controls the street-car line of 
Fresno, and there are variously other enter- 
prises, great and small, in which he is finan- 
cially interested. 

He was married, October 12, 1875, to Miss 
Anna Ludolph, a lady of German descent. 
They occupy a delightful home in Fresno, and 
their family consists of three children. 



UPMIL SELIGMAN, of the firm of Levis, 
Mpk Sweet & Co., Traver, Tulare County, is 
«pl one of the many intelligent and enterpris- 
ing business men which Germany has furnished 
the United States. 

Mr. Seligman was born in Germany, of Ger- 



430 



BISTORT OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



man parents, February 17, 1858; is a relative of 
Solomon Sweet, the senior member of the firm 
and one of the oldest and most favorably known 
business men of Tulare County; is also related 
to Mr. Levis, the other member of the firm, 
now one of the most prominent merchants of 
Visalia. »Mr. Seliginan was educated in his na- 
tive rountry and there served a three years' ap- 
prenticeship to the dry-goods business. He 
came to California in 1875, being first employed 
as a clerk in the store of S. Sweet & Co., his 
present partners. In 1880 he engaged in the 
mercantile business at Hanford, in partnership 
with J. S. Philips, of the firm of Philips, 
Sweet & Co., and was there until 1883, when 
a disastrous fire swept them out of business. 
He then returned to Visalia and clerked for 
S. Sweet & Co., being sent by them to 
Traver, in 1SS4, when the town was just 
starting, to run a lumber business. In 1887 
the business was sold to the San Joaquin 
Lumber Company, after which their present 
company was organized and business estab- 
lished, Mr. Seligman being the sole manager 
of the business from its beginning. They 
handle a large amount of general merchandise, 
including furniture and farm implements, and 
have a large patronage, which was established 
and is sustained by their honorable methods 
of doing business and their courteous treat- 
ment of all. They first built a store, 50 x 100 
feet, and have in connection with it several 
warehouses. As these facilities are not suffi- 
cient to meet the demands of their constantly 
increasing trade, they contemplate in the near 
future building a more commodious place of 
business. In 1891 a fruit-packing business 
was established on the co-operative plan, and 
named the Traver Fruit and Raisin Company, 
of which Mr. Seligman was elected to the 
treasuryship for the first year, and by whose ef- 
forts in a great part it may be said that the en- 
terprise was started. 

Mr. Seligman is a man of fine business abil- 
ity and has made some paying investments in 
lands in this county. lie owns 300 acres of 



valuable land, and has erected one of the best 
residences in Traver. He was married, June 
17, 1887, to Miss Anna Frey, a native of Switz- 
erland, and their union has been blessed with 
three children, viz.: Milton, Ruth and Louisa. 
Another business enterprise with which Mr. 
Seligman is connected is the Del Lante Hotel, 
he being a stockholder, director and treasurer of 
the company that built it. He is a member 
of the A. O. U. W., the 1. O. O. F. and the K. 
of P. 



M. CORY. — The subject of this biography, 
while not a pioneer of Fresno County, is 
a typical representative of that body of 
men to whom is due the present importance of 
Fresno city and county. 

Born in Oxford, Ohio, in 1830, Mr. Cory re- 
ceived advantages in early life beyond that of 
the average Californian. He was educated at 

o 

Miami University, graduating at that celebrated 
institution in 1848. Among the distinguished 
men who attended this university about the 
time he was an undergraduate may be men- 
tioned President Harrison, Governor Morton of 
Indiana, and Secretary Noble, now a member 
of President Harrison's cabinet. 

After his graduation Mr. Cory taught school 
for a short time, and in the spring of 184-9 came 
across the plains to California. After residing 
in Santa Clara County for a time he visited the 
mines, and was engaged in mining for a number 
of years, his headquarters, however, being at 
San Jose, where also were all his other interests. 
In 1865 lie represented Santa Clara County in 
the Legislature. He was also a member of the 
town council of San Jose for a number of year.-, 
and took an active and prominent part in city 
affairs. Clearly he was a pioneer in this locality, 
and a representative one. During his residence 
in San Jose he was elected a member of the 
Pioneer Society of San Francisco 

In 1861 Mr. Cory was greatly interested in 
silver mining in Nevada territory. lie lived 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



431 



there two years, and in that time invested 
largely in mines, with good results. He was 
closely identified with and largely interested in 
the Esmerelda and Aurora mines, which he dis- 
covered and named. In 1865 he disposed of 
his Nevada mining interests, and thereafter 
continued to live in Santa Clara County until 
1881, being actively engaged in farming and 
fruit-raising near San Jose. 

Mr. Cory has been an extensive traveler, and 
in his frequent trips over the State he visited 
Fresno County. After a careful investigation 
be saw what a bright future was. in store for 
this locality, and he decided to make it his 
home. He purchased a ranch of 160 acres in 
the suburbs of what is now Fresno, eighty acres 
of which he still retains and which he has de- 
veloped into a superb raisin vineyard. He has 
his residence on this place, and in the city he is 
engaged in real-estate and insurance business. 
His office in town is but a short distance from 
his ranch, which proves the wisdom of his 
choice when he invested here. Mr. Cory is the 
vice-president of the Fresno National Bank, of 
which he was one of the founders. 

He was married in 1861, to Miss Lizzie Braly, 
a native of Missouri. They have a family of 
three children. 

fOLOMON SWEET, the pioneer merchant 
of Yisalia, Tulare County, California, 
came to this State in 1851. A brief re- 
view of his life is as follows: 

Mr. Sweet was born in Germany, October 18, 
1827, and received his education in his native 
land. In 1845, at the age of eighteen years, 
he came to America and landed in New York. 
From that city, in the spring of 1846, he went 
to Chicago, then a town of about 12,000 inhabi- 
tants. He secured employment as a stage-driver 
in Ogle County, Illinois; subsequently became 
a clerk in Milwaukee, and remained at the latter 
place until the fall of 1850. He traveled on 



sleighs through Canada to Niagara Falls, from 
there to Buffalo, New York, by cars, and, as 
already stated, came to this coast in 1851. He 
made the voyage from New York to Chagres 
on the steamer Georgia, and from Panama to 
San Francisco on the Columbia. 

Arrived in California, Mr. Sweet clerked in 
Stockton till the fall of 1851, when he went to 
Mariposa County. He was in business for him- 
self two years at Agua Frio, and from there re- 
moved to Merced river, where he continued in 
the same business. In the meantime he was 
successfully engaged in mining. 

In 1857 Mr. Sweet came to Yisalia and opened 
what is now the oldest store in the town, with 
James L. Wells as partner. Their goods were 
hauled 200 miles with ox teams, the round trip 
occupying from one to three months. They 
supplied their customers with vegetables, flour 
and all kinds of merchandise, and from its 
organization their house did a large business, 
which has constantly increased up to the present 
time (1891.) Mr. Sweet was the main contrac- 
tor in furnishing the milling supplies to this 
part of the State. Their goods were sent to 
Kern, White and Owens rivers, to Millerton 
sixty miles north; as far south as Tebachapi Pass 
and as far east as Independence, Inyo County. 
Mr. Wells was succeeded in the business by J. 
M. Fox, and he by Elias Jacob and Mr. Sweet's 
brother, Simon Sweet. Since 1879 Mr. Sweet's 
nephews, Adolph and Leon Levis, have been 
the active partners of the firm. 

During his bnsiness career Mr. Sweet has 
made numerous land purchases, and has become 
one of the most extensive ranchers in the county. 
He is a director and one of the owners of the 
Goshen & Yisalia railroad and of the Yisalia 
& Tulare railroad. He owns many thousand 
acres of valuable land in the county and a large 
amount of property in Yisalia. Is a stock- 
holder, vice-president and chairman of the com- 
mittee of the California Fruit & Wine Company. 
This company owns 6,640 acres of land, one 
section of which is in a high state of cultivation, 
300 acres planted to raisin grapes and 120 acres 



482 



HI 81 OUT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



to oranges, olives, almonds, peaches and other 
fruits. 

Mr. Sweet was married in San Francisco, in 
1860, to Miss Annie E. Philips, a native of 
New York. They have seven children living, 
all born in San Francisco. The beautiful home 
in which they reside, No. 2230 Pacific avenue, 
San Francisco, was built by Mr. Sweet. He is 
a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Chamber 
of Commerce and Board of Trade of San Fran- 
cisco. Mr. Sweet is also a trustee and one of 
the founders of the Jewish Orphan Asylum at 
San Francisco. 

The successful business career he has had and 
the prominent and influential position he now 
occupies are due alone to his strict atten- 
tion to business and his utmost integrity. In 
the early history of Tulare County, before there 
were any banks here, he was the custodian of 
the funds for the inhabitants over a wide tract 
of country, and made drafts for them on San 
Francisco and other places; and he has the great 
satisfaction of feeling that he has done a large 
business, met every obligation, and never be- 
trayed a trust confided to him. While he has 
given close attention to business, Mr. Sweet has 
not held himself aloft from the affairs of the 
State. In politics he affiliates with the Repub- 
lican party, and during the late war took a firm 
stand on the side of the Union. The history 
of the successful business career of such an one 
should prove a great stimulus to the young men 
of this country — " Go thou and do likewise." 



f AUSTIN JACOBS, Jr., who represents the 
legal fraternity of the town of Lemoore, 
was born in Troy, New York, in 1844. 
His father w«s an officer in the Seminole war, 
and was subsequently connected with the 
United States arsenal at Troy, where he suf- 
fered from a prematuie explosion, and was 
crippled for life. In 1847 he emigrated with 
his family to Wisconsin, and there the boyhood 
of our subject was passed. He attended the 



public schools until the opening of the war, 
when he enlisted in Company C. Sixteenth Wis- 
consin Infantry, underColonel CassiusFairchild ; 
uis brother, Curtis Jacobs, enlisted in Company 
D, Third Wisconsin Infantry, and was killed at 
the battle of Cedar Mountain in a charge under 
General Banks. The Sixteenth Wisconsin was 
assigned to the Department of the Tennessee, 
and they were engaged in much active service, 
under the command of Generals Grant and 
Sherman. Mr. Jacobs was not wounded, but 
through exposure of sun and dust and incom- 
petency of army physicians, his sight became 
impaired, and he was discharged in March, 
1865. He then returned to his home, but was 
totally blind for over a year and a half, and has 
never recovered the sight of but one eye. As 
soon as able to read Mr. Jacobs entered the 
State University at Madison, Wisconsin, and 
after reaching the junior year he entered the 
law department and graduated in 1871. He 
was then appointed principal of the public 
schools at Waupun, same State, which he con- 
ducted for two years, and then began the prac- 
tice of law. But, owing to failing health, he 
came to California in 1874, and after landing at 
Visalia entered the law office of Tipton Lindsey, 
State Senator, where he remained for two years. 
When the railroad offered town lots for the 
present site of Lemoore, in 1876, Mr. Jacobs 
made a purchase, built the first dwelling-house 
in the new town, and also purchased a ranch of 
160 acres near town, where he engaged in 
general farming and also followed his profes- 
sion. He was attorney for the settlers in 
their defense of land interests against the 
railroad company, in the early days of the 
settlement of the country. In 1883 he sold his 
ranch and went to San Francisco, where as a 
partner of L. H. Van Schaick he practiced law 
until 1885, when he returned to Lemoore and 
resumed practice in the Superior Courts of Visa- 
lia and Fresno. He is a man highly respected 
for his integrity and legal ability, and enjoys an 
extensive practice 

Mr. Jacobs was married at Janesville, Wis 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



433 



cousin, in 1872, to Miss Annie M. Lowber, a 
native of New York city. To this union has 
been added three children: Clara Belle, Howard 
Scot and Louisa M. Mr. Jacobs is a member 
of the A. O. U. W. of Lemoore, and of Union 
Post, G. A. R. 



fAVID BURRIS, a prominent pioneer of 
California and of the most highly respected 
citizens of Tulare County, is a native of 
Missouri, born in Cooper County in 1824. His 
father, Henry Burris, a native of Kentucky, 
was a soldier in the war of 1812 and a pioneer 
farmer and stock-raiser in Missouri. Mr. Bur- 
ris was the fifth son of six boys in a family of 
ten children, and both his parents died when he 
was about twenty years of age. 

When the gold fever swept along the western 
coast, over the mountains and across the conti- 
nent, young Burris was one of its victims. 
Hitherto his life had been spent on a farm in 
Missouri. He joined a large company of ad- 
venturous young men at Pleasant Hill, Cass 
County, that State, crossed the plains with ox 
teams and reached the mining districts of Cali- 
fornia in the fall of 1849, coming by Lassen's 
cut-off and ranch, through Goose lake country, by 
Pit river and down to Feather river. Mr. Bur- 
ris began mining on Feather river and followed 
that occupation nearly three years, meeting with 
marked success. At one time he took from a 
single pan of dirt $121, and panned out $150 
in a day. He made a deal of money, but, un- 
fortunately, engaged in damming the river, and 
in that enterprise lost heavily. He mined in 
different places, and in 1852 returned East, 
making the journey via the Isthmus of Pana- 
ma. In 1856 he closed out his farming inter- 
ests there and again came to California. This 
time he drove a hundred head of cattle across 
the plains and brought up in Solano County. 
After remaining there one year he drove his cat- 
tle to Tulare County, and turned them loose at 
King's river, the site of his present ranch. 



]STo stock-men were nearer than twelve miles, 
settlers were few and far apart, and the ante- 
lope, the coyote and the wild horse roved at will 
over the vast uninhabited country. After the 
land was surveyed and put on the market, he 
purchased 800 acres, for which he paid $1.25 
per acre in greenbacks, equal to forty cents in 
gold. There were only a few oak trees on this 
land, and, with the exception of some wet 
places, the plains were barren. In 1869 Mr. 
Bnrris tried to dispose of his now valuable land 
at $2 per acre, but could find no buyer. The 
number of his cattle had increased to over three 
thousand head, and, failing to make a sale of his 
land, he sold his stock, throwing in the land, 
for all of which he rccived $75,000. 

After disposing of his stock interests, Mr. 
Burris engaged in banking, and has the honor 
of helping to start several banking institutions 
in California, namely: the Bank of Santa Rosa, in 
1870 ; the Bank of Ukiah, Mendocino County, in 
1872; and the Sonoma Valley Bank in 1875. 
For the latter institution he erected a fine build- 
ing, was the first president of the bank and still 
occupies that important position. 

In 1884 he returned to King's river, finding 
that during his absence the country had under- 
gone a wonderful change. Since that time he 
has been engaged in farming and stock-raising 
here, also loaning money and making various in- 
vestments. He now owns 4,160 acres of land in 
one body, six miles west of Traver, and his well- 
cultivated fields are traversed by canals of flow- 
ing water, 700 acres being devoted to alfalfa. 
In 1885 he erected on this place a splendid res- 
idence, which is snrrounded with all the com- 
forts of life and which is one of the beautiful 
homes for which this sunny clime is famed. Mr. 
Burris also owns some 1,600 acres of land in 
other parts of the county. Among his stock 
are found some fine specimens of both trotters 
and draft horses, and his cattle are graded with 
the best Durham stock. 

Mr. Burris was married in Sacramento in 
1857, to Miss Julia A. Wilburn, a native of 
Texas, who for over thirty years has been the 



434 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



partner of his joys and sorrows. Ten children 
have blessed their union, six sons and four 
daughters. One daughter lives at Ukiah, and 
the others reside near their parents in Tulare 
County. 

Mr. Burris has been a Republican since the 
organization of that party, and during the war 
was a strong Union man, rendering efficient serv- 
ices to his party and country. He never hesi- 
tated to say or do what he thought to be right. 
Abont the time he made his second journey to 
California political excitement ran high, and 
many were the thrilling experiences through 
which he passed. Mr. Burris was made a Ma- 
son in Solano in 1870. He still owns his home 
there, and during his residence in that place 
had the pleasure of being a warm friend of 
General Vallejo. While at Solano he was Mas- 
ter of the Masonic lodge three years; is now a 
Royal Arch Mason and Master of the blue 
lodge at Traver. 

Possessing the attributes of a pioneer, Mr. 
Burris has bravely met and overcome many an 
obstacle, and has been a humble though none 
the less potent factor in the development of this 
great State of California. 



fRIGGS WHITE is a descendant of a dis- 
tinguished New England family. His 
° father, John White of Maine, was of the 
rich Puritan stock, and marrying a daughter of 
Benjamin Riggs, also of Maine, reared a vigor- 
ous family of nine children, who were destined 
to make their mark in the world. The family 
home was in Georgetown, Maine; and at that 
place J. Riggs White was born December 9, 
1827. He received his education at Georgetown 
and Auburn, near Lewiston, and after complet- 
ing his studies took up the carpenter's trade, 
which he followed three years. 

In 1848 young White decided to try his for- 
tune in California, and in December of that 
year, with a party of Bath friends, he left for 
New York from which place they sailed in a 



schooner which they chartered for that purpose 
to Chagres. From there they went by boat to 
Gorgona, and walked the remaining distance to 
Panama. The next question was, how to get to 
San Francisco. For three weeks they searched 
for means of transportation, and finally enlarg- 
ing the company, which had previously consisted 
of some thirty members, they secured an Eng- 
lish bark, called the John Richardson, which 
they chartered, and in which they landed safe 
in San Francisco May 18, 1849, after a voyage 
ninety-two days. 

Mr. White at once started for the gold mines. 
He visited Stockton and traveled all through the 
San Joaquin valley. At one time he left his 
mining party on the Tuolumne river, and ran a 
ferry-boat there for awhile, subsequently return- 
ing to the mines. Mr. White is distinctly a 
pioneer. He is probably the first man now living 
in Fresno, who visited the San Joaquin valley 
and the section of country described in this 
work. He relates many incidents of the Indian 
depredations, and also the timely work of Ma- 
jor Savage during that period. He frequently 
met the Major and knew him well. 

In December, 1849, Mr. White went to Stock- 
ton and built a house, after which he went to 
San Francisco and worked at his trade for a few 
months. Then returning to Stockton, he went 
from that place to the mines near Sonora and 
mined successfully some months. About this 
time there was a general outbreak among the 
French, Italians and Spanish half-breeds, who, 
as they witnessed the prosperity and rapid set- 
tlement of the Americans in California, threat- 
ened to drive them all out of the country. Mr. 
White again returned to Stockton, where, with 
his brother, who had come to this coast in 1850, 
he engaged in the merchandise business in a 
small way. In the fall of 1850 he invested in 
stock and went to Mariposa County. A dry 
year followed, and he sold out at a great sacri- 
fice. Again the mines attracted him, ami he 
went to what was called Dry Diggings, remain- 
ing there a short time. For ;i period of sixteen 
years he lived in this mining district, although 



SI STOUT OF CENTRAL VALIFOIiNIA. 



435 



mining Imt a portion of the time. He filled 
the position of under sheriff in the Mariposa 
district for a number of years, and relates many 
thrilling incidents which occurred during those 
troublesome times. For one year he took 
charge of the stage line between Gilroy and 
Sageland. In 1867 he went to Tulare and en- 
gaged in ranching and building bouses; thence 
to White's Bridge, where he turned his atten- 
tion to merchandising and sheep-raising. The 
latter place Mr. White made his home for 
eighteen years, and was eminently successful in 
his business operations there. 

In 1885 the subject of our sketch moved to 
Eresno, and carefully invested in property in 
this city, which has yielded him a handsome re- 
turn. He is a director of the Fresno Loan and 
Savings Bank; president of the Street Car 
Railroad Company, and i6 identified with most 
of the business corporations of the city of Fres- 
no. His name is eagerly sought for in estab- 
lishing enterprises of any magnitude, as his en- 
dorsement means a distinct gain at the outset. 
Mr. White owns valuable property in Fresno, 
and is interested in a large wheat ranch of 17,- 
000 acres in this valley. He also owns two fine 
ranches near Stockton, which are devoted to the 
production of wheat and vegetables, besides 
having extensive warehouses in that city. 

In political matters he is a prominent factor, 
being a strong advocate of the American party. 
With Thomas E. Hughes and others, he is 
closely identified with this movement in Fresno. 

Mr. White has been twice married. By his 
first wife, nee Mary .lane Low, of Indiana, he 
had three children, The eldest son, John J. 
White, now occupies a prominent position 
among the business men of Fresno. The mai- 
den name of his present wife was Miss Richie, 
and by her he also had three children. The 
residence of the White family is one of the 
finest in Fresno, the grounds surrounding it be- 
ing particularly attractive and giving evidence 
of the taste and refinement of the owner. This 
home is located at the corner of L and Stanis- 
laus streets. He is a member of the Masonic 




order, which he joined in 1854 at Hornitos, in 
Mariposa County, in Hornitos Lodge, No. 96. 
He belongs to the blue lodge, chapter and 
commandery in Fresno. 

LESLEY UNDERWOOD, proprietor of 
the Stringtown Ranch, southeast of Le- 
moore, was born in Medina County, 
Ohio, in 1834. In 1847 his parents emigrated 
to Galesburg, Illinois, where his father was en- 
gaged in farming until 1854, when he again 
moved, to Des Moines, Iowa, and entered the 
lumber business, building a steam saw-mill and 
supplying both country and city trade. In the 
fall of 1858 Wesley Underwood emigrated to 
Nemaha County, Kansas, and ran a steam saw- 
mill until in May, 1860, when he started for 
California. He joined a company of friends, 
and with horses and cattle they crossed the 
plains, passing Salt Lake, after which they took 
the southern stage route, by Reece river, through 
Nevada, by the Big Tree trail, and after six 
months landed safely at Stockton. Mr. Under- 
wood then began farming, eight miles east of 
Stockton, on Dr. Chalmers' ranch of 300 acres; 
but after one year he went to the Sand Plains, 
southeast of French Camp, took up land and 
began farming. He lived upon this ranch 
until 1864, when he homesteaded land in 
Stanislaus County, and remained about five 
years. Then, moving to Merced County, he 
purchased 200 acres near Hill's Ferry, and re- 
mained until the summer of 1874, when, after 
farming seven years and raising but three 
crops, he moved to his present ranch of forty 
acres. He hauled lumber for building purposes 
from the mountains, seventy-five miles distant, 
and consuming one week for the round trip. 
Other lumber he secured at Cross creek, twenty- 
five miles away, and thus was able to build his 
house and outbuildings. He next planted a 
small family orchard and began farming, rent- 
ing outside land to the amount of about 300 
acres. In 1877 he bought twenty acres adjoin- 



436 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ing, which constitutes his present ranch of sixty 
acres, of which he has forty acres in fruit and 
vines. Mr. Underwood has traded extensively 
in lands, and now owns 260 acres, which he is 
selling out in colony lots. He also subdivided 
160 acres, and thus formed the Santa Cruz 
Colony, selling in small holdings. 

In 1889 Mr. Underwood rented his ranch 
and moved to Santa Cruz, where he bought town 
lots and built a house. He is now managing 
his ranch, but still resides in Santa Cruz to 
enjoy the more equable climate, and after his 
life of activity will not engage again in 
business. 

He was married in 1863, at the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Camp Meeting on the Stanislaus 
river, San Joaquin County, to Miss Mary Mills, 
a native of Tennessee. They have one child by 
adoption, called Sylvester Underwood. 



tA. ROGERS, a resident physician of 
Bakersfield, is a native of Indiana, born 
r ® in Clinton County, town of Mechanics- 
ville, February 22, 1851. His father, W. R. 
Rogers, a native of Ohio, was a farmer by occu- 
pation. His mother, Emeline (Davis) Rogers, 
was a native of the same State. They have had 
three sons, of whom the subject of this sketch 
is the oldest. The latter attended Hopkins 
Academy, Clinton County, Indiana; three years 
at high school at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and two 
years at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa; 
later he read medicine at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 
with Drs. Mansfield and Carpenter; attended 
lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 
the winter of 1873-'74; he then engaged in 
the drug trade at Brighton, Iowa, until 1877, 
and later he pursued a course of medical study 
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at 
Keokuk, Iowa, at which he graduated in June, 
1878. After completing his course of study at 
Rush Medical College, at Chicago, where he 
graduated February 25, 1879, he came to Cali- 
fornia, reaching Kernville, in Kern County, the 



following April. He spent seven months at 
Kernville, practicing his profession, when he 
took up his residence and opened his office in 
Bakersfield, in November, 1879. He is a mem- 
ber of the Southern California Medical Society, 
atid also of the State Medical Society. 

Dr. Rogers married Miss Frances S., daugh- 
ter of David Case, of Mount Morris, New York, 
her native home, June 23, 1872. They have 
two sons living: Homer, born April 30, 1875; 
and Guy, born January 15, 1877. 

— -■ fri . tt . g — 



«Z. CALLISON was attracted to this coast 
in 1849 by the gold excitement, and after 
° a few years of mining experience he en- 
tered the stock business, in which he has since 
been continuously engaged. A resume of hi6 
life will be found of interest to many, and is as 
follows: 

Mr. Callisou was born in Ohio, in 1831, sun 
of Moses and Catharine (Bonnet) Callisou, 
natives of Virginia. His parents emigrated to 
Ohio at an early day, and settled in Greene 
County, eight miles from Springfield, where 
they followed an agricultural life. E. Z. Calli- 
son was educated in the private schods of 
Springfield, Ohio, and at Ebenezer College, 
Springfield, Missouri, spending his vacations at 
home until 1849, when he started for California 
in company with a large emigrant train. They 
left Council Bluffs March 13, 1849, traveling 
with ox teams, and making the journey via the 
Southern route. At Santa Fe, New Mexico, 
then the termination of the wagon trail, they 
left their wagons and resorted to pick-mules; 
and the difficulties of travel thus being in- 
creased, about two-thirds of the company re- 
turned home; still a party numbering about 
300 pressed onward. They approached the 
Rocky Mountains, being guided by a French- 
man and Mexican, each of whom was supposed 
to know parts of the trail; but as their pathway 

became more difficult, the guides lost all bear- 
ed 

ings and they were obliged to grope their way 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



437 



forward, guided somewhat by Fremont's maps. 
Progress was slow, difficult and dangerous, and 
it was some time before they reached the Utah 
valley, where they stopped to recuperate. Under 
the guidance of James Waters they again 
pressed forward to Los Angeles. From Los 
Angeles they went north and arrived at the 
mines in Mariposa County about October 1, 
1849. 

Mr. Callison engaged in mining at what was 
subsequently named Whitlock's creek, the name 
being derived from T. J. Whitlock, captain of 
the train referred to in this sketch. With 
steady success young Callison continued in the 
mines until 1853, making no large strikes, but 
an average gain of one ounce of gold each day 
during his mining experience. In the spring 
of 1853 he went to Big Dry creek, eight miles 
from Knight's Ferry, and there engaged in 
cutting wild-oats hay, which he hauled to Sonora 
and sold at from $80 to $300 per ton. This in- 
dustry he continued until 1855. His next 
business enterprise was to buy cattle in Santa 
Clara County, and in the spring of 1856 drove 
them to Stanislaus County, then on to Tulare 
County. He located on the Tule river, about 
four miles northwest of Woodville, being one 
of the first stock men to settle in that vicinity. 

December 4, 1856, Mr. Callison was married 
on Big Dry creek, two miles below Rock River 
ranch, to Miss Susan Caroline McGee, a native 
of Missouri. They resided on Tule river, near 
Woodville, until 1870, when Mr. Callison came 
to his present location, purchased 160 acres of 
land, pre-empted the same amount, and camped 
under a tree while he built his cabin. From 
this location as headquarters he continued his 
extensive stock interests, keeping a band of 
2,000 cattle and fifty saddle horses. He 
gradually increased his landed possessions, and 
now owns 3,500 acres. Upon the enforcement 
of the trespass law in 1875, lie reduced his 
cattle to the capacity of his ranch — about 500 
head — and now he keeps only 200. One thou- 
sand three hundred acres he annually sows to 
grain. 




Mr. and Mrs. Callison have one child, Louis 
Napoleon, who is married and settled near the 
old homestead, and is the father of four chil- 
dren. Mr. Callison built his present handsome 
home in 1886. It is a most beautiful and at- 
tractive place, being especially adapted to this 
sunny clime, with its broad balconies entirely 
around the house at each floor. The kitchen 
and dining-room are detached about fifty yards 
from the main building. Mr. Callison is a gen- 
gleman of strong and decided characteristics, 
just and honorable in all business transactions, 
and by his many acquaintances throughout the 
valley he is honored and respected. 



ILLIAM HALL HAMMOND, a well- 
known business man of Visalia, Tulare 
County, California, was born in San 
Fr/mcisco, September 18, 1857. His father, 
Richard P. Hammond, who came to California 
in 1849, is at this writing chairman of the 
Board of Police Commissioners of the city of 
San Francisco. He was born in Maryland, in 
1820, and his father, William Hammond, was 
also a Marylander, the ancestors of their family 
having come to this country from England dur- 
ing the colonial period. Richard P. Hammond 
is a graduate of West Point, was Major in the 
United States. army during the war with Mexico, 
and actively participated in that conflict. He 
married Miss Sally Hays, a native of Tennessee, 
and a sister of Jack Hays, a prominent pioneer 
of Texas. 

Of the five children born to Richard P. and 
Sally Hammond, the subject of this sketch was 
the third. He attended the public schools of 
Alameda County; was sent to the Hopkins 
Grammar School, New Haven, Connecticut; 
spent two years in Yale College; and, on account 
of failing health, returned to this State and 
attended the University of California. 

In 1878 Mr. Hammond came to Tulare 
County and purchased a ranch of 800 acres, 
located six miles south of Visalia, where he 



438 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



farmed until 1883. At that time he was elected 
one of the Board of Supervisors of the county, 
and, after serving his term, he engaged in the 
real-estate and abstract business, owning an 
interest in the Durfee system. Mr. Hammond 
has given much attention to fruit culture; or- 
ganized the Yisalia Fruit & Land Company, 
was elected its president and is a stockholder. 
This company owns 440 acres of land, located 
one mile north of Visalia, 220 acres of which 
are planted to peaches and French prunes, and 
the whole tract is being improved. In connec- 
tion with Mr. S. Mitchell, Mr. Hammond owns 
forty-eight and three-fourths acres of prunes. 
He also owns 160 acres of land near the city, 
which he is planting to fruit. 

Mr. Hammond was married in Visalia to 
Miss May Brown, a native of this place, and a 
daughter of S. C. Brown, an early settler of 
Tulare County, and now one of its prominent 
attorneys. They have two children, born • in 
Visalia, namely: William and May. 

Mr. Hammond is a K. of P.; is secretary of 
the chapter of Royal Arch Masons; has passed 
all the chairs of all the branches in Odd-fellow- 
ship, and is a charter member of the parlor of 
Native Sons of the Golden West havinc been 
a delegate to the Grand Parlor in 1891. Po- 
litically he is a Democrat; has twice been 
elected a member of the common council of the 
city of Visalia, and at present is- the Mayor of 
that city. Mr. Hammond is proud of the great 
State in which he was born, and is a fair rep- 
resentative other citizens. By his many social 
qualities he has won the esteem of a wide circle 
of friends, and is highly regarded by all who 
know him. 

^-6B-£# 

fOHN BEEBE O'CONNOR.— Prominent 
among the early settlers of Tulare County, 
was born in Old Town on the Penobscot 
river, in the State of Maine, December 4, 1825, 
and is the son of Daniel O'Connor, a native of 
Ireland, who came to America in 1812, when 



ten years of age, and settled in Canada. In 
1840, when the State line was decided upon, his 
location was found to be in Maine. He married 
Miss Bridget Keenen, also a native of Ireland, 
and to them were horn five children. Of the 
whole family only Mr. O'Connor and a sister 
survive. When the subject of our sketch was 
six months old the family removed to Syracuse, 
New York, and in that city he was reared and 
educated. He spent five years in the Schenect- 
ady Locomotive Works, where he learned the 
machinist's trade and locomotive engineering, 
and the most of his life has been devoted to 
that business in some of its branches, princi- 
pally that of engineering. 

Mr. O'Connor came to California in 1859, 
first locating in Vreka, where he was engaged 
in placer mining. With others, he subsequently 
became interested in a quartz mine in Inyo 
County, and later in Tulare County. Selling 
his interest in the mine, he bought a quartz 
mill in the same locality, for which he paid 
§22 000 in coin, and in 1863, soon after his pur- 
chase, it was set on fire by Indians and burned 
down. Mr. O'Connor came to Visalia with a 
mule, a saddle and $2.50 in cash, and at the 
time owed a grocery bill of $150. He accepted 
a position in the Visalia flouring and grist mill, 
and held this place twenty-three years. In the 
meantime he became engaged in the sheep bus- 
iness, and his flocks increased till at one time 
he had 4,500 head. The drouth of 1873-'74-'75 
reduced this number until he had only twenty- 
five poor sheep left, which he gave away. After 
the termination of his work in the mill, Mr. 
O'Connor repaired engines, set up threshers and 
did some railroading, always finding plenty of 
work to do. He now holds the position of en- 
gineer of the Visalia fire engine, the first lire 
engine in the town and he its first engineer. To 
him belongs the distinction of having blown the 
first steam whistle in Visalia and of having run 
the first railroad locomotive into the town. 

Mr. O'Connor was married in 1850, to Miss 
Elizabeth Betinger, a native of Herkimer 
County, New York. Of their three children. 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



439 



two were born in the State of New York, and 
the youngest in Illinois. The latter, Frances, 
lived to be twenty-three years of age and died 
in Visalia of pneumonia. Mary is now the 
wife of Mr. Lebe Stevenson and resides in Vis- 
alia. John lives in Yolo County, California. 

Socially Mr. O'Connor is connected with the 
Chosen Friends and the Odd Fellows. Of the 
former order he has been a member since its 
organization in the State, and has filled all the 
offices of the order except that of Grand Coun- 
cilor. In Odd Fellowship he also occupies a 
prominent position; has been a member for 
twenty-five years, has passed all its chairs in all 
its branches, held every office except that of 
Grand Master of the State, and is the third old- 
est Odd Fellow in Tulare County. He is held 
in high esteem by the fraternity of which he 
has so long been a member. Mrs. O'Connor is 
a worthy member of the Christian Church. Mr. 
O'Connor was reared a Catholic, but, after 
much investigation and study, he has ceased to 
be a religionist. It is his aim in life to con- 
form to the great law of uprightness, honesty 
and justice. He has earned a competency all 
his life and, while he is not rich, he has a good 
home and something left for declining years. 
Mr. O'Connor is one of Visalia's most intelli- 
gent and worthy citizens; has a limitless circle 
of friends and is highly regarded by all who 
know him. 

IgSON. CLAUDIUS GALEN .SAYLE was 

) born on Big Sandy, in Carroll County, 
Tennessee, December 8, 1826. In 1841 
he emigrated to the Republic of Texas. After- 
ward, in 1844, he returned to his native State 
to finish his education aPCumberland Univer- 
sity, Lebanon, Wilson County. In 1849-'50 he 
devoted his time to the study of medicine, re- 
turning to Texas in the fall of the latter year. 
With his uncle, E. J. King, he emigrated to 
California in 1852, and that fall located at Mill- 
e rton, on the San Joaquin river, then Mariposa 



County, now Fresno County, and there tried his 
luck at mining, meeting with little success. 
Shortly afterward he went to Kern river and 
again tried his luck in the mines, this time 
with better results. After accumulating about 
$4,000, he and his partner, Charles R. Wor- 
land, opened a store at Greenhorn's Gulch on 
the Kern river. He went to Los Angeles to 
purchase his stock of goods, which he conveyed 
over the mountains to his place on Kern river 
by means of a train consisting of 100 pack mules. 
He did a profitable business until the spring of 
1855. At that time great excitement broke out 
all over the State in regard to the gold mines 
on Kern river; and during the stay of the ex- 
cited populace the firm sold out their goods on 
credit. In a few weeks the mines and gulches 
were uninhabited and our subject and his part- 
ner found they had running accounts with Tom, 
Dick and Harry, who were then out of the 
country. The times got so bad that the mem- 
bers of the firm were compelled to retire from 
business. 

That section of the country has been made a 
supervisoral district under the first law of this 
State creating a board of supervisors to have 
an election, and at said election the subject of 
our sketch was chosen one of the first Super- 
visors of Tulare County. In 1857 he com- 
menced the study of law, and in 1858 he ,\ as 
admitted to practice in all the courts of the 
Thirteenth Judicial District. In the fall of 
1860 he was elected County Judge of Tulare 
County, which position he held until 1864, when 
the term expired. He was then elected District 
Attorney of Fresno County, and on the first 
Monday of March, 1864, entered upon the 
duties of the office. WheD his term expired he 
was re-elec'ed and served two years more. 
After that he continued the practice of his pro- 
fession until 1871, when he was again elected 
District Attorney of Fresno County. He dis- 
charged the duties of the office two years; was 
ao-ain re-elected and served two years more, 
making a total of eight years that he served as 
District Attorney ot Fresno County. 



440 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



In the year 1879 he took a position in favor 
of the new constitution, and in the fall of that 
year was elected Assemblyman from Fresno 
County, and served throughout the first session 
of the Legislature under the new constitution, 
where his vote is to be found recorded always 
on the side of the people. 

Judge Sayle claims a residence of thirty-eight 
years in Fresno County, excepting his tempor- 
ary absence in Tulare County to fill the office of 
Judge and Supervisor. 

He was first married to Miss Corilla Bacon, 
daughter of Robert and Frances Stevenson, with 
whom he spent many happy years. Her death 
occurred in August, 1874. The Judge re- 
mained a widower until 1876, when he was mar- 
ried to Miss Amanda Newton Burks, daughter 
of N. B. and Eliza Burks, of Fresno. This 
blissful union was of s.ort duration, Mrs. Sayle 
being a victim of consumption and dying a year 
after her marriage. At San Francisco, May 1, 
1881, Judge Sayle was united in marriage to 
Mrs. E. Flora Cnmmings of that city, widow of 
Dr. Ralph W. Cummings, late of San Francisco. 
The Judge and his wife reside in their pleasant 
home at the corner of J and Tuolumne streets, 
Fresno. He is thoroughly a domestic man and 
loves his wife and home above all social pleas- 
ures Never having had any children of his 
own, the Judge celebrated his fifty-fifth birth- 
day by adopting the little son of his wife, Ralph 
Wardlow Cummings, and giving him the name 
of Ralph Wardlow Sayle Cummings. 

Judge Sayle is an active member and deacon 
of the First Baptist Church of Fresno. 



-=#*« 



>«&=- 



fELIX MOORE, proprietor of the Hanford 
Agricultural Works, was born in Birming- 
ham, England, in 1840. He is the third 
in a family of eleven children, seven of whom 
were sons. His father, Henry Moore, was 
manager in the blacksmith department of the 
gun manufacturing establishment of Arthur & 



Alfred Burrs, and to that trade he brought up 
all of his sons. 

At the age of eleven years Felix Moore be- 
gan his trade under his father's directions, and 
worked with him until he was twenty-one years 
of age. When he reached his majority hi' was 
married, at Hasten Park, near Birmingham, to 
Miss Anna Hacket, and they resided in Birming- 
ham until 1863. In that year Mr. Moore came 
to America and worked at his trade in Canada 
about one year. In 1864 he went to New York 
city to meet his wife, and they located at Rome. 
New York, and subsequently in Piano, same 
State. Mr. Moore bought an interest in a gen- 
eral shop, and remained at the latter place 
about two years, after which he moved to Ot- 
tawa, Illinois, and worked for King & Hamil- 
ton in the manufacture of farm machinery seven 
years. 

From Illinois Mr. Moore came to California. 
He first settled in Grass Valley, and bought a 
one-third interest with Moore, Wright & Moore 
in their general shop for repair work and the 
manufacture of wagons, which business relation 
continued three years. Mr. Moore then pur- 
chased the entire establishment, and operated it 
until 1881, when he sold out and came to Han- 
ford. He worked one year in the repair shop 
of Barnes & Goble, then as partner continued 
two years, and in 1884 bought the remaining 
interests, and has since done business alone. He 
does a general repair business, and has an ex- 
tensive trade in wagons and agricultural im- 
plements. His old shop, 30 x 60 feet, he tore 
down in the spring of 1891, and built his pres- 
ent establishment on Seventh street. His lot is 
75x150 feet, and his shop covers an area of 30 x 
150 feet. Attached to this building is a store- 
room, 30x60 feet, two stories, the second floor 
being nicely fitted up for his residence. He 
also rents a storeroom of equal capacity for 
agricultural implements. 

In 1887 Mr. Moore became interested in 
horses, and bought up all he could secure 
throughout the valley, took them to Los Ange- 
les during the real-estate boom and sold them 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



441 



at a handsome profit. In 1889, with others, 
Mr. Moore secured 240 acres of land in the 
Coast Range, five miles west of Ooalinga, and 
developed fine coal prospects. In 1890 the 
California Coal Mining Company was incorpor- 
ated, and the mine is sufficiently developed to 
be on a paying basis. 

Mr. and Mrs. Moore have two children, — 
Fred S. and Martha. Fred is engaged in the 
shop with his father, and has invented a seven- 
tooth cultivator, which is one of the best in the 
valley, and, as a weed-cutter, is very complete. 
Mr. Moore has invented a ditch grass-cutter, 
which is gaining great popularity, a? it can be 
used in full ditches, and will do the work of 
twenty men. 



fAMES S. ROBINSON, proprietor of the 
"Keystone" ranch, occupies a prominent 
position in the front ranks of the devel- 
opers of the Lucerne district, Tulare County, 
California. 

He was born in London, England, in 1856. 
His father, Sir William Rose Robinson, Iv. C. 
S. L, went to India at the age of sixteen years 
and became connected with many of the leading 
institutions there. He was a member of the 
India Civil Service and of the Madras Presi- 
dency. He organized the police system of 
India and became prominent in the irrigation 
system, which is very extended and complete; 
was also connected with government railroads. 
He was married in India, in 1852, to Miss 
Julia Thomas, a native of England. For forty- 
eight years Sir William Robinson was connected 
with India and her public affairs. 

The childhood of Jarn^s S. Robinson was 
passed in India. He was educated in England, 
at Harrow, and at the Royal Agricultural Col- 
lege, and upon completing his education, in the 
spring of 1875, he came to the United States. 
He first visited friends in Iowa, looked over that 
section of the country, and subsequently came 
to California and located in Tulare County, pur- 

28 



chasing 800 acres in the Lucerne district south 
of Hanford. He commenced farming and then 
engaged in the stock business, but until irriga- 
tion was established developments were slow 
and agriculture was fraught with many disap- 
pointments. 

In 1880 Mr. Robinson returned to Eno-land 
and was married to Miss Julia E. Barkworth. 
After arriving at her new home in California, 
Mrs. Robinson was particularly instrumental in 
the building of the American Episcopal Church 
of Hanford. 

In 1881 the firm of Robinson & Rawlins 
was established, composed of the brothers 
William Rose and James S. Robinson (the 
former now deceased), and the brothers J. E. 
and Henry Rawlins. This company purchased 
400 acres of land in the Coast Range in >un- 
tains and developed the coal-mine near Coalinga. 
They have one vein, four to four and a half feet 
wide, depth undetermined, and one vein two 
feet wide, which is known to extend a mile and 
a half. They operated the mine until 1888, 
when thev incorporated under the name of the 
San Joaquin Valley Coal Mining Company, with 
a capital of $300,000, Mr. Robinson being one 
of the directors, J. E. Rawlins being president 
of the company, and the firm of Robinson & 
Rawlins having charge of the mine. In 1881 
Robinson & Rawlins established the Hanford 
water works. They bored four wells from forty- 
eight to one hundred and sixty feet deep, 
pumped the water to an elevated tank which 
has a capacity of 28,000 gallons, piped the 
town and furnished a supply of water for do- 
mestic and fire purposes. In 1890 they sunk 
an artesian well 500 feet, with a twelve-inch 
casing and a developed capacity of 30,000 gal- 
lons per hour. Mr. Robinson is one of the 
original stockholders of the Bank of Hanford, 
which was incorporated with a subscribed cap- 
ital of $100,000 in 1887. That same year Mr. 
Robinson started a small brickyard, which has 
increased to a capacity of 2,000,000 brick per 
year. In 1890 he was one of the incorporators 
of the Hanford Development Company, which 



442 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



constructed the Artesian Hotel, and is now a 
member of the board of directors. 

Of his landed interests Mr. Robinson has 
sold all but 240 acres adjoining town, where he 
now resides. One hundred and fifty acres of 
this are in fruit and vines and eighty acres are 
devoted to alfalfa. He is now subdividing forty 
acres in town lots, as an eddition to Hanford. 
Mr. Robinson was one of the original stock- 
holders of the Lake Side ditch, organized in 
1873, and of the People's ditch, in 1877, which 
he helped to construct. He has always been 
foremost in progressi e enterprises, and it was 
through his extended acquaintance that the 
large number of English colonists were induced 
to seek homes in the Lucerne district. 

Having lost his wife in 1882, Mr. Robinson 
was again married, in Hanford, April 21, 1888, 
to Miss Ethel McCalmont, a native of England. 
This union has been blessed with one child, 
Margaret Edith. By his first wife Mr. Robin- 
son also has one daughter, Ethel Maria. 



«=£-*« 



.,- * ,■ 



*>%>- 



W?j& WILSON, lessee and manager of the Han- 
fl$W ford Cheese Factory, is a native of Lan- 
>^£ Q ark County, Ontario, Canada, born in 
1867. He followed agricultural pursuits until 
1884, when he entered a cheese factory in his 
native county, and there became proficient in 
the business of cheese-making. In the spring 
of 1889 he came to California. Mr. Wilson 
first settled at Woodland, as manager of a fac- 
tory there, and remained until November, 1890, 
when he went to Visalia and accepted a like 
position in the Visalia Creamery, a two-story 
building, 40x 80 feet, well equipped with all the 
latest improved machinery. Although still 
manager at Visalia, on March 1, 1891, he 
leased the Hanford Cheese Factory, a two-story 
frame building, 40x60 feet, with a basement 
cellar for summer storage. He purchases milk 
from the farmers, uses 4,500 pounds daily, and 
manufactures 450 pounds of cheese from the 
same, which he makes into the commercial sizes 



of "Drum,''" "Fancy Flats" and "Young 
America." Mr. Wilson finds a large sale for 
his product through the valley, and sends the 
over- stock to the San Francisco market. To 
utilize the whey, he keeps about sixty hogs. 
Mr. Wilson gives close and careful attention to 
the details of his business, and is promoting an 
important industry in the valley. 

&~&&.^g 



tHARLES A. LIBBEY, a resident of Olean - 
der, Fresno County, was born in Elliott, 
York County, Maine, in 1848. His 
father, Hammond Libbey, a ship-carpenter by 
trade, worked in the yards at Kittery and Ports- 
mouth. Charles had meager educational ad- 
vantages, and at the age of seventeen years 
began to support himself. He went to Dover, 
New Hampshire, and for two years and a half 
labored zealously in learning the trade of black- 
smith, afterward going to South Amesbury, 
Massachusetts, and in a large carriage manufac- 
tory learning the liner branches of iron work, 
remaining in the same establishment four years 
and a half. In February, 1873, he went to 
Beverly, Massachusetts, and was employed as 
foreman of the light carriage manufactory of 
James Richardson. 

In April, 1874, Mr. Libbey severed his con- 
nection with Mr. Richardson's establishment, 
came t California and settled in Yolo County, 
following his trade there until 1876. In that 
year he built a shop in the district of Prairie, 
same county, and carried on a general jobbing 
and repair business, in both wood and iron 
work, remaining thus employed until January, 
1884, when he sold out and came to Oleander. 
Here he bought twenty acres of partly iinprored 
land, located on Maple avenue. On this prop- 
erty Mr. Libbey built a house, barn and black- 
smith shop, and managed both ranch and shop 
until 1888, when he leased the latter. His 
ranch is becoming very profitable. In 1S90 
his crop from nine acres of vines amounted to 
$1,100, and from four acres of fruit, $860. Mr. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



448 



Libbey is the inventor of a pair of pruning 
shears, which have met with general favor 
throughout the colonies, the demand for them 
being greater than the supply. 

He was married in Stockton in 1888, to Miss 
Emma Powell, and has one child, — Fanny, 
born December 3, 1889. 

Mr. Libbey is a member of Grafton Lodge, 
I. O. O. F., of Yolo County, and of Fresno En- 
campment, same order. He is secretary of the 
Fresno Raisin Company, a co-operative company 
which was incorporated in 1888, with H. L. 
Nudd as president. The company was started 
under much opposition, and is now becoming 
more popular. In 1890 it packed 30,000 boxes, 
besides many sacked raisins, the shipment beii'g 
sixty car-loads. 



**> 



J. MALTBY, one of the typical Cali- 
fornia gold miners and a figure in the 
mining history of Kern County, came to 
California as early as 1854 and took up mining 
in Nevada County one year. After making a 
trip into Southern California in 1856, he re- 
turned north as far as Kern County, and entered 
mining and stock-ranching at his present place 
of residence. He was born in Washington 
County, Arkansas, December 25, 1833. His 
father, Orlonzo Maltby, was a native of Ver- 
mont, a carpenter by trade, and came next to 
Springfield, Illinois, about 1825, and later, in 
1829, moved to Washington County, Arkansas, 
where he resided many years. He finally re- 
turned to Illinois, where he died in 1877. His 
wife, Rebecca (Eshom) Maltby, was a native of 
Virginia. She died in Arkansas, in 1856. 
They raised a family of five children, of whom 
the subject of this sketch is the third. He was 
educated in the public schools of his native 
town, and later became a printer, which occu- 
pation he followed up to the time of his depart- 
ure for the gold fields of California. He mar- 
ried in 1866, Mrs. Hannah Greenliss, a 
daughter of Christian Bohna, deceased (see 



sketch of Henry Bohna). Mr. and Mrs. Maltby 
have two sons, Don Orlonzo and Charles C. 



fHARLES R. CLARK has been a resident 
of California since 1852, and of Fresno 
County since 1887. He has been pros- 
perous in his various undertakings in this State, 
and is an enthusiast on the resources of Fresno 
County. A brief outline of his life is here- 
with given : 

Charles R. Clark was born in Delaware Coun- 
ty, Ohio, in 1819, son of Charles Clark, an 
extensive farmer of that county. He was reared 
on the farm and educated in the schools of his 
native county, and in 1842 was married at that 
place, to Miss Mahala Doty. He continued 
farming in Ohio until 1852, when, with his 
wife and two children in a covered wagon, drawn 
by three yoke of oxen, he made the long and 
tedious journey across the plains to California. 
Their train, consisting of seven wagons, was 
six months en route, coming by the northern 
way, and passing through Hangtown to Sacra- 
mento. 

Arrived in the Golden State, Mr. Clark 
squatted on what he supposed was Government 
land, near San Jose, Santa Clara County, but 
two years later found it was a grant, and he 
was compelled to leave it. He had, however, 
been very successful in his farming operations 
there. He next bought 320 acres in Contra 
Costa County, and after residing on it five years 
sold the property for $7,500. Returning to 
Santa Clara County in 1859, he bought 100 
acres of choice land, for which he paid $3,200, 
and improved the place in a handsome and sub- 
stantial manner. He there carried on general 
farming and stock-raising, keeping the imported 
shorthorn cattle and Cotswold sheep, which he 
brought from Canada. He owned a bull which, 
at two years and a half old, weighed 2,100 
pounds; also kept a high grade of horses. Mr. 
Clark exhibited his cattle through the State at 
the county fairs and secured many premiums. 



444 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



In 1887 he sold his ranch in Santa Clara 
County for $20,000, and came to Fresno County, 
purchasing eighty acres in Washington Colony. 
Of this he has since sold forty acres and has 
given twenty acres to his son. The twenty 
acres which he retains is located on Orange 
avenue, and is highly improved. On this place 
Mr. Clark makes his home. He has fifteen 
acres devoted to vines and the rest to trees and 
alfalfa, everything about the premises indicating 
the thrift and enterprise of the owner. Mr. 
Clark has always been a great admirer of horses. 
He owns the stallion " Young Hercules." a 
Norman horse which weighs 1,840 pounds, and 
which he has raised from a colt. He also 
keeps eight other fine horses. 

Mr. and Mrs. Clark have three children, one 
son and two daughters, all married and sub- 
stantially settled in life. 



-=**« 



»**=- 



tLFRED DOLAN crossed the plains to 
California in 1850, and now ranks among 
the pioneer settlers of Tulare County. 
The place of his nativity is twelve miles from 
Lexington, Kentucky, and the date of his birth 
is April 22, 1820. ' His father, Thomas Dolan, 
was born in Ireland and came to the United 
States in 1810. He was a soldier in the war of 
1812; lived in Pennsylvania four years; re- 
moved to Kentucky and was married to Catha- 
rine McJfonough, a native of that State. To 
them were born six children, two of whom are 
living, Alfred heing the oldest son. The mother 
died in Wisconsin in 1842, and the father in 
Iowa, in 1857. 

Mr. Dolan was thirty years of age when he 
came to California. He was engaged in mining 
at Georgetown, Coloma and Cook's Bar, and 
also at Nevada City. Like the most of other 
miners, he was fortunate at times and then again 
he met with reverses. His largest find was a 
nugget worth $75, and his day's work often 
amounted to $25. After mining two years he 
purchased cattle and engaged in the stock busi- 



ness, ranging in Calaveras and Monterey comi- 
ties. In 1859 he came to Tulare County, bring- 
ing with him about 150 head of cattle. He took 
up 160 acres of land (tlie property on which he 
has since resided), prosperity attended him and 
bis stock increased until at one time he had 500 
head of cattle. The stock he brought to Tulare 
County was raised in Illinois and brought across 
the plains to California in 1852 by Mr. Rey- 
nolds. Mr. Dolan paid $125 each for six cows. 
The drouth of 1863-'64 was severe, and this 
breed of cattle suffered greatly. He, as well as 
many others, became a heavy loser. 

On the 25th of March, 1850, Mr. Dolan wed- 
ded Miss Catharine A. May, a native of Ken- 
tucky. Their union has been blessed with eight 
children, of whom six are living, two having 
died in childhood Their son Thomas, a wid- 
ower- with three children, resides with his father; 
Mary is the wife of John Betts, of Monterey 
County; William; Augustine, wife of Fred 
Hall, resides at Crangeville; and the other two 
are Edward and Cora May. 

Mr. Dolan is in politics a Democrat. 



A. ESTES. rancher of Oleander, Fresno 
County, California, was born in Bock- 
port, Massachusetts, in 1857. His father, 
A. C. Estes, came to California in 1849, but on 
account of sickness in 1852, returned to his 
home and family at Bockport. F. A. was edu- 
cated in his native town, and his time was spent 
at work on the farm until 1879, when he entered 
a laroe shoe manufactory at Boston, and re- 
mained there about one year. 

In 1881 Mr. Estes came to California, trav- 
eled over the State, and finally settled at Olean- 
der, purchasing twenty acres of land on Cedar 
avenue, about four acres of which were in 
vines. He built a house, large barn and other 
necessary buildings, and his entire acreage is 
now devoted to vines. The oldest vines average 
about $200 per acre each year. Mr. Estes came 
to this valley with very little money, and his 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



445 



substantial improvements speak volumes for 
his thrift and enterprise. 

He was married in Oleander, in 18S3, to Miss 
Matilda Webber, a native of New York. They 
have one child, Herbert Estes, an adopted son. 



IfSRAEL H. HAM has been closely identified 
|l with the growth of Tulare city and county, 
^ and justly merits more than a passing notice 
in a work of this character. 

Mr. Ham is the fifth in direct genealogical 
line from Israel Ham, an Englishman, who emi- 
grated to the New England States and settled 
on Strawberry Plain, New Hampshire, June 11, 
1623. The subject of our sketch was born in 
September, 1823, at the old homestead in Roch- 
ester, New Hampshire, where he was educated 
and reared in the home of his forefathers. At 
the age of sixteen he began to learn the trade of 
carpenter, which he subsequently followed in 
Boston until 1844; went to Lawrence when that 
present city of 60,000 inhabitants had a popu- 
lation numbering five women and a very few 
men, and remained there until 1849. 

Among the enthusiastic emigrants who sought 
California in that year was Mr. Ham. He left 
New York October 13,1849, on the steamer 
Ohio, made the journey via the Isthmus of 
Panama, and arrived at San Francisco in De- 
cember. In January, 1850, he went to the mines 
and was very successful, returning to San Jose 
in the fall and there establishing a general mer- 
chandise business. San Jose was then in its 
infancy and there were few stores in the town. 
Two years later Mr. Ham went to San Francisco 
and engaged in a general commission business, 
which he followed extensively for twenty-three 
years. He was an active member of the vigi- 
lance committee in the troublous days of 1856, 
and raised the first company of mounted troops, 
of which he was the First Lieutenant. Later he 
enlisted in Company B, and was elected Cap- 
tain. There were 11,000 men enrolled, who were 
on duty five months; but, after hanging the four 



leaders, Casey, Corey, Brace and Hitherington, 
the hoodlum i left tli3 State, and order was re- 
stored. 

Mr. Ham first came to Tulare in 1872, and 
bought one of the first town lots sold by the 
railroad company. He built a large flour-mill 
west of the track, with a capacity of 200 barrels 
per twenty-four hours, which he opsrated until 
1877, when it was destroyed by the torch of the 
incendiary. He then went to Lemoore, where 
he built a flour-mill costing $30,000, and did 
an extensive business until 1885, when he sold 
out. Since about 1874 Mr. Ham has been 
interested in the lumber business at Tulare, 
with yards at Lemoore and Hanford. On July 
4, 1876, he was chairman of the committee and 
organized a large centennial celebration at Tu- 
lare, erected the flag pole on the plaza and had 
a grand time, the estimated attendance being 
5,000 people. Since the destructive fire of 1886, 
Mr. Ham has been extensively engaged in Tu- 
lare; has erected the brick blocks on the south 
side of Kern street, between J and K, including 
the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which he still owns. 

Mr. Ham has been twice married; first it; 
Massachusetts, in 1849, to Miss Henrietta "We..- 
dron, who died in Tulare in 1874, leavino- s.; 

o 

children, three of whom are now living, — Susa. 
H., Richard K. and Lydia M. He was again 
married at Lemoore, in 1879, to Miss Josephine 
Grey, and this union has been blessed with 
three children, — -Josephine M., Israel H., Jr., and 
Ira G. 

Mr. Ham has been a member of the I. O. O. 
F. since 1844, when he joined the Siloam Lodge, 
'No. 2, at Boston, Massachusetts. He has never 
been a seeker of public office, preferring rather 
to give his energies to his own business interests. 



jp| A. JOHNSON, of South Fork valley, 

Mp. Kern County, is a pioneer of Central 

bpi® California. 

He was born in Cooper County, Missouri, 

April 16, 1828, and reared in Pettis County, 



44G 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



same State. His father, Vincent Johnson, was 
a tanner and wheelwright hy trade, and a native 
of Virginia. He was, however, reared in Ken- 
tucky, but at the age of twenty years located in 
Missouri. He married Lucinda Allison, a 
native of Missouri, and of the seven children 
resulting from their union E. A. Johnson was 
the second born. He was reared on his fathers 
farm, left home at the age of twenty-one years 
and did teaming in New Mexico, from Santa 
Fe to El Paso, Texas. He subsequently came 
to Southern California and worked in Los An- 
geles County four years. He next located in 
Visalia, Tulare County; thence to Lynn's valley, 
from which point he teamed about ten years, 
tip to 1877. He then purchased eighty acres of 
land in South Fork valley, located four miles 
north of Weldon, where he raises fruit and alf- 
alfa. He has also 160 acres at the foot of the 
same valley. 

February 25, 1855, Mr. Johnson married Miss 
Gelena Warren, an orphan who was taken charge 
of by her uncle, Absalom Yarbrough. He 
brought her from Tennessee with his family to 
Texas. When she was ten years old her uncle's 
wife died in Texas, and then Mr. J. Dunlap, a 
well-known gentleman throughout Los Angeles 
and Kern counties, brought her with his family 
to California. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have six 
children, viz.: Amanda J., born August 8, 1856, 
now Mrs. F. S. Fugitt; Mary J., born February 
12, 1859, now Mrs. Frank Thurston ; Thomas 
A., born May 19, 1861, married Miss Martha 
Gann; Lucy A., born December 3, 1865, now 
Mrs. George Grimes, of Ventura County; Sarah 
E., born February 21, 1867; and Pearl, born' 
December 20, 1875. Mr. Johnson is known as 
an honest, frugal and peaceable citizen, and has 
the confidence of all his acquaintances. 



§EWIS STILES ROGERS, M. D.— Upon 
reflection the reader will see merit in the 
statement that there is no class of men who 
supply a more absolute demand and arc in a 



greater degree indispensable to a community 
than the pioneer doctor. 

The typical frontiersman is a man of strong 
physique and mental characteristics. He de- 
liberately walks over all obstacles, ignores with 
equal deliberation all laws of health, reaches the 
frontier, drives his stake in some secluded spot, 
and by force of circumstances eats what he can 
get and is usually less choice as to what he 
drinks. Nature in time rebels; an iron consti- 
tution is shattered. Under such distressing 
conditions, who of all men on earth is first 
thought of? The answer is, the doctor. And 
the doctor is summoned. The time may be 
midnight, the weather inclement, the distance 
uncertain, — most likely long, — and the way 
crooked and dark; streams that must be forded 
may be full from bank to bank; and last, but 
not least, the unfortunate frontiersman in a 
majority of cases has no money. The doctor, 
however, complacently rises from his couch, 
cautiously inspects and renews the stock of his 
saddle-bags, and saddles and straddles his trusted 
steed. The journey is made, the patient treated. 
and the trip, in all probability, repeated time 
and again. After a complete recovery, the doc- 
tor, in the " beautiful sometime," may, or rather, 
may not, get his pay. 

Dr. L. S. Rogers, of Bakersfield, a popular 
citizen and pioneer physician, is the Nestor of 
the medical profession in Kern County, and for 
years has experienced all that the foregoing 
picture implies and more. He located on Kern 
Island in 1868. A resume of his life will be 
found of interest to many, and is herewith 
given. 

Dr. Lewis Stiles Rogers was burn in Orange, 
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, January 4, 1835. 
His father, Elihu Rogers, was a farmer by OOCO 
pation. The orignal ancestors of the linger-" 
family were English. The Doctor's mother, net 
Beeraheba Stiles, traced her ancestry back to the 
French. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers removed from 
Pennsylvania to Illinois in 1847, and located in 
Lee County, about seventy miles west of Chi- 
cago. Thus the Doctor's boyhood days were 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



447 



spent in Pennsylvania, and his early education 
obtained in the common schools of his native 
town. After locating in Illinois he attended 
the academy at South Paw Paw, subsequently 
entered the Chicago Medical College, and gradu- 
ated at the latter institution in March, 1863. 
While there a student his abilities were dis- 
cerned, and upon the recommendation of his 
tutors, he was chosen and commissioned by 
Governor Yates, of Illinois, to proceed forthwith 
to the fields of Shiloh and Corinth, which bat- 
tles were then in progress, as contract assistant 
surgeon. There at the front he dressed the 
wounds of soldiers and was put in charge of 
the Corinth field hospital, and so acquitted 
himself as to receive the encomiums of his su- 
periors. 

He first practiced his profession at McHenry, 
Illinois, where he remained until 1868. At 
that place, in 1864, he married Miss Carrie L. 
Howland, a lady of much culture and refine- 
ment. Owing to her ill health, Dr. Rogers 
came to California, seeking a mild climate, and 
located at Bakersfield. She died here in 1875, 
leaving one daughter, Lottie, now Mrs. John M. 
"Wright, of Silver City, .New Mexico, who in- 
herits many of her mother's estimable qualities. 

In 1877 Dr. Rogers married Miss Dora B. 
Harris, and by her has one daughter, Olive 
Violet, born January 10, 1879. Mrs. Rogers 
is a thoroughly educated and accomplished lady, 
active in the society circles of Bakersfield, fore- 
most in any movement tending to the intellect- 
iial and social elevation of the community, and 
is ever ready to aid and encourage all worthy 
benevolent causes. As an artist, she is graphic 
and impressive with pencil and brush, and has 
produced several landscape, floral and stock 
pieces^which have attracted attention and elicited 
the favorable comments of critics of the art. 
The Rogers' home is one of the most attractive 
in Bakersfield, and is located at the corner of H 
and Eighteenth streets. 

Dr. Rogers owns valuable real estate in Ba- 
kersfield, and also has ranch property. He has 
held the office of Coroner of Kern County, and 



has served eleven years as County Physician. 
The Doctor is conservative and temperate in his 
language and habits, and is quiet and courteous 
in his demeanor. He is a life-long Republican 
in politics, aad takes advanced views in matters 
of national political reform. He is a member 
of Bakersfield Lodge, No. 224, A. F. & A. M. 



fRANK A. RUTLEDGE is one of the 
prosperous and esteemed citizens and stock - 
«j" ranchers of the Woody district in Kern 
County. He is the second born of the late 
Paschal Rutledge, a sketch of whom appears 
elsewhere in this volume. He was born on 
Cape Henlopen, in the State of Delaware, De- 
cember 8, 1852, and came with his parents to 
California |in 1854. He learned the trade of 
tinsmith of his father, and followed it as an 
occupation in Sonora, San Francisco, Stockton 
and other Central California towns up to the 
time when he located in Kern County on his 
present place in 1877. He has successfully 
developed a fine ranch of 160 acres, upon which 
he raises grain and hay. He was married No- 
vember 24, 1885, to Miss Mary F. Morey, daugh- 
ter of Robert Morey, then of Bakersfield, now 
a farmer of Ventura Cjunty, ail a pcoaj;: - o 
the coast. Mr. Rutledge is a man of enterprise 
and good social standing, and is esteemed by all 
who know him. 



fEORGE ELLIOTT, merchant and rancher, 
Oleander, Fresno County, California, is a 
native of England, born in 1840. His 
father, Peter Elliott, emigrated to Canada, in 
1846, and engaged in farming. In 1850 he 
settled at Comber, Essex County, there continu- 
ing his agricultural pursuits. George was edu- 
cated in Canada, and followed farming until 
1876, when he entered into mercantile business 
in Comber. Without experience in that line, 
he opened a general merchandise store and also 



448 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



did a lumber business, which proved eminently 
successful. 

Mr. Eliott was married at Comber, in April, 
1866, to Miss Sarah A. Jackson. In 1884 he 
left his store in charge of his eldest son and 
came to California. Pleased with the outlook 
for Fresno County, he bought twenty acres in 
the West Park colony, which he improved, 
planting vines and erecting fine buildings. In 
1886 the son sold the business at Comber and 
joined his father on the ranch, which they con- 
ducted successfully until 1888, when Mr. Elliott 
sold out and purchased 100 acres at Oleander. 
This property is located on Sumner and Orange 
avenues. He erected the necessary buildings, 
planted eighty-five acres to vines and ten acres 
in trees, and now has a thoroughly equipped 
ranch. In the spring of 1889, Mr. Elliott 
bought a store building and stock of goods at 
Oleander, and in May of that year opened his 
general merchandise store. He keeps a full line 
of family necessities and also agricultural im- 
plements and wagons. 

Mr. and Mrs. Elliott have two sons and one 
daughter, namely: Sarah, who married Robert 
Creelman, and lives in West Park; the sons 
are: T. E. Elliott, who attends the store, and 
G. P. Elliott, who has charge of the ranch. 

Mr. Elliott has made some very snccessful 
transactions in town and country property, and, 
having traveled much over California, is well 
satisfied with the resources of Fresno County. 



fOHN P>. SMITH dates his arrival in Cali- 
fornia in 1850, just sixteen days before the 
State was admitted into the Union. 
He was born in Chenango County, New 
York, April 8, 1827, son of Henry Smith, a 
native of New York, and grandson of Peter 
Smith, who was born in Holland and settled in 
NewjYork early in the history of that State. Mr. 
Smith's ancestors were of the Baptist persuasion 
and were mostly farmers by occupation. His 
father married Chloe P. Chapman, daughter of 



a Revolutionary soldier who was several times 
promoted for meritorious conduct in battle. 
Mr. Smith was the seventh born in their family 
of eleven children, of whom five sons and one 
daughter are now living. He was reared and 
educated in his native State, working on his 
father's farm in summer and attending the dis- 
trict school in winter. 

In 1850, as already stated at the beginning of 
this sketch, Mr. Smith came to the new El 
Dorado in search of gold. He spent the most 
of eighteen years as a miner, principally in 
Calaveras County. At one time he cleared 
$1,000 in six weeks, and during the first five 
years of his experience as a miner, he had pay- 
ing claims. After that, however, dame fortune 
seemed to desert him, and for thirteen years he 
prospected and dug with great expectations, but 
witn few returns, and he finally gave up the 
chase. In 1868 he had lost all he had gained, 
and at that time turned his attention to farm- 
ing. He purchased a hay ranch of 160 acres, 
100 acres pasture land and the rest tillable, 
being successful as a farmer there. He subse- 
quently sold out, removed to San Joaquin 
County and rented a ranch of 160 acres, on 
which he was very unfortunate; experienced two 
years of flood and one of drouth. After that he 
was engaged in teaming from Linden to Stock- 
ton for three years, with success. 

Mr. Smith came to Visalia in 1875. He 
purchased twenty acres of land near town, pay- 
ing for it $100 per acre. Prosperity has 
attended his efforts here, and he has since been 
enabled to purchase twenty acres adjoining it. 
This location was chosen in order that his chil- 
dren could have the benefit of good school facil- 
ities. He has reared his family, improved his' 
property, and now has a most beautiful rural 
home, where under hie own vine and fig tree, 
he is spending the evening of an industrious 
life. 

Mr. Smith's marriage occurred in I860, the 
lady of his choice being Miss Mary F. Cronk. a 
native of Pennsylvania. Her father, John 
Cronk, was a music teacher, and a native of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



449 




that State. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have four chil- 
dren, all born in California, viz. : Josephine E., 
Charles EL, Walter Sherman and Helen Ade- 
laide. 

Politically Mr. Smith has affiliated with the 
Republican party ever since its organization- 
He is one of the worthy early settlers of this 
State, whose ranks, as time goes by, are rapidly 
becoming thinned, and whose memories will 
always be cherished because of their courageous 
lives. 

SALTER DRAKE GRADY— It is sel- 
dom that xhe biographer has such 
material afforded him for his work as is 
clearly shown in the brief sketch which follows: 
There are many men in California, who, in 
boyhood days, have been thrown upon their 
own resources without means or family pres- 
tige, but who, through persistence, energy, 
nerve and pluck, have later in life risen to posi- 
tions of eminence among their fellow citizens. 
We repeat, there are many such men: compared 
however, with the number who fail absolutely 
or who reach only a mediocre position in their 
respective communities, the list is an infinitesi- 
mal ly small one. It is our pleasure to record 
in a conspicuous place on this list the name of 
Walter Drane Grady. Thrown upon his own 
resources at the age of ten years, an orphan 
without means, we find him to-day, but little 
more than a score of years later, one of the 
prominent citizens of Fresno — a man of wealth 
and influence and a prominent figure in city 
life. 

Walter Drane Grady, Esq., was born in Ten- 
nessee in 1852. When quite young, his par- 
ents, both Kentuckians, moved to Farmington, 
St. Francois County, Missouri, where his child- 
hood was spent. He subsequently attended 
the high school at Litchfield, Illinois, pursuing 
his studies there with marked success. His 
parents both dying about this time, he was left 
penniless and entirely dependent upon his own 



resources. After finishing his college conrse in 
Illinois, the law attracted him, and he studied 
for some time in the office of Bennett & See, 
Gallatin, Tennessee, and was admitted to prac- 
tice in that State. From there he removed to 
St. Louis, where for a time he engaged in the 
practice of his profession, and in January, 1874, 
he came to California. 

Proceeding to Fresno in 1875, he at once 
entered into the practice of law, in which he is 
now engaged, criminal law being a specialty in 
his work. Mr. Grady came to Fresno a poor 
man; but, through wise manipulation of real 
estate (and more especially the purchase of the 
Magnolia vineyard, in 1884) and by the careful 
and conscientious work done in his professional 
career thus far, he has amassed considerable 
wealth, and is to-day one of the well-to do men 
of the San Joaquin valley. 

The celebrated Magnolia vineyard is situated 
eight miles west of Fresro, and contains 400 
acres of raisins and 4,000 acres of wheat. The 
vineyard alone is valued at $150,000, the 
income from both raisins and grain being about 
$40,000 per annum at the present time. 
Besides other property adjacent to the city, he 
owns valuable real estate in the heart of 
Fresno, from which he derives a handsome 
profit. 

During his early career, our subject was a 
conspicuous figure in politics. There have been 
few Democratic conventions held in this State, 
in which he has not been a delegate or an active 
participant. In 1880 he was elected District 
Attorney of Fret-no County, and held the office 
three years. He has always given his party 
most vigorous support, and until the last few 
years, when he has dropped out of politics, he 
has been looked upon as one of the strong pil- 
lars of the party. 

In 1883 he built the Grady Opera House, the 
first theater ever erected in Fresno. Public- 
spirited and generous to a fanlt, Mr. Grady has 
won hosts of friends throughout the county in 
which he lives. 

He has been twice married. His first wife, 



450 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



nee Clara Williams, a native of California, to 
whom he was married in 1877, died in 1884, 
leaving one child. Mr. Grady's second mar- 
riage was to Miss Annie Wristen, in 1885. 

The family home is a substantial one, with 
attractive surroundings, located in the heart of 
Fresno, on the corner of K and Kern streets. 

'% • S i * l «|" ">" 



fOHN RILEY WOOLLEY, a well-known 
farmer of Exeter, Tulare County, and an 
early settler of California, is a native of 
Missouri, born February 18, 1849. His father, 
Alfred Woolley, was born in Illinois, and his 
mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth 
Ferril, was a native of Missouri. The family 
crossed the plains to California in 1854, when 
he was a boy of five years. They first slopped 
in Amador County, where the father engaged in 
mining and obtained considerable gold. Like 
most other miners, however, he afterwards lost 
it. Then they moved to Santa Cruz, from there 
to Lake County, and in 1866 came to Tulare 
County, settling near Farmersville. Three 
years later they sold out and returned to Lake 
County, and there the father died. 

John R. came to his present location in Feb- 
ruary, 1877, and purchased 160 acres of land, 
which he has improved by building, etc., and on 
which he lives. Here he is engaged in general 
farming and raising horses. He is also propri- 
etor of the stage line from Exeter to Visalia, 
and has charge of the United States mail over 
this route. 

Mr. Woolley was married in 1869 to Miss 
Agnes Spier, who was born on the plains in 
1853, while her parents were on their way to 
California. Of the ten children born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Woolley, three died when quite 
young, and those living are as follows: Laura 
Ellen, wife of Frank Harp, Visalia; Leora M., 
wife of C. S. Dann, Camp Badger; Charles H., 
Annie L., Roy, Mary, Elizabeth and Alta May. 
Mr. Woolley has been a Democrat, but for the 
past few years not voted with any particular 



party. He is a most worthy citizen and is 
highly respected by all who know him. 



Iff ERDINAND CRUSE was born in Ger- 
Jlfpl many, of German parents, September 11, 
T^ 1841. He was educated in his native land 
and in 1860 came to America, landing in New 
York. He was a horticulturist and worked at 
that business some time after his arrival in the 
United States. 

April 23, 1861, he enlisted in Company K, 
Eighth New York Infantry, and was first duty 
sergeant. He participated in the first battle of 
Bull Run and in all the engagements in which 
his regiment took part until 1863, when he was 
discharged. He had received two balls in one 
of his legs, which rendered him unable to do 
service in the infantry, and he enlisted in Com- 
pany I, First New Jersey Cavalry, and served 
under General Sheridan till the close of the war. 
While engaged in repelling a charge of the 
Confederate Black Horse Cavalry at Brandy 
Station, Mr. Cruse received three cuts on his 
forehead by a saber. He did not fall, however, 
until he had run his own saber through his an- 
tagonist. One of his skull bones was fractured 
and he was left ou the field for dead. The 
Black Horse Cavalry were considered almost 
invincible, but that fight destroyed their glory, 
as they were defeated with great loss. On ac- 
count of the wounds received there, Mr. Cruse 
was confined to the field hospital five weeks. 
He was afterward one of seven who volunteered 
to make a charge and capture four cannon that 
the enemy had received from England, and for 
gallant services rendered at that time the United 
States Congress voted each of the seven a itold 
medal. Mr. Cruse of course prizes his medal 
very highly. It is a beautiful pure gold star, 
with appropriate figures on one side and his 
name engraved on the other. The guns they 
captured are now at Washington in the United 
States arsenal. 

At the close of the war Mr. Cruse was honor- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



451 



ably discharged, after which he returned to 
Germany for a visit to his mother. Coming 
back to Philadelphia, through General Bnsh- 
back, he secui-ed a situation in the United States 
mint, and remained there three years. He then 
enlisted in the United States navy, on the flag- 
ship Colorado, and sailed to the East Indias, 
China and Japan. In Shanghai he was ordered 
to report to Hon. W. H. Seward, as that gentle- 
man's body-guard on his journey to participate 
in the arbitration between France and China. 
Mr. Seward, however, was taken with his last 
illness, came home, and never recovered. Mr. 
Cruse returned to the ship, and, after his four 
years' service in the navy, came on board the 
Great Republic to San Francisco. 

In 1874 he engaged in the brewery business 
in San Francisco. After being thus occupied 
nine months his wounds broke open and he was 
obliged to give up that business. On his re- 
covery he enlisted in the United States Twelfth 
Infantry; was stationed at Camp Halleck, Ne- 
vada; afterward transferred to Camp Thomas, 
Arizona; served his term and returned to San 
Francisco. At that time he received an ap- 
pointment in the custom house, where he re- 
mained until Mr. Cleveland was elected, when 
the old Union soldiers had to go. 

In 1885 Mr. Cruse came to Visalia and 
opened the F. Cruse saloon, which he has since 
conducted. He was married, in 1881, to Wil- 
helm Shall, a native of Germany. In national 
affairs Mr. Cruse is a strong Republican, but in 
local politics is quite liberal. "While in Phila- 
delphia, in 1867, he joined the Grand Army of 
the Republic; was a charter member of the 
Garfield Post in San Francisco; and is also a 
member of the G. A. R. at Visalia. 

m D. STOCKTON, M. D., one of the influ- 
I ential pioneers of Kern County, California, 
^ 9 is a native of Illinois. He was born Oc- 
tober 16, 1815, son of Robert and Phoebe 
(Whiteside) Stockton, both of Kentucky birth, 



the former of English and the latter of Irish 
descent. His mother was a cousin of General 
Whiteside, of historic fame. The Doctor's grand- 
father, a Kentucky pioneer, located in and im- 
proved a portion of the fertile valley in that 
State, known far and wide by his name. 

Dr. Stockton received the advantages of a 
good rudimentary education and later attended 
the Shurtleff College in Illinois. He received 
his medical education at the Physio-medical 
and Sanitarium College, Cincinnati, Ohio, grad- 
uating at that institution in 1838. For eight 
years he engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion in Illinois, after which he practiced in 
Texas and Kansas for a time. In 1856 he came 
to California and located in Sonoma County, 
where he owned and developed the well-known 
Stockton orchard; and in 1872 moved to Kern 
County and developed the well-known Stockton 
ranch. 

He was married, in 1840, to Miss Louise Spil- 
ler, a native of Tennessee, and to them were 
born nineteen children, of whom fifteen are now 
living. The Doctor resides on his ranch near 
Bakersfield, and is ranked with the venerable 
citizens of this county. To him belongs the 
distinction of having served in the Black Hawk 
war, being only sixteen years of age at that 
time. 

Christopher C. Stockton, fourth son of Dr. 
I. D. Stockton, has, by dint of his own industry 
and personal efforts, risen to a position of local 
prominence among the enterprising and pro- 
gressive men of Kern County. An outline of 
his life is as follows: 

Mr. Stockton was born in Williamson Coun- 
ty, Illinois, March 2, 1850. His primary edu- 
cation was supplemented by a course of study at 
the Pacific Methodist College, Sonoma, and 

o 

at Heald's Business College, San Francisco. 
His ambition developed in the direction of busi- 
ness and money-making, and, equipped with a 
fair education and a determination to at least 
secure a competency, he began work. He came 
to Kern County in 1871, at the age of twenty- 
one — his purse at this time having been drained 



4)2 



II I STORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



to meet school expenses — and was employed for 
one year by J. S. Ellis, at $1 per day. He took 
a pre-emption claim of 160 acres of land in Kern 
County on section 30, township 31, range 27, 
and this he improved and seeded to alfalfa, 
taking a profitable crop from the same for sev- 
eral years. He spent four years as a laborer 
and foreman on the Livermore ranch, and sub- 
sequently purchased his father's magnificent 
ranch, " The Stockton," which, within thirty 
days from the time of purchase he sold at a fine 
profit. His present home place, which consists 
of ten acres of choice fruit land, is located near 
Bakersfield. At a conservative estimate it is 
valued at $400 per acre, and on it he has erected 
a beautiful $3,000 residence. He also owns 
other valuable property, 30 acres adjoining 
Bakersfield and 270 acres located in sections 1 
and 2, township 29, range 27. 

Mr. Stockton was married, December 30, 
1884, to Miss Clara, daughter of Dr. Daniel 
Bowers, of Illinois. They have one son, Daniel 
Bowers Stockton. 

A. HENNICK was born in Fairfield 
County, Ohio, May 4, 1848. When he 
was quite young his father moved to 
Illinois and settled on a farm in that State, and 
there Mr. Hennick was reared and educated. 
At the age of twenty-two he engaged in farm- 
ing on his own account, continuing his agricult- 
ural pursuits in the Prairie State five years. 
Then, in 1875, he came to California, locating 
in Fresno County, on his present ranch, half a 
mile north of Kingsburg, and this has been his 
home for the past sixteen years. To his original 
ranch, which comprised eighty acres, he has 
added by more recent purchase uutil now he is 
the owner of 200 acres. This land he devotes 
to general farming and raisin culture, his vine- 
yard consisting of fifty acres, the vines being 
three years old. 

Mr. Hennick was married, in October, 1870, 
to Jennie C. Ferryman, a native (if Ohio. They 



have no children. Socially Mr. Hennick is 
connected with the following orders: Good 
Templars, Knights of Fythias, and Independ- 
ent Order of Foresters. He is highly esteemed 
in the community where he resides, and is an 
excellent type of the successful pioneer. 



f, R. FANNING, a rancher in West Park 
colony, Fresno County, was born in 1111- 
•o, ° nois, in 1840. His father was a farmer, 
who, in 1844, moved to Titus County, Texas, 
purchased 320 acres of land and carried on 
farming there until 1853, growing cotton and 
grain. In that year, accompanied by his family, 
he journeyed westward across the plains to 
California, via the southern route through Ari- 
zona. He passed one year in Los Angeles, then 
three years at Santa Barbara, engaged in farm- 
ing and stock-raisin^, after which he went to 
Mendocino County, there continuing the same 
pursuits. 

The subject of our sketch lived with his 
parents until 1866, when he was married, in 
Suisun City, Solano County, to Miss Lodema 
Church, daughter of M. J. Chnrch, the father 
of irrigation in the San Joaquin valley. After 
his marriage Mr. Fanning settled in Lake 
County and engaged in farming and stock-rais- 
ing, dealing largely in sheep and hogs. In 1869 
he came to Fresno County, soo.. afterward, how- 
ever, going to Kern County, where he owned 
and ran a sawmill one year. He then returned 
to Ukiah, Mendocino County, and started a gro- 
cery store, which he conducted with profit for 
three years. In March, 1873, he returned to 
Fresno County and engaged in the sheep busi- 
ness. In 1874 he established a store in Fresno, 
later associating himself with M. J. Domihoo in 
the hardware business, under the firm name of 
Donahoo & Fanning. He subsequently dis- 
posed of his interest in the hardware store, and 
engaged in the general merchandise business, 
which he followed until 1886, when he retired 
to his ranch. In ISSo he purchased 200 acres 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



453 



of wild land, which, with the aid of his sods, he 
has brought to a high state of productiveness. 
He began the stock business, but thinking land 
too valuable for that purpose, he turned his 
attention to vineyard and fruit interests, and 
now has seventy -five acres in vines and ten acres 
in trees. In connection with his sons, Mr. 
Fanning also rents about 2,000, acres which they 
sow in grain, using the heavy machinery and 
combined harvester. 

From 1888 to 1891 Mr. Fanning served as 
Deputy Assessor, under W. J. Hirtchinson. He 
and his wife have two children, Frank P. and 
Fred R., both married and living in their com - 
fortable homes, contiguous to the home ranch. 



^r 



7=5" 



fAPTAIN SAMUEL H.ANDERSON, one 
of the pioneers of California, is a native o 1 " 
Belfast, Ireland, born March 10, 1828, the 
son of a master mariner and a ship-owner. Cap- 
tain Anderson went to sea at eleven years of 
age, and with his father navigated the Mediter- 
ranean, Baltic and White seas, besides doing a 
general coasting business at various leading 
European seaports. In 1845 he sailed for the 
river Platte in South American, under the Eng- 
lish flag, to do naval service. After remaining 
on the coast of Bio Janeiro two years, he sailed 
around Cape Horn as second officer of a mer- 
chant-ship, Chimborazo, and on the west coast 
of South America engaged in the whaling busi- 
ness, as officer of the ship Enterprise, of Nan- 
tucket, in 1848. He abandoned that business in 
the spring of 1849, and sailed from Chili for 
San Francisco as captain of a ketch of nine tons' 
register, where he arrived in July of the same 
year. The winter of 1849-'50 was spent boat- 
ing in San Francisco bay, when he went to the 
mines. He spent the years up to 1861 in the 
mines of southern Oregon and California, when 
he returned to Belfast, the home of his youth, 
and re-engaged in navigating the seas. He 
purchased a vessel, and was at sea for four and 
a half years. In 1865 he returned to the Pacif- 



ic coast, navigated the Sacramento river, and 
engaged in the ship-rigging business until 1870, 
when he located in Kern County. Since that 
time he has been identified with the irrigating 
and farming interests of this county, and is said 
to be the first man to construct and locate a 
water gate in Kern County. He owns and is 
developing 400 acres of fine bottom land on 
Kern river near Bakersfield. 

The Captain is a genial, whole-souled gentle- 
man, enterprising, broad in his views upon 
public questions, and is esteemed by all who 
know him. He has been twice married, the 
first being to Miss Sarah Donald, at Sacramento. 
She died in 1878, leaving four children. His 
present wife, nee Eliza Mackey, he married in 
1885. She is a lady of fine domestic tastes and 
a frugal helpmate. 



fBDCKLAND, a resident of Washington 
Colony, Fresno County, was born in 
. Q Canada West, in 1852. His father was 
a farmer, but more particularly a dealer in fine 
horses. He emigrated to California in 1872 
and settled at San Jose. He brought out the 
first Yorkshire coach stallion and the second 
Suffolk Punch stallion — a draft horse, weighing 
1,965 pounds — that ever came into the State. 
Both were imported horses and prize animals. 
In 1875 Mr. Buckland moved to Santa Rosa, 
purchased 154 acres on Mark West creek, and 
continued his stock business and farming opera- 
tions. 

The subject of this sketch was married, at 
San Jose, in November, 1876, to Miss Alice 
Clark,anativeof Ohio,and in 1878 they moved to 
Washington colony, Fresno County. Mr. Buck- 
land first rented land here, and in December, 
1880, bought his present property, twenty acres, 
at the corner of Lincjln and Orange avenues. 
He had but little money to start with and, after 
making the first payment on his land, as the 
resources of the county were undeveloped, he 
began teaming and working about the colony, 



454 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



getting knowledge of the country and also mak- 
ing a living. In the meantime he was improv- 
ing his land by planting vines, fruit trees and 
alfalfa, and a very productive and well improved 
ranch is the result of his untiring industry. 
His crop in 1890 sold for $1,981. One hundred 
and forty-four apricot trees produced ten tons 
and 1,600 pounds of green fruit. 

Like his father, Mr. Buckland is an admirer 
of fine horses. He keeps five work horses and 
a line stallion, " Baird, Jr.," which weighs 1,455 
pounds, — a prize general-purpose horse. He 
also owns the celebrated imported Cleveland 
bay stallion, Duke of Edinburg, also a great 
prize winner, having taken ten first and one 
second. Besides cultivating his- own land, Mr. 
Buckland rents 160 acres for grain farming. 
He is a man who takes a deep interest in any 
movement which has for its object the improve- 
ment of his section of the country, and he has 
the respect of all who know him. As a mem- 
ber of the Board of Trustees of the Oleander 
school district, he is an efficient officer. 

Mr. and Mrs. Buckland have two children, 
Ethel and Alfred, and in their comfortable home 
they are already enjoying the results of pioneer 
labors. 



->^V 



'>?•; 



|LIAS JOHNSTON DRAPER, of Kings- 
burg. — About the middle of the seven- 
teenth century, three brothers named Dra- 
per arrived in New York and separated, Josiah, 
the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, lo- 
cating in North Carolina. In 1794 his son 
Jesse was born, and in 1815 they moved to 
Wayne County, Indiana, locating on Duck 
creek. Jesse first married a Miss Davenport, a 
relative of George Davenport, who was mur- 
dered by the noted " banditti of the prairies," in 
1845, on Rock Island, and after whom the city 
of Davenport, Iowa, is named. By this mar- 
riage there were five children, — one son and 
four daughters. The second time he married a 
widow named Sarah Harlan, who also had five 



children, — two sons and three daughters. She 

was a daughter of Enos Johnston, of East Ten- 

nesee, and half-sister of General Albert Sidney 

Johnston, of the last war, and she was born 

August 21, 1796, in the town of Vandalia, 

Wayne County, Indiana. In 1836 her father 

moved to Grant County, same State, locating in 

the town of Marion, where he engaged in farm- 
ed O 

ing. In earlier life he was a miller by trade. 

At the age of nineteen years our subject be- 
gan teaching public school. January 1, 1851 
he married Miss Elizabeth Hobaugh. After 
living upon his father's farm a year he moved to 
New London, Howard County, Indiana, with 
the view of remaining there; but during the 
ensuing winter his half-brother, George W. 
Harlan, returned from California, bringing re- 
markable accounts of the resources of that coun- 
try. He had emigrated there in 1846 and ac- 
quired a good fortune. The following spring 
(1853) he took a drove of cattle across the 
plains, accompanied by Mr. Draper, wife and 
one child. Crossing the Missouri river twelve 
miles above Council Bluffs, May 10, they pro- 
ceeded up the north side of the Platte river, and 
by way of Salt Lake City, down the Humboldt, 
crossed Nevada and came by way of Stockton 
to Mission San Jose, arriving October 4, after a 
very tedious trip of six months' travel. 

Mr. Draper soon obtained work, at §4 a day, 
for a time; next he moved to the ''Squatter- 
ville " settlement, in Alameda County, where 
San Leandro now stands, and was employed in 
his brother's dairy, at $65 a month. He after- 
ward established a dairy in Oakland, by which 
he made some money. In Oakland at that time 
there were only two small dry-goods stores and 
one grocery, and they were situated on Broad- 
way near the old wharf. Nine-tenths of the 
population were foreigners. 

After a time Mr. Draper moved back to the 
ranch and continued in the dairy business. In 
1856 he and his family, and other relatives, re- 
turned to Indiana, sailing on the Golden Gate 
to the Isthmus of Panama, and thence by rail- 
road to Aspinwall, and thence on the George 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



455 



Law to New York, the voyage occupying twen- 
ty-three days and eighteen hours. He located 
at Xenia, Miami County, Indiana, and followed 
merchandising for two years, with rather poor 
success. In 1858 he moved to Iowa, locating 
in a small village called Peoria City, in Polk 
County. During that year Mrs. Draper died, 
leaving two little hoys and an infant girl only 
eight days old, which children were then taken 
in charge by a sister of Mr. Draper. During 
the ensuing winter he taught school. In the 
spring he married Mrs. Lydia Hobaugh, the 
widow of his former wife's deceased brother. 
After clerking in a store for a while and ped- 
dling goods tor the proprietors, he engaged in 
shoemaking, adding a small stock of ready-made 
clothing and shoes, and filled the position of 
Justice of the Peace for three years. 

In the spring of 1863, in keeping with a long 
cherished desire, he started again for Califor- 
nia, with his family and others, having two 
yoke of steers and two yoke of cows to each 
wagon. Leaving Des Moines March 31, he 
crossed the Missouri river at Council Bluffs, 
went up the north side of the Platte and came 
by way of Salt Lake City anu the stage route to 
Reese river, arriving there July 10, amid the 
height of the excitement of the first mine dis- 
coveries in the Reese river country, at a 
village named Austin, springing up in conse- 
quence of the discovery. Remaining there un- 
til the first of October, with his family he started 
onward for California, arriving at Sacramento 
at the time of Govornor Low's inauguration. 
A month afterward he visited ISTiles station in 
Alameda County, finding a wonderful change 
since his residence there ten years previous. 
He therefore made up his mind to try a newer 
country and started for King's river, a distance 
of 200 miles south ; found a wild and romantic 
country, with only a few men there, who were 
mostly stockmen. He soon located, buying a 
claim opposite the point where Kingston now 
stands. He began raising hogs, and continued 
there till the spring of 1869, when he sold out to 
Mr. St. John, the occupant of the Laguna de 



Tache grant, and moved to Cholame valley, 
Monterey County, and taking his hogs around 
to the west side of Lake Tulare, where he had 
good range and at one time had about 500 head. 
During the two years of his operations there he 
prospered in this business. Selling out he be- 
gan sheep raising, in the same valley, and did 
well also in that business for two years, when 
the great drouth put a total stop to it. He sold 
his stock at thirty-seven and a half cents ahead, 
throwing in the lambs. Then, in 1875, he 
moved to Kingsburg, Fresno County, bought 
lots and improved them, and built the hotel 
known as the Temperance House, which he still 
owns and conducts. In 1886, however, he tempo- 
rarily retired to his ranch of eighty-four acres a 
half mile west of Kingsburg, which is devoted 
to grain and fruit. He also owns 160 acres of 
timber land on Pine Ridge, a locality to which 
he frequently takes his family to spend the 
summer. His family now consists of four chil- 
dren, — two boys and two girls, namely: Theo- 
dore H., Francisco A., Lucy I., Harlan and 
Sarah E. Seance. 



•E 



^ 



§E. BURLEIGH. — In the foremost ranks 
of the extensive and successful grain 
° growers of Fresno County, we find the 
subject of this sketch. 

Mr. Burleigh was born in Manhattan, Riley 
County, Kansas, in 1862. His father emigrated 
to California in 1874 ^and settled in Fresno, 
where he engaged in mercantile business. In 
1881, at the age of nineteen years, young Bur- 
leigh began his business career by teaming. In 
1884, in partnership with his brother, F. L. 
Burleigh, he turned his attention to grain farm- 
ing, beginning on a small scale and each year 
increasing their operations until 1891, when 
they sowed 4,000 acres. They rent much of the 
land they cultivate, but own 460 acres in West 
Park, 100 acres of which are in alfalfa, seventy- 
six acres in Muscat vines, and four acres in or- 
chard. They keep eighty-six head of work 



456 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



horses and mules, about thirty head of cattle, 

fifty sheep and goats, from fifty to five hundred 

hogs — according to the market and about fif- 
es £> 

teen colts. When their teams are not employed 
on the ranch, they keep from one to four ten- 
mule teams on the road, drawing lumber from 
the mountains. They have two well- improved 
homes, where they reside and look after their 
extended interests, all of which are in common. 
Both of these gentlemen are full of push and 
enterprise, and as a result of their well directed 
efforts they are surrounded by the comforts of 
life. 

H. E. Burleigh was married in Fresno, in 
1882, to Miss Mary L. Strickland. They have 
three children, namely: Myrton Everett, Will- 
etta May and Sarah Elnore. 



I*»- 



g< » "}« 



"-«* 



fAMES E. HUGHES, one of the prominent 
and successful vineyardists in the Malaga 
tract, four miles south of Fresno, was born 
in San Joaquin County, California, in 1855. 
His father, Thomas E. Hughes, is prominently 
known throughout the valley. 

James E. was educated at Knight's Ferry, 
Stanislaus County, and subsequently, as a mem- 
ber of the firm of Thomas E. Hughes & Sons, 
was interested in the stock business. In 1878 
he came to Fresno County and with his brother, 
W. M. Hughes, took charge of their large sheep 
interests, renting vast ranges and herding 15,000 
sheep. In 1882 the firm discontinued sheep 
raising and engaged in the real-estate business. 
They bought and placed upon the market the 
Fresno colony tract of 5,200 acres, and James E. 
went to San Francisco and opened an office to 
better conduct the sale of the lands. In 1883 
he returned to Fresno and planted an orchard of 
ninety acres of various fruits. Owing, however, 
to the dry weather and the grasshopper plao-ue 
of that period, his trees and vines were entirely 
devoured. Even the sacks which were wrapped 
around the trees for protection, were eaten. 
In 1886 Mr. Hughes went to Tulare and as- 



sociated himself with the real-estate firm of 

Hughes & Brawley. They ran excursions from 
Los Angeles and started the boom in real estate 
of that period. Mr. Hughes organized the Emi- 
gration Association of Tulare County, of which 
he is still president. In 1887 he purchased a 
tract of 720 acres, including Highland Springs, 
Lake County, which was fitted up with exten- 
sive hotel accommodations as a sanitarium; but, 
after running the hotel two years, the enterprise 
seemed a failure, and with a heavy loss he traded 
the property with George A. Noble for Fresno 
County property. Included in the trade, was 
the eighty-acre ranch upon which he now re- 
sides. This property was highly improved in 
vines and trees, handsome and commodious 
house and fine outbuildino-s. The White Adri- 
atic tig orchard of fourteen acres is the largest 
individual orchard in the State. Mr. Hughes 
also has twenty acres in white nectarines, ten 
acres in peaches and thirty acres in vines. In 
1890 the fruits of his ranch sold for $8,300, the 
purchaser to pick and cure the fruit. Mr. 
Hughes is fitting the ranch with every con- 
venience, dryers, packing-house, etc., to prop- 
erly handle and care for the fruit. 

The subject of our sketch was married, in 
1882, to Mi ss Ida A. Jenkens, a step- daughter 
of E. C. Ferguson, one of the early stockmen 
of the valley. He and his wife are the parents 
of two children : Edwin Earle and Carrie Louise. 

Mr. Hughes is a member of Fresno Lodge, 
No. 186, I. O. O. F., and Fresno Lodge, No. 
247, F. & A. M. 

fRANK D. ROSENDAHL is a native of 
Sweden, born in 1843. He was educated 
in Stockholm, subsequently giving his at- 
tention to the study of surveying and landscape 
gardening, and for several years before coining 
to America, in 1868, he was engaged in laying 
out parks and taking charge of important sur- 
veys. 

After reaching America he lived in New 




I. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



457 



York city live years and a half, during which 
time he was employed as one of the gardeners 
in the famous Central Park, the finest park in 
the world. Then he came to California, and, 
in the same capacity, was for one year connected 
with the Golden Gate Park of San Francisco. 
At the end of this period he engaged in the 
nursery business in Oakland, and in 1878 we 
find him in Fresno County as one of the first 
settlers in the Washington colony near Fresno. 

Mr. Rosendahl entered upon his career in 
this county with little or no capital. He set 
out his land in raisins and also established a 
nursery. Seven years later he sold out for $10,- 
000, and moved to Kingsburg (in 1885), where 
he could make a better investment in land and 
secure a larger ranch for his operations. By 
energy and judicious management he has ac- 
quired a competency. He now owns a tine 
place of 150 acres, on which is a handsome res- 
idence, and near by he owns a forty-acre ranch. 
Of his land 140 acres are in raisin grapes and 
forty in various kinds of fruit, all in a flour- 
ishing condition. He has also invested in town 
property and is thoroughly identified with the 
place. 

Mr. Rosendahl was married in 1866 to Han- 
nah Elizabeth Wickman, a native of Sweden. 
Two sons and three daughters have been born 
to them. The oldest son, Frank, owns a tract 
of land near his father's and is himself engaged 
in fruit-raising. 



J. CHURCH, of Fresno.— Among the 
representative men of the State of 
California whose principal life work 
has been performed within the territory com- 
prehended in this volume, there is no instance 
where a great success has been accomplished in 
the face of so many obstacles and so determined 
opposition as is illustrated in the career of the 
gentleman whose name heads this sketch. Cer- 
tainly few men could have withstood the physi- 
cal and mental strain to which he has been sub- 

29 




jected, and rare indeed are they possessing the 
qualifications of determination, energy and in- 
dustry necessary to the task which has been his. 
Much of his work for Fresno must be recorded 
in the general chapters of history of this vol- 
ume, and yet the circumstances of the case de- 
mand a much more than passing notice of him 
in a separate and special connection. Therefore 
a few of the salient features of a long career of 
honest usefulness are here appended as a brief 
outline sketch. 

Moses James Church was born in Chautauqua 
County, New York, at a point about one mile 
east of Sinclairville, on the 27th day of March, 
1819. His parents, Joshua and Sophronia 
(Shurtleff) Church, were both of old families of 
New England, and both natives of Massachu- 
setts. On his father's side his ancestry was 
Scotch, while on that of his mother he comes 
of a family distinguished in England as well as 
America, of which they were among the early 
settlers at Plymouth. Many of its members 
have become distinguished in letters and in the 
sciences, and the name of Shurtleff is to-day an 
honored one in the learned professions. 

The father of our subject, a wheelwright by 
trade, was well versed in the kindred branches 
of trade. When a young man, and not long 
after his marriage, he removed to Chautauqua 
County, New York, and established himself at 
Sinclairville in his business, manufacturing 
spinning-wheels on an extensive scale for the 
New York and New England trade, as well as 
making furniture generally. When M. J. was 
in his ninth year his mother died, and in 1832, 
a few years later, his father removed with the 
family to Erie County, Pennsylvania, where 
they took up their location at Springfield, at 
which place the father again embarked in his 
old line of trade. Our subject was in his 
eighteenth year when he took up the trade of 
blacksmithing, fitted himself thoroughly in all 
its departments, and later was married there to 
Miss Sarah Whittington. He had been some 
time proficient in this business, when the family 
with himself removed again, this time to Indi- 



458 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ana, locating at Crown Point, a place about forty 
miles from Chicago. In 1845, his eyesight 
failing him, he started south in company with 
a physician who was the owner of medicinal 
springs in Florida. When they had reached 
Columbus, Georgia, his eyesight had so im- 
proved that he decided to stop there. A cor- 
poration was about establishing itself in the 
cotton- manufacturing business there, to follow 
the improvement and utilization of the water 
power of the river; and, it becoming known that 
Mr. Church was a Northern man who had much 
practical experience in iron-working, he was 
solicited to locate there, with the result that he 
entered the employ of Mott & Mustion, who> 
while being the owners of several stage lines, 
were also, with John G. Winters, large holders 
in the corporation which started the mill build- 
ing at Columbus. Thu it was that Mr. Church 
supervised the construction of the iron work for 
the first mill that started the great cotton-man- 
ufacturing interest of Columbus. A paper mill 
on an extensive scale followed, and for this he 
performed a similar service, as well as for other 
cotton factories, which rapidly followed npon 
the completion of the first. He finally left 
Columbus in 1850, and at that time there were 
some fifteen mills built and in operation, em- 
ploying thousands of hands, and others under 
construction and in contemplation. 

Leaving Georgia, he went back to Lake 
County, Indiana, where he remained until the 
spring of 1852. Having determined to try his 
fortunes in California, and completed his ar- 
rangements therefor, he then set out by ox team, 
with his wife and four children, for that far- 
away land of hope and promise. Crossing the 
Missouri river at Council Bluffs, he proceeded 
westward in company with one of the many 
trains bound for the same goal, the route chosen 
being by way of Forts Kearney and Laramie, 
Sublette's cut-off and Carson, bringing up at 
Hangtown in the fall, after a somewhat severe 
trip, caused to some extend by the scarcity of 
feed for the stock, which suffered deprivation, 
and to some extent loss, from this source. 



He bought, the first blacksmith shop in the 
town and established himself therein, carrying 
on the business at that point for about a year. 
Then he went to Diamond Spring to do some 
work in connection with the construction of a 
ditch for the firm of Bradley, Berdan & Co., 
the object of which was to carry the water out 
of the Cosumnes river for mining purposes. 
This water was also used for irriy-atinsr small 
orchards and gardens, and here Mr. Church re- 
ceived his first ideas on the possibility of using 
water on a large scale for irrigation. This sub- 
ject occupied his mind for years before he at 
last found the opportunity to put his plans into 
practical operation. But that time came, and 
he improved the opportunity to do for California 
awo rk which is not yet by any means adequately 
appreciated. After about a year and a half there, 
the ditch having been completed, he went down 
into the plains near Stockton, on the Mokelumne 
river, where he resided for a couple years. While 
there he came near tapping the Mokelumne river 
for irrigation purposes, and it may here be 6aid 
that had he done so with the vigor he after- 
ward showed in other scenes, the whole history 
of that region would have been changed. The 
importance which that work, accomplished at 
that time, would have assumed, can scarcely be 
estimated; but such a work has at this writing 
just been completed, and while the advantage of 
time has been lost the most sanguine expecta- 
tions of its most enthusiastic promoters are al- 
ready exceeded by even more than fulfilment. 
However, Mr. Church left there without under- 
taking the project, and went to Napa City, where 
he again established himself in business, remain- 
ing there until the fall of 1868, when he dis- 
posed of his Napa interests, and, having pur- 
chased about 2,000 head of sheep, came to 
Fresno County in search of pasture. He first 
located on Government land, one mile north of 
''Yank'' Hazelton's place, and three miles 
northeast of Centerville, where he built his 
cabin and sheep corral, and intended to make 
his home through the winter. 

After laying in his winter supply of provia- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



459 



ions and a quantity of wheat for sowing, the 
cattle men, headed by "Yank" Hazelton, began 
molesting him, destroyed his cabin and effects, 
and threatened his life unless he immediately 
departed from that locality and removed his 
sheep, as they claimed by right of possession 
that entire coilntry. The ranches at that time 
were along King's river and in the bottom land, 
the plains being considered nothing but an arid 
waste, given over to horned toads and wild cat- 
tle. Mr. Church found temporary protection 
with a neighbor, and a month later they all 
moved down the river to a place four miles be- 
low Centerville. 

The subject of irrigation again claimed his 
attention, and he clearly saw that if water could 
be brought out in ditches to the plains, this 
vast arid region would soon be converted into 
fertile fields. In selecting land suitable for his 
purpose, he decided on the sink of Fancher 
creek, three miles east of Fresno. He raised 
the first crop of wheat on these plains, the prod- 
uct being fair even without irrigation, but he 
fully demonstrated the necessity of irrigation 
to produce a full crop. He secured a franchise 
from the Secretary of State to take water out 
of the King's river, and by a survey he found 
it possible to connect the bed of the old dry 
channel known as Fanchor creek with King's 
river. This channel would carry about 1,000 
feet per second out on the plains, a distance of 
sixteen miles, to the sink of Fancher creek, 
three miles east of Fresno. Mr. Church was 
then appointed Deputy Land Agent, his duty 
being to locate settlers on this land, and by his 
personal efforts and correspondence he soon had 
200 people settled here. In this way his de- 
fense was greatly strengthened against the cat- 
tle men, who were determined to drive him out 
of the country. As the plowing and sowing 
began, their hostilities were aroused, and later, 
when the young crop was up, they drove their 
cattle on at night to consume and destroy! 

About this time the agitation became general 
over the State in regard to the adoption of the 
no-fence-law. By this it was proposed that the 



owners should fence in their stock, or have 
them herded and kept off the grain fields. The 
active and earnest work of Mr. Church and his 
warm interest in the no-fence law, made him 
extremely obnoxious to the alarmed and 
troubled stockmen, and he drew upon himself 
their special animosity as the instigator of the 
scheme of irrigation and wheat farming, and as 
the unflinching leader in favor of the new legis- 
lation. Thus aroused, the cattlemen organized 
to take his life, and three plots were confided to 
him by members of their own party, and he 
evaded them. Suits were then instituted, the 
plea of these men being that the cattle had the 
first right to water. Mr. Church, however, de- 
fended the farmers' rights to the water, and 
kept it running. We are safe in saying that 
in the last twenty years he has defended over 
200 suits, principally brought about by cattle- 
men. These are only a few of the difficulties 
with which Mr. Church had to contend, but his 
grand scheme of irrigation has been success- 
fully carried out, and his canals and ditches 
now exceed 1,000 miles. He is justly recog- 
nized as the father of the grandest irrigation 
district in the world. 

In 1886 Mr. Church sold the controlling in- 
terest of the Fresno Canal & Irrigation Com- 
pany to E. B. Perrin, who is now president of 
the company. With him are associated as direc- 
tors M. J. Church, Robert Perrin, T. DeWitt 
Cuyler and W. H. Ingels, the latter gentleman 
also acting as secretary of the company. 

In addition to the enterprise above men- 
tioned, Mr. Church has been largely interested 
in real-estate operations. In 1875 he placed 
upon the market the Church colony lands, 640 
acres. In 1883 he bought the California Bank 
tract, eleven sections, which he irrigated, sub- 
divided and sold. The Haughter tract, also 
eleven sections, he put under water. In it he 
owned a one-third interest. He also put the 
Fresno colony lands under water, receiving a 
one-half interest therefor. He is interested in 
thousands of acres of this land, which are yet 
unsold. 



460 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Speaking of tbe enterprises which lie has 
headed in and about Fresno, it may be men- 
tioned that in 1878 he erected a grist mill on 
the corner of M and Fresno streets, which he 
operated for five years. It was through his 
efforts that the Advent church was built here 
in 1888, he giving land and church to the then 
young denomination. He has also given five 
acres of land for cemetery purposes to every 
established church and secret order in the city. 
In 1888 he established the Fresno Sanitarium 
on M street, and is about constructing a four- 
story brick building, 150 feet square, corner of 
M and Mariposa streets, for a like purpose. In 
this he is assisted by Dr. M. G. Kellogg, as 
physician and surgeon. In the fall of 1890 Mr. 
Church purchased 1,800 acres of land in Cala- 
veras County, known as Lane's Springs, where 
he is building a sanitarium, containing forty 
rooms, which will be called Church's Springs or 
Health Dispensary. The situation is in the 
foothills, the surroundings are beautiful and ro- 
mantic, and the water is especially adapted to 
liver and pulmonary troubles. 

During the troublous times of the civil war, 
Mr. Church stood out prominent as one of the 
most steadfast advocates of the Union cause, 
and as a hard worker and supporter of the ad- 
ministration party. With five or six others he 
organized the first Republican Central Com- 
mittee of Fresno County, and was the first del. 
egate sent by the party of this county to a State 
convention. 

Mrs. Church, the faithful life companion of 
our subject, died in 1887, after a long career of 
usefulness. In looking back over his past life, 
Mr. Church remembers with deep feeling and 
emotion, the manner in which his true and 
steadfast helpmate stood by him in his early 
struggles in this valley, when he stood almost 
alone, the target of a hostile band; pursuing 
him with ever relentless hostility and seeking 
even his life, while his wife's brave-hearted en- 
couragement was substantially the only cheer 
that helped to bear him up. Her loss, there- 
fore, after a long life of wedded happiness, was 



to him tbe severest blow of his life. She was 
the mother of seven children, of whom five are 
living, and residents of Fresno or its vicinity, 
viz.: Lorenzo and Lodema (twins), John, George 
and Amanda. Those deceased were: Maria, the- 
wife of Charles De Long, and Susan, who at the 
time of her death was Mrs. John T). Forth camp. 

Mr. Church was again married in December, 
1890, to Miss Lizzie Matheny, a native of 
Montgomery County, Missouri, but who was 
reared from her ninth year in Butte County, 
California, and is an estimable lady. 

A review of Mr. Church's life since coming 
to this valley would in itself furnish a great 
portion of the material for a volume, hut, as so 
much of its matter is necessary to the general 
portion of a work such as this, only an outline 
resume should be used in this connection. It 
may be well to state here that the plan of irri- 
gation which has been used throughout his en- 
tire system is substantially and in detail the 
same as that under which he commenced, and 
which was his own idea. His ideas have been 
copied in large similar undertakings of late 
date, and his system is considered the best in 
the world. He never had to pay for right of 
way over more than one farm, and that was 
through 160 acres where he first tapped King's 
river, and there was a sharp practice which Mr. 
Church largely evaded by condemnation pro- 
ceedings. But the legal obstacles he has had to 
encounter through the exasperating and seem- 
ingly endless pursuit of a large party of oppo- 
nents, have been something tremendous. Suffice 
it to say in this connection, that M. J. Church, 
in his defense of irrigation rights, has fought 
the battle of Fresno — not merely the proud 
Fresno of to-day, but the light as well which has 
made that Fresno possible. Even now, well- 
posted, conscientious men give him the credit 
which is his, but the day will come when the 
part he has taken in this great prosperity will 
receive its full measure of acknowledgment from 
all its beneficiaries, who really constitute the 
entire population of the district over which lie 
has operated. 



HLSTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



461 



In his sanitarium work, to which hereafter, 
his whole attention as near as possible will be 
given, he has been guided by motives of philan- 
thropy and benevolence. While it is expected 
the institutions will be self-sustaining, yet no 
case will be allowed to go unhelped because of 
the lack of finances or misfortune of the party 
applying for the boons of the Church sanitari- 
ums. However, the rich who seek their certain 
aid will be allowed to contribute according to 
the value of services rendered. In placing Dr. 
Kellogg at the medical front of the institutions, 
a wise move has been made. He is the brother 
of the celebrated Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of Battle 
Creek, Michigan, who is in control of the best 
managed sanitarium in the world, while he him- 
self ranks in the profession as one of the ablest 
physicians of the day, on any continent. His 
brother, of the Fresno institution, is pronounced 
by those who know both, as fully the equal in 
skill and knowledge of his distinguished brother. 

In closing this brief sketch of Mr. Church, 
no better tribute can be paid the man than the 
recital of the fact that in the tremendous litiga- 
tion which has been forced upon him he has 
never figured as the aggressor, but always as 
the defender of others' rights, and that in every 
case the courts have upheld the justice of his 
position. 



W. STAUB, a vineyardist, residing in 
West Park colony, Fresno County, is a 
native of Missouri, born in Callaway 
County, in 1856. His father, J. Staub, emi- 
grated to California in 1865 and settled in Santa 
Cruz County, where he bought 700 acres of land 
and carried on stock and dairy farming, keep- 
ing 100 head of horses and cattle. 

The subject of our sketch was educated in 
the common schools at Santa Cruz, and lived at 
home until twenty-two years of age. He then 
began teaming in and around Santa Cruz. He 
was married in that town in 1880, to Miss Edith 
L. Morton, a native of Minnesota. In 1885 



they moved to Fresno and bought their present 
ranch of twenty acres, then wild land, never 
having been plowed. Mr. Staub at once began 
improving his property, built a house and barn, 
set out seventeen acres to Muscat vines and 
planted a small orchard. He keeps horses and 
cattle sufficient for ranch purposes, and the gen- 
eral appearance of this property indicates thrift 
and prosperity. 

Mr. and Mrs. Staub have two children: Celess, 
born in 1881, and Mary Elizabeth, born in 
1883. 

tLONZO TYLER, since 1876 a resident of 
Kern County, is a native of Gallia County, 
Ohio, born March 22, 1849. His father, 
Isaac Tyler, was a farmer, and left Ohio, locat- 
ing in Johnson County, Kansas, in 1856. Alon- 
zo, the second youngest of a family of five 
children, remained with his father in Kansas 
until 1875, and then came to California, locat- 
ing in Yisalia, Tulare County, for a year. In 
the fall of that year he commenced work on the 
Greenfields ranch, where he remained until 
July, 1889, when he took up his residence on 
his own property. Mr. Tyler's father died at 
his home in Johnson County, Kansas, in 1866. 
His mother, whose maiden name was Eunice E. 
Holcomb, is now spending the declining years 
of her life with him. Mr. Tyler is well known 
in Kern County as a reliable and straightfor- 
ward citizen. He has a fine ranch on the north 
side of Kern river, about seven miles north- 
west of Bakersfield. 



JpHARLESOAWREY,proprietorof the City 
llfyi Bakery, Fresno, was born in Canada in 
^1 1851. His ancestors for several genera- 
tions were bakers. In 1861 his father emigrated to 
Fayette County, Illinois, and farmed until 1867, 
when he moved to Bloomington and engaged in 
the bakery business. Charles was brought up 



462 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



in the bussness with his lather, learning the 
practical details ot'eveiy department. In 1874 
he went to Clinton, Illinois, worked at his trade 
thiee years, and then started an establishment 
which he continued very successfully until 
1886, when he sold out and went to Kanopolis, 
Kansas. In that boom town he was very pros- 
perous for a time, but the town died with the 
botm, and in 1887 Mr. Cawrey came to Fresno 
and bought the bakery business of Mrs. Kohler. 
on I street, which he has since conducted. In 
connection with his bakery he also has a restau- 
rant, in which the most delicate viands are pre- 
pared and served in a manner fitted to please 
the most fastidious. He runs two wagons about 
the city, and keeps a force of eleven men in 
bakery and restaurant. 

Mr. Cawrey was married in Clinton, Illinois, 
in 1881, to Miss Clementine Savage, a native of 
Pennsylvania. He owns considerable city prop- 
erty and also a choice vineyard west ol town. 
Mr. Cawrey is a member of De Witt (Illinois) 
Lodge, No. 84, F. & A. M. 



II. HARRIS was born in North Caro- 
lina in 1858. His father, a native of 
l-cffe*] ° England, and a miner by trade, emi- 
grated to Duquoin, Illinois, in 1859, and subse- 
quently moved to Johnson County, Missouri, 
where he continued mining. Young Harris 
took up the preliminary work of an engineer at 
the coal mines in Missouri, working about the 
hoisting engine. In 1870 the family removed 
to Clay County, Kansas, where father and son 
followed farming until 1874, then coming to 
California and settling in Fresno. 

After locating in Fresno, W. H. Harris began 
teaming, and was employed in that way for one 
year, after which he was variously occupied in 
and around Fresno three years. Then he went 
to the Champion Lumber Mills on Pine Ridge, 
was engaged about, the yard and in running the 
engine two seasons, and in 1883 returned to 
Fiesno. At that time he was appointed deputy 



constable, under John Barker; was also police- 
man, and was connected with the volunteer fire 
department. 

His faithful services as a volunteer fireman 
were fully appreciated by the public, and, in 
July, 1889, he was engaged as engineer of fire 
engine No 2, which position he still occupies. 
The engine is a double rotary Silsby, nickel- 
plated, and the hose wagon carries 1,000 feet of 
hose and two portable Ualloway chemical extin- 
guishers. The engine-house is located on K, 
between Inyo and Mono streets, and is well 
equipped with dormitories and social rooms for 
the firemen. 

Mr. Harris was married in Fresno in 1881, to 
Miss Sarah M. Shanklin, a native of Iowa. They 
have three children, Rena E., Leola E., and 
Edna E. In 1882 Mr. Harris built his home on 
N, between Merced and Tuolumne streets, 
where he is pleasantly situated. 



■MILLIAM MITCHELL, a citizen of the 

WmOT) United States by adoption, was born in 
i*4pfeH England, in December, 1845. His 
father was a miner, and from the age of twelve 
years William followed the same industry, be- 
coming very proficient. He was married in 
England, in 1867, to Miss Jane Mitchell, and the 
following year emigrated with his wife to the 
United States. 

After his arrival in America, Mr. Mitchell 
went to the Lake Superior mining district, 
where he was engaged in the iron mines for 
several years. He then visited the silver and 
lead mines of Nevada, and, after a few months' 
sojourn in that State, came to California, in 
1874, and settled in Amador County, giving 
bis attention to gold-quartz mining. His ex- 
tended experience in mining interests gained 
for him a position of trust and responsibility at 
that place. 

In 1878 Mr. Mitchell purchased twenty acres 
of land in Fresno County, continuing his min- 
ing operations, however, until 1885, when he 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



483 



settled on his ranch. His original purchase is 
located at the corner of East and Sumner ave- 
nues, Oleander, and to this he has since added 
forty acres, now owning a well improved ranch 
of sixty acres. Of this, thirty -five are in vines, 
twenty in alfalfa and the rest in orchard. In 
1890 he harvested his first crop of grapes, 
which amounted to $1,147. Mr. Mitchell is an 
energetic worker, and has devoted much time 
and labor to the improvement of his property, 
feeling well satisfied with the results. He con- 
siders his ranch worth more than he could ever 
have saved from his mining wages. He keeps 
six head of cattle and twelve horses. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have five children, all 
at home. 

- — #5H*ie^# — - 



fOLOMON" DAVIS, the pioneer merchant 
of Kingsburg and an early settler in other 
localities of California, was born in Aus- 
tria, in 1848. Soon after his birth his father 
moved the family to America and settled in 
Richmond, Virginia, where they remained a 
short time. In 1852 they came to California, 
locating in Mariposa and Tuolumne counties. 
In the counties mentioned and also in Merced 
County, where they lived ror twelve years, Sol- 
omon was associated with his father in the gen- 
eral mercantile business, their establishments in 
all cases being the pioneer stores and not infre- 
quently the only ones in the town. 

From Merced County Mr. Davis moved to 
Fresno County and opened the first store in 
Kingsburg, and has continued to live here ever 
since. The present firm consists of Solomon 
Davis and his brother, Samuel, their business 
being transacted under the name of S. Davis & 
Co. They have an extensive trade and occupy 
a high position in the community. Mr. Davis 
has large land interests in the vicinity of Selma 
and Kingsburg, and his recent operations in 
real estate have netted him a handsome profit. 
He owns to-day upwards of 3,000 acres of land, 
which he is renting and dividing up into colony 



lots. A short distance from the town he has a 
splendid raisin vineyard of 200 acres In all 
matters affecting the welfare of Kingsburg and 
vicinity he takes the liveliest interest. 

Mr. Davis was married iu 1882, and has a 
family of three children. 



-=&>K 



»*•£=- 



E. COUGHRAN, one of the leading 
K, stock-raisers of Kern County, was born 
in Arkansas, near the town of Washing- 
ton, on the line of the State of Texas, March 
23, 1849. His father, James Coughran, a na- 
tive of Illinois, was a successful stock-breeder 
and a farmer, and located in Arkansas about 
1830, with a family of twelve children, of 
whom the subject of this sketch is the youngest. 
He came to California in 1869, with his family, 
and located in Tulare County, near Visalia. 
Here he remained until his death, which occur- 
red in 1877, the mother having died five years 
previous. Mr. Coughran is extensively engaged 
in the stock business. He has eight sections of 
grazing; and timbered land in the foothills of 
Greenhorn mountain, besides 160 acres near 
Kernlsland. He married September 17, 1878, 
in Mariposa County, Miss Martha I. Burt, a 
daughter of George W. Burt, formerly a resi- 
dent of Arkansas. Mrs. Coughran was born 
December 29,1852. There are five children: 
John B., Lulu, Charles W., Mary L , and Da- 
vid D. 



M N. KING. — The growth and development 
M of Kern County owes its present enviable 
disposition as a stock and agricultural country, 
to such sterling pioneers as I. N. King, and it 
is not only the duty but the pleasure of the 
historian to note the circumstances which led to 
the final settlement of such determined, far- 
sighted and aggressive men upon the once bar- 
ren wastes of Kern County. Mr. King was 
reared in the pine-tree State of Maine. He was 



4C4 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



born at East Winthrop, August 21, 1823; learned 
the trade of shoemakiug in bis native town, and 
there pursued it for fourteen years. He came 
West in 1852, reaching San Francisco April 15 
of tbat year, lie soon proceeded to the gold 
fields of California and found ample demand 
for his abilities and energies. He received $6 
per day for about two months' work, and then 
followed mining for one year with fair success. 
He then engaged in slaughtering cattle and 
sheep and selling meats in Placer County. Thus 
the years intervening between 1852 and 1875 
were passed in the mining regions of the Golden 
State. Then he located upon his present estate 
of 240 acres, on section 22, township 30 south, 
range 26 east. He has bis ranch stocked with 
a good line of graded horses and cattle. Mr 
King was married at Winthrop, Maine, June 
25, 1846, to Miss Lavina W., daughter of 
Cephas and Almira Thomas, a farmer, and they 
have one daughter, wife of Rev. J. H. Peters, a 
clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Mr. and Mrs. King are good Christian people, 
and as such are held in high esteem for their 
many good qualities. 






jfgjfSERMAJS GRANZ, a vineyardist on Bel- 
f§§!) mont avenue, Fresno, was born in Ger- 
-■iM many in 1841. His early attention was 
given to the manufacture of furniture, and after 
learning the trade he followed that calling until 
be emigrated to the United States in 1868. He 
then passed one year in New York city, work 
ing at bis trade, and in 1869 came to San Fran- 
cisco, and there started a manufactory, in the 
construction of household and office furniture, 
supplying the wholesale trade. He bought his 
present ranch of eighty acres, adjoining Eisen 
vineyard, in 1881, which he has improved from 
year to year until the entire ranch is under 
thorough cultivation. He has fifty acres of 
wine grapes and the remainder in raisin grapes. 
In 1885 he built a winery and now manufac- 
tures about 40,000 gallons of sweet wine annu- 



ally; his raisins be dries and Bells to packers. 
He continued bis business in San Francisco 
until 1887, when a disastrous lire destroyed his 
plant and property, and he then retired from 
business and permanently settled upon his 
ranch, constructing a tine residence, and is i.ow 
giving all bis attention to his grape industry. 

Mr. Granz was married in New York, in 1868, 
to Miss Adelhied Paubofer, a native of Austria, 
and they have eight children, all living. Mr. 
Granz is a memberof the Sons of Hermann, and 
of the I. O. R. M., of San Francisco. 



fREDERICK ROEDPNG, one of the early 
pioneers of California, and among the first 
'^W landholders of the San Joaquin valley, was 
born in Germany in 1824. His early education 
was in the line of trade and in the general mer- 
chandise business, which he followed at home 
until 1846, when he went to South America, 
around Cape Horn, and landed at Valparaiso. 
He then passed three years in Chili and Peru, 
in the mercantile trade, and in 1849 he came to 
California. He then went to the mines, where 
he passed through many pleasant experiences^ 
as among the early miners he found many men 
of great intelligence. With the winter snows, 
they were snowed in and starved out, after 
which he returned to San Francisco. Early in 
1850 he opened a general merchandise business, 
as a member of the firm of Larco & Co., and fol- 
lowed the same until his retirement in 1878, 
having passed through a long and prosperous 
career. In 1849 Mr. Roeding was an active 
member of the first vigilance committee, and of 
the subsequent organizations of 1852 and 1856, 
which worked out such a salutary effect in the 
suppression of crime. In 1868 lie organized, 
and was one of the incorporators of the I rerm&n 
Savings Bank of San Francisco, and was later 
on elected vice-president and cashier, which posi- 
tions he held with great credit to himself and 
prosperity to the bank, until 1888, when, owing 
to failing health, he was obliged to retire from 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



465 



active business. He then improved the much 
needed respite, and with his family made an 
extended visit to his old home in Germany. 
In 1869 Mr. Roeding was one of an organized 
company to purchase 80,000 acres in the San 
Joaquin valley, and was one of the trustees to 
look after the sale and management of the land. 
In 1872 the tract was divided, and Mr. Roeding 
secured eleven sections as his portion. In 1872 
Mr. F. T. Eisen made the first purchase of 
land, 640 acres, at $10 per acre, and Mr. Hobler 
purchased one section at the same price, and 
with the development as undertaken by these 
gentlemen the possibilities of the valley became 
established and the land more desirable. In 
1877 Mr. Roeding placed the Nevada colony 
lands upon the market, under the management 
of S. A. Miller, who was then the proprietor of 
the Republican. In 1879 Mr. Roeding induced 
Jeff Donahoo to sow 320 acres of grain as an 
experiment, and Donahoo was to pay twenty-five 
cents per acre for the use of the land. This was 
the sediment land bordering on Fancher creek, 
and the crop harvested to an average of forty- 
five bushels to the acre. Mr. Roeding still 
owns five sections of land, most of which is 
rented and in grain. He started the Fancher 
Creek Nursery in 1884, with his son George C. 
as manager. Their nursery covers about fifty 
acres, and their specialties are figs, olives, fruit 
and ornamental trees. Mr. Roeding is now 
building a handsome residence for his son, but 
his family still resides in San Francisco. 



||MJL CORTI. — The early experiences of 
d Paul Corti are somewhat varied from those 
~\ of the average citizen of Kern County. 
He was born in the north of Italy, November 
1, 1838, where he spent his boyhood and youth. 
At the age of twenty he went to London, Eng- 
land, where he learned the art of silvering look- 
ing-glasses, and became so proficient that he 
was delegated to silver one of the largest mir- 



rors, which was finally displayed at the great 
World's Fair held in London in 1862. 

Hearing of the gold discoveries in New Zea- 
land, he made his way to the gold fields of that 
country, where he spent several years with 
varied success. He then went to Honolulu, 
where he prospected for a business location, but 
after a brief period came to San Francisco. He 
located his family at San Jose; came to Kern 
County in 1870. He spent three years in the 
mountain regions lumbering, and then pre- 
empted a one-fourth section of Government 
land. This he has improved and added thereto 
until he is now the owner of a very large ranch, 
being some of the best soil in Kern County, 
which is under a high state of improvements 
and cultivation. He has engaged somewhat 
extensively in dairying and stock-raising of late 
years. 



fHARLES S. STANTON was born in 
Watertown, New York, in 1853. His 
father, a Methodist clergyman, made his 
home in various sections of the Empire State, 
moving from year to year, as was the custom of 
the ministers of that denomination. Charles S. 
received bis education in Cazenovia, New York, 
graduating in the seminary in that place in 
1874. 

In 1876 he came west to California, and for 
four or five years made his home in Sutter 
County, where he was engaged in the drug busi- 
ness, and a part of the time served as book- 
keeper in mercantile establishments. In 1880 
he located in Fresno County, and in the town of 
Selma, then just laid out, he has continued to 
reside. When he came here he had his choice 
of two general stores in which to engage as 
clerk, and selected that of C. L. Judd & Co. 
Soon after he entered their employ the firm 
failed, and he bought them out, he himself sell- 
ing out soon afterward, to engage in contract- 
ing and building, which occupation he followed 
for several years. In 1888 he opeued a drug 



466 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



store on the west side of the town, and had estab- 
lished a good trade when a disastrous fire 
destroyed his property, entailing a heavy loss. 
Mr. Stanton soon directed his attention to the 
raisin industry, which now wholly occupies his 
time and energy. He has twenty acres of vines 
a mile and a half northeast of Selma, which is 
proving a profitable investment, and which, in 
this locality, seem to be no exception to the 
rule. 

Mr. Stanton chose for his life companion Miss 
Lizzie Brady, a native of Tulare County, Cali 
forma, whom he wedded in August, 1888. He is 
a prominent member of the 1. O. O. P., is a 
charter member of the Selma lodge, and its pres- 
ent .Recording Secretary. 



f^fcH 



^iO 



OTTO, of Fresno, was born in Gutens- 
wegen near Magdeburg, Germany, in 
1825, and in early life gave his atten- 
tion to the manufacture of beet sugar. He first 
went to Gr. Ammensleben to learn the science 
of the business, and there remained for nine 
years, — during the later years as manager. He 
then went to Barleben, Germany, and man acred 
a beet-sugar establishment for seven and one- 
half years; and then, with a strong desire to own 
his establishment, he emigrated to the broader 
field of the United States. In 1867 he left, 
Germany with his old friend Ewald Kleinau 
and they settled at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin 
where they leased land for a term of years, and 
erected a small mill, making all its machinery, 
even the copper worms, except boiler and 
engines. In 1870 they were induced to come to 
California and settle at Alvarado, Alameda 
County, and there join a company and superin- 
tend the same industry. From his long expe- 
rience in the business, Mr. Otto draughted the 
necessary parts of his mill machinery at the 
Risdon Iron Works in San Francisco, the cast- 
ings being made at the Union Iron Works; and 
the corporation erected a mill. Mr. Otto was 
also an able chemist, and was thoroughly skilled 



in every branch of his profession. The capacity 
of the mill was fifty tons of beets per day. Thej 7 
continued five years and then moved the mill to 
Soquel, Santa Cruz County, and there remained 
five years. Ovving to dissensions in the 
company he resigned his position, and with his 
friend Mr. Kleinau, went to the Sandwich 
Islands, and there managed a cane-sugar mill for 
six years, when he returned to California and 
settled upon his eighty-acre ranch on East ave- 
nue, Fresno, which he purchased in 1882. He 
immediately began improving, and now has 
thirty acres in vines, thirty in trees, and the 
remainder in alfalfa. He has built a large two- 
story house, two large barns, with steam dryers, 
and necessary buildings to properly care for his 
fruit interests. 

Mr. Otto was married in Germany, in 1856, 
to Miss Elsie Weinbeck, and they have eight 
children, six of whom are now living and are 
settled in different parts of California. The 
ranch is becoming very profitable, and although 
still young, in 1890 the net proceeds amounted 
to about $3,500, with the prospect of a splendid 
increase under its able management. 

... .i?»?nr • ? !■ ... — 

WM A. MONCUKE is the manager of the 
■•■, K"Yi Stockton ranch, one of the finest of the 
-c^® J. B. Huggin series in Kern County. 
Mr. Moncure is a Virginian by birth; is aeon of 
George V. Moncure, a farmer and politician of 
Stafford County, Virginia, where our subject 
was born, February 4, 1864. His boyhood was 
spent in the schools of his native town, and his 
youth up to 1880 was spent as a salesman in a 
dry-goods house. In 1883 he made his first 
visit to Kern County, and remained three years, 
when he gained his first practical experience in 
the cattle business. He spent the year 1887 at 
his Virginia home, and in 1888 returned and 
resumed his former duties with the J. B. Hair- 
gin Company. No better evidence of his ster- 
ling qualities and good judgment as a business 
man can be sited than the fact that the Lakeside 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



467 



on Stockton ranch, consisting of 15,000 acres, 
and the Mountain View ranch, of 1,000 acres, 
are given into his charge. On these ranches 
about 4,000 head of stock are herded. 



-=3-f 



§tW*§#i 



**=- 



"W. WHITE, a well-to-do orchardist of 
Kern County, came to California in 1875, 
from Warren County, Iowa. He was 
boru in Taylor County, Kentucky, July 17, 
1849. His father, Bushrod White, was a farmer 
by occupation, and came to California in April, 
1882, for his health, and died in May, 1888. J. 
W. White is one of the active citizens of Pan- 
ama precinct, has a nicely improved home of 
twenty acres, which he is developing as a fruit 
farm. He married in Iowa, in 1870, Miss 
Asenath, daughter of Samuel Hart, who was a 
farmer by occupation, and finally came to Cali- 
fornia for his health, and died in 1870. Mr. 
White has a family of nine children. 



fOHN F. HAMILTON, one of the first 
developers of West Park, was born in New 
Brunswick in 1858. He went to Auburn, 
Maine, in 1870, to live w.th his brother, and 
with him to learn the trade of manufacturing 
shoes. He remained there and worked in one 
factory eight years. His father and family came 
to Auburn in 1873 and engaged in keeping a 
hotel, and in 1878 John gave up the shoe busi- 
ness to assist his father. He remained with 
him until October, 1883, when he came to Cal- 
ifornia, first stopping at Biverside for a few 
months. He then came to Fresno and bought 
twenty acres in West Park, soon after the land 
had been subdivided. There were then no im- 
provements, and the land was a bare plain, hav- 
ing never been plowed. Mr. Hamilton soon 
began improving and planted 1,100 trees and a 
few vines, all of which were killed the following 
year by grasshoppers. Such incidents were fre- 
quently numbered among the hardships of the 



pioneer; but with the persistence of the New 
Englander, Mr. Hamilton began again, and he 
now has his ranch all under cultivation, — six 
acres in vines, 500 trees, and the remainder in 
alfalfa. He has also been a renter and grower 
of grain, but is now giving that up to attend to 
his ranch. He keeps seven horses, some fine 
Jersey and Holstein cattle, and about 150 hogs. 
In 1884 he went East and brought out his 
mother, who now cares for the household. The 
condition of the ranch indicates the thrift and 
industry of Mr. Hamilton's careful manage- 
ment. 



fTOELL M. JUDD, one of the venerable 
pioneers of California, and his residence 
in Kern County dates back to 1871. He 
was born in St. Lawrence County, New York, 
in the town of Massence, September 4, 1824. 
His father, Truman Judd, a farmer by occupa- 
tion, located in Winnebago County, Illinois, in 
1839. He was of English ancestry, and his 
mother, Elizabeth Smith, was of Scotch extrac- 
tion. 

The subject of this sketch, next youngest of 
the above family of six children, passed his 
early life in a new country and his advantages 
for schooling were consequently limited. He 
is of a mechanical turn of mind, and learned 
the trade of engineer in Illinois. He also 
learned, and for several years after reaching Cal- 
ifornia pursued, the trade of millwright. In 1879 
he turned his attention to stock-raising and lo- 
cated his present home on Government land, on 
160 acres, the northwest one-fourth of section 
28, township 31 south, range 27 east. In 1876 
he married Mrs. Mary, widow of Hiram Spooner, 
at Bakerstield. Her name was Mary Tain tor, 
and she was boru in Chesterfield, New Hamp- 
shire, in 1827. She has three children by her 
first marriage: one, Mrs. Emma Meacham, now 
widowed, lives in Bakerstield. Mr. Judd has 
seen much of pioneer life in this country and in 
the East, and although advanced in years retains 



468 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the vigor of younger days. He is a well-in- 
formed man upon the current issues of the day, 
and takes a lively interest in the development of 
his adopted town and county. He has given 
much thought to the solution of the subject of 
irrigation, and believes that the Government 
should control and handle the water of all arid 
countries. Mr. Judd is a Master Mason, a so- 
cial man and possessed of a generous nature, 
and the same qualities of mind and heart are 
all in a like degree characteristic of his estim- 
able wife. 



PR. PHILLIPS, proprietor of the Fresno 
Transfer Company, Fresno, was born in 
* Yazoo City, Mississippi, January 12, 
1857. His father, S. M. Phillips, a veteran of 
the Mexican war, was a practitioner of the law 
at Jackson, Mississippi. His death occurred in 
Yazoo City in 1861. In 1866 the family 
moved to Canton, same State, where B. R. 
Phillips received his education in the public 
schools, and in 1872 they came to California 
and settled at Centerville. The following year 
Mr. Phillips planted the first crop of cotton 
grown in the county, planting forty acres on 
the bottom lands of King's river, and raising as 
fine a crop as was ever grown on the uplands in 
Mississippi, the product being 450 pounds to 
the acre. Machinery, however, was very ex- 
pensive, and Liverpool the nearest market: so 
the crop was not a profitable one. In 1874 he 
put in an experimental crop on the uplands for 
G. H. Eggers, but it failed, owing to the ab- 
sence of water. 

Mr. Phillips then came to Fresno and was 
employed as clerk in the store of Kutner & 
Goldstein, remaining with them more than two 
years. Feeling the need of further education, 
he went to San Francisco and took a course of 
study in Heald's Business College. 

In 1880 Mr. Phillips was married, in Han- 
ford, to Miss Sarah Rogers, daughter of John E. 
Rogers, a pioneer of the Mussel Slough country 



and a raiser of fine work-horses. He was then 
engaged in farming near Hanford until 1883, 
when lie went to Oregon and Washington Terri- 
tory, and worked for the Oregon Railway & 
Navigation Company, returning to Tulare 
County in 1885, and continuing farming. In 
1887 Mr. Phillips engaged in the lumber busi- 
ness at Selma, as manager for D. B. Stevens, 
and in 1888 he secured a position in the United 
States Internal Revenue Department, as gauger 
and storekeeper, from Los Angeles to San Fran- 
cisco, holding this position until 1890. In that 
year he bought the business of the Fresno 
Transfer Company from Bradshaw & Dodge, 
the interests of which he is still pursuing. This 
is the only organized company in the city, with 
representative messengers on incoming trains. 

fAMES R. ALLISON, deceased, was a 
native of Johnson County, Missouri, born 
in 1850. His early life was spent on his 
father's farm, during which time he availed 
himself of what educational advantages were 
then afforded. At the age of twenty he was 
happily married to Miss Laura Allison, his 
cousin, also a native of Missouri, and soon after- 
ward moved to California. They settled in 
the Sacramento valley, where he engaged in 
farming for five years. A brief period was 
then spent in Missouri, after which they re- 
turned to the Golden State and located in the 
town of Kingsburg, Fresno County. Mr. Alli- 
son here owned a farm of 240 acres, upon which 
he was successfully engaged in ranching up to 
the time of his death, which occurred in 
March, 1889. 

He was a man of many pleasing traits of 
character, and his amiable qualities won for him 
many friends. During his residence at Kings- 
burg he was identified with the best interests of 
the community, and had the confidence and re- 
spect of all who knew him. His widow and 
their six children survive him. The names of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the latter are as follows: Robert M., Leslie 
Odell, Charles, May, and Dora and Nora, twins. 



-<£* 



■fi>~ 



fAVID DORN was born in Canada, in the 
year 1845. On the shores of Georgian 
bay he was reared and educated. Early 
in life he began to learn the blacksmith trade, 
and has followed that trade almost continu- 
ously from his youth up to the present time. 
In 1869 he visited Nebraska and Kansas, and 
finally settled in Buena Yista County, Iowa, 
where he made his home eleven years. Besides 
working at his trade he also had some farming 
interests in Iowa. 

In 1881 Mr. Dorn came to California. This 
was about the time the town of Selma was 
starting, and in the new town he located and 
established his blacksmith shop. To-day he is 
in the same spot, but is richer by several thou- 
sand dollars than he was then. His trade has 
steadily increased as the town has grown, and 
he now has a very profitable business. Adjoin- 
ing his shop is his residence, and also some lots 
which belong to him. He owns 160 acres of 
unimproved land in Kern County. 

Mr. Dorn was married in 1870 to Annie 
Spratford, a native of England. Their family 
consists of four children, — two sons and two 
daughters. 



fHEIS MATTLY is one of the thrifty 
farmers of Kern County, and few of his 
chosen calling can show more substantial 
evidence of his fitness for the position he occu- 
pies. He is a native' of Zillis, Switzerland, 
born March 30, 1852. He emigrated to this 
country in 1873, landing in San Francisco. He 
went im mediately to Gilroy, Santa Clara County, 
where he found employment in a dairy. Alter 
spending eight months at Gilroy and later six 
months at Point Reyes, in Marin County, in 
August, 1874, he located on 160 acres of Gov- 



ernment land, about eigeteen miles southwest 
of Bakersfield, Kern County. After acquiring 
title to the same he sold it and purchased his 
present location in 1879. He has 400 acres of 
the best quality of land, well irrigated, and all 
under improvements. This he has stocked with 
about eighty milch cows, horses and other stock, 
besides a fine display of poultry. His dairy is 
known for miles around, and his products find 
more ready sale than any other in the county. 
He has developed a fine orchard thereon, made 
up of peach, apple, apricot, plum, pear and fig 
trees, — which speaks volumes for the capabili- 
ties of the soil in his region of country. Mr. 
Mattly is a genial, popular citizen and respected 
by all who know him. 



JJJELARLES W. DUVALL, of Bakersfield, 
IvlE nas Dee11 a resident of California since 
^W<- 1868. He is a native of the city of New 
Orleans, Louisiana, born July 18, 1850. He 
was about three years of age when his parents 
removed from that State to Missouri, locating 
in Kansas City, where he spent his boyhood and 
early youth. He came to California, and finally 
located in Bakersfield, in 1874, where he is en- 
gaged in the real-estate business. 



Jgp[DWIN MOORE.— It is with interest that 
fOL one reviews the life of the California 
vpl pioneer, who left home and the comforts 
of the East to suffer the hardships and priva- 
tions of the unknown and undeveloped West, 
and great honor is due to their memory, as their 
pioneer work was the means of that vast immi- 
gration which has built up this great and glori- 
ous State. Among this honored number we 
find Mr. Edwin Moore, who was born in Rich- 
land County, Ohio, in 1829, and among his 
schoolmates in the old log school house was Will- 
iam Windom, the late Secretary of the Treas- 
ury. At the age of sixteen years young Moore 



470 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



was apprenticed to learn the trade of a tailor, 
which he studied until 1849. He then became 
restive under the confinement, and, seeking the 
broader experience of adventure, he struck out 
for California, via the Isthmus of Panama, ar- 
riving in San Francisco July 18, 1849. He 
then went to the mines at Barnes' Bar, on the 
North Fork of the American river, where he 
passed the winter, meeting with fair success 
and making from one to five ounces of gold per 
day; but also paying $1.50 per pound for flour 
and $2 per pound for sugar, beans and bacon. 
In the fall of 1850 Mr. Moore went to Realejo, 
Central America, and for five mouths rented and 
kept a hotel, after which he returned to Califor- 
nia and followed mining in Mariposa County. 
In 1853 he went to Australia and mined for 
five years, but with poor success, and after 
spending all he had made in California, he re- 
turned to this State in July, 1859, and resumed 
mining in Mariposa County. This he continued 
until 1865, when he was elected Auditor and 
Recorder of that county. He then gave up 
mining and lived in Mariposa. 

Mr. Moore was married there May 7, 1866, 
to Miss Huldah Traxler, a native of Richland 
County, Ohio. He was re-elected to the office 
in 1867, and served to the expiration of his 
term in 1869. He then purchased of Galen 
Clark a one-half interest in the hotel and ranch 
at Wawona, " The Big Tree Station," on the 
stage route between Raymond and the Yo Semite 
valley. They ran the hotel until 1875, when 
they sold the entire property to the stage com- 
pany, Mr. Moore remaining in charge until 
1876, when he came to Madera and was among 
the first settlers of the town. The flume having 
just been completed he was engaged as clerk 
and bookkeeper, and held the position about two 
years. In 1876 Mr. Moore purchased twenty 
acres southeast of town, which he has improved, 
first building a comfortable home, and then add- 
ing vines and trees from year to year. In 1880 
he was appointed local agent of Wells, Fargo & 
Co.'s express, and also Postmaster of Madera. 
The latter office he lost during the Cleveland 



administration, but the former he still retains. 
Mr. and Mrs. Moore have one son — Edwin 
H., born in 1877, who is now at home and en- 
gaged in securing an education. Mr. Moore is 
an affable, genial gentleman, and though poor 
in health he still loves to talk of the sufferings 
and excitement of his pioneer days. 



- > ' S « V . 



tORRIN SHARP, Postmaster at Madera, 
was born in Smyrna, Delaware, Novein- 
® ber 17, 1839 His father, Lewis Sharp, 
was a tanner by trade, and during the gold ex- 
citement of 1849 came to California with a party 
of eleven men, who located the great Mariposa 
quartz mine, bringing a quartz-mill with them; 
but quartz-mining being little known the pro- 
ject was abandoned, and they followed placer- 
mining with varied success. Mr. Sharp found 
one nugget near Mariposa which weighed fifty 
and a quarter ounces, and owing to its peculiar 
shape and fineness was sold for $1,100. In the 
fall of 1851 he returned to the East, and in Jan- 
uary, 1852, with his family, embarked again for 
California to permanently settle at Mariposa 
and follow mining. 

The educational advantages of our subject 
were extremely limited, as at the age of thirteen 
years he began his mining experiences, which 
he actively followed for many years in Califor- 
nia and Nevada, and has always been more or 
less interested in mining securities. In 1865 he 
located several oil wells in the Coast Range, but 
owing to the expense of transportation the proj- 
ect was abandoned after about one year of labor. 
From mining Mr. Sharp turned his attention to 
the sheep business, which he followed with 
marked success for many years. He was mar- 
ried in Mariposa County in March, 1867, to 
Miss Frances Wilson Smith, a native of Ohio. 
Mr. Sharp then established his home in Bu- 
chanan, Fresno County, and continued the rais- 
ing of sheep. In 1876 he opened a general 
merchandise store in Buchanan, which he con- 
tinued until 1880, and then sold his sheep and 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



471 



store interests and came to Madera to reside. 
He then engaged in mercantile life, as a partner 
of Edwin Moore for about three years; then, 
selling his interest, he engaged in the sale of 
agricultural implements, which he has since 
continued to follow. In 1881 Mr. Sharp bought 
land near the town, and has devoted much of 
his leisure time to the culture and development 
of new and rare grapes and fruit trees. 

In 1888 Mr. Sharp was appointed Postmaster 
by the Cleveland administration, and after the 
office was made third-class and a Presidential 
one, he was reappointed by President Benjamin 
Harrison. In this instance the evidence of pop- 
ular esteem and confidence is not emphasized so 
much in the reappointment as in the original 
appointment by Mr. Cleveland, as Mr. Sharp is 
and always has been a stanch Republican, and 
has voted for every Republican President. He 
has been active in all county and State elections, 
and at one time was the only Republican in his 
precinct. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp have three sons 
and two daughters, all of whom are occupied in 
and about Madera. 

— — *" '% , 3"? ' S 



SRANK P. MAY is one of the well-to-do 
and successful tillers of the soil of Kern 
County, and has taken an important part 
in the development of its natural resources of 
his section of country. There are probably few 
men in Kern County who have taken a more 
active part in the battle for life than the subject 
of this sketch. His father was a Pennsylvania 
farmer, and died about 1853. After gaining an 
academic education Frank P. entered, in 1860, 
upon a course of study at Jefferson College, 
Pennsylvania. When the war broke out he 
abandoned his studies and joined the Union 
army, enlisting in the Ringgold Cavalry, an in- 
dependent organization, and was transferred to 
the First Virginia Cavalry, then to the Third 
Pennsylvania Cavalry. He served as a soldier 
from June 29, 1861, to October, 1865; was at 
Winchester, where he received a gunshot in 



March, 1862; later at Cedar Mountain, Second 
Bull Run, and there received a saber wound in 
his head; and afterward he went through Antie- 
tarn, Gettysburg and the Wilderness campaign. 
At Warrington Junction, Virginia, he was shot 
in his right lower limb with a carbine in the 
hands of the enemy, which has crippled him 
for life. He served in all three years and five 
months, being mustered out in October, 1865, 
at Cumberland, Maryland. 

After leaving the army he returned home for 
a brief time, and then visited the Sandwich 
Islands, San Francisco, in 1866, and made one 
trip with Captain Ridpath, on a trading expedi- 
tion, to Bering sea and the straits. He then 
engaged in horticulture at Healdsburg, Sonoma 
County. There he married Miss Amelia, 
daughter of Charles Alexander, a pioneer of 
that county, October 31, 1868. In March, 1872, 
tliey took up their residence on their present 
place, 160 acres, ten miles southwest of Bakers- 
field. Mr. May has been engaged in stock- 
raising and diversified farming, and is now en- 
tering quite extensively into grape culture. He 
is progressive in his business, and is a stock- 
holder in the Farmers' Canal Company. He 
has been one of the School Trustees of his dis- 
trict since locating in the county, and is an in- 
dependent Republican. 



T-tT; I L L I A M BETTERIDCE.— Among 
: \/\h those who have aided materially in the 

r4$l=ri growth of Fresno and who are emi- 
nently worthy of biographical mention in the 
history of Central California, is the gentleman 
whose name heads this sketch. 

Mr. Betteridge was born ki Rochester, New 
York, in 1850, and was educated at Rochester 
and Buffalo, living at home until 1867. In 
that year he went to Stark County, Ohio, and 
learned the trade of brick-mason with his uncle, 
J. C. Coleman, a prominent contractor. In 
1871 he went to Lawrence, Kansas, where he 
was employed on the State University building, 



472 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



then in process of erection. Through the fail- 
ure of the contractor, under whom he had 
worked for three years, he lost all his wages. 

In May, 1874, Mr. Betteridge started for Cal- 
ifornia, coming in a second-class car, attached 
to a freight train, and after eleven days arrived 
in San Francisco. His first employment there 
was on the Palace Hotel. In the fall of that 
year he went to Napa, where for thirteen 
months he worked on the Insane Asylum. Re- 
turning to San Francisco in 1876, he started a 
meat market, being generously offered assist- 
ance by Jeff James, a prominent wholesale 
butcher of that city. Six months later he sold 
out and again began work at his trade in and 
about San Francisco. In 1878 lie spent three 
months in Fresno. He then went back to Oak- 
land, but the following year returned to Fresno 
and settled in business, soon becoming promi- 
nent among the contractors and builders of the 
town. The result of his early labors has been 
destroyed by the sweeping fires which have vis- 
ited Fresno. In 1881 Mr. Betteridge was 
backed and assisted by Mr. Charles De Long, 
who kindly furnished him with the necessary 
funds to purchase land south of town for the 
purpose of establishing a brick yard. Of this 
kindness, which was tendered without note or 
interest, Mr. Betteridge speaks with great feel- 
ing, and he regards it as a stepping stone toward 
his subsequent success. He at once began the 
manufacture of brick, which placed him among 
the foremost contractors. Among the promi- 
nent buildings of his erection that have survived 
the fires, we mention the Grand Central Hotel, 
the Winchell and Shankling buildings and War- 
ner building. In 1887 he built the Hughes 
Hotel, taking in part payment three blocks 
of land, from one *>f which he made the brick 
for the hotel, later selling the block at a largely 
increased price. He has since built the Huo-hes 
block, Fresno National Bank building. Temple 
Ba. block, and many buildings of Lesser im- 
portance. Prosperity has attended his labors 
here, and he has accumulated valuable property. 
He owns and resides in a fine brick residence, 



corner of M and Merer 1 streets; also has L20 
acres of ranch land, partly improved. Although 
in comfortable c.rcumstance-i, he is still actively 
"ngaged in contracting and building. 

Mr. Betteridge was married in Fresno, in 1883, 
to Miss Margaret Mier, and has one child, My- 
ron, born in October, 1884. In September, 
1889, after an absence of twenty years, Mr. 
Betteridge returned East to his old home, and 
came back to California fully Satisfied with this 
State and its wonderful resources. 



REGON AKERS, one of the progressive 
young ranchers of Kern County, was born 
in Alabama, May 10, 1852. His father. 
L. B. Akers, was a farmer, came to California in 
1856 with his family and located in San Bernard- 
ino County, where he still lives. Our subject is 
the sixth in a family of fourteen children. He 
remained at home until 1883, and took up his 
residence in Kern County, where he has pur- 
sued farming and stock-raising, with fair suc- 
cess and fine prospects, to the present time. 

He married, in 1882, Miss Rosa De Kay, a 
native daughter of Nevada, and they have four 
children. Mr. Akers is an industrious and en- 
terprising citizen. 

IISEDGE ROW VINEYARD.— Any one 

IWI visiting Fresno is sure to learn of the suc- 
~^M cess which has attended the care and man- 
agement of the Hedge Row Vineyard. This 
famous vineyard is owned by a corporation of 
four Eastern ladies, — Miss M. F. Austin, now 
deceased, Miss L. H. Hatch, Miss E. A. Cleve- 
land and Miss J. B. Short, — all of whom were 
engaged as teachers in educational institutions 
in San Francisco. In the early settlement of 
Fresno these ladies pooled their savings, organ- 
ized their company, and upon the opening of 
Central colony in 1876, by W. S. Chapman, 
they purchased 100 acres on Elm avenue. Mr. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



473 



Chapman agreeing to set two of every twenty 
of their present successful vineyard. These 
sources of the valley at that time were unde- 
veloped, and in the experimental planting of 
oranges, lemons, limes, walnuts, deciduous 
fruits and vines this company have expended 
thousands of dollars, all of which practically 
have accrued to the benefit of the later devel-. 
opers. The company have been united and 
harmonious in the management of the ranch, 
which has been left largely to the direction of 
Miss Austin, who came to the vineyard to re- 
side in August, 1878; and those energies which 
heretofore had been so successful in the man- 
agement, as principal, of the Clark Institute of 
San Francisco were hereafter to be expended in 
the proper care and development of what has 
since proved a very successful enterprise. 

Miss Austin was born in Nantucket, and 
graduated at the high school of her native town, 
and later at the Bridgewater (Mass.) Normal 
School. She then taught seven years in the 
public schools of Chicago, and received such 
rapid promotion that during the later years she 
was assistant principal. She came to San 
Francisco in 1864, and began teaching in the 
girls' department of the high school, and for 
seven years was principal of the Clark Institute, 
or until she resigned to take up her ranch duties 
in Fresno, in March, 1889, deeply mourned by 
her friends and colleagues. 

Miss Hatch, the able assistant of Miss Aus- 
tin, was born in Maine, and was educated at 
Mt. Holyoke Seminary. She then began teach- 
ing at Rockland, and later iu Kansas, at the Ot- 
tawa University and Maplewood Seminary. She 
made a visit to California in 1870, but came to 
settle permanently in 1875, as a teacher in the 
Clark Institute in San Francisco, remaining un- 
til January, 1879. She then came to the ranch 
to reside, although the direct management of 
the vineyard was left to Miss Austin, and to her 
the credit of the successful development. As 
trees failed in the early experiments the ranch 
was largely given up to vines, in which they 
now have seventy-seven acres, and the remainder 

30 



in orchard and ornamental grounds. The first 
pack of the vineyard was in 1878, when they 
put up thirty boxes, adopting the name of the 
Austin Brand. In 1879 they put up 300 boxes 
and in 1886, 7,500. Backing was then given 
up, owing to the failing health of Miss Austin, 
and they have since sold their raisins in the 
sweat-boxes. The ranch is now under the man- 
agement of Miss Hatch, and in the tasteful ap- 
pointment of house and grounls, with their 
complete dryer, packing-house and ranch ap- 
purtenances, one can but recognize the intelli- 
gence which has been brought to bear upon the 
several stages of development. 



tUGUST HALEMEIER, thecompete.it vig- 
neron of the Fresno vineyard and wine 
cellars, was born in Germany, in 1863. 
His early life and training were all in the in- 
terests of agriculture, which he followed in his 
own country until 1886, and then emigrated to 
America, and after a few months passed in Ne- 
braska he arrived in Fresno, in January, 1887. 
His first employment was on the Eggers vine- 
yard and wine cellars, where he remained un- 
til September, 1887, and was then employed in 
the cellars of the Fresno Vineyard Company. 
By diligence and close observation he soon 
mastered the science of wine-making, and in 
July, 1888, was appointed superintendent of 
the cellar, with full charge of the wine-making 
interests. The best proof of his successful 
management and judicious blending of wines 
are in the delicious port, sherry, Angelica, Ma- 
deira, Bruger, Riesling and Zinfandel wines 
in the producing of which the vineyard has be- 
come famous. 

Mr. Halemeier was married in Fresno, Feb- 
ruary 2, 1890, to Miss Marie Sickman, a native 
of Germany, and they have one child, Johane 
Auguste Alevine, born in November, 1890. 
Mr. Halemeier has established his own home 
on a forty-acre tract in the Eggers colony, 
which he purchased in March, 1888. He has 



474 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



improved it with a cottage and outbuildings, 
has set thirty acres in Muscat vines, and keeps 
horses and cattle for ranch purposes. He hires 
this work performed, as his own time is fully 
occupied at the Fresno vineyard and wine 
cellars. 



fAMUEL M. SMOOT.— The brief biog- 
raphy which follows has for its subject 
one of the old pioneers of Fresno County, 
who crossed the plains to California from his 
home in Arkansas in the year 1859, landing on 
King's river after a journey of seven months. 

Mr. Smoot was born in 1836, was reared on 
a farm and remained in Arkansas until he 
reached his twenty-third year. Then it was 
that he sought a home in California, the State 
about which he had heard so much. Arrived 
on King's river, he entered upon a business 
career with five head of cattle and a piece of 
money worth 12i cents. His experience in the 
early history of the cattle business was not un- 
like that of many other pioneers of his time. 
He made much money and lost some, as the 
seasons were favorable or otherwise. In March, 
1886, Mr. Sinoot moved to Kingsburg, where 
he now lives and where he is successfully en- 
gaged in the livery business. 

He has been twice married. In 1857 he 
wedded Elizabeth Cartwright, of Alabama, who 
died in 1883, leaving a family of five children. 
His second union was in 1885, with Mrs. Mary 
Frances Phillips. 



4M-4* 



fl!. HERGES is one of the progressive 
members of the somewhat numerous 
° French colony of Kern County. He, 
like many others, came to California without 
money or a settled purpose except to seize the 
first opportunity that presented itself for gain- 
ing a livelihood. Born in the south of France, 
August 25, 1865, he came to America about fif- 



teen years ago, reaching California in July. 
1880. He engaged first in sheep-herding in 
Kern County, and later he, with two brothers. 
J. and A. Berges, engaged in sheep-raising for 
themselves in the mountains near Santa 
Maria, on the Quiotal ranch. In this venture 
they prospered and continued the same until 
the summer of 1889, when the business was 
sold out. In the fall of 1889 Mr. Berges 
opened his present business, that of wholesal- 
ing and retailing wines and liquors in Bakers- 
field. He now owns and conducts one of the 
best establishments of the kind in Central Cali- 
fornia. 

In 1890 Mr. Berges married Miss Mary Inda 
a native of France. They were married in 
Bakersfield, November 20. Mr. Berges is a 
man of genial demeanor and has the bearing of. 
a man who thoroughly understands the minutest 
detail of his chosen calling. 



£ 



* 



fIGMUND WORMSEP, a prominent busi- 
ness man of Kingsburg, Fresno County, 
California, is a native of Wurtemberg, 
Germany, born December 11, 1859. Early in 
life he was sent to school in Canstatt, Germany, 
and finished his studies at an academy of high 
reputation in that place. He afterward entered 
a business establishment in Uhn of Donau, in 
which he remained for a period of two years. 
Then he went to Dublin and from there, in 
1880, came to America. 

Before settling down to business in this 
country, Mr. Wormser made a prospecting 
tour through many States of the Union, trav- 
eling most of the time for six months. After 
a brief business engagement in Pittsburg, he 
entered upon another and more extensive tour, 
visiting the diamond fields of South Africa, 
Australia and the South Sea islands. In 1886 
he returned to America, coming to California 
and settling in Kingsburg, Fresno County. No- 
vember 23 of that year. He immediately en- 
tered into a business arrangement with Louis 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



475 



Einstein and Louis Gundelfinger of Fresno' 
and established the mercantile house of which 
he is now manager. Mr. G-undelSnger recently 
withdrawing, the firm now consists of Mr. 
Wormser and Mr. Einstein, the business being 
conducted under the name of Einstein & 
Wormser. They transact a general mercantile 
business and enjoy a large and steadily increas- 
ing trade. 

Mr. Wormser is one of the prominent men 
of the town, being thoroughly identified with 
the progressive element of the place. For some 
time he has been a director of the Kingsburg 
Improvement Company, and now holds the 
office of secretary and treasurer of that organ- 
ization. 

Mr. Wormser has been fortunate in the se- 
lection of a home in this productive valley, and 
he has chosen a native daughter of the golden 
West to preside over it. November 28, 1890, 
he wedded Anna E. Jacobson, whose birthplace 
is San Francisco. 

#*^5^ 



fOHJM S. DORE, a vineyardist of West 
Park, was born in Harmony, Maine, De- 
cember 26, 1838. In 1850 his father 
emigrated to Wisconsin, where he carried on 
general farming. Young Dore attended the 
common schools during the winter, and in the 
summer would assist in farm work. At the 
age of eighteen years he began teaching, which 
he followed winters until twenty-two years of 
age, and then took a one year's course at the 
Galesville University. He was married in La 
Crosse County, Wisconsin, January 1, 1863, to 
Miss L. Jennie Angell, and about the same 
time he established the Clark County Journal 
at Neilisville, Clark County, Wisconsin, which 
he continued to publish for several years. He 
was also prominent in county government, and 
for six years officiated as Chairman of the Board 
of County Supervisors, and was County Super- 
intendent of Schools, in which capacity he 
served for a period of ten years. He was also 



a member of the State Board of Agriculture 
for three years. After selling out his paper, he 
removed to and cleared a farm of over 200 acres 
of heavily timbered land, and also engaged 
quite extensively in the lumber business. This 
venture was not a success, and in 1883, with 
broken health, he sold out his interests there 
and came to Fresno, with barely enough money 
to build a comfortable house, and was obliged 
to purchase land on time. He purchased in 
the Bank of California tract, now called West 
Park, which he immediately began improving, 
and by diligence and perseverance be is now 
the possessor of 140 acres, 100 of which is set 
to vines. Mr. Dore is a hard worker, an! has 
had the care of a great deal of land for nun- 
residents, the work for several years amounting 
to over $5,000 per year. lie has been a suc- 
cessful planter of vines, and of 40,000 set in 
1890, on land adjoining the Fruit Yale tract, he 
lost but 253. 

The family of Mr. Dore has been increased 
by eight children, six of whom are living and 
settled in Fresno County. He joined the Far- 
mers' Alliance in 1890, and attended the first 
State meeting at San Jose in November of the 

o 

same year, was chosen chairman of the execu- 
tive committee, and has taken a very active part 
in the work of the Alliance. His ranch is 
ornamented with a fine house and outbuildings, 
and in all appointments shows the thrift and in- 
dustry of Mr. Dore as an agriculturist, as well 
as -the superior advantages of Fresno County 
as a place for regaining health, making a luxu- 
rious home where declining years may be passed 
beneath the vine and fig tree of one's own 
planting. 

H. ELLER, the resident superintend- 
ent and manager of the Fresno Vine- 
yard Company, was born in Pulaski 
County, Kentucky, November 3, 1849. His 
educational facilities were limited, as he was 
enabled to attend only the common schools as 




47 6 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



conducted at the old log schoolhouse, with hewed 
logs for benches, and the teacher brought her 
own chair. Having lost his father, Mrs. Eller 
and family moved to Monroe County, Indiana, 
in 1861, and there our subject began his own 
support at the age of eleven years, hiring out to 
a farmer at $3 per month. With increased years 
and strength he performed the heavier duties, 
and followed farm life in Indiana until 1878, 
when he went to Ellis County, Texas, and on 
rented land began the cultivation of corn, cot- 
ton and oats. But the enterprise not proving 
very successful to Mr. Eller, he closed out his 
interests there in the fall of 1884, and came to 
California, direct to Fresno County. His first 
occupation was upon the ranch of Jeff Donahoo, 
and with a six-horse team and heavy farm ma- 
chinery he received fresh enthusiasm for the 
farm life. After two seasons on the ranch he 
took np the cultivation of vines, being first 
employed by Mr. Nudd, from whom he received 
his first lessons in the practical working of a 
vineyard. In August, 1886, he began work for 
the Fresno Vineyard Company, in their wine 
cellars, under D. D. Hudson, as superintendent. 
In 1887 Mr. McDonald became superintendent, 
and Mr. Eller was then placed in the position 
of foreman, and in March, 1889, was appointed 
superintendent and manager of the Fresno 
Vineyard interests. 

The Fresno Vineyard is owned by a syndicate 
of San Francisco gentlemen, with L. P. Drexler 
as president. The tract embraces 450 acres, 
350 of which is in wine grapes and about 20 acres 
in raisin'grapes. The vineyard was planted in 
1880 and contains only five foreign varieties. 
The winery, built in 1883, was destroyed by 
fire, and in 1886 they rebuilt of adobe brick, 
200 feet square, with a largely increased stor- 
age capacity, which is held in an Eastern make 
of oak cooperage. In addition to this, there is 
a capacious sherry house, with a large packing 
house for handling dried grapes and raisins. Iu 
1890 they picked 2,560 tons of grapes, and 
manufactured 247,000 gallons of wine, besides 
shipping thirty car loads of dried grapes. The 



distillery is very completly equipped, with a 
continuous copper still, twenty feet high by four 
and a half feet in diameter, with a capacity of 
1,300 gallons of proof brandy per day. The 
company excels in ports, sherry, Angelica and 
Madeira. The product of he vineyard sells in 
San Francisco in bulk. 

Mr. Eller was married in Fresno, in Septem- 
ber, 1889, to Miss Anna Lee Garrett, and they 
have one son, George Dean Eller, born Septem- 
ber 1, 1890. 

IPILLIAM A. FISHER, a rancher of 
0| Union colony, was born in Jefferson 
L">^H County, New York, in 1826, the son of 
Archibald Fisher, a large land-holder, who also 
owned milling interests. At the age of thir- 
teen years young Fisher started out in life, and 
at Philadelphia, Jefferson County, began clerk- 
ing in a general merchandise store. He then 
followed mercantile life somewhat irregularly 
until 1849, when he went to Virginia, and in 
1851 started for California by steamer, via the 
Ishmus of Panama, and arrived at San Francisco 
July 7 of the same year. He then followed 
mining about eight months without marked 
success, after which he bought a small store at 
Six Mile Bar, where he sold general miners' 
supplies, and also kept a small boarding-house. 
In 1856 he started another store at Knight's 
Ferry, and still later others in mining localities, 
carrying on a very prosperous business until 
1858, when he became interested in mining 
ditches and lost everything. In 1862 he was 
appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for 
Stanislaus County. 

Mr. Fisher was the first Republican in Stan- 
islaus County, and for many years was the 
leader uf the party. He attended the first 
Republican County Convention at Stockton, 
and was nominated for the General Assembly; 
was Postmaster at Knight's Ferry for about 
eight years, and was very prominent in all po- 
litical movements. In 1808 he took up 160 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



477 



acres of land on the west side of the San Joa- 
quin river, and also bought out a squatter's 
right to 160 acres, borrowing money at two and 
a halt' per cent, per month, to pay for it. He 
was then taken blind and leased his land for one 
year at $2.50 per acre. In 1872 Mr. Fisher 
sowed 1,500 acres in grain, getting an advance 
on the crop with which to buy seed. He paid 
$35 per ton for hay, and two cents per pound 
for barley, and from 1,200 acres secured a crop 
of 25,000 bushels, and in the fall sold his orig- 
inal 320 acres for $5,000. He then bought 
560 acres near Crow's Landing, which he farmed 
until 1881, when he sold it to a good advantage. 
In 1882 Mr. Fisher bought 960 acres south- 
west of the town of Fresno, and in 1883 opened 
the Union colony. He has since traded in lands, 
and now owns 360 acres, 230 of which are in 
Muscat vines, just coming into bearing. From 
sixty acres of three year-old vines in 1890, he 
sold his crop for $6,300. He also owns 640 
acres in Stanislaus County, and 125 town lots 
in Fresno. Mr. Fisher is a man of indomitable 
will and perseverance, and though deprived of 
his sight he has overcome all obstacles and 
acquired a handsome fortune. 



IP, M. H. KAARSBERG is a native of Den- 
fH] mark, born in 1850. His father was 
viM 13 engaged in agricultural pursuits, and it 
was on a farm that Mr. Kaarsberg spent his 
early life. He received his education in Copen- 
hagen at the State Agricultural College, a cele- 
brated institution. 

In 1870 he landed on American soil, and at 
once crossed the country to California. Soon 
after his arrival in the Golden State he obtained 
employment in Oakland and Alameda. At the 
latter place he was a subordinate of the Danish 
consul. He was subsequently engaged in the 
livery business in San Francisco, having under 
his immediate charge some very fine stock. In 
1876 he came to Fresno County, and for one 
year made his home in the Central California 



Colony, near the city of Fresno. He then 
came to his present ranch, two miles and a half 
northeast of the town of Selina. His first pur- 
chase here was 160 acres of land, which he 
retained for some years later, however, dispos- 
ing of all but twenty acres of it at a good price. 
He owns 500 acres in Clark's valley, twenty 
miles northeast of Selma, on which he is farm- 
ing, but which, at some future day, he contem- 
plates devoting to the culture of orange trees. 

Of late years Mr. Kaarsberg has been very 
successful in disposing of some of his property 
at good prices. He recently established a colony 
a mile and a half northeast of the town of 
Selma, which nets him a handsome profit. 
Much of his time is now spent in farming on 
rented land, and in setting out raisin vineyards 
for other parties. 

He was married November 8, 1875, to Miss 
Danielsen, a native of Denmark. Their family 
consists of three sons. 



.gBEORGE A. SMITH, a grocer of Fresno, 
I1W was born in Georgia in 1860. His father 
W^ was a planter by trade, and moved to 
Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1864, and there bought 
440 acres of land, where he carried on general 
farming and stock-raising. Young Smith was 
educated at Jacksonville, (Illinois) Business 
College, after which he clerked in a grocery 
store and gathered knowledge for his later busi- 
ness enterprise. In 1883 he came to California, 
settling on King's river, where he engaged in 
the breeding of trotting horses with D. J. 
McConnell, an old resident of that locality. 
They continued in business about two years, 
when Mr. Smith sold his interest and came to 
Fresno, and for two years acted as clerk for W. 
T. Riggs in his grocery store on Mariposa 
street. In 1888 he bought out Mr. Riggs, and 
after about one year sold the stock to Messrs. 
McConnell & Hague After a few months Mr. 
Smith bought the stock and good-will of Messrs. 
King, Harris & Studer, at 1213 and 1215 K 



478 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



street, where he continues to carry on a success- 
ful grocery business, keeping a full line of 
groceries, provisions and tinware. 

Mr. Smith was married in Fresno in October, 
1889, to Miss Alice Daley, a daughter of Judge 
Daley, a former judge of Mariposa County. Mr. 
and Mrs. Smith have one son, James Daley, 
born January 7, 1891. 



fANIEL BURKE is one of the pioneers of 
Greenhorn mountain. He was born in 
Ireland in 1826, left his native country 
and came to America at twenty-three years of 
age. After spending about four years in the 
Eastern States, he came to California, via the 
Nicaragua route, in 1853, and after mining for 
a time in Sierra County, he went to British 
Columbia and spent one and a half years there. 
Returning to California, he located in Tulare 
County and engaged in stock-raising from 1860 
to 1864, when he located on Greenhorn moun- 
tain in Kern County. There he has developed 
a comfortable home and good farm property. 
In June, 1862, Mr. Burke married Miss Mary 
Vickers, in Tulare County, a native of Adams 
County, Illinois, who came to California with 
her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Burke have six chil- 
dren, viz.: Margaret, Walter, Daniel, Celia, 
William and Vincent. 



W. W. HUNTER, druggist of Madera, 
was born in Mariposa in 1864. His 
I ° father, W. W. Hunter, was a ma- 
chinist, and emigrated from Pennsylvania to 
California in 1859, and for years was employed 
at his trade in the mines of Mariposa, Benton 
Mills, Washington Mines and Hites' Cove, and 
also employed in San Francisco and Sacramento 
for several years. He retired from the business 
in 1887, and is now living a quiet life in Madera. 
Our subject was educated in the public schools 
of Mariposa County, and at Redwood City, San 




Mateo County, California, and at the age of seven- 
teen years began the study of his profession in 
the drug store and under the preceptorship of 
Dr. J. T. Turner, of Mariposa, with whom he re- 
mained six years. In 1887 he was engaged as 
druggist by S. A. Reed & Co., of Mariposa, 
continuing in their employ until 1890, when he 
came to Madera and bought out the drug store 
of Dr. J. T. Surbaugh. Mr. Hunter is well 
versed in his profession, and the appreciation of 
the community is substantially demonstrated 
by his increasing business. The office of Dr. 
J. W. Cliue is connected with the drug store, 
and the arrangement is of mutual advantage. 

Mr. Hunter was married at Mariposa, August 
11, 1886, to Miss Louisa M. Bertosky, and 
the family has been increased and enlivened by 
the advent of two daughters, Alena Loretta and 
Gladys Hilda. 



fAVID F. EDWARDS, the pioneer black- 
smith of Madera, was born in Oswego 
County, New York, in 1S46. His father, 
John Edwards, was a tailor by trade, and left 
New York with his family November 10, 1848, 
for California, taking a sailing vessel around 
Cape Horn, and landing at Monterey April 3, 
1849. He then went to San Diego, where ho 
left his family and enlisted in the Second In- 
fantry in 1846, and went to Mexico; then to 
Fort Yuma, to guard the ferry and protect the 
emigrants from the Indians. Upon his return 
in 1851, he went to the mines in Tuolumne 
County, near Sonora, and followed mining con- 
tinuously until 1876, and is now living with 
his son in Madera. 

David F. Edwards received a very limited 
education at a public school in the mountains, 
and at the age of thirteen years began placer 
mining, when he secured a situation on a fruit 
ranch. In March, 1870, he began learning the 
trade of a blacksmith at Knight's Ferry, with 
Isaac Dakin, with whom he remained nearly 
four years. He then came to Borden and 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



479 



bought an interest in the blacksmith shop of 
Albert Mann, with Ed Hope, each owning a 
one-third interest. The partnership continued 
until October, 1877, and in April, 1878, Mr. 
Edwards came to Madera, and started the pio- 
neer blacksmith shop near the railroad. In 1880 
he bought his present shop on Yo Semite ave- 
nue, corner of B street, which he still conducts. 
In 1883 he went to Knight's Ferry and followed 
his trade, leaving his brother in charge at 
Madera. In 1890 Mr. Edwards returned to 
this city, where he will continue to reside. 

He was married in Stockton, in 1875, to 
Miss Eleanor Watson, a native of Pennsylvania. 
The family has been increased by six children, 
all of whom are living at home. Mr. Edwards 
is a member of Summit Lodge, No. 112, F. & 
A. M., at Knight's Ferry, and is a charter mem- 
ber of Mistletoe Lodge, No. 88, K. of P., at 
Oakdale; also, of Ancient Order of Foresters 
at Madera, and he and his wife are members of 
Madera Lodge, No. 92, Order of the Eastern 
Star. 

— ■ :=o -#}~j~EJ»- c=: ^- 



§R. DAVID CANNAN" was born in Brazil, 
South America, in 1863. His father, a 
Scotchman, was for many years engaged 
in business in that country, and had his family 
there. When the Doctor was a lad of six 
years his parents went back to England, and he 
entered upon a course of study. He was first 
a student in the Birkenhead school, afterward 
entering the Glasgow University, of which he 
was Greek prizeman in his year; then he at- 
tended the London University. Connected with 
the latter institution is the St. Bartholomew 
Hospital, where Dr. Cannan received his medi- 
cal training, where he obtained a scholarship, 
and with which he was afterward identified pro- 
fessionally for a period of five years. 

Owing to ill-health he decided irpon a change 
of climate, and moved to America, coming to 
California in the year 1889, and settling on a 
fine ranch of forty acres, one mile east of Fow- 



ler. Here he is associated with Dr. Jarrett, 
with whom he established the only drug store 
in town, and is actively engaged in the practice 
of his profession. 

Dr. Cannan married Miss Mary K. Cun- 
ningham, of London, England, and has two 
children. 



INING BARKER.— There are few men, 
indeed, who have seen more of early life 
in California, and more of the growth and 
development of Kern County, than this pioneer. 
He was born at Fairport, Monroe County, New 
York, November 9, 1827, son of Isaac Barker. 
His father, a farmer by occupation, came West 
as far as Lenawee County, Michigau, in 1836. 
That part of the country was then only sparsely 
settled, and amid scenes of frontier life Vining 
Barker grew to manhood, receiving such educa- 
tional advantages as the facilities of those days 
afforded. He remained with his parents and 
aided in the development of the homestead until 
1846, after which he spent about four years in 
prospecting throughout that section of the 
country. 

In 1851 Mr. Barker came to California, 
making the long journey via the Isthmus of 
Panama, and, landing in San Francisco. He 
was among the throng of miners and fortune- 
seekers who made things lively in those days at 
"Hangtown," now Placerville. For two years 
he was engaged in gold-digging with varied 
success, and the succeeding four years, in com- 
pany with J. S. Ellis, he kept a hotel at Diamond 
Spring, El Dorado County. Then he engaged 
in ranching in the same county until 1870, 
when he came to Kern County. At that time 
he purchased his present ranch, which now 
comprises about 720 acres, on which he has 
raised good crops of alfalfa and stocked with 
horses and cattle. The raising of alfalfa seed 
for the market he made for some years a profit- 
able business. In 1875 he interested himself 
in the development of irrigation in his section, 



480 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and as superintendent built extensive lines of 
irrigating canals for Haggin & Carr. He con- 
tinned in this business until 1883, contracting 
a port) _>n of the time with other parties for the 
construction of canals. He spent about a year 
and a half in contract work, grading for the 
Southern Pacific Railroad Company in San 
Diego and Los Angeles counties. In 1887 he 
went East, and upou his return resumed farm- 
ing and stock-raising on his ranch. This prop- 
erty is located thirteen miles southwest of 
Bakerslield, is abundantly supplied by canal and 
artesian water, and has substantial improve- 
ments. A commodious new residence is one of 
its latest acquisitions. 

Vining Barker, Jr., a nephew of the subject 
of this sketch, a native of Lenawee County, 
Michigan, and a farmer and leading merchant, 
has disposed of his interests in the East, and 
with his wife and little son taken up his resi- 
dence at the Barker home. Mrs. Barker is a 
lady of culture and fine domestic tastes, and 
presides over this home in a charming and 
graceful manner. 

Vining Barker's deportment is always that of 
a genial, open-hearted and open-handed Califor- 
nia pioneer, scrupulously just in all his busi- 
ness dealings. His uniform courtesy and his 
many estimable qualities have won for him a 
lame circle of friends. 



W%&- J- W. CLINE, of Madera, Fresno 
&iMJ} County, was born in Defiance County, 
W^ Ohio, August 10, 1860. Prior to the 
Revolution his paternal ancestors resided in 
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, whence they emi- 
grated to North Carolina about 1760. His 
grandfather, Jacob Cline, was born in the latter 
State, and married Catharine Swisher. They 
emigrated to Indiana, then a wilderness, in 
1817, where their eldest son, John S., was born 
in 1825. They subsequently moved to Preble 
County, Ohio, where John S. Cline and Susan 
Potterf were married. This couple moved to 



Defiance County, where their deaths took place 
in 1870 and 1864 respectively. They had seven 
children, one of whom is the subject of this 
sketch. 

Thus at the age of ten years Dr. Cline had 
been deprived of both his parents, and was left 
with slender means. By his own efforts he 
secured a good common-school education, took 
up the study of medicine, and after having for 
a time engaged in teaching, entered the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, of Keokuk, Iowa, 
in 1879. He graduated at that institution in 
1881. After spending two years in the prac- 
tice of his profession in Marshall and Kosciusko 
counties, Indiana, he came to Fresno County, 
California, in 1883. Establishing himself at 
Fresno Flats, he soon built up a large practice, 
to which he devoted his entire attention, being 
subject to all the hardships incident to the prac- 
tice of medicine in a sparsely settled mountain- 
ous country. He often had to visit patients 
twenty or thirty, and even fifty, miles away. 
Accidents in neighboring mines and saw-mills 
furnished much work in surgery, in which he 
is proficient. Far from counsel, it devolved on 
hiin to perform many difficult operations with- 
out competent assistance. As may be supposed, 
the services of a competent physician were fully 
appreciated in the community that had so long 
been beneficiaries of his skillful practice. and 
much regret was expressed when in January, 
1891, he moved to Madera, forty-six miles dis- 
tant. 

Dr. Cline was married to Miss Frances Mc- 
Crory, at Fresno Flats, July 15, 1884. They 
at present live in Madera, where the Doctor has 
a large practice, and both he and his excellent 
wife are highly esteemed by a large circle of 
friends. 



f ROSENTHAL, manager of the general 
merchandise store of Rosenthal & Kut- 
9 ner, Madera, was born in Germany in 
1853. After attending the common schools of 
that country, he wits apprenticed to learn the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



481 



mercantile business, beginning with the handling 
of wools, etc., in the manufactory, and studying 
every department to the sales room, thus ac- 
quiring a theoretical as well as practical knowl- 
edge. In 1875 he emigrated direct to Califor- 
nia, and settled in Fresno, engaging in the firm 
of Kutner & Goldstein, where he learned the 
English language and the American methods of 
doing business. After one year he started a 
small business in Fresno, keeping cigars and 
Yankee notions. After a little experience he 
extended his business to general merchandise, 
upon a cash principle, but after two years sold 
out to Kutner & Goldstein. He then went to 
Phoenix, Arizona, where he started a small 
store, and after one year took Mr. Kutner, of 
the firm of Kutner & Goldstein, as partner, and 
they then extended their business, and for seven 
years were very prosperously engaged. They 
sold out in 1887 and came to Madera, where 
they established their present business, first in 
a temporary building while engaged in erecting 
their fine two-story brick store, 30 x 100 feet, 
on the corner of Yo Semite and D streets, which 
they filled with a large and general assortment 
of household goods, furniture and farming im- 
plements. They also do a general business in 
grain and farm produce. Mr. Rosenthal man- 
ages the business, while Mr. Kutner, who lives 
in San Francisco, attends to the buying. 

Mr. Rosenthal was married in San Francisco 
in 1883, to Miss Hattie Price, a native of Cali- 
fornia, and of German descent. They have one 
child, Thekla, born in 1884. Mr. Rosenthal is 
a member of Madera Lodge, No. 280, F. & A. 
M. ; and is treasurer of the Madera Irrigation 
District and of the Madera Masonic Building 
Association. 

fOHN S. MANLEY, Postmaster of Fowler, 
was born in Tulare County, California, 
.November 8, 1866. At the age of thirteen 
years he moved with his parents to Bakersfield, 
where he worked on his father's farm, at the 



same time pursuing his studies in the grammar 
schools, lie finished his education at Selma, 
Fresno County, graduating at the high school, 
in 1887, under the tutorship of G. D. Hiues. 
He did not, however, settle here permanently 
until 1889, when he assumed the office of Post- 
master, which position he now fills. He also 
has other business interests here, being in part- 
nership with Mr. Pratt in general mercantile 
business, under the firm name of Pratt & Man- 
ley. They have an extensive trade, and are 
popular and successful business men. 

Mr. Mauley is a member of the order of Odd 
Fellows and also of the Native Sons of the 
Golden West. He is unmarried. 



R. BROWN, M. D., of Fresno County, 
was born in Manchester, England, in 
1837, the son of Joshua Brown, who was 
public officer much of his- life. Young 
Brown was educated in the public schools of 
England, and in 1855, with his parents, emi- 
grated to the Western Reserve of Canada, where 
he taught school for several years. He also 
began the study of medicine, under a preceptor, 
and in 1860 went to the Michigan State Univer- 
sity at Ann Arbor. Before completing his 
course in the medical department there the 
Doctor was enthused by the reported gold 
excitement at Cariboo, British Columbia, and 
started for that locality, arriving in February, 
1862. But after mining one season, with no 
great success, he returned to Victoria, and re- 
mained until 1864. He then came to Califor- 
nia, where, after one year spent in roaming, he 
took up teaching and followed the same until 
1868, and then returned to Ann Arbor to com- 
plete his medical course, graduating in 1869. 
He then settled in Greenville, Plumas County, 
and in the winter of 1873 in Millville, Shasta 
County, where he remained until the spring of 
1882, enjoying an extensive practice. He then 
came to Madera to settle the estate of his brother, 
C. E. Brown, aud was so pleased with the loca- 



482 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



tion, soil and climate of Madera that he decided 
to make this his home, though the immediate 
prospect for business was extremely limited, as 
the town was very small. He bought property, 
built his residence and office, and by patient wait- 
ing has woiked up a very remunerative practice. 
In 1889 he bought out the drug store of Mrs. 
M. A. Brown, and established the firm of F. R. 
Brown & Co., who now conducts the business. 
Dr. Brown is an ardent believer in the future 
of the San Joaquin valley, and confidently ex- 
pects to see Madera the metropolis of a new 
county ere many years have elapsed. 

Mr. Brown was married in Shasta County, in 
1877, to Julia Agnes Johnson, and they have 
had three children: Agnes E., Alice and Fran- 
cis Hargrove. Dr. Brown is a member of 
Madera Lodge, No. 280, F. & A. M.; of Trigo 
Chapter, No. 69, at Fresno; Order of the East- 
ern Star, No. 92; of Madera Lodge, No. 327, 
I. O. O. F. ; of Fresno Encampment, No. 14; of 
the Madera Rebekah Lodge, No. 159; Knights 
of Pythias, Independent Order of Foresters and 
of the Order of the Golden Shore. 

... , i? . 3 h ; . °? i.-^ 




ULSON L1VERMORE, deceased, was 
born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, 
in 1832. When he reached his major- 
ity he went to Iowa, where he remained, engaged 
in farming, for a period of seventeen years. 
During this time he enlisted in the service of 
his country, and was in active duty for two 
years and a half. It was then that Mr. Liver- 
more suffered a general break-down in his con- 
stitution, from which he never fully recovered. 
In 1873 he emigrated to California. For a 
year he made his home in Merced County, from 
there coming to Fresno County and locating on 
a ranch of 320 acres, two miles and a half west 
of the town of Kingsburg. Here he engaged 
in general farming until the time of his death, 
which occurred in 1886. The family estate 
has of late years been partly cut up and sold, at 
a handsome profit, however. A quarter section 



and a forty-acre home ranch still remain, and 
are under a high state of cultivation. 

Mr. Livermore was married in 1857 to Hulda 
G. Russell, a native of Iowa. As a result of 
this union twelve children were born, six of 
whom are now living. With the exception of 
a married daughter and son all reside at home 
with their estimable mother. Their names are 
as follows: John N., Florence M., wife of Frank 
Draper of Kingsburg; William B., Merton C, 
Alvira B. and Charles L. 



§A. CLARK. — It is quite safe to say that 
there is no farmer in Kern County who 
° has more enthusiasm, or in.) re practically 
demonstrated the capabilities of the soil of Kern 
County than J. A. Clark, Esq. So persistent 
and varied have been his investigations in the 
line of grains, fruits, flowers and horticulture 
that his home has assumed somewhat the 
appearance and the reputation of a veritable ex- 
perimental station. He has not conducted this 
branch of his ranch enterprises so much as a 
matter of profit, but in a seuse as a pastime and 
with a view of demonstrating what the soil and 
climate of Kern County is capable of doing. 

Mr. Clark has for about twenty one years 
been a resident of California. He is a native of 
Delaware County, New York, born in the town 
of Masonville, September 5, 1833. He left his 
home in 1850 and took a trip to Iowa, visiting 
Dubuque and vicinity. He soon went to 
Pennsylvania and engaged in lumbering. In 
1856 came West a second time, to Kansas, and 
was in the quartermaster's employ in 1857, until 
he went with the troops to Utah, as far as Fort 
Bridget - ; in 1859 he crossed the plains on foot 
and went into the mountains of Colorado and 
followed mining until 1861. In the spring of 
1862 he went to Montana, and was one of the 
five who discovered gold in that Territory, lie 
soon engaged in the cattle trade and drove the 
tirst herd of beef cattle from California and 
Oregon eastward over the Coast Range. The 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



483 



transfer of this stock to the eastern slope was 
necessitated by the historic drouth on this coast 
in 1864, leaving the stock with no means of 
subsistence. He, however, made a second trip 
over the mountains in 1866, with a drove of 
beef steers, which were disposed of at remunera- 
tive prices. Later he engaged in merchandis- 
ing. In 1870 he returned to Montana with the 
first shipment of California wines, honey, fruit, 
etc., that was taken over the Rocky range. This 
lot of California products were landed at Prom- 
ontory, Utah, and reshipped by the Union 
Pacific to Corning, Utah, and from thence it 
went north by wagon to Montana. In 1870 
Mr. Clark located in the San Joaquin valley, 
where he lived until 1874, when he came to 
Kern County and located upon his present 
place. He has added to his first purchase of 
142 acres, and now has 340 acres. He has 
made the breeding of mules and horses his chief 
business, engaging in other lines of farming as 
his tastes inclined him. 

Mr. Clark has been twice married. His first 
wife, whose maiden name was Margaret Lucas, 
died in 1876, leaving no children. In 1878 he 
married Miss Belle, daughter of Rev. George T. 
Everest, a Presbyterian clergyman of Champaign 
County, Illinois, town of Ludlow. They have 
one son and two daughters. Mr. and Mrs. 
Clark are members of the Christian Church of 
Fresno, and are held in high esteem by all who 
know them. 



tNDREW ERICKSON is another one of 
the representative citizens of Kingsburg, 
Fresno County. He is a native of Sweden, 
born June 9, 1857. He had a brief experience 
in both mechanical and farm work in his native 
land, and in 1879 emigrated to America, lo- 
cating in Michigan, where he remained for a 
period of seven years, employed in a machine 
shop. While he was in Michigan an emigrant 
society was formed of which he became a mem- 
ber. He was subsequently selected on behalf 



of the society to make a trip to California, ex- 
amined its resources and report to the society, 
which he did. So well pleased was he with this 
coast that he remained in California. In 1886 
he settled in Kingsburg, Fresno County, where 
we find him to-day. The result of his report 
to the Michigan society, it may be added, was 
so favorable that a colony came from that State 
and settled in this locality. Mr. Erickson is 
comfortably located here on twenty acres of 
valuable land, which he has set out to raisins. 
Another tract he has laid out in lots. This 
tract, known as the Erickson addition, is sit- 
uated on the highest elevation in the town, and 
its avenues, tastefully adorned with trees, make 
it an attractive spot for a home. 

Before leaving the home of his nativity, Mr. 
Erickson was married to Sophia Wesman, also 
a native of Sweden, the date of their marriage 
being in April, 1877. They are the parents of 
one child. 



-<&*■ 



t. „ „ -j 



*$>- 



J. DICKENSON, of Madera, Fresno 
County, was born in Franklin County, 
Tennessee, in 1829, and with his parents 
moved to Missouri in 1840. His father had 
been connected with agriculture in Tennessee, 
and was an overseer in the management of 
plantations. In 1846 he emigrated to Califor- 
nia, taking his family and crossing the plains in 
the company commanded by Captain Camp- 
bell. Mr. Dickenson settled in Santa Clara, 
and during the winter of 1846-'47 was a mem- 
ber of the Home Guards, experiencing some 
active service. He then went to the mines at 
Mokolumne Hill, remaining one year, and then 
settled in Stockton, where he built and rented 
houses, and later engaged in the cattle business. 
The subject of this sketch was educated in 
the East, and returned to California in 1852. 
He then started a freight line of ox teams to the 
mines, which was an extensive business, and 
later ran a freight line in Nevada until 1865, 
and then returned to California. He settled in 



484 



HIHTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 



Mariposa County, where he owned lumber in- 
terests and operated a sawmill for about seven 
years. He next settled in Madera as a stock- 
holder of the California Lumber Company and was 
interested in the conception and construction of 
the flume which leads back to their extensive 
lumber interests in the mountains, fifty -five 
miles away, which was built at an expense of 
$300,000. The enterprise was a prodigious one 
aud really ahead of the valley, which was 
then undeveloped, and the company lost every- 
thing through the transaction, and the Madera 
Flume & Land Company came into possession 
of the property. In 1878 Mr. Dickenson began 
logging in the mountains for the present com- 
pany, which he continued until his health failed 
in 1889. 

He was married in Merced County in 1865 to 
Miss Amanda Hardwick, and this union has 
been blessed with three children : Frank, Anna 
and Ruth, all of whom are living at home. Mr. 
Dickenson is a member of Madera Lodge, No. 
280, F. & A. M., and is a Royal Arch Mason. 



fMYER, one of the active young business 
men of Madera, was born in Germany, in 
1846. Attending school in his own coun- 
try until eighteen years of age, he then sought a 
broader field of labor; and to grow up among 
the young men of a new country, he left the 
home of his birth and emigrated direct to Cali- 
fornia, to seek name and fortune under the stars 
and stripes and among a free and independent 
people. Mr. Myer settled in (iilroy, Santa 
Clara Couuty, in 1866, and passed the two 
following years in school, learning the language 
and business methods of the country of his 
adoption. He then began clerking in Gilroy, 
and in 1871 came to Firebaugh, Fresno County, 
as cashier and manager of the general merchan- 
dise store of Messrs. Miller & Lux, and remained 
in their employ for a period of twelve years. 
In 1883 he came to Madera and engaged in a 
grain commission business, with a rented ware- 



house 50x250 feet, for the storage of grain. 
He also engaged in real estate, making a specialty 
of town property. In 1887 the firm of Mase A 
Myer was established to engage in the real- 
estate business, and they represent the Miller & 
Lux lands of about 7,000 acres, which is being 
subdivided and placed upon the market. Mr. 
Myer still continues his commission business. 
In the fall election of 1890 he was elected Super- 
visor from the first township, on the Republican 
ticket, against a Democratic majority of 200 
votes, which speaks volumes for the reputation 
and principles of Mr. Myer as an upright and 
honorable citizen. He is a member of Madera 
Lodge, No. 327, I. O. O. P., and of Madera 
Lodge, No. 134, Knights of Pythias. 

— ■ » » ii v . ; t i ^ . ^i . in 



fANDOREN STONER is well known 
throughout Kern County as " Van " 
Stoner. His native energy, promptness 
in his business methods and personal manners 
aredistinctly characteristic of "Van" Stoner. He 
is the sixth of the family of sixteen children of 
John Stoner, and was born in Atchison County, 
Missouri, near the town of Rockport, in April, 
1855. His father was a successful farmer and 
in good circumstances. At about twenty years 
of atce Mr. Stoner grew restless, however, and a 
desire to travel and see something of the world 
prompted him to come West. On this trip he 
visited Bakersfield, in March, 1875. Here he 
sought and found employment on the rauch of 
J. S. Ellis, where he worked for about three 
years. He then acted as zanjero for the Stein 
Irrigating & Canal Company for five years. In 
the meantime he purchased a one-fourth section 
of land, being the northwest one fourth of sec- 
tion 32, township 30 south, range 27 treat, 
located about eleven miles southwest of Bakers- 
field. 

July 12, 1882, he married Miss Alma R., 
daughter of J. S. and Nancy (Ingersoll) Ellis, 
and settled at his present home the following 
year. During the years 1802-'63 he operated 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 



485 



a successful dairy of 110 cows, and manufactured 
butter and cheese. This is said to have been 
the pioneer dairy of Kern County, one other 
having been started on the " Cotton " ranch on 
a modest scale about the same time or soon 
after. Mr. Stoner continued the dairy business 
on his own ranch, keeping about seventy cows, 
up to and including the year 1889. He has of 
late been devoting his time to the raising of 
cattle and pigs. Mr. and Mrs. Stoner have two 
daughters : Adell and Blanch, and one son, 
Vining. 



►*~»f- 



A. SKAGGS, a rancher south of Borden, 
was born in Henry County, Indiana, in 
1832. At the age of six years he was 
left an orphan, and was then taken by his uncle, 
Michael Skaggs, who in 1841 emigrated with 
his family to Platte County, Missouri, and there 
engaged in farming. In 1850, our subject, with 
his uncle, crossed the plains with an ox team, 
and landed at Ringgold, California, October 7 
of that year, having been about six months in 
crossing. They went to the mines on Mathi- 
nies creek, named after the Mathinies family, 
who struck it very rich, and in returning to Ore- 
gon with two mules loaded with gold dust all 
were murdered. Young Skaggs and his uncle 
mined about one year, when the latter was taken 
sick and died, thus leaving young Skaggs the 
second time an orphan. He continued mining 
in El Dorado, Amador and Calaveras counties 
until 1869, with the usual success of miners, 
making to-day and losing to-morrow, in the de- 
velopment of some new lead or wild-cat scheme. 
In 1869, growing tired of mining, he decided 
to renew the occupation of his boyhood, that of 
farming, and rented 640 acres in Stanislaus 
County, which he farmed in grain for two years, 
and in the second year managed to make what 
he lost the first year, so having quit about even. 
In 1873 he came to Fresno County and pre- 
empted 160 acres south of Borden, which he has 
increased hy purchase to the amount of 640 



acres, and also owns 160 acres four miles east 
and twenty acres in Clay's addition, Central 
colony, at Fresno. He has also been a renter of 
land, and sows annually from 1,000 to 2,000 
acres in wheat and barley. He came to the val- 
ley with very little money and attributes his 
success to economy, strict attention to business 
and the investment of his yearlj savings in 
lands, which in their turn increase the revenue. 
He is also engaged in stock raising, keeping 
about forty horses and mules. 

Mr. Skaggs was married at Volcano, Amador 
County, May 11, 1855, to Miss Margaret E. 
Hope, and to the family has been added six 
children, — James Aquilla, at present pastor of 
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Visa- 
alia; George Edgar, who is now studying for 
the ministry, at Lebanon, Tennessee, at the 
Theological Seminary; Samuel L., John W., 
Mary Alice and Katie Cora. Mr. Skaggs is a 
member of Madera Lodge, No. 280, F. & A. M. 
He feels very proud of his success in grain 
farming, but more highly honored in that the 
Spirit called two of his sons as disseminators of 
the word of God. 



1& 

S. PATTERSON, who was among the 
early settlers of Borden, is a native of 
Tennessee, born in Wilson County, in 
1827. His father, Samuel F. Patterson, was a 
successful stock-raiser. He moved his family 
to Smith County in 1831, upon a plantation of 
600 acres, where he engaged quite extensively 
in the stock business. The education of young 
Patterson, our subject, was received in his native 
town, in the subscription schools held in the old 
log school-house; but under his father's direc- 
tions he was well trained in agriculture and 
stock-raising, which was the secret of his late 
successful career. At the age of eighteen years 
he was married, in Smith County, to Miss Me- 
ridian Armonett, after which he rented a farm 
of 100 acres, and also conducted a tannery, 
which business he had followed since fourteen 



486 



niSTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



years of age. After four years he purchased a 
farm of 180 acres and there engaged in stock- 
raising, and also trading in hogs and mules 
through South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. 
His farm lay on a fork of the Cumberland river, 
and he also owned and operated a saw and grist- 
mill, sawing lumber by day and running the 
mill at night, and doing an extensive business, 
which he continued for eleven years or until 
the breaking out of the war. In 1862 the 
conn try became too turbulent for him, he 
being a Republican, and in November went to 
Kentucky, but returning to his farm in October, 
1863. The Southern sympathizers had driven 
all his stock from his farm, and he had no re- 
dress. In 1865 he started a general merchan- 
dise store upon his place, which proved quite 
successful. 

In 1867 Mr. Patterson was elected to the State 
Senate by the Republican party, to fill the un- 
expired term of John W. Brown. He was re- 
elected to the office in 1868, but declined the 
nomination in 1870. In the spring of that year 
his store was destroyed by fire, and he decided 
to seek a new home, and with that intent came 
to California. Being pleased with the country 
he brought out his family in the fall of the same 
year. He then settled in Stanislaus County, and 
bought a farm of 300 acres bordering on the 
Stanislaus river. There he farmed in grain and 
stock for two years, when he sold out and came 
to Fresno County, and bought 480 acres of R. 
B. Allen, later adding to the amount of 1,280 
acres. He there followed grain farming and 
the breeding of horses, mules, cattle and hogs 
very extensively. When he came to the valley 
all supplies were brought from Stockton, 146 
miles away, drawn upon wagons, or from Mil- 
ton, twenty-two miles away, where the same 
articles cost about four times as much. Still, 
with all this, Mr. Patterson has been highly 
prospered, and has reared a family of eight 
children, all but one of whom are settled upon 
ranches about Fresno County His grand- 
children now number forty, with two great- 
grandchildren, and his declining years are 



passed among his dear ones in peace and con- 
tentment. 

After a married life of forty-five years his 
wife died, November 7, 1890, mourned and re- 
gretted by all. Mr. Patterson has reduced his 
ranch to 440 acres, which he still farms and 
continues the stock business, this always having 
been a part of his life. He now lives with his 
children. He is a member of Madera Lodge, 
No. 280, F. &. A. M., also of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church. 



§B. ATWELL. — In no portion of the 
world can there be found a body of men 
a and women, the history of whose lives 
contain so much of stirring adventure and he- 
roic bravery as those who came to this State 
during the few years immediately following the 
discovery of gold in California. In the life of 
A. B. Atwell we have a fair example of the 
forty-niner. An account of his varied experi- 
ences on this coast would make an interesting 
volume of no small proportions; even the most 
condensed narrative of his career requires much 
more space than can be given on these pages. 

A. B. Atwell was born on his uncle Lemuel 
Minon's farm in Cattaraugus County, New 
York, July 31, 1830. His ancestors have been 
identified with this conntry since its early his- 
tory. His great-great-grandfather came with 
his family from the island of Corsica, about the 
year 1700, and settled in the old French town 
of Louisburg, Cape Breton island, and his great- 
grandfather lost his life in the defense of that 
town in 1745. Grandfather Atwell remained 
in and around Louisburg till about 1775, when 
he had a misunderstanding with the English 
press-gang and a price was set upon his head. 
He at once left Cape Breton, and the next 
known of him was in the battles of Lexington 
and Concord, where he espoused the cause of 
the colonies, and from that time until the close 
of the Revolution did good service as a scout. 
He was honorably discharged, and ended his 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



487 



days in peace with the world near the old 
French town of Kaskaskia, Illinois. Mr. At 
well's father was a soldier in the war of 1812, 
and was with Jackson at New Orleans. From 
that time until his death, in 1849, he led the 
quiet life of a civilian in the vicinity of St. Louis, 
Missouri. 

The subject of our sketch was sixteen when 
the Mexican war broke out, and the patriotism 
which fired the spirits of his forefathers was 
not slow to manifest itself in him. As a volun- 
teer he was mustered into the service of the 
United States at Alton, Illinois; went to the 
seat of war, acted the part of a brave soldier, 
returned to Illinois when the conflict ended, 
and was honorably discharged at Alton. 

The winter of 1848 young Atwell spent in 
one round of gayety in St. Louis and vicinity, 
but the restless disposition he inherited from 
bis Corsican ancestors rendered him unsettled 
and eager for adventure, and when the news of 
the discovery of gold in California reached Mis- 
souri, be was among the first to start for the 
new El Dorado. On March 4, 1849, in com- 
pany with several young men, he left that city 
en route to California. Their outfit consisted 
of " prairie schooners," each drawn by four 
yoke of oxen, the men all having horses and 
mules to ride. This journey, which lasted six 
months, and which was not unlike that de- 
scribed by many others, terminated on October 
6. In many respects the trip was a most en- 
joyable one to Mr. Atwell. They were well 
equipped, game was plenty, the scenery was 
charming and ever changing, and their camp- 
fires were enlivened by stories of exciting ad- 
ventures told by such men as Joe Rubedore, 
Vetal Joro, Tom La Grave and Baties Shautiev, 
who traveled with them. 

They entered California by the Lassen cut- 
off, having packed their animals and abandoned 
their wagons soon after leaving the Humboldt. 
At Long's Point, on the Feather river, Mr. At- 
well remained one night. By that time his 
provisions were almost gone, and he had but 
one dollar left. Feeling the necessity of going 



to work, he went up the river, met a man by 
the name of Stout, who was working a lot of In- 
dians, and who had great difficulty to make 
them understand him. He, however, had a 
Spanish interpreter, and as Mr. Atwell could 
speak Spanish, he found employmentas an inter- 
preter and general manager, receiving $5 the 
first day and $16 a day afterward, remaining 
with him for a time and then going to the 
mines. In the mining districts of California 
Mr. Atwell had the usual experience of miner 
and trader until 1852, when he went to Contra 
Costa County (now Alameda County) and en- 
gaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1857, 
in company with L. J. Cralle and John P. Joy, 
known as "Whisky Jobn," he made a tour of 
the King's river district. He returned to Oak- 
land that year, and on October 25, 1858, again 
started for King's river, this time in company 
with Mr. Cralle and E. G. Robinson and family, 
taking with them horses and cattle, and being a 
month in reaching their destination. 

Mr. Atwell has since made his home in this 
valley. He is loaded with reminiscences of 
pioneer life on the river banks, and also on the 
plains, and recounts his varied experiences in a 
graphic manner. When he settled here the 
nearest trading point was Visalia, the mail mat- 
ter all coming from that place until the overland 
stage started in 1860, when a post office was 
established at Kingston. All the old settlers 
well rememher the flood of 1861. Mr. Atwell 
and his family were driven from their home by 
the rising waters, and for five weeks camped 
out in their wagon. About the year 1865 the 
stock business began to change from cattle to 
sheep, and from that time the number of cattle 
on the plains decreased yearly, and the number 
of sheep increased until 1872, when the farmers 
began to crowd the sheep out. Mr. Atwell 
sold his sheep, and in 1879 moved from the 
river to the plains, locating in the Wild Flower 
district. He is at present engaged in farming 
on a ranch of 200 acres, situated nine miles 
southwest of Sebna. 

In speaking of the wonderful development of 



488 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



this section of the country, Mr. Atwell says: 
1 1 can scarcely realize the improvements that 
have taken place in the once barren plains, 
which are now considered the garden spot of 
the world. The wheat and dry and green fruit 
produced here find a market in all parts of the 
world, and the end is not yet. Fresno County 
is destined to become in wealth and population 
one of the first counties of the State of 
California." 

Mr. Atwell was married in 1860 to Ellen 
Farley, of Iowa. They have no children. 

&$»-& 

Tr^V P. OLDS, of Bakersfield, is a native of 
^iPf) Wyoming County, New York, born 
Tglf ° August 13, 1840, the son of James D. 
Olds, a farmer and hotelkeeper by occupation. 
He was the father of four children, of whom the 
subject of this sketch was the eldest. He was 
educated in his native place for general mercan- 
tile and commission business, and also learned 
the trade of cabinet-maker and finisher. He 
left home in 1862, at the age of twenty-two 
years, for California, via the Isthmus of Panama, 
and located at El Dorado, in the county of the 
same name, where he commenced clerking for 
his uncle, Charles P. Jackson. The latter re- 
moved to Chicago twenty years ago, and is now 
president of the Pioneer Society of California, 
of that city. Mr. Olds remained in El Dorado 
about twelve years, and then came to Kern 
County and made some investments in Bakers- 
field, with the progress and prosperity of which 
town he has been identified. He was elected 
auditor of Kern County on the Republican 
ticket in 1886, and held the same two years. 
Later he ran for the office of county clerk, but 
was defeated, and was subsequently appointed 
Clerk of the School Board. He is enterprising 
and progressive, and is a strong believer in and 
promoter of our free-school system. In 1890 
he was elected Justice of the Peace, taking pos- 
session of the office on January 1 of the pres- 
ent year. 



In 1864 he married Miss Bern ice S. Pavey, 
who was born in Cold water, Michigan, in IMS, 
the daughter of Dr. Charles Pavey, a native of 
England, a pioneer of southern Michigan and a 
representative and highly respected citizen. 
He left his native country on account of Ids 
health. Mr. and Mrs. Olds have had four chil- 
dren, — three daughters and one son. 



B. GANYARD, of Madera, was born 
in Jonesville, Hillsdale County, Mich- 
igan, in 1845. He improved his educa- 
tional facilities in his native town, and passed 
his boyhood days at home on the old farm. In 
March, 1876, he started for the Pacific slope, 
and after passing one seasou with friends in Or- 
egon he went to Eureka, Humboldt County, and 
secured the position of salesman and bookkeeper 
in the hardware store of W. H. Johnston, re- 
maining one year. He then went to Port Ken- 
yon, at the head waters of navigation on the Salt 
river, and there managed the hotel of J. G. 
Kenyon for eighteen months. This experience 
started him in the hotel business, and he then 
leased the Golden Eagle Hotel at Marys ville, 
which he managed for two years; then came to 
Firebaugh, and was in the same business three 
years. In 1884 he went to Fresno and leased 
the old Morrow House, which he refitted and 
furnished, changed the name to the Southern 
Pacific, and in the two years there built up an ex- 
tensive business. Early in 1887 he came to 
Madera, and March 16, of the same year entered 
into partnership with Jake Myer, in the grain 
commission business, and they then started the 
Mint Saloon and Wine Rooms. 

Mr. Ganyard was married at Janesville, 
Michigan, in 1865, to Miss May Rose, a native 
of Canada, a lady of genial disposition and win- 
ning manners. After about twenty years of 
married life Mrs. Ganyard was afflicted with a 
malignant disease and died, amidst great suffer- 
ing, in December, 1888, mourned by a fond 
husband, their oidy child Allen, and a large cir- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



cle of friends. Mr. Ganyard bought a residence 
on C street, which is now occupied by his son, 
who was married December 13, 1890, to Miss 
Minnie Townsend. Mr. Ganyard also owns 180 
acres in Tnlare County, which he has improved 
in vines, trees and alfalfa. He was a charter 
member of Fresno Lodsje, No. 138, K. of P., 
and is a member of Yo Semite Lodge, No. 173, 
A. O. TJ. W. 



fC. PALMES, of Bakersiield, Kern Conn, 
ty, is a native of Constantine, St. Joseph 
3 County, Michigan, where he was born 
May 30, 1843. He was the son of George 
Palmes, a pioneer of that section of the State, 
and the father of five children, one daughter 
and four sons, of whom the subject of this sketch 
was the youngest. He learned his father's trade, 
that of tailor, but on the breaking out of the 
war of the Rebellion he enlisted in Company G, 
Sixth Minnesota Infantry. He served three 
years or until the close of the war, and was mus- 
tered out in August, 1865. He is now a mem- 
ber of Hurlburt Post, No. 127, G. A. R. In 
the spring of 1871, after having worked four 
years on the St. Paul & Duluth railway as a 
civil engineer, he came to California to pursue 
the same calling in this State. 

Mr. Palmes is a married man, his wife's 
maiden name being Mary Mitchell. He is a 
well-read and successful business man. Both 
himself and wife have fine social qualities, and 
take a zealous interest in the social welfare of 
Bakersfield, aiding with open hearts and hands 
all worthy charitable objects. 



E. CHAPIN, a rancher and stock-raiser 
of North Fork, was born in Wayne Conn, 
ty, New York, in 1834. His father had 
followed farming, but in 1844 moved to Lenawee 
County, Michigan, and later to Grand Rapids, 
where he followed a general business life. At the 

8L 



age of nineteen years young Chapin bejjan his 
business career in the general merchandise store 
of his father, and after four years of close appren- 
ticeship, in 1857, he began the same business, 
which he continued until 1865. He then sold 
out, went to Chicago, and was engaged there in 
business two years. In 1867 he returned to 
Grand Rapids and engaged in the lumber bus- 
iness, which he followed for many years, spend- 
ing part of his time in New York city, where 
he established an agency to better dispose of 
his product. In 1879 Mr. Chapin went to 
Leadville, Colorado, and engaged in mining, 
operating and speculating in silver mines, in 
which he still owns interests. In 1882 he came 
to Fresno County, and after one year spent in 
prospecting at Fine Gold he settled down to mer- 
cantile life at Ma lera, and continued in business 
until 1887, when he again went to the moun- 
tains. He now owns 640 acres at North Fork, 
which is mostly timber land, and also owns and 
operates a sawmill, shipping his lumber to Fres- 
no. His ranch is at an elevation of 3,600 feet, 
well adapted to the growth of apples and the 
fruits of the colder climates. The winters are 
quite cold, but the summer climate is delight- 
ful, and canon scenery is unsurpassed. Mr. 
Chapin has fifteen acres in apples, and also 
keeps some horses, having a fine Cleveland bay 
stallion. 

He was married at Geneva, Wisconsin, iu 
1862, to Miss Cornelia Robinson, a native of 
New York. 



—=£<+■ 



I ' '■" I 



*%=~ 



ljl| W. CHILD, of Madera, Fresno County, 
Wh was ' DOrn near Grand Rapids, Kent 
^^° County, Michigan, in September, 1852, 
the son of James L. Child, who was a farmer in 
early life, but later a clergyman of the Meth- 
odist church. Young Child received a common- 
school education, and then learned the printer's 
trade, but the confinement disagreed with him, 
and in 1875 he started for California, first set- 
tling in San Francisco, where for a time he was 



490 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



proof-reader on the Scientific and Rural Press. 
He then secured a clerkship in a general mer- 
chandise store, where he remained two years, 
then went to the Sandwich Islands, and was 
engaged upon a sugar plantation, part of the 
time on his own account and part as overseer of 
a large plantation, having the management of 
300 men, and was also in charge of the factory. 
In 1881 he returned to California, and for two 
years was a member of a surveying party in 
Wyoming. Upon his return to his State he set- 
tled in Contra Costa County and engaged in 
grain farming, leasing 600 acres of land and fol- 
lowing the industry until 1888, when he came 
to Fresno County. 

As agent for Thomas K. Hughes he settled at 
Madera, where he superintended the laying of 
irrigating ditches and also the sale of lands. 
Upon the sale of 3,140 acres to John Brown, 
where was located the John Brown colony, No. 
1, in December, 1889, Mr. Child accepted the 
position of superintendent of the colony work. 
In the spring of 1890, they planted 1,085 acres 
of vines, tifty acres of tigs, and in the spring of 
1891, 2,055 acres, largely in vines. On the col- 
ony they employ 240 white men, 60 China- 
men and 200 horses and mules. They have 120 
acres in nursery, eighty of which is in grape 
cuttings for the planting of 1892. Mr. Child 
owns a forty-acre ranch one mile southwest from 
the depot of Madera, thirty acres of which he 
has set in vines, ten acres in figs, and erected a 
fine cottage. 

He was married in Contra Costa County, in 
July, 1886, to Miss Addie Sanders, and they 
have one child, Lottie, born February 19, 1891. 
Mr. Child is a member and junior warden of 
Madera Lodge, No. 280, F. & A. M. 



fAMES G. BURNETT.— Among the many 
successful farmers and stock- raisers in the 
Wild Flower district of Fresno County 
may be mentioned the subject of this sketch. 
Mr. Burnett was born in the State of Ken- 



tucky in the year 1831. His father, Patrick 
Henry Burnett, now deceased, was a well-to-do 
farmer, and James G. was reared and educated 
in an agricultural atmosphere. In 1856 he 
crossed the plains with ox teams to California, 
the journey consuming four months' time. He 
located first in Solano County, where he lived 
four years, afterward settling in Yolo County, 
engagtd in farming from 1868 till 1886. Mr. 
Burnett's career in Yolo County was a very 
successful one, and in the community where he 
lived so long he was greatly honored and re- 
spected. 

In 1886 he moved to the Wild Flower dis- 
trict, and is now engaged in farming and stock- 
raising on his ranch of 320 acres. He also 
cultivates a ranch of 400 acres, located four 
miles away. 

Mr. Burnett was happily married, in 1866, to 
Miss Elizabeth Reid, a native of Yolo County, 
California. They have a family of two sons and 
one daughter, all residing at home. The family 
are well known and have a wide circle of ac- 
quaintances and friends in this part of the 
country. 

§L. SAYRE, a rancher one mile southeast 
of Madera, was born in New York city 
* in 1860. His father, A. L. Sayre, was 
prominently connected with the importing aud 
jobbing of foreign fruits. He was one of the 
oldest fruit merchants in New York city, hav- 
ing established his business in 1844. On ac- 
count of failing health he retired from business 
in 1874, and on a visit to California purchased 
through his friend, W. S. Chapman, the ranch 
as above located, containing 804 acres. The 
ranch was devoted entirely to grain up to 1881, 
when he planted twenty acres in vines and has 
since increased the amount to 225 acres, and 
the vines are now in full bearing. Mr. Sayre 
divided his life between California and his New 
York home and died on his ranch in 1887. 
Young Sayre was educated in New York, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



491 



taking a university course. He then entered 
commercial life, at the age of eighteen years, 
in the wholesale grocery establishment of F. 
H. Leggett & Co., with whom he remained two 
and a half years. He was then employed by 
Carpenter, Cornell & Co. as general buyer, and 
remained with the firm five years. Upon the 
death of his father, Mr. Sayre retired from 
commercial life and came to Madera to super- 
intend and manage his ranch interests, and 
though having been brought up in the busy 
city of New York, lie finds both pleasure and 
profit in his ranch life, and makes frequent 
visits to New York, where his mother and fam- 
ily still reside. Mr. Sayre carries on a general 
ranch business, with 225 acres in vines, 160 in 
alfalfa, and the remainder in grain. He also 
keeps 175 head of cattle and twenty-five head 
of horses for ranch purposes. Though a bach- 
elor, Mr. Sayre is very pleasantly situated, in 
the full enjoyment of his independent life, and 
deeply interested in the prosperity of his ranch 
interests. He is a member of the Manhattan 
Athletic Club of New York city. 






Vt&- 



PR. EDWARD Y. JARRETT is a native of 
Georgia, born in 1854. He was educated 
in Mercer University, Georgia, taking up 
the study of medicine shortly afterward, and 
graduating at the Atlantic College of Medicine in 
1874, and was demonstrator of anatomy for two 
years. He then entered upon the practice of 
his profession in his native State, and for four 
years continued to make that his home. He 
afterward settled in Valley Mills, Texas, where 
he remained ten years. There he had a large 
practice, and also gave his attention to sheep 
business and general stock-raising, which did 
not, however, prove a financial success. 

In November, 1888, Dr. Jarrett came to Cal- 
ifornia and settled in Fowler, Fresno County, 
where he resides at the present writing. He 
established the only drug store in the town, and 
in partnership with Dr. Cannan is conducting 



that enterprise, also having a large and profit- 
able medical practice. 

He was married, December 25, 1880, to Miss 
Ella Barnett, a native of Texas, and has a fam- 
ily of three children. 



gk. h3+ 






L. CONNER, Je.— The name of this 
pioneer is familiar to the average resi- 
dent of Kern County and is synonymous 
with that of Livennore or Greenfield ranch, 
which he as superintendent practically settled 
and improved, bringing.it by stages to its pres- 
ent fine state of development. 

Mr. Conner was born in Tompkinsville, Choc- 
taw County, Alabama, in 1849. His father, 
C. L. Conner, came to California in 1857, and 
was for a time successfully engaged in mining. 
He afterward turned his attention to farming 
in the Sacramento valley, and from there re- 
moved to Santa Ana, Orange County, where he 
died in 1884. His surviving children are the 
subject of this sketch and his sister, who is the 
wife of Judge G. G. Berry, Tombstone, Ari- 
zona. Their mother died in Alabama in 1856. 
C. L. Conner, Jr., was educated in the com- 
mon schools and served an apprenticeship of 
two years to railroading. After coming to 
California he lived in Gilroy, Santa Clara 
County, for a time. In 1874, in company with 
W. H. Sauther, his father-in-law, he came to 
Kern County with a band of cattle and the 
necessary implements and supplies to com- 
mence the improvement of the Livennore ranch, 
this property being then owned by Horatio 
P. Livermore of San Francisco and in its 
wild state. The work of improvement at once 
began. Fences were built, irrigating ditches 
constructed, large and commodious buildings 
erected, and all things put in orde,r for the ex- 
perimental raising of grain. Upward of 5,000 
acres were seeded to wheat, and in point of 
yield the results were gratifying. The long 
distance from market and the expense of trans- 
portation took all the profits, however, and grain 



492 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



culture was abandoned. He then turned his 
attention to stock-raising. Of the 15,000 acres 
of this now splendid stock range, about 12,000 
are seeded to alfalfa. Thirteen artesian wells 
have been sunk on the ranch, ranging in depth 
from 290 to 600 feet. The first well of this 
character in the San Joaquin valley was sunk by 
Mr. Conner on this ranch. This property is one 
of the most famous ranches in Kern County, and 
its excellent condition and high state of devel- 
opment may be ascribed to the industry and en- 
terprise of Mr. Conner, its manager. He has 
succeeded from year to year in making it a 
source of profit to its owners, and while doing 
this has advanced his own interests as well. 

Mr. Conner is a man of business ability, is 
social and genial, and is always found approach- 
able. He is one of Kern County's esteemed 
and popular citizens. 



fM. DUNLAP, who was prominently ccn- 
nected with the staging interests of Cali- 
9 fornia in early days, was born in Fulton, 
Missouri, in 1836. His boyhood days were 
passed upon the farm of his father, and his edu- 
cation was received at the Westminster College. 
In 1859 he struck out in life, and in going 
westward he took a load of supplies to the sol- 
diers then stationed at Salt Lake. Being of a 
bold and fearless disposition, he secured a posi- 
tion upon the pony express, and rode between 
Carson City and Carson Lake, a distance of 
seventy-five miles, for several months, or until 
the line was abandoned through the depreda- 
tions of the Piute Indians. He then drove on 
the overland stage line between Salt Lake and 
Camp Floyd, later called Fort Crittenden. In 
1860 Mr. Dunlap came to California and settled 
with his brother, T. J. Dunlap, on the upper 
San Joaquin river, where he followed mining 
about two years. He then returned to the 
more exciting life of stage-driving, and drove 
on the old telegraph line between Firebaugh 
and Cilroy until those towns were connected by 



railroad. He then drove on the Yo Semite 
stage line from Merced, and later from Madera 
to the valley, continuing in the business until 
1881. Mr. Dunlap has always been fortunate 
in his dangerous calling, and through all his 
meanderings through the canons, besides the 
precipices and steep declivities, he has never met 
with a serious accident. 

In 1881 he opened a wine room in Madera, 
which he has since continued, following a more 
quiet life. He is Past Master of Madera 
Lodge, No. 280 F. & A. M.; Past Chancel- 
lor of Madera Lodge, No. 134, K. of P., and 
is a member of Trigo Chapter, No. 69, Royal 
Arch Masons. 

■- •■ § • » ■ ■ I - gf- 




ILLIAM O. BREYFOGLE, of Madera, 
is a native of Delaware County, Ohio, 
born in 1837. He was educated in the 
common schools, and then gave his attention to 
learning the trade of a carpenter, which he first 
put into practice in Kansas City, in 1856. In 
the fall of 1857 he joined a prospecting com- 
pany visiting the mining districts of Denver, 
and in 1858 Mr. Breyfogle came to California. 
He then went to the mines at Auburn, Placer 
County, but devoted most of his time to his 
trade, in building the mining camps. He then 
passed one year in looking about Oregon and 
northern California, and in the fall of 1860 re- 
turned to San Francisco and was engaged by 
the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad Com- 
pany in building bridges. He was with the 
company two years, and constructed every 
bridge on the line. In 1863 he began con- 
tracting and building in San Francisco, where 
he remained until 1869, when he went to San 
Jose, following the same pursuit and also en- 
gaged quite extensively in bridge-building. In 
1878 be retired from active brsiness to accept 
the position of superintendent of streets, to which 
he had been elected, and was re-elected in 1880. 
This second term was abbreviated in 1881 by 
his resignation, in order to come to Madera to 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



493 



superintend the yards and manage the factory 
of the Madera Flume & Trading Company, 
where he is still engaged. Mr. Breyfogle was 
one of the incorporators of the Bank of Madera, 
which began business November 25, 1889, and 
January 1, 1891 was elected president of the 
bank. 

In 1867 he celebrated an important event in 
his life, by his marriage, in San Francisco, to 
Miss Rebecca Croskey, an estimable lad}', who 
was a native of New York State. Four chil- 
dren have been added to the household: Nellie 
M., William R., Lillian and Olive. Mr. Brey- 
fogle is a member of Howard Chapter, No. 14, 
Royal Arch Masons, and of Commandery, No. 
10, Knights Templar, all of San Jose. 



tLBERT C. WILLIAMS was born in 
Sonoma County, California, October 15> 
1858. He is the only son in a family of 
five children, and has always resided in his 
native State. When he was eight years old his 
father removed to Solano County, and in 1874 
to Los Angeles County, to the section now 
included in Orange County. Mr. "Williams has 
been engaged in . fruit cnltnre the most of his 
life. After he completed his studies at school, 
he worked on his father's fruit ranch, early in 
life gaining valuable information in regard to 
fruit culture that has been of much practical 
use to him. 

In 1881 he engaged in fruit raising on his 
own account, and was very successful, remain- 
ing in Los Angeles County until 1887. In 
December of that year he moved to Fresno 
County and located on a ranch of eighty acres, 
two miles and a half northeast of Selma. Fifty- 
five acres of this he is devoting to the culture 
of the raisin grape. He has made all the 
improvements on his place, among which may 
be mentioned his residence, a very pretty house 
with appointments and furnishings far surpass- 
ing those of the average country home. Aside 
from the property already referred to, Mr 



Williams has landed interests near Santa Ana, 
Orange County, and in the town of Selma he 
holds stock in the Masonic Temple Association. 
November 6, 1890, he was united in mar- 
riage with Caroline England, a most estimable 
lady, also a native of California, born in Cala- 
veras County. 



«»l < *l\ a 3 * * S ' 



fOSEPH EMERY NEWMAN, of Madera, 
Fresno County, is a native of Maryland, 
born in Baltimore, February 13, 1857. 
His father, J. E. Newman, was a member of the 
firm of Newman Bros. & Sons, prominent piano- 
manufacturers of Baltimore. The business was 
broken up at the opening of the civil war in 
1861, and the father died in 1867. The educa- 
tion of young Emery was commenced in 
Baltimore, attending St. Timothy's Military 
Academy, Cantonsville, Maryland, for two 
years; but on the death of his father he went to 
live with his uncle, Thomas H. Fitzgerald, at 
Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland, 
and there studied at home under a highly edu- 
cated governess. At the age of fifteen years 
our subject began assisting his uncle upon his 
farm, and remained with him until twenty-one 
years of age. After teaching a district school a 
term of nine months, he took the course at the 
Bryant & Stratton Business College at Balti- 
more, and graduated in 1880 with high honors. 
He then secured a position in the auditing 
department of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, 
and subsequently went to Wilkes Barre, Penn- 
sylvania, as a salesman and bookkeeper in the 
business of musical instruments. In 1882 he 
went to Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, and secured a 
position in the office of Hildreth & Co., general 
merchants, who conducted a very extensive busi- 
ness, and remained in their employ for seven 
years. Mr. Newman, with a few friends, organ- 
ized the Nanticoke fire department, and was 
foreman of the first company. The department 
now has four hose companies, one hook and 
ladder company, and numbers about 200 men. 



494 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Through friends in Madera, Mr. Newman has 
become interested in the colonization of lands, 
and in December, 1889, he came to Madera to 
identify himself with the John Brown colony, 
and also in the organization of the Bank of 
Madera. He was appointed assistant cashier 
and director, and secretary of the colony, the 
double duties keeping hiin very closely occu- 
pied. He is a stockholder in both bank and 
colony, and has an interest in a large number of 
town lots in Hughes' addition. 

o 

Mr. Newman was married in Nanticoke, Sep- 
tember 21, 1887, to Miss Cora C. Fellows, a 
native of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and they 
have one child, Carl Emery, born August 31, 
1888. Mr. Newman is a member of Nanti- 
coke Lodge, No. 541, F. & A. M.,and of Patri- 
otic Order, Sons of America, Lodge No. 271. 



O^ 



-*±* w£i 



K|& BENJAMIN F. DAY, of Eeedley, is a 
Ifjlnl native of Ohio, born in the year 1841. 
9ggf Early in his career the family home was 
moved to Indiana, and on a farm in that State the 
Doctor spent his young manhood. He attended 
school at convenient opportunities and also did 
much toward keeping up the farm. At the age 
of twenty-four he commenced the study of med- 
cine at Indianapolis, entering the Indianapolis 
Medical College, where he graduated in the 
spring of 1870. 

After completing his medical course he com- 
menced the practice of his profession in Fay- 
ette County, that State, and subsequently 
located in Delaware County. In these localities 
Dr. Day established a large practice, and dur- 
ing the many years he made his home there he 
was highly esteemed by the profession and the 
community at large. 

In January, 1889, he came to California, 
taking up his residence in the town of Reedley, 
Fresno County, where he now lives. Here he has 
an excellent medical practice, and is one of 
the prominent citizens of the place. He is 
School Trustee of the district, and in many 



other matters of interest to the community he 
takes an active part. 

The Doctor was married in August, 1863, to 
Miss Mary Kiger of Indiana, and has a family 
of three children. 



tBIA T. LIGHTNER.— The subject of this 
brief sketch is the youngest son of one 
of the pioneers of California. He was 
born at or near Pomona, Los Angeles County, 
January 1, 1850. His father, the late Abia T. 
Lightner, was a native of Pennsylvania; came 
to this State in 1849, and, as will be seen by a 
biographical review of his life elsewhere in this 
work, was an honored and useful citizen. 

Mr. Lightner was seven years of age when 
his parents located in Kern County. He re- 
ceived his early education in the public schools 
of San Jose, attended the Pacific Methodist 
Episcopal College at Vacaville, and subsequent- 
ly Heald's Business College, San Francisco, 
graduating at the latter institution in 1871. He 
then returned to Kern County and was engaged 
in the stock business until 1876, when he re- 
ceived the appointment of under sheriff of 
Kern County by M. P. Wells, and wore the first 
official under-sheriffs badge of Kern County 
that was authorized by law. He served a two 
years' term in that capacity, and in 1879 was 
elected clerk and ex-officio county recorder of 
Kern County, and by reason of a change in the 
State constitution his second term of office was 
extended two years. He was re-elected in 1852, 
making for him a continuous service of four 
years and ten months, which ended on the first 
Monday in January, 1885. 

Retiring from office, Mr. Lightner engaged 
in the hotel business, with C. W. Fare as pro- 
prietor of the Grand Hotel, of Tulare. The 
memorable tire of that year swept away the 
hotel and about all Mr. Lightner'e earthly pos- 
sessions. He then went to Sacramento and made 
a full and complete set of abstracts from the 
records of the surveyor general's office, of Tulare 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



495 



County's lands, for Messrs. Miller & Creighton, 
searchers of records, "V isalia. This work occu- 
pied him for six months, and after its comple- 
tion he returned to Kern County, located at 
Bakersfield and associated himself in business 
with W. E. Houghton, as searchers of records 
and real estate and insurance agents, under the 
firm name of Houghton & Lightner. This 
business alliance has proved a most signal suc- 
cess. The established reputation of Mr. Light- 
ner, and likewise his partner, as careful and effi- 
cient men in their line of work, brought them a 
large business, which is one of the most pros- 
perous on the coast. (See mention elsewhere in 
this volume.) Mr. Lightner. was elected to the 
office of Assessor of Kern County in November, 
1890, making him the present incumbent of that 
office. He is distinguished as one of the two 
oldest native-born American citizens of Califor- 
nia, and is the only man in this State eligible 
to membership in both the Society of California 
Pioneers and the order of Native Sons of the 
Golden West. 

Mr. Lightner was married October 11, 1883, 
to Miss Tena Morrell, daughter of W. H. and 
Catherine Morrell. She was born in Mendocino 
County, California, September 6, 1860. 



>3m£< 




F. BAIRD, vice-president and mana- 
ager of the Bank of Madera, was born 
^] a in Uniontown, Fayette County, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1862. His father, J. Baird, was a 
farmer and banker, being director of the National 
Bank of Deposit, Brownville, Pennsylvania, and 
owning 400 acres of land, where he carried on gen- 
eral farming and also raised horses and cattle from 
high-bred stock. Young Baird was educated at 
the schools of Uniontown, then at the Streator 
high school of Illinois, and finished at Eastman's 
National Business College at Poughkeepsie, 
New York. Before graduating he was called 
back to Streator to accept the position of assist- 
ant cashier and bookkeeper in the banking house 
of Wilson & Kuhns. He was subsequently pro- 



moted to the office of cashier, and remained in 
the bank nearly four years. In August, 1887, 
Mr. Baird came to Elsinore, San Diego County, 
California, and received the position of cashier 
of the Consolidated Bank of Elsinore, with a paid 
up capital of $44,000, of which Mr. Baird owns 
one-third. On the organization of the Bank of 
Madera, in February, 1890, he was induced to 
come to Madera and accept the position of vice- 
president and manager of the bank, but still 
retaining his interest in the Bank at Elsinore. 
Under his wise management the bank of Madera 
has made rapid progress, and is doing a success- 
ful business. Mr. Baird is also treasurer of 
John Brown colony, which was incorporated in 
February, 1890, with a paid up capital of $200,- 
000, and is a director and stockholder of the 
institution. 

He was married at Streator, Illinois, in Jan- 
uary, 1886, to Miss Mina A. Smith, a native of 
Chicago. They have one child, Ralph P., who 
was born November 11, 1888. Mr. Baird is 
largely interested in town lots, in the Hughes 
addition to Madera, and is about to build a 
handsome residence on Yo Semite avenue. 
Though a very active business man he is not 
unmindful of church work. At Streator, Illi- 
nois, he was elected and ordained elder of the 
Park Presbyterian Church, at twenty-one years 
of age, and was then the youngest known elder 
in the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States. In Madera, Mr. Baird was prominent 
in the organization of the First Presbyterian 
Church, in October, 1890, ttnd was appointed 
elder of the church and superintendent of the 
Sundav-school. 



fAMES P. NEIL is a native of Tennessee, 
born in the year 1847. At the age of 
twenty-one years, he engaged in agricult- 
ural pursuits on his farm of 300 acres in 
Meigs County, in which locality he lived for 
many years. He was a prominent citizen and 
served the public in various ways. For two 



49G 



HIS'lOHY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



years he was one of the Trustees of the county, 
and in 1879 he held the office of Jnstice of the 
Peace in his township. 

1885 is the date of Mr. Neil's arrival in Cali- 
fornia. After remaining for a short time with 
his brother in Kern County, he came to Fresno 
County and located near the town of Reedley, 
or where the town now lies. He first rented 
800 acres of land and engaged in farming on a 
good basis. Now he owns a colony lot of forty 
acres, a mile south of the village, and has it all 
devoted to raisin culture. 

Mr. Neil was married in 1877 to Miss Olivia 
Hodge, a native of Tennessee. Their union has 
been blessed with live children. 



fH. SI1EDD, a rancher south of Borden, 
was born in Orleans County, Vermont, 
° in 1836, the son of Alvin Shedd, a native 
of New Hampshire, but one of the early settlers 
of Vermont. At the age of six years our sub- 
ject lost his father by death, and at the age of 
thirteen years he left home to live with his 
uncle, Mr. Shedd, with whom he remained until 
sixteen years of age, and was then apprenticed 
to learn the trade of shoemaking. After about 
four years he was taken sick, after which he 
gave up his occupation, as he could not 
bear the position or confinement. After a 
lingering illness of about one year, he came to 
California, partly for his health. He then went 
to the mines in Tuolumne County, and after 
three years in the pure mountain air he had 
practically recovered his health. He then came 
to the plains in the San Joaquin valley, in 1861, 
and followed ranching until the fall of 1863, 
when he and a company of three men started 
into the Owens river valley, now Inyo County. 
He took up land and began farming, and there 
remained until August, 1872. 

Mr. Shedd was married in 1869, in San Joa- 
quin County, to Miss Elizabeth M. Salman, a 
native of Wisconsin. In August, 1872, lie 
sold his ranch and came to Stanislaus County, 



and in 1873 bought his present ranch of 320 
acres, which he has since increased by purchase 
to the amount of 1,600 acres, the main portion 
of which he sows yearly to wheat. Mr. Shedd 
farms upon a broad plan, and uses the most 
modern machinery. In his boyhood days in 
Vermont the hand sickle was used in cutting 
the grain, while now he uses the combined 
harvester, and with a motive power of twenty- 
four horses he cuts and threshes the grain, and 
leaves in his wake a row of well-filled sacks all 
ready for the shipper. Mr. Shedd keeps thirty 
head of working stock and fifty head of cattle. 
Mr. and Mrs. Shedd have five children: Albert 
E., George M., Lelia A., John F. and Dee Tru- 
man. He has always been a Republican, but is 
not a seeker of office preferment, and belongs to 
no secret orders. 



— =£* 



£&r 



»*•*=- 



J!«ORGES HELY, of Borden, is a native of 
i(Mj? Ireland, born in February, 1829. His 
W- father, Hilliard Hely, emigrated to the 
United States in 1837, bringing his family, and 
settled at Racine County, Wisconsin. He 
graduated at Trinity College, as Bachelor of 
Arts, and then turned his attention to portrait 
painting, which he followed until his death in 
1858. Young Hely was educated uftder the 
wise supervision of his father, and at an early 
age took up the farm work at home, living with 
his father until his death. He was married in 
Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1860, to Miss Eliza 
St. John, a native of Vermont, but, with her 
parents, was an early pioneer to southern Wis- 
consin. Mr. Hely continued to care for the 
home farm until 1868, when he came to Cali- 
fornia, first stopping at Stockton, but in the 
fall settled upon a Government claim near Bor- 
den, where he now resides. Their first lumber 
for building was purchased on the San Joaquin 
river, where an enterprising party had erected a 
sawmill, to saw the drift-logs which came down 
in great numbers during the spring rains and 
freshets. Mr. Ilely has gradually extended his 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



497 



possessions until he now owns 2,000 acres, 
where he carries on grain and stock farming, 
keeping eighty head of horses and mules ; and 
thirty head of cattle. He began life with very 
slender means. With a limited knowledge of 
blacksmithing he opened a little shop which 
afforded him a small income, and with now and 
then a day's work outside, lie began to progress, 
and now the broad acres and pleasant home 
speak louder than words of the prosperity which 
has attended his efforts. Mr. Hely has 130 
acres in alfalfa, and annually sows about 1,800 
in grain, the farm work being easily accom- 
plished with the improved farm machinery. He 
gives his attention and time wholly to his ranch. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Hely have been born three 
children, namely: James H., Guy J. and Levi 
St. John. 



fOSEPH E. SMITH came to California 
from Illinois in 1859. He was born in 
Erie County, Pennsylvania, November 5, 
1837, learned the blacksmith's trade, went West 
in the fall of 1854, and located in Kane County, 
Illinois, in the town of Blackberry, where he 
ran a blacksmith's shop from 1854 to 1859. 
His father, Samuel Smith, a farmer by occupa- 
tion, was born on the ocean while his parents 
were on their way to this country from Europe. 
His mother was Miss Sarali Hineman. His 
parents had nine children, of whom he was the 
youngest. He located in Butte County on his 
arrival in California, and there followed his 
trade until 1860, when he went to mining for 
about three years. On the breaking out of the 
war of the Rebellion he was one of a company 
of seventy-five men who offered their service to 
the Government, but they were not accepted as 
an organization for reasons of public policy. 
Coming to Kern County, he spent several years 
in prospecting for gold in the Owens river 
country, etc., and was the first to locate mines 
in the Coso mining district. He resumed his 
trade at Whisky Flat, near Kernville, remaining 



there until 1869. Los Angeles was his next 
location, and the small-pox broke out among 
his men, interfering with his business. He 
then disposed of his interests there, and re- 
moved in 1870 to Bakersfield, where he opened 
the first blacksmith's shop in the town, and has 
continued in the business ever since. From the 
organization of Kern County until about six 
years since, Mr. Smith was continually a mem- 
ber of the County Republican Central Commit- 
tee. He was also on the Republican Central 
Committee of old Tulare County. 

Kern County has no more active and worthily 
prosperous citizen than "Joe" Smith, as he is 
familiarly called by all his acquaintances. He 
is an enterprising, aggressive business man of 
pronounced ideas and strong convictions. He 
has practically relinquished his interests in his 
extensive blacksmith works, leaving the details 
to a partner, who conducts it under the firm 
name of J. E. Smith & Co. Mr. Smith is de- 
voting his time and much capital to the develop- 
ment of a 320-acre vineyard and fruit farm lying 
about twelve miles southeast of Bakersfield, in 
what is known as the "Weed-patch." In this 
work he is practically demonstrating his idea of 
irrigation by means of horse-power pumps, 
which lift the water from wells on the premises 
into tanks, whence it is distributed to desired 
localities. The remarkable growth of grape- 
vines irrigated by this method, which he has 
reduced to a minimum of expense, speaks vol- 
umes for the feasibility of his plans in his local- 
ity. It is the energetic experimental work of 
such men as Mr. Smith that has, step by step, 
transformed the arid plains of Kern County 
into the fertile and productive fields and gardens 
as are seen to-day. 



' ALTER BULL, of Sumner, was born in 
Oswego County, New York, July 4, 
1849. His father, John Bull, was a 
carpenter by occupation. Walter spent his boy- 
hood and youth in his native county, and in 




498 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



1864 enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty- 
first New York Infantry Volunteers as a soldier, 
at the city of Oswego. He was transferred to 
the Sixty-fifth New York Infantry, and served 
until the close of the war. Then he engaged in 
farming and various other pursuits until 1867, 
when he located in Nebraska. After a residence 
at Beatrice for seven years he came to Califor- 
nia in 1874, locating in Sumner, where he has 
established himself in a successful teaming and 
freighting business. 

Mr. Bull was married in Nebraska, to Miss 
Rosetta Carlin, December 13, 1873. She is a 
native of Steuben County, Indiana; was born 
near the town of Metz, and is a daughter of 
James Carlin. Mr. and Mrs. Bull have one 
child, born July 31, 1882, and named Gracie. 



WOLFROM, who is associated with the 
firm of J. Golldman & Co., Tulare, Cali- 
fornia, was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 
1860. He received his education in his native 
land, and at the age of sixteen emigrated to the 
United States, coming direct to Tulare to enter 
the store of J. Goldman & Co., Mr. Goldman 
being a relative of his family. After a year 
spent in the store and in learning the English 
lanquage, he went to San Francisco and took a 
course in Heald's Business College. He then 
returned to Tulare, which has since been his 
home. The firm of J. Goldman & Co., was es- 
tablished in 1875. With close application Mr. 
Wolfrom rapidly developed business tact and 
ability, and on January 1, 1888, was promoted 
to the position of manager of the establishment; 
and January 1, 1891, he secured a partnership 
interest in the business. Their store, situated 
on the corner of Tulare and J streets, is a fire- 
proof brick structure, 50 x 103 feet, two stories 
with a basement. They have three grain ware- 
houses, one oil and one implement warehouse. 
Their stock is general and complete, embracing 
every thing necessary for ranch or household 
purposes, and their trade extends throughout 



the county. They handle large quantities of 
wheat, and in earlier days wool was a leading 
commodity. 

Mr. Wolfrom is unmarried. He is a mem- 
ber of Olive Branch Lodge, No. 269, F. & A. 
M.; Tulare Chapter, No. 71, R. A. M.; and 
Lake Lodge, No. 333, I. O. O. F. He is highly 
spoken of in commercial circles and is much es- 
teemed as a citizen of Tulare. 



fAMES H. HARDEN is one of the pioneers 
of Reedley, Fresno County. In 1885 he 
moved to his present location, a mile and a 
half from where the town of Reedley is now 
situated. At that time there was no sign of a 
settlement, and nothing to indicate that a pros- 
perous village would soon spring up. Settling 
on forty acres of land, Mr. Harden engaged in 
farming and from time to time added to his 
property until to-day he owns 207 acres. A 
small section of his land is devoted to raisin 
culture, an industry which promises to be of 
vast importance to this country in the near 
future. 

Mr. Harden was born iu Allen County, Ohio, 
September 9, 1851, and lived on a farm in that 
locality until five years of age, when his father 
emigrated to California and settled iu Yolo 
County. He was reared and educated in this 
State, and in 1876 was united in marriage with 
Miss Sarah Abshier, a native of Illinois. They 
have a family of three children. 

fOSEPH BROWN STONE.— The pioneer 
store of Selma, and one of its largest and 
most successful mercantile establishments 
to-day, that of Isaac Brownstone & Co., is fit- 
tingly represented by the subject of the sketch 
which follows. 

Joseph Brownstone is a native of California, 
horn in Santa Cruz, in the county of the same 
name, October 7, 1803. His parents emigrated 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



499 



to California from Germany many years ago, 
and took up their residence in Santa Cruz. In 
this town Isaac Brownstone, his father, was one 
of the pioneer merchants, and in his business 
operations there, and in various places from 
time to time since, he has met with good suc- 
cess. Our subject was very young when the 
family home was removed to San Francisco. 
There he was offered unusually good educa- 
tional opportunities, of which he availed him- 
self. He took a full course of study in the 
Pacific Business College, finishing in 1879. In 
1880 he came to Selma and was employed as 
operator in the Western Union Telegraph office, 
he being the first operator the town had. He 
was also bookkeeper for his uncle, Henry Brown- 
stone, in the first store established in Selma, 
which has ever since been conducted by a mem- 
ber of this family. For two years and a half he 
was telegraph operator and bookkeeper in the 
town just started, after which he devoted all his 
time to mercantile business. In 1885 he pur- 
chased his uncle's interest in the pioneer store, 
and, with his father, has conducted it ever since, 
under the firm name of Isaac Brownstone & Co. 

Their store is a large brick building, well 
constructed and located in the west side of 
Selma. They conduct a general merchandise 
business and also deal largely in grain and prod- 
uce. Their stock of goods is large and care- 
fully selected with reference to the wants of 
their customers, and the firm enjoy an increas- 
ing trade, which extends for miles in the country 
surrounding Selma. They have a branch estab- 
lishment in Sanger, conducted under the name 
of I. Brownstone & Sons, one of the prominent 
business houses of that thriving town. 

Joseph Brownstone is justly ranked among 
the prominent young and enterprising business 
men of Selma. He is public-spirited and takes 
a part in any movement that has for its object 
the advancement of Selma's interests. He is 
vice-president of the Selma Water Company, in 
which he has a large interest, and with many 
other corporations he, or the firm, of which he 
is the representative, is more or less identified. 



Personally, he is very popular — a fact clearly 
shown in his connection with the numerous 
fraternal societies of Selma, in many of which 
he has been past officer and held other offices 
of distinction. He was the first vice-president 
of the Selma Parlor of the Native Sons of the 
Golden West, and to-day is an active member 
of that society. He holds the office of district 
deputy of the I. O. O. F. encampment at 
Fresno. 



tW. TYLER, M. D., was born in Erie 
County, Pennsylvania, in 1832. His 
° father, Nathaniel Tyler, a farmer and 
merchant, emigrated to Richfield, Adams County, 
Illinois, purchased 240 acres of land and settled 
on it and also opened a store. He resided at 
that place until his death, which occurred in 
1856. 

Dr. Tyler is what may be termed a self-made 
man. He received a very limited education and 
remained at work on the farm until April 12, 
1852, when he started for California. He paid 
his passage by driving team in Captain How- 
ell's fourth company of Mormon emigrants. 
Among the party was Mrs. Rockwell, mother of 
the noted Porter Rockwell, of the Danites. At 
Fort Laramie, owing to some dissatisfaction, the 
subject of our sketch left the train, and, with- 
out food or money, started for Salt Lake, a dis- 
tance of 400 miles. He made the journey in 
safety and remained at Salt Lake six weeks, 
working in order to get some necessary cloth- 
ing. He then joined Captain Sherwood's train 
and started by the southern route for San Ber- 
nardino, California. When they were within 
260 miles of San Bernardino, a party of ten set 
out on foot, with provisions, to cross the Big 
Desert and Death Valley, each with twelve 
pounds of food; but this gave out and water 
was scarce, and they suffered terribly, and it 
was due to young Tyler's pushing ahead and re- 
turning with food to Mojave river that they all 
arrived safe. 



500 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Arriving at San Bernardino, December 1, 
1852, they went to San Pedro, and from there 
reached San Francisco by steamer. In the 
spring Mr. Tyler started for the mines at 
Coloma, and settled near Nevada City. He 
then followed mining, with poor success, how- 
ever, until 1854, when he sought the Santa 
Clara valley and engaged in artesian well boring 
in San Jose. In 1858 he went to Oregon and 
mined until 1862, when he enlisted in the First 
Oregon Cavalry, Colonel Murray. They were 
retained in the northwest in frontier work and 
were discharged in 1865. 

Mr. Tyler began reading medicine in Oregon; 
in 1865 returned to Illinois and took a course 
at the St. Louis Medical College, where he 
graduated. He was married in Richfield, Illi- 
nois, in 1866, to Miss Lucretia Williams. They 
then settled in Beverly, same State, where the 
Doctor established a general practice, which he 
continued successfully until 1882. In that year 
he returned to California and located in Tulare, 
where he has since resided and enjoyed a lucra- 
tive practice. He has invested in real estate, 
and also owns 160 acres, southwest of Tulare, 
which will become valuable as soon as water 
can be procured. In 1889 Mrs. Tyler departed 
this life, leaving no issue. 

Dr. Tyler is a member of Tulare Lodge, No. 
68, K. of P.; Tulare Lodge, No. 306, I. O. O. 
F.'; Olive Branch Lodge, No. 269, F. & A. M.; 
and Gettysburg Post, G. A. R. 



-£-»** 



«, 



:V 



3" 



f L. JONES, one of the prominent busi- 
ness men of Selma, Fresno County, 
W 9 California, dates his birth in Tennessee, 
April 4, 1846. When he was eight years old 
his parents moved to Missouri, and there he 
was reared and educated. 

In 1863 he enlisted in Company D, Forty- 
eighth Missouri Infantry Volunteers, and served 
two years in that memorable conflict, his com- 
pany not, however, taking part in any important 
engagement. 



After the close of the war Mr. Jones engaged 
in farming in Missouri for a number of years. 
He was also for a time located in Salem, Mis- 
souri, where he did a general merchandise busi- 
ness; was popular as a citizen there and suc- 
cessful as a merchant. In 1888 he came to 
Selma, California, and opened a general store 
in that thriving town, where he is now conduct- 
ing a large and profitable business. Aside from 
his mercantile business he owns a small vine- 
yard north of the town, from which he derives 
already a good profit. 

Mr. Jones was married in 1872 to Miss Julia 
Ives of Tennessee. They have no children. 

^€^=3 

|gp|UGENE VERDIER, of Sumner, Kern 
"'fWL County, is a native of France. He was 
n 5 ^ born July 4, 1863, and emigrated to 
America when about fifteen years of age, ac- 
companying some of his relatives. He spent 
three years in San Francisco, a portion of the 
time attending to school, acquiring his first 
practical knowledge of the English language 
and American customs. He followed various 
pursuits in the city until 1881, when he pro- 
ceeded to Kern County and found employment 
as a shepherd. He had followed this calling 
only about thirteen months, when he was en- 
abled to own a small herd, which by good man- 
agement he increased so rapidly that at the end 
of three years he was enabled to dispose of his 
stock and openly engage in the sale of wines 
and liquors in the city of San Francisco. Here 
(October 22, 1887) he marriel his wife, Miss 
Mary Laborde, a French lady. In 1889 he dis- 
posed of his business in San Francisco and re- 
turned to Sumner, and re-engaged in business. 
He is now proprietor of the Gap Hotel and 
owns a well-equipped livery stable, both of 
which are doing a successful business. Mr. 
Verdier is a cool headed, conservative business 
man, which qualities, coupled with his natural 
business enterprise, have enabled him to build 
up a business which is a credit to himself and 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



501 



the home town of his adoption. He has two 
children, — George and Eugene. 



—=*■*« 



)+t=- 



fF. SELLECK, of Fresno, was born in 
New York city, March 14, 1852, a 
^® lineal descendant of General Warren, 
who was killed at Bunker Hill. Silas Wright 
Selleck, the father of our subject, was a native 
of Cold Spring, New York, but went to New 
York city in boyhood and studied the art of 
photography with Mr. Daguerre, the inventor 
of the daguerreotype process. Mr. Selleck re- 
mained with him for many years, and gained a 
great reputation in the business. He spent his 
winters in Washington, District of Columbia, 
where he tilled a prominent position in art cir- 
cles. In 1852 he came to California, and after 
spending three years at Rattlesnake Bar in 
mining, where he was elected to the Grand As- 
sembly, he settled at Sacramento. He was 
burned out in the great fire about 1856, and he 
then went to San Francisco, where he opened a 
photographic gallery. In 1856 he brought 
his family to San Francisco, and soon became 
one of the most prominent photographers on 
the coast. He died in San Francisco, June 17, 
1885, after an experience of over forty years in 
the photographic business. He had always 
maintained a prominent position in the Repub- 
lican party, and during the early troublous days 
of California was an active member of the 
vigilance committee. 

Young Selleck was educated at the Latin 
high school and City College of San Francisco, 
and graduated at the California Military Acad- 
emy at Oakland in 1871. He began his busi- 
ness life as a clerk in a retail grocery estab- 
lishment in San Francisco, and subsequently 
secured a position with the Cutting Packing 
Company, packers of canned fruits and meats, 
remaining in their employ for eleven years. He 
was married in Oakland, July 29, 1880, to 
Miss Virginia Ruth West, a native of Illinois. 
In 1883 Mr. Selleck opened a brokerage com- 



mission business in San Francisco, which he 
continued until 1885, when he came to Fresno 
as superintendent of the canning establishment 
of the Cutting Packing Company. Subsequent- 
ly he went into the real estate and insurance 
office of Frank E. Tadlock, and after a little ex- 
perince bought an interest in the business, and 
the partnership continued until January 1, 
1889. He was then employed by the Union 
Pacific railroad as division freight agent, with 
headquarters at Fresno. During his connec- 
tion with the company he so increased the ship- 
ping receipts that he received fifty per cent, of 
all through freight from that section. He re- 
mained with the company until the office was 
closed by the Eastern combination of all the 
overland systems. January 10, 1890, he took 
charge of the Pleasanton Hotel, as manager of 
the I Street Improvement Company, and is 
placing the hotel upon a better financial basis. 
Mr. and Mrs. Selleck have one child, Jessie 
Edwina, who was born March 24, 1882. Mr. 
Selleck is a member and Past Master of Fresno 
Lodge, No. 247, F. & A. M.; of Trigo Chapter 
No. 69, R. A. M., and of Fresno Commandery, 
No. 29, K. T., occupying the station of Gen- 
eralissimo of the latter body. 

»~<%~i"Z-»%»~~ 

fZRA LATHROP, president of the Bank of 
Tulare and a pioneer of the town, was 
born in Susquehanna County, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1839. Not being blessed by the riches 
of this world as computed by dollars and cents, 
the education of young Lathrop was very lim- 
ited, and at the age of sixteen years he left 
home and began his own support on the farm. 
His father having moved to Iowa and settled at 
Oakland, Ezra found employment in that 
vicinity. 

He was married at Muscatine in January, 
1862, to Miss Virginia Blake, and resided upon 
a farm in that locality until 1864, when they 
crossed the plains to Nevada, fortunately having 
a very safe passage, although the Indians were 



502 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



troublesome during that year. Mr. Lathrop 
stopped at East Walker river and began farm- 
ing. The nearest town was forty miles away, 
flour was $16 per barrel, and the hardships of 
frontier life were too great for thein to endure; 
so a year later they moved to Dayton, and soon 
afterward, on account of his wife's health, came 
to California. Mr. Lathrop engaged in farming 
in Solano County Hntil October, 1873, when he 
sought a more salubrious climate and located in 
Tulare County. He then purchased his present 
resident property, and was among the first to 
build in the new town of Tulare; engaged in 
teaming across the mountains to Kernville, 
which for several years was very profitable. In 
1882 Mr. Lathrop, with I. H. Ham as a silent 
partner, started a lumber yard in Tulare, meet- 
ing with very great opposition from .established 
companies, which combined against them; but 
with bull-dog persistence they continued, and 
after about one year secured the trade of the 
valley. Eighteen months later the opposition 
sold out to Moore & Smith, a strong lumber 
company with a large capital, and Mr. Lathrop, 
not having the funds to combat with such a 
force, sold his business in May, 1884, to the 
Puget Sound Lumber Company, they retaining 
Mr. Lathrop as agent. The competition then 
became hot and heavy and continued until No- 
vember 1, 1886, when the firms consolidated, 
under the name of the San Joaquin Lumber 
Company, our subject still remaining as agent 
and local manager. 

Not forgetting the interests and advancement 
of the town, in 1885 Mr. Lathrop invested cap- 
ital and was instrumental in the organization of 
the Bank of Tulare, of which he was elected 
president. He owns a one-third interest in the 
Round Valley ranch of 3,800 acres, of which 
he is manager, and which he devotes chiefly to 
grain farming; also, 160 fvcres northwest of 
town, which he uses for grain and stock pur- 
poses. Mr. Lathrop was school trustee for 
three years and fire commissioner two terms. 
He was one of the incorporators of the Gas 
Company in January, 1884, and in May, 1885, 




was elected president of the company, which 
office he still retains. 

He and his wife are the parents of two chil- 
dren (twins), Martha Adeline and Matilda 
Eveline. He is a member of Tulare Lodge, 
No. 76, A. O. U. W. It remains only to add 
that Mr. Lathrop is an esteemed citizen of 
Tulare and rejoices in the confidence of the 
community. 



ILL1AM F. COFFMAN, one of the 
California pioneers, was born in New 
Glasgow, Amherst County, Virginia, 
February 5, 1833. His father was a prominent 
cabinet-maker, and moved to Hannibal, Marion 
County, Missouri, in 1841, and there followed 
his trade. Young Coffman was educated in the 
subscription schools of Missouri, and during 
idle moments worked about his father's shop 
and picked up an idea of the carpenter busi- 
ness. At the age of sixteen years he started 
for California, crossing the plains with ox teams 
to Mexico, then with pack mules by the old 
Spanish trail to Salt Lake City, and then cross- 
ing the mountains to Los Angeles, and north to 
the mines in Mariposa County, arriving De- 
cember 10, 1849. He then followed mining 
for ten years, mainly at Agua Frio, in Mariposa 
County, making no large strikes, but always 
having plenty of money and a royal good tirce. 
In 1859 he went East to visit friends; but after 
six months he returned to California, and, set- 
tling at Princeton, Mariposa County, he took 
up the carpenter's business, at $5 per day, which 
he followed five years. 

He was married at Princeton, November 24, 
1862, to Mrs. Elizabeth Kerr, a widow with 
three children. Mrs. Kerr was a native of Lon- 
don, England, also a pioneer of 1849. In 1862 
Mr. Coffman was elected Supervisor of Mari- 
posa County for a term of three years. In 1864 
he was elected County Assessor, and to qualify 
he resigned from the office of Supervisor. As 
Assessor he was continued in office for ten 



DISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



503 



years, which is the best indication of his high 
moral standing in the community. He lived 
with his family upon his ranch of 150 acres at 
Princeton, and part of the time in Mariposa. 
In 1874 Mr. Coffman bought an interest in the 
To Semite Stage Line, with "Washburn & Chap- 
man, which then ran from Merced through 
Mariposa to the Yo Semite valley, a distance of 
100 miles. They then bought the Big Tree 
Station, now known as Wawona, and built 
twenty-six miles of road, and thus shortened 
their distance. In 1877 Mr. Coffman sold his 
interest, and in 1878 went into the livery busi- 
ness, buying out the old stable and stock of 
J. M. Hutchins, in Yo Semite valley, where he 
continued until 1885, when he took in as a 
partner G. W. Kenny, and the firm of Coffman 
& Kenny still continues. They lease stables of 
the State of California, who own the valley as a 
State park, and they keep 100 head of horses 
and mules, largely for mountain climbing, with 
a few carriages for driving about the valley. 
The season is from April to November, and 
stock is then brought to Fresno County for the 
winter. Mr. Coffman lives with his daughter 
at Madera since the death of his wife, Novem- 
ber 24, 1888. In 1880 he was a member of the 
Assembly from Mariposa and Merced counties; 
but the honors are costly, and he is no longer 
an aspirant to public office. He is a member of 
Mariposa Lodge, No. 24, F. & A. M., and of 
the chapter at Merced, and also of the K. of P. 



'% « 3"i' l |"- » 

M. KEITH, of Bakersfield, was born in 
Hall County, Georgia, in 1832. In 1838 
his parents moved to Cherokee, same 
State, where he lived on the farm with them 
until July, 1850 (Mr. Keith is a farmer by pro- 
fession), when he with others from the same 
place started for California by the way of New 
Orleans. Upon arriving at the latter place he 
found that the steamers by the way of Panama 
were ovei-crowded, and that passage by that 
route was entirely impracticable; wherefore he, 



with the others, took passage on the brig Union 
for Vera Cruz, Mexico, where they arrived 
August 3. 

After spending several days in that city they 
bought horses and mules and traveled by horse 
back on the national road by the way of Jalapa, 
Puebla, etc. , to the City of Mexico, and thence, 
following the old pack trail to Acapulco, a city 
on the Pacific coast. There he and the party 
took passage on the steamer Isthmus, Sep- 
tember 1, 1850, and landed in San Francisco 
and the 13th. After spending some time there 
he and some of the party finally took passage 
for the southern mines and located in what was 
then known as Chinese camp, in Tuolumne 
County, where he began mining and followed it 
for two yaars, with success, after which he lived 
in Jamestown, Shaw's Flat and other places 
until 1854. Then he moved to Calaveras 
County, where he engaged in the cabinet and 
lumber business until 1861, when he moved to 
Santa Clara County and engaged in freighting. 
Afterward he lived for a short time in Santa 
Cruz and San Benito counties, engaged in the 
sheep business and other pursuits until 1872, 
when he became one of the party that Rallston 
and Harpinding sent out to Colorado, on what 
is known as the " Diamond " expedition, under 
Captain Mick Gray, arriving at Pueblo. The 
party bought pack mules and horses, and trav- 
eled extensively in Colorado, New Mexico and 
Arizona until April, 1873, when Mr. Keith re- 
turned to California. After a short residence 
at San Jose, he moved to Kern County, arriving 
here in October and settling on Kern Island, 
where he lived, engaged in farming and stock- 
raising until 1887, when he moved to Bakers- 
field, and in company with three others built 
the present street railway of the city. In the 
fall of 1888 he sold out his interest in the en- 
terprise and invested in real estate in the vicinity 
of Bakersfield and in other parts of Kern 
County. He is a stockholder in the Bank of 
Bakersfield, for which institution he is the land 
grader. Mr. Keith is a typical Californian; 
has never been backward in aiding with his 



504 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



influence and money all enterprises tending to 
the development of the State. He is a gentle- 
man of commanding presence, broad-gauge 
ideas and great force of character; is a shrewd 
financier, a successful business man and a use- 
ful and a universally respected citizen. 

He was married in 1874. to Lucy M. Good- 
man, of Kansas City. 



— <!«■■ 



*£=— 



L. LAKE is a native of Lincoln County, 
Maine, born in the year 1868. He emi- 
grated to California in 1870, settled in 
Del Norte, where, for seventeen years, he was 
variously engaged, lumbering, dairying and 
farming. From there he moved to Selma, 
Fresno County, and established a general mer- 
chandise business. 

At the age of eleven years the subject of this 
sketch went to San Francisco and commenced a 
business career, at the same time attending the 
evening schools and getting what education he 
could in that way. In 1887 he located in Selma 
and entered the business established by his 
father, which they now jointly own and conduct. 
While this firm carries a full line of all kinds of 
general merchandise, they make a specialty of 
gents' furnishing goods and also have a jewelry 
department. 

Mr. Lake owns a line raisin vineyard, twenty 
acres in extent, located a mile and a half north 
of Selma, where the family home is situated. 
He is unmarried. 

m ' » i x » 3 i ' S " ^" '" - 



ALEXANDER GREIVE, whose handsome 
residence is conspicuously prominent on 
Yo Semite avenue, Madera, was born in 
Hawick, Scotland, in 1852. In his boyhood he 
was connected with sheep-raising, and when he 
came to California in 1873 he very naturally 
fell into the same line of business. Durino- the 
first four years he was employed upon sheep 
ranches in Merced County, and in 1877 he 



started out for himself in a very modest way, 
by purchasing 450 sheep and renting for one 
year a band of 3,579. Also, in partnership with 
A. Beatti, they rented 1,800 more sheep, and 
thus they secured a fair start. They remained 
in partnership about five years, when the sheep 
were divided and Beatti drove his to Texas, 
while Mr. Greive went to Fresno County and 
purchased 5,900 acres of land of the Bank 
of California. In a few months he sold the 
ranch at a fair profit, and has since been a renter 
of from 10,000 to 15.000 acres, keeping an aver- 
age band of 6,000 sheep, which he raises for 
both mutton and wool, being of tine grade sheep 
Mr. Greive was married in Merced County, 
in 1881, to Miss Mary C. Dugan, a native of 
Massachusetts. Her father came to California 
in 1858, was a large land- holder in Merced 
County, and was one of the first farmers on Bear 
creek. Mr. Greive built his handsome residence 
in Madera in the fall of 1886, upon his tive-acre 
ranch, mainly improved in alfalfa, trees and a 
well-kept lawn about his house. Mr. and Mrs. 
Greive have six children: David George, Nellie 
T., Alexander A., James Garfield, Michael J. 
and Annie Dugan. Mr. Greive is a member of 
Madera Lodge, No. 327, I. O. O. F., and of 
Yo Semite Lodge, No. 30, K. of P., at Merced. 

— t&4@B®3fi-&- -- 

fAMES T. EASTIN, a rancher in Eastin 
settlement, was born in Madison County, 
Kentucky, December 22, 1830. His father, 
James Eastin, moved to Pike County, Mis- 
souri, in 1835, where he carried on farm- 
ing until his death in 1860. Young Eastin 
improved the educational facilities of the 
common schools, and lived at home until 
in April, 1850, when he started across the 
plains for California. He came out with Wal- 
ter Crow, an old friend of the family, and they 
were six months in crossing. They landed at 
Sacramento, California, and then went to Hang- 
town, where they began mining, meeting with 
the usual tips and downs. They followed mining 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



505 



through California and Nevada for about ten 
years, when they gave that up, and for twelve 
years was variously employed in the sheep busi- 
ness, dairying and farming, without any very 
decided success. In 1872 he returned to Mis- 
souri witli the idea of remaining; but one win- 
ter of that climate was enough to convince him 
that California was the place to live. April 10, 
1873, he was married, in Pike County, to Miss 
Susan L. Fortune, and together they returned 
to California and settled at Crow's Landing, on 
the San Joaquin river, where Mr. Eastin, in 
partnership with Mr. Crow, operated a ferry for 
about five years. He then sold out his interest 
and farm for three years. In 1881 he came to 
Fresno County and bought 490 acres, where he 
now resides, and which he has since increased 
by purchase to the amount of 800 acres, all of 
which he sows to wheat and barley. He keeps 
about twenty-five head of horses and mules to 
operate his gang plows and combined harvester, 
all improved labor-saving machinery. 

Mr. and Mrs. Eastin have one son, Pulaski 
C, who was born in 1874. Mr. Eastin is a mem- 
ber of no orders, and an aspirant for no politi- 
cal office, but is a member of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church. 



"W". WIBLE. — The men who first came 
to and located upon the once desolate and 
arid plains of Kern County can be num- 
bered on the fingers of one's hand. For years 
stock rangers and miners had grazed and trav- 
ersed its broad expanse, but up to about the 
year 1863 no person conceived the actual fertil- 
ity of the soil of this now most fertile region 
of California. It is upon the keen foresight, en- 
terprise and prompt action of the pioneers of 
Kern County that her marvelous prosperity is 
founded; and by the following brief narrative it 
will be seen that few men have been more act- 
ive, "and by their personal labors exhibited more 
faith in the material resources and future great- 
ness of Kern County than S. W. Wible. 

32 



Mr. Wible first came to this coast in 1852 
from Adams County, Illinois. He was born 
and reared on a farm in Westmoreland County, 
Pennsylvania. His father, Peter Wible, a 
cooper by trade, was for many years employed 
on Plain No. 1, four miles from Johnstown, 
Pennsylvania, by the Alleghany & Portage Kail- 
way Company, under General Geary, an ex- 
governor of Pennsylvania, a pioneer of Califor- 
nia and the first alcalde of the city of San 
Francisco. In the Wible family there were 
three sons and four daughters. The mother, 
whose maiden name was Barbara Mineam, is 
deceased, and the father, Peter Wible, has re- 
cently located at Bakerstield, where he is spend- 
ing his declining years. At this writing he is 
eighty-three years of age. 

S. W. Wible was the first of the family to 
come to California. He mined for about twentv- 
five years; first atColoma in El Dorado County, 
and afterward in Amador and Calaveras coun- 
ties. He subsequently superintended the build- 
ing of mining ditches on an extensive scale. 
In 1868, associated with Warren Clark, he 
originated the Blue Lake Water System for San 
Francisco, spending six years in the inaugura- 
tion and development of this work, and by his 
individual effort as manager and assistant civil 
engineer demonstrating the entire practicability 
of the undertaking. 

In 1874 Mr. Wible severed his connection 
with the enterprise, came to Kern County and 
purchased a tract of land, in connection with 
which he inaugurated the first irrigating enter- 
prise on the north side of Kern river in the 
form of a canal, known as the Wible canal. In 
1874-'75 he built the Pioneer canal, which 
takes its supply out of Kern river and runs 
fourteen miles in a westerly direction. It has 
forty feet on the bottom, is eighty feet from 
bank to bank, and irrigates about 20,000 acres. 
In 1876 he took up the construction of the 
Kern Valley Water Company's canal and built 
the works during the year 1877. This ditch is 
twenty-six miles in length, 125 feet wide on the 
bottom, and seven feet deep, but is now twelve. 



506 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



It is 250 feet wide on top. It takes all the water 
of Kern river, and also a portion of the water 
of Bnena Vista lake reservoir, which reservoir 
was built during the years 1888 and 1890, and 
covers an area of about fifty square miles. This 
system is now in successful operation under the 
supervision of S. W. Wible and Walter James, 
superintendents and civil engineers. Without 
question, this is the largest irrigating reservoir 
in the world. This water-way irrigates about 
100,000 acres of land. 

Mr. Wible was for several years superintend- 
ent of Kedington & Livermore's interest in 
Kern County, and became chief superintendent 
of the Miller & Lux interests in 1882, which 
embrace a property of 140,000 acres of im- 
proved land, largely devoted to the raising of 
stock. As conveying to the reader some idea 
of this estate, it may be noted that at present 
there are on the ranch about 1,500 head of 
horses, 25,000 cattle, besides other general 
stock, such as mules, etc., the care of which re- 
quires about 250 men. 

Mr. Wible's experience in developing the 
irrigating system, which was chiefly for the pro- 
duction of alfalfa and hay for stock, led to the 
experiment of peach culture on an extensive 
scale, the result of which is the famous Wible 
fruit orchard, located about three miles south of 
Bakersfield. The nucleus of this enterprise 
Mr. Wible formed in 1887 by planting twenty 
acres of peach trees, 108 trees to vhe acre. 
These are the celebrated George cling variety, 
and the yield of fruit the third year after 
planting was, in size, quality and quantity, 
marvelous. In 1890 a company was formed, 
embracing S. W. Wible, D. W. Walser and J. 
J. Mack, under the name of the Wible Orchard 
& Vineyard Company, and more land was 
purchased and set to fruit. The farm now com- 
prises 280 acres, on which is a total of 21,000 
trees. Of this number 4,200 are peaches, 12,- 
600 prunes, 4,200 pears, and besides these they 
have a nursery of 12,000 peach trees. The 
company own their water supply, and are de- 
. veloping an enterprise that will demonstrate 



the wonderful possibilities of this region of 
country. 

In 1890 the Bank of Bakersfield was organ- 
ized with a capital of $250,000. S. W. Wil, It- 
was chosen president; J. J. Mack, cashier, and 
I). W. Walser, B. Ardizzi and E. Dinkelspiel, 
directors. This institution has promptly grown 
into a substantial business. The universal con- 
fidence manifested in the stability of this bank 
is largely due to the high estimation in which 
its president, its board of directors and subor- 
dinate officers are held by a scrutinizing public. 

The people of Bakersfield are under la? ting 
obligations to Mr. Wible and his associates for 
a most excellent domestic water system. Its 
influence upon public health has been most sal- 
utary. Prior to this improvement all the water 
for domestic uses came from canals or shallow 
wells: now it is pumped from a great depth out 
of a bed of gravel, and is piped to the doors of 
the residents. A description of this enterprise, 
of which Mr. Wible is president, may be found 
elsewhere in this work. 

If there is any one quality of mind and char- 
acter more than another to which Mr. Wible 
owes his success in life it is to will power, or, in 
other words, " grit." " Be sure you are right 
and then go ahead," has been his motto. Thus 
quietly and steadily he has pursued the even 
tenor of his ways until he has almost uncon- 
sciously become one of the foremost men of Kern 
County, whose influence in business circles is 
gradually extending throughout the country. 
Mr. Wible is a Democrat in politics, but neither 
seeks nor receives political favors. In manner 
he is genial and unassuming, and is always 
courteous and approachable, which agreeable 
characteristics contribute in a large sense to his 
general popularity. 



,LVIN FAY, District Attorney of Kern 
■;\ / V County, was born in Ringwood, Mclienry 
HP^ County, Illinois, September fi, 1849, a sun 
of David, deceased, who was a well- to-do farmer. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA- 



507 



Mr. Fay is the tenth of a family of eleven chil- 
dren. He received his education at the North 
western University at Evanston, Illinois, where 
he graduated in 1867. He studied law in the 
office of Fay, Clendenning& Foster, in Chicago, 
and proceeded to Lancaster, Wisconsin, where 
he was admitted to the bar of that State in 

1871. He remained at Lancaster until April, 

1872, when, owing to impaired health, he aban- 
doned the practice of law, came to California 
and located in San Mateo, where he remained 
three years, and during a portion of that time 
taught school. In 1875 he removed to Kern 
County and located at Kernville, which at that 
time was the metropolis of the county. After 
teaching school two years in Kernville he re- 
sumed the practice of law. As a public in- 
structor, a lawyer and a citizen he has won the 
respect and esteem of the people, and during the 
years 1880-'81, he represented his district on 
the county Board of Supervisors, with credit to 
himself and satisfaction to his constituency. In 
1886 he took up his residence in Bakersfield. 
In 1888 he was elected District Attorney of 
Kern County, being the only successful Repub- 
lican candidate on the ticket. In the year 1890 
he was re-elected, which must be regarded as 
substantial and gratifying evidence of the public 
approval of his administration of the affairs of 
his office. 

Mr. Fay was married May 13, 1870, to Miss 
Elizabeth J., daughter of Job and Mary Clem- 
ens, of Hazel Green, Grant County, Wisconsin, 
and they have a family of six children. Mr. 
Fay is a painstaking and clear-headed lawyer, 
has a keen sense of justice, is an able, prompt 
and eloquent speaker, and is a genial, social 
citizen, which contributes largely to his great 
popularity. 



&m 



*-& 



JBlf! 1LL1AM TH0MS0N > a merchant and 
• \/yi§ Postmaster of Piano, Tulare County, 
l-«JfeH California, is one of the representative 
citizens of his town. 



Mr. Thomson was born in Greene County, 
Ohio, September 27, 1825. His father, Alex- 
ander Thomson, was among the pioneers of 
Hardin County. Ohio, where he moved in 1832; 
and William distinctly remembers their first 
home, a log house, twelve feet square, contain- 
only one room. His father was appointed by 
the governor as the first clerk of the court in 
Hardin County, and at the time of his death, in 
1849, he was Judge of the same court. William 
lived at home until twenty-one years of age, as- 
sisting his father on the farm and attending the 
winter schools of that period. In 1848 he 
started a grocery store in Logan County, but, 
upon the death of his father the following year, 
he «old his business to return home and look 
after the interests of the estate. In 1854 he was 
married at Sandusky, Ohio, to Miss Jane P. 
Tilton. They continued to reside on their 
ranch of sixty-seven acres, adjoining the cor- 
poration of Kenton, until 1867, when Mr. 
Thomson subdivided his land and sold it in tracts 
of five acres each. 

After disposing of his property in Ohio, Mr. 
Thomson emigrated with his family to Califor- 
nia, making his voyage via the Isthmus of 
Panama to San Francisco, where they landed 
June 12, 1867. From there they proceeded to 
Visalia., where a brother of our subject resided. 
In October of the same year he took up eighty 
acres of Government land near Piano, and then 
followed teaming:, farmin^and also stock-raisins: 
in a small way. For eighteen months he was 
engaged on the Indian reservation in teaching 
and training the Indians in manual labor. He 
then clerked for Nathan Baker & Son, Porter- 
ville, and in 1872 started the pioneer store of 
Piano, keeping a stock of general merchandise. 
He also did a general trading business in acre 
property and town lots. In 1884 Piano was 
swept by a disastrous fire, in which Mr. Thom- 
son lost heavily, also sustaining other than 
financial losses. He was badly wounded by a 
chimney falling on his right shoulder, which 
crippled for lite his right arm. He learned to 
write with his left hand, built another store and 



508 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



continued business. He took some mail con- 
tracts in 1886, and his two sons, James E. and 
David E., drove stage for four years. In 1887, 
after an absence of twenty years, accompanied 
by his wife, he made a visit to their old home in 
Ohio. The closing days of this delightful sojourn 
among old associations were somewhat marred 
by news that lire had again devastated Piano. 
They immediately returned home and found 
their residence destroyed. They accepted the 
situation with the best grace possible, again 
rebuilt and are now in the enjoyment of a bright 
and happy home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thomson have seven children, 
all settled in life and within easy distance of 
their parents. Their frequent visits, accom- 
panied by their little ones, brighten and beautify 
the old home. 

Mr. Thomson and his sons own a section of 
land on Deer creek, where the sons attend to the 
horses and cattle, while Mr. Thomson has 
charge of the store and post office at Piano. 
He is a man of great enterprise and public 
spirit; was instrumental in building the old- 
school Presbyterian church of Piano, for which 
purpose he supplied most of the money. He is a 
genial and courteous gentleman and is highly 
respected by all who know him. 



^ttT-ILLIAM S. MARTIN" was born in 
\jW) Sumner County, Tennessee, in 1826, 
l _ °y»sH but his earliest recollection is of Greene 
County, Illinois, where his father moved in 1828. 
Illinois was then unsettled and their home was 
that of the frontiersman. William remained at 
home until he was fifteen years old, when he 
began his own support, working as a farm hand. 
In early manhood he emigrated to Fannin 
County, Texas, and bought 150 acres of land, 
which he stocked with hogs and cattle. 

Soon after his arrival in Texas Mr. .Martin 
married Miss .Nancy Matilda Brown, a native of 
Illinois, and they made their home in that State 



until June, 1861. During 1860 and 1S61 Texas 
was in an unsettled condition, as many of the 
people were in sympathy with the Confederacy. 
Union men and strangers were looked upon 
with doubt and suspicion. The country was 
under mob law, and hanging was not infrequent. 
Being loyal to his country and of a peaceful 
disposition, Mr. Martin thought it wise to seek 
another home. He accordingly closed out his 
interests there as best he could, loaded his fam- 
ily and effects into an ox wagon and started 
across the plains for California. He joined a 
company of emigrants numbering sixty wagons, 
made the journey by the southern route, and 
arrived at Los Angeles after a period of seven 
months. His father and brothers had settled 
in Piano in 1860, and through correspondence 
with them he learned something of the country. 
From Los Angeles he went north by the old 
overland stage route, and arrived at Piano in 
the fall of 1861. He homesteaded 120 acres of 
his present ranch on Tnle river, to which he 
subsequently added by purchase and now owns 
386 acres. He has done little grain farming, as 
his land is on the Tnle river bottoms and better 
adapted to stock and grazing, usually keeping 
about 170 head of horses and cattle. Of late 
years he has given up stock-raising and has de- 
voted his ranch to pasturage purposes, as there 
is more money in that business. 

Like so many of his neighbors, Mr. Martin 
has passed through a sweeping fire which de- 
stroyed a large and expensive house with its 
entire contents. His massive fig trees and 
shrubbery still show the effects of the fiery- 
tongued monster. He was left with only the 
clothes upon his back — his life-work swept 
away. Cast down bnt not disheartened, he 
again put his shoulder to the wheel and from 
the ruins of his old home has sprung up a new 
cottage, enveloped by roses and shrubbery and 
orange and fig trees. 

Mr. and Mrs. Martin have eight children, viz. : 
Keece Murray; Mary Jane,wifeof William Chap- 
man; Cetha,wifeof A. W. Cole;- Allie, wife of E. 
Henderson; and Robert H., Clinton E., Hattie 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



509 



Edith and Carl Garfield, 
tics a stanch Republican. 



Mr. Martinis in poli- 



Jj|g ARDIZZI, of Sumner, Kern County, has 
fp been a resident of California since 1855, 
^W a and therefore he may justly be classed 
among her pioneers. He is a native of liberty - 
loving Switzerland and of the Canton Ticino, 
and born July 31, 1889. The extraordinary 
discoveries of gold in California induced him 
to come to the new El Dorado, which he did by 
way of the Isthmus of Panama. After follow- 
ing mining some four years, first in Tnolume 
County, and then in Mariposa County, he en- 
gaged in the hotel business at Mariposa and in 
Merced County about three years, and then 
came to Delano, where he remained two years. 
In 1874 he went into the general produce and 
provision business with a partner, Victor Amy, 
who died in 1881; later he took in his present 
partner, L. V. Olcese. He has been in his 
present business about seventeen years and has 
been very successful. Mr. Ardizzi is one of 
the solid business men of Sumner — an honest, 
conservative and influential citizen of broad 
business views. There is probably not a citizen 
of Kern County who as a social gentleman and 
a merchant is more favorably known than Ben- 
jamin Ardizzi. He was married in 1887, in 
San Francisco. 

J. WITT, the representative lawyer of 
Porterville, Tulare County, California, 
was born in Washington, Rhea County; 
Tennessee, in 1842. 

His grandfather, Jesse Witt, was born in 
Virginia, became a pioneer of Tennessee, and 
helped to found the city of Knoxville. His 
son, John Witt, father of the subject of our 
sketch, is a native of Knoxville, born in 1796. 
He subsequently settled in Rhea County, that 
State; removed his family to Missouri in 1851, 




and a year later to Arkansas; in 1859 emigrated 
to California, crossing the broad plains in a 
" prairie schooner," drawn by ox teams, and 
being six months en route. He settled on a 
small ranch in the Sacramento valley, where he 
departed this life in 1872, at the age seventy-six 
years. 

T. J. Witt received his education chiefly in 
private schools in Arkansas and California, with 
finishing courses at Taylor's Academy, Sacra- 
mento, and at the San Joaquin Classical School 
near Stockton, and, in 1867, a business course 
at Heald's Business College, San Francisco. In 
1865 Mr. Witt began teaching in the public 
schools of Sacramento. In 1872 he came to 
Tulare County, secured a position near Visalia 
and taught for a period of five years, improving 
every idle moment and his vacation seasons in 
reading law — first, with Judo-e Rhodes, of San 
Francisco, afterward with Judge Dorsey, of 
Sonora. He was admitted to practice at Sonora 
in 1878, remaiued there in pursuit of his pro- 
fession, and in 1879 was elected District At- 
torney of Tuolumne County for a term of three 
years. In 1884 he located in Visalia, and was 
elected Justice of the Peace, but resigned his 
office in order to practice his profession in 
Tulare. At that place he was appointed Deputy 
District Attorney, under W. B. Wallace, and 
was also engaged in newspaper work, as pro- 
prietor and editor of the Democratic Free 
Press, which he purchased of W. W. Barnes, 
Visalia, and took with him to Tulare. He con- 
tinued the paper for two years, when on. account 
of failing health he sold out in 1887 aud went 
to the mountains. He purchased the Hot 
Spring rancho of 160 acres on Deer creek, where 
he made his home until 1889. In that year he 
came to Porterville and opened an office for 
the practice of law, receiving the appointment 
of Deputy District Attorney, under W. R. 
Jacobs. Mr. Witt's ancestors were among the 
earliest colonists of Virginia, having settled on 
James river, near Richmond, living for many 
years in stockades and fortifications on account 
of dauber from Indians! Mr. Witt is a mem- 



510 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



btr of Tuolumne Lodge, No. 8, F. & A. M., 
of Sonora. He was never married, but his life 
has flowed as smoothly as does the genial climate 
of California. Never having participated in 
Looms, he has not experienced the disaster of 
sudden convulsions, but has passed an even life 
in the enjoyment of all that goes to make ex- 
istence comfortable and happy. 

J. W. TYLER was born in Marcellus, 
Onondaga County, New York, April 23, 
1834. His father, Job Tyler, was a 
farmer and also a minister of the Seventh-Day 
Baptist Church. Jn 1836 he emigrated to St. 
Joseph, Michigan, where he followed agricultual 
pursuits and at the same time preached the faith 
he professed. The education of our subject 
was limited. He disliked his teacher and on 
that account shirked his lessons, an act which in 
later life he has regretted. 

In 1851 he started for California, accom- 
panied by his father and brother John, taking 
steamer for Aspinwall. From that place they 
crossed the Isthmus to Panama and there 
boarded the old English brig Tryphena for 
San Francisco. He mentions the sufferings and 
deprivations of this trip with great feeling, as 
his well beloved father was taken sick with 
Panama fever and died while in port at San 
Diego. The voyage covered sixty- five days from 
Panama to San Diego, and for thirty days they 
were without bread, and had only peas and 
beans for food, with half a pint of water per 
day. At San Diego they took passage on the 
Sea Bird for San Francisco, arriving at that 
city February 29, 1852. He then went to 
Nevada City and engaged in mining, which he 
followed continuously up to 1860, meeting with 
average success but making no great strikes. 

Upon retiring from the mines, in 1860, he 
and his brother came to Porterville and en- 
gaged in the stock business, dealing quite exten- 
sively in horses and cattle until 1871, when 
they divided their interests. Mr. Tyler has 



continued in the business and now owns a stock 
range of 720 acres in the mountains, where he 
keeps about 120 head of cattle. He was ap- 
pointed deputy sheriff in March, 1889, under 
D. G. Overall ; in 1890 was elected constable 
at Porterville. 

Mr. Tyler was married in Woodville, Tulare 
County, California, 1874, to Miss Georgia Bur- 
sey, and to the union has been added five 
children : Celia May, Job J., Clara, Wilko F. 
and Gracie. He is a member ot the A. O. U. W. 
and I. O. O. F., at Porterville. Mr. Tyler is in- 
terested in town property, and has recently 
completed a handsome two-story house on 
Hockett street, Porterville, where he now 
resides. 



f| D. BILLINGSLEY is a native of Tennes- 
see, born in 1821. Up to the age of twenty 
9 years he lived at home and assisted bis 
father on the plantation. He then went to the 
southwestern part of Arkansas, where he found 
employment as overseer on a largecotton plant- 
ation. 

He was married in April, 1851, to Miss 
Malinda J. Caughran, a native of Arkansas. 
About 1847 Mr. Billingsley bought a plantation 
and on it followed general farming and stock 
raising until 1869, when, witii ox teams and a 
"prairie schooner," he moved his family to 
California, and settled at Porterville. He 
rented land and farmed for three years. Then 
he bought 300 x 128 feet, corner of Main and 
Cleveland streets, Porterville, where he built a 
house and feed stables. As prosperity attended 
him, he bought horses and established a general 
livery business, which he has continued to the 
present time, now keeping about fifteen head of 
horses and carriages suitable to the trade. 

Mr. and Mrs. Billingsley have nine children, 
who, in their several employments, are some- 
what scattered through the Western States. 
After a married life of forty years, a pleasure 
which is granted to hut few, Mr. and Mrs. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



511 




Billiugsley are in the enjoj'tnent of comfortable 
health, strength and usefulness. 

J. NEWPORT, of Hanford, was born 
in Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, in 
1846. His grandfather was a native 
of New York, was a soldier in the war of 1812, 
and very soon thereafter settled in Warren 
County, where the father of our subject, J. C. 
Newport, was born and passed an agricultural 
lite. W. J. Newport improved the educational 
facilities of his native county, and lived at home 
until 1863, when he enlisted in Company B, 
Second Ohio Artillery, under Colonel Gibson. 
They were assigned to the army of the Cumber- 
land, but their duties were mainly in skirmish- 
ing through Virginia, North Carolina, Ten- 
nessee, Kentucky and Georgia. They were dis- 
charged August 28, 1865. Mr. Newport then 
returned to Lebanon and remained until 1866, 
when he passed one year at the Commercial 
College at Quincy, Illinois, and subsequently 
settled at Minneapolis, and worked for a large 
lumber company, also spending part of the time 
in the lumber camps on the headwaters of the 
Mississippi river, as book-keeper and scaler of 
logs. In 1873 he came to California and set- 
tled in Sonoma County, where he remained 
until 1878, and in that year he came to Tulare 
County and purchased his present ranch of 160 
acres, three and a half miles northwest of Han- 
ford. Here he is engaged in farming and stock- 
raising, keeping horses and hogs. In 1880 he 
bought a steam thresher, aud followed the 
threshing business very successfully for ten 
years. Mr. Newport has also been interested 
in 1,040 acres of mountain timber land, with a 
sawmill, which was operated for two years and 
then 8old. He has added eighty acres to his 
ranch, and now owns 240 acres, 120 acres of 
which is in alfalfa, twenty-five in vines, thirty- 
five in trees and the remainder in summer crops. 
He is still engaged in breeding horses, keeping 
about 100 head, with a fine Cleveland bay and 



English shire stallions heading his stud. He is 
also making a specialty of breeding ponies. Mr. 
Newport built his present handsome residence 
in 1890, at a cost of $7,000, which is complete 
in all its appointments and substantially fur- 
nished. 

He was married at Petal uma, in 1876, to Miss 
Elizabeth M. Railsback, a native of Indiana, 
and they have five children: Ada L., Gussie E., 
Walter W., Ernest C. and Rofa B. In 1886 
Mr. Newport was elected Supervisor on the 
Republican ticket, over a Democratic majority 
of 350. He was one of the incorporators of the 
Bank of Hanford in 1887, and also of the Farm- 
ers and Merchants' Bank in 1891, of which he 
is now a member of the board of directors. 
The bank was opened July 1, 1891. 

— -HH«HH- — 

P\ENRY BORGWARDT, Se.— There is 
|J probably not a citizen of the Kern valley 
f who has spent a more busy life, or taken 
a more active part in the pioneer development 
of Central California, than the venerable Henry 
Borgwardt, Sr., as will be seen by the following 
sketch. He was born at Lubeck, Germany, 
July 30, 1832. He left his native country at 
twenty-two years of age, as a sailor before the 
mast of a merchant ship from Hamburg. He 
sailed around Cape Horn and made the port of 
San Francisco in July, 1854. Here he decided 
to abandon a seafaring life and sought employ- 
ment on land. After filling for a time a situ- 
ation in a hotel in Greenwood valiey, El Dorado 
County, he engaged in mining, and led the life of 
the average miner for about five years, with 
success, good, bad and indifferent. In 1859 he 
made a new departure, and entered into the 
dairy business at Greenwood, on a somewhat 
extensive scale. He milked from fifty to sixty 
cows and sold the milk in the mining towns and 
the district lying along the Middle Fork of the 
American river, receiving $1 per gallon for the 
same. The historic drouth of 1864 brought the 
dairy business to a close. He then engaged in 



512 



HISTORY OF VENT HAL CALIFORNIA. 



mining in Nevada and other points until 1869, 
when he located on Poso creek, in Kern County, 
and engaged in sheep-raising. Here he con- 
tinued for thirteen years, and the story of the 
sheep-herder's life and that of his family in that 
new and then unsettled region of country, as 
related by Mr. and Mrs. Borgwardt, is full of 
interest as illustrating the fact that the pastoral 
life of the shepherd is not entirely one of dreamy 
poetry, even in the lonely hills and valleys of 
Central California. Skulking, treacherous, 
thieving Indians with big mouths for mutton 
were ever and anon in the background, ready to 
help themselves or without ceremony make their 
wants known at the point of the tomahawk or 
poisoned arrow. At times, when found neces- 
sary, the herds must be driven into the moun- 
tains for better grazing, and who should remain 
home for days and ofttiines weeks to care for the 
"little ones" and guard the premises from the 
rangers of the dusky red man but mother and 
younger boys? Chapters could be written in 
giving the thrilling experiences of these pioneers 
of Kern County. They remained at Poso creek 
until 1881, and then sold out their stock busi- 
ness and located at Bakersfield. 

In 1881 Mr. Borgwardt purchased eighty 
acres of land adjoining both the town plats of 
Bakersfield and Sumner, a portion of which has 
been surveyed into villa lots and sold. Mr. 
Borgwardt married Miss Caroline Peterson, a 
native of Denmark. She was a passenger on the 
ship on which her husband sailed to America, 
and they were married soon after their arrival 
in San Francisco, in November, 1854. The 
union has proven a most happy one. Through 
storms upon sea and storms upon land she has 
been at his side to sympathize and counsel with 
him in his reverses and rejoice with him in his 
successes. Mrs. Borgwardt is a lady of intel- 
lectual accomplishments. She received a thor- 
ough education in both the Danish and German 
public schools. Both Mr. and Mrs. Borgwardt 
are well versed in the affairs of their adopted 
country, and their hearts and lives have been 
full of aood works and deeds. Their union lias 



been blessed with nine children, six of whom 
are living. The complete list is: Mary, the 
eldest ot the family and au accomplished young 
woman, died June 3, 1888; Ilenry L., the 
present Sheriff of Kern County, is mentioned 
elsewhere in this work; Andrew died June 10, 
1878; William, born December 1, 1860; Dora, 
born May 18, 1863, and died a month after- 
ward; Charles, born August 30, 1864; Francis, 
October 11, 1866; George W., born June 18, 
1868; and Morris, October 7, 1871. Mr. and 
Mrs. Borgwardt made a trip to Europe in 1889, 
spending six months and enjoying a visit with 
friends and relatives whom they had not seen for 
thirty- five years. 



W. CRAIG arrived in California in 1853 
by way of Cape Horn, from New York 
city, where he was born in 1826. He 
was the son of Archibald and Ann H. (Coffin) 
Craig, the latter being of an old Nantucket 
family of English descent. His father, who was 
of Scotch ancestry, was cashier of the old Chemi- 
cal Bank of New York; and he died whilst hold- 
ing that important position in 1838. They were 
seven children in the family. The subject of 
this biography, the youngest but one, was edu- 
cated at Mechanics' Institute in New York city. 
His father dying when he was twelve years of 
age, he removed to New Jersey where he lived 
until 1848, when he went to Springfield, Illi- 
nois, and engaged as clerk in the hardware store 
of E. B. Pease & Bro. Leaving Springfield in 
1852 he came to California and followed mining 
and various other pursuits until 1861, when he 
came to Kernville, in the mining district of 
Kern County, and afterward engaged in mer- 
cantile business in Havilah, where he was burned 
out in 1874, and discontinued business. He 
was elected Supervisor of his district in 1868 and 
again in 1871. Resigning in 1873 he was 
elected County Clerk, and in 1875 and 1877 he 
was re-elected to the same office. In 1881 be 
went to Arizona and remained a year. From 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



513 



1883 to 1884 he was in New Mexico, and since 
then he has resided in Sumner. He was elected 
Justice of the Peace in this place, which posi- 
tion he now holds. He was appointed Post- 
master in April, 1889, under President Harri- 
son's administration. 

In 1869 Mr. Craig married Mrs. M. H. 
Crosby, in Kern County. The latter was born 
in Oregon. They have one daughter, Anna M. 
Mr. Craig, true to his ancestry, is a thorough 
business man. He is large-hearted, open 
handed and public-spirited, and is held in the 
highest estimation by his wide circle of acquaint- 
ances and neighbors. That he is well thought 
of is sufficiently proved by the numerous places 
of trust which he has held during his Ions: res- 
idence in Kern County, all of which he filled 
with eminent credit to himself and his fellow- 
ctizens. 

■" >* — '• i > < £k> » | -k« < ? ; — h>- 

fOHN B. HOCKETT is a forty-niner and 
one of the highly-respected citizens of 
Porterville, Tulare County. 

He was born in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1827. 
The following year his parents moved to Illi- 
nois, where his father followed the trade of 
blacksmith. He was skilled in the manufacture 
of stone stools, and no stone was of sufficient 
hardness to resist the sharpness of his well- 
tempered tool. In 1832 he was a member of 
the Illinois State militia, and went with Gov- 
ernor Duncan to the present site of Chicago to 
expel the Indians from that locality, as they 
were then very hostile. In 1838 he moved to 
Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he was in the em- 
ploy of the Government four years, in construct- 
ing the fort and following his trade. He was 
subsequently sent to the Choctaw Nation, re- 
maining in Government employ. 

John B. was educated at Fort Smith, and was 
there employed as clerk in the Settlers' store. 
In 1849 father and son joined an emigrant 
train for California, crossing the plains by the 
southern route. The company numbered 497 



men and was well-equipped with horses, mules 
and ox teams, and were escorted by three com- 
panies of Government troops. The first 800 
miles of their journey the road had to be con- 
structed. The train was in command of Cap- 
tain John Dillard and left Fort Smith April 12, 
1849, passing through Los Angeles and along 
the foot hills of the Sierra Mountains. They 
arrived at Mariposa County, December 31, of 
the same year. After a short mining experi- 
ence he began packing miners' supplies from 
Stockton, finding the business a very profitable 
one. Here his father withdrew from his son's 
business and returned to Arkansas. At and 
near Santa Fe, New Mexico, the company broke 
up into small parties and only eighteen of them 
continued together to the end of the journey. 
The names of these were Captain John Dillard, 
Gordon Murray, W. H. Rogers, Cyrus Hall, 
T. M. S. Gookin, Joseph Sother, Mr. Malatt, 
W. J. Hockett, J. B. Hockett, John Acord, 
Thomas Akins, " Mick " Canto, Jack and 
Robert (colored men). The names of the others 
cannot now be remembered. 

In 1851 he started a small store in Pleas- 
ant valley on the Merced river, which they con- 
tinued very successfully until December, 1853, 
when he sold out and returned to Arkansas to 
bring West a band of cattle. In 1854 he 
started with 937 head, but at Carson river many 
of them died from eating the alkali grass, and 
when they reached Stansilaus County had only 
182 left. 

Mr. Hockett then turned his attention to 
butchering and followed the business until the 
spring of 1859, when became to Tulare County 
and opened a general merchandise store at 
Visalia. He continued to conduct this store 
until 1864, when, owing to failing health, 
he sold out and removed to Porterville, at that 
time a little Indian trading post kept by Porter 
Putnam. Mr. Hockett bought 320 acres of 
land near town and engaged in farming and 
stock-raising. He now owns 2,300 acres in 
Tulare and Kern counties, and also has much 
town property in Porterville In 1888 he es- 



514 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



tablished a hardware business, for the more 
particular employment of his sons, and carries 
a large stock of hardware, tinware, and agri- 
cultural implements, besides conducting a gen- 
eral tinning and plumbing business. 

Mr. Hockett was married in Tulare, in Janu- 
ary, 1859, to Miss Margaret McGee, a native of 
Texas. Their union has been blessed with five 
children: Ben Franklin, Robert Lee, Edward 
Barton, Lenni and Dora. In Masonic circles 
Mr. Hockett occupies a prominent position, 
having been a member of the order since 1848, 
when he joined the Bell Point Lodge, No. 20, 
at Fort Smith. He is now a member and Treas- 
urer of Porterville Lodge, No. 303, F. & A. 
M., and is Past Master of Visalia lodge and 
member of Visalia chapter, R. A.M. He has 
been a careful business man, always adhering to 
legitimate methods, and in his present prosper- 
ity enjoys the respect of his town's people. 



S1I. McDONALD was born in Prince Ed- 
ward County, Canada, in 1843. His 
31 father, John McDonald, was a native 
of Scotland, who emigrated to Canada in early 
life and followed agricultural pursuits until 
his death, in July, 1890, at the advanced age 
of seventy-nine years. Up to seventeen years 
of age our subject lived at home, acquiring 
habits of industry and knowledge of agriculture. 
In 1860 Mr. McDonald came to California, 
via the Isthmus route, and located at San 
Francisco during the excitement of the Cari- 
boo gold mines in British Columbia. He at 
once turned his course toward that locality, 
and followed mining one year. Returnng to 
California, he mined in Sierra County two 
years, after which he located in Virginia 
City. The Bank of California owned exten- 
sive mines, mills and railroad interests in 
that locality, and by that company Mr. Mc- 
Donald was employed as outside manager and 
superintendent, in which capacity he rendered 
faithful service for seventeen years. 



In 1875 he returned to Canada and was 
married to Miss Olive E. Perry, returning 
with his bride to Virginia City. 

With his identifications with mining in- 
terests and his facilities for profitable specu- 
lation, Mr. McDonald made a deal of money; 
but the fascination of the business held him 
too long in its toils and he became a heavy 
loser. In 1884 he severed his connections at 
Virginia City and went to San Francisco. The 
next three years he spent in traveling over the 
State, and in 1887 came to Fresno as manager 
of the Fresno vineyard of 360 acres. He re- 
mained two years, and during the last year had 
charge of both vineyard and winery, being 
eminently successful in the management of both. 

In March, 1889, he resigned his position at 
Fresno and made a trip to Seattle. In the fall 
he returned to Porterville, and was engaged to 
plant and manage the vineyard of the Pioneer 
Raisin Company, which embraces 240 acres, all 
now in raisin grapes except twenty-two acres of 
orchard. In utilizing the borders of his 
ditches, Mr. McDonald has seven miles of pear 
trees; vines and trees were planted in 1890. Be- 
ing near the foothills, the location is considered 
very desirable, and the product will be ready for 
market two weeks earlier than that at Fresno. 

Through his experience and able management, 
the vineyard has made rapid growth and now 
stands foremost among vineyards, with few 
equals and no superiors. Mr. McDonald is 
also developing fifty-three acres for private ac- 
count, as a home for retirement in later life. 
This, too, was planted to fruit in 1890 and is 
doing well. 

Mr. and Mrs. McDonald have five children: 
Perry, Alice S., Flora B., Robert, Oliver and 
Gladys. 

Mr. McDonald is a member of Porterville 
Lodge, No. 303, F. & A. M.; Virginia Chap- 
ter, No. 2, R. A. M.; and DeWitt Clinton 
Commandery, No. 1, K. T., — the two last of 
Virginia City. He is president of the Por- 
terville Horticultural Society, which was or- 
ganized in the spring of 1891. Mr. Mc- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



515 



Donald is a very conscientious manager, with 
the interests of his employers foremost in his 
thoughts, and with his knowledge of horticult- 
ure the best results follow his care. 



tOBEET C. REDD was born in King Will- 
iam County. Virginia, in 1825. His 
father died when he was five years old, and 
up to the age of sixteen years his life was passed 
on the farm while not attending school, and 
enjoying the educational facilities then offered. 
In 1841 he went to Richmond, apprenticed him- 
self to the trade of brick-laying and worked at 
that trade until 1843. Then, seeking other 
fields of labor in which to satisfy his aspira- 
tions, he went to Glasgow, Missouri, and pur- 
chased a stock of merchandise, which he took 
to Randolph County, settling near Huntsville 
and opening a store. After continuing in that 
business one season, the Mexican war coming 
on, he sold out, enlisted in Company O, Second 
Missouri Cavalry, under General Price, and 
started for Fort Leavenworth, where they were 
mustered into service. They were then sent to 
New Mexico; saw little fighting, but continued 
in service one year, after which they were re- 
turned to Missouri and mustered out. 

In the spring of 1850 Mr. Redd started for 
California, crossing the plains in the usual way 
and landing at Ringgold, El Dorado County, in 
August of the same year. In the spring of 
1851 he engaged in mining, which he followed 
with varied success until 1853. He then re- 
sumed his trade at Sacramento, and in 1854 be- 
came a member of the firm of Allen, Carr & 
Co., in building and general contract work. In 
1856 he withdrew from the firm, returned to 
the mines and followed the varied fortunes of 
the miner until December, 1857. At that time 
he came to Tulare County, settled in Visalia 
and formed the partnership of Redd, Palmer & 
Co., doing general contract work and building. 
They established a brick-yard and secured the 



contract for the first brick courthouse, which 
they completed in a satisfactory manner, also 
taking and completing other contracts. 

In 1858 Mr. Redd was elected County Judge 
on the Democratic ticket, serving one year; in 
1859 he was admitted to practice law in the 
district courts at Visalia. 

Judge Redd was married, in Visalia, June 1, 
1859, to Miss Ellen Baker. He then followed 
the practice of law in addition to performing the 
duties of Justice of the Peace (to which offica 
he had been elected), until 1862. When he re- 
moved to Virginia City, State of Nevada. Re- 
turned to Visalia in 1863 and gave his attention 
to farming until 1864, when he was appointed 
County Clerk. He served through the term 
and thereafter lived a retired life until 1869, 
when he was elected District Attorney. At the 
expiration of his term of office in 1873, he 
moved to Porterville, opened a law office and 
assisted his brother-in-law, Robert Baker, in his 
store duties. In 1882 the Judge engaged in the 
cattle business, which he has continued to the 
present date. He has served one term as Deputy 
District Attorney, under Charles Lemberson, 
and in 1889 was elected Justice of the Peace, 
and re-elected in 1891. 

Judge and Mrs. Redd have five children; 
George N., Robert F., James B., Henry N. and 
Mary Blanche- In addition to his other occupa- 
tions the Judge is interested in the fruit indus- 
try, and is now improving ten acres near Por- 
terville. 



W. REA was born in Charlotte, North 
Carolina, in 1854. His father, D. L. 
Rea, a merchant tailor by trade, came 
to California in 1868, and engaged in the stock 
business in San Joaquin and Tulare counties. 
W. W. Rea was educated in the public schools 
of Stockton, and in 1873 came to Tulare as 
clerk in the store of Sisson, Wallace & Co., 
pioneer merchants of the town. He remained 
in their employ until 1881, when, on account of 




516 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



too close confinement and failing health, he re- 
signed. In order to get plenty of fresh air and 
ont-door life, he accepted a position as brake- 
man with the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany, running between Tulare and Lathrop; 
seven months later was promoted to freight 
conductor, and served in that capacity until 
1883, when he resigned to accept the appoint- 
ment of under sheriff for M. J. Wells, of Vis- 
alia. Office work again impaired his health, 
and after one year's work he was appointed 
field deputy in the county assessor's office, 
filling the position until 1885; returned to 
railroad work as freight conductor, and in 1888 
was promoted to passenger conductor, which he 
followed until November 1, 1890. At that 
time he bought out the livery business of N. W. 
Hammond, Tulare street, Tulare. Mr. Rea 
keeps twenty horses for livery purposes, and 
with light and heavy wagons is prepared for 
every line of his business. In the city election 
of April, 1891, Mr. Rea was elected a member 
of the city council from the third ward. 

He was married in Tulare in 1878, to Miss 
Inez C. Carey, and has one child, Gardell, born 
in 1880. 

Mr. Rea is a member of Tulare Lodge, No. 
78, K. of P.; is secretary of Division No. 46, 
Brotherhood of Railway Conductors; and sec- 
ond officer in Valley Oak Camp, No. 75, Wood- 
men of the World. 



fB. SWEARINGEN, a prominent citizen 
of Bakersfield, first came to California 
° from Missouri in 1854. He was born 
near Boonville, Cooper County, Missouri, No- 
vember 1, 1834. His father was a native of 
Maryland, but moved to Kentucky when five 
years of age, thence to Missouri in 1818. He 
had ten children who grew to maturity — seven 
sons and three daughters. The subject of this 
notice, the sixth child, was educated at Pleas- 
ant Green College. When twenty years of age 
he crossed the plains by what was known as the 



Central route. He followed mining about fif- 
teen years, with varied success, in Nevada 
County, California, at Grass Valley, Nevada 
City, etc. In 1875 he was Under Sheriff of 
Inyo County, and since then he has lwen en- 
gaged mostly in the hotel business, having been 
manager of the Bishop's Creek Hotel eight 
years, of the Lowry House of San Luis Obispo, 
and later of the Occidental Hotel at Ventura 
several years. In February, 1890, he came to 
Bakersfield; but he first came to Kern County 
in 1865 and prospected in gold for about two 
years in the Havilah district, afterward going to 
San Luis. 

He wa6 married in Inyo to Mrs. Sarah 
Hughes, in 1875. They have no children. 

Mr. Swearingen is the present popular and 
geniel landlord of the Cosmopolitan Hotel at 
Bakersfield. His reputation as a good hotel 
man having followed him to Bakersfield, his 
house is the popular stopping place and home 
for a large number of California pioneers and 
business men. 



A. BOTSFORD. a resident of Visalia, 
was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1838, the 
son of T. E. Botsford. He was reared in 
Columbus, Ohio, and educated in the public 
schools of that city. He subsequently took a 
commercial course in Cincinnati, and soon after 
his graduation went to Marion County, Iowa, 
where he engaged in the mercantile business 
with his brother for about two years. In 1858 
he started across the plains to California, spend- 
ing one winter in Salt Lake City. In 1860 
Mr. Botsford arrived in Los Angeles, and for a 
time was engaged at bookkeeper for O. W. 
Childs. He then came to Visalia, where he ha> 
since resided. He has been engaged in mining 
considerably, and has made several trips East. 
In 1868 he laid out the town of Ivanpaugh, 
Arizona, and built several roads in that Terri- 
tory. For several years past Mr. Botsford has 
been engaged in the real-estate and insurance 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



517 



business, and has lands for sale in Fresno, Tu- 
lare and Kern counties. At present he owns 
ranch of some 12,000 acres near Hanford, de- 
voted to wheat, and also owns other lands in 
different places. 

During Lincoln's administration Mr. Bots- 
ford served as Internal Revenue Assessor, and 
was Register in the United States Land Office 
during Grant's first and second terms. He has 
served as deputy assessor of Tulare County, and 
has taken an active part in everything that has 
been undertaken for the improvement of Visalia 
and the county. He was one of the first pro- 
moters of the Visalia & Tulare railroad four 
years ago, and one of its heaviest stockholders. 
His residence is on Court and South streets, and 
his office is 90 and 91 Court street. 

In 1872 Mr. Botsford married Miss Harriet 
G. Edwards, a native of New York. Socially 
he is prominently connected with the A. O. U. 
W. of Visalia, Lodge No. 52. He is one of the 
men who experienced some of the hardships of 
early days in California, and to the energy and 
public spirit of such as he the prosperity of the 
community is largely owing. 

— ~HH M **f**- !! *- — 

tEUBEN WILLIAMS is one of the pio- 
neers of Fresno County. He was born in 
Dallas County, Missouri, in the town of 
Buffalo, June 11, 1840. He is a son of Samuel 
Williams, an early- time merchant and farmer in 
Missouri, who was a Tennesseean by birth. He 
was twice married, — first to Miss Lucy Grimes, 
of Jerseyville, Illinois, who died in Dallas 
County, Missouri, about 1843. They had three 
children, — Philip, Reuben (the only one living) 
and Lizzie. By his second marriage, to Miss 
Ida A. Edwards, he had three children, namely: 
James, of Kern County, California; and Lottie, 
who is married and living in Arizona. Reuben 
commenced life for himself as a miner, farmer 
and stock-raiser. His first venture in mining 
was in Nevada County, California, in 1851-'52, 
and proved quite satisfactory. He subsequently 



became interested in mines in Fresno County in 
1882. They are in the Hanover district, one 
of which is rich in gold quartz, and all have 
been fairly paying property. Aside from min- 
ing Mr. Williams is engaged in stock-raising, 
ranging his stock over about 1,000 acres of 
country known as Government mineral lands. 

Mr. Williams married in 1859, in Mendocino 
County, this State, Miss Caroline Wilson, 
daughter of John Wilson, a pioneer stockman 
of that county. Mrs. Williams is a native of 
Little Rock, Arkansas. They have nine chil- 
dren living, two having deceased. The names 
of the living are: Samuel, Mary Jane, Laura 
L., Nora C, Fanny C, Lucy, Carrie, Ruby and 
George. Mr. Williams is a careful, conserva- 
tive business man, and is counted among the 
valuable members of his community. 

fANK OF VISALIA, one of the leading 
financial institutions of Tulare County, Cali- 
fornia, was organized and incorpoaated in 
1874, by Richard E. Hyde, Andrew H. Broder, 
John W. Crowley, Tipton Lindsey, Cuthbert 
Burrel, S. C. Brown, Fielding Bacon and Elias 
Jacob — all business men of ability, character 
and wealth. The capital stock was $200,000. 
Richard E. Hyde was elected first president, and 
has held that important office continously up 
to the present time (1891). Under his efficient 
management the bank has attained a business 
reputation second to- none in the county. 

Mr. Hyde has been a resident of California 
since 1856, and the most of this time has been 
spent in Visalia. He has been engaged in lum- 
bering, milling and other business enterprises; 
was one of the incorporators of the Visalia and 
Goshen railroad, and a stockholder in the Visa- 
lia and Tulare railroad, both of which were 
built and successfully managed by home capital. 
He has made investments in real estate, and 
owns considerable property in Visalia and Tu- 
lare Comity. There is, perhaps, not another 
man in the county who had a more successful 



518 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



business career than Richard E. Hyde, and he 
is to-day one of the largest capitalists in Tulare 
County. 

Personally, he is a most courteous and oblig- 
ing man, is naturally of a reticent disposition, 
always eschewing everything that tends toward 
fame or notoriety. 



fLEASANT BYRD, a rancher of Visalia, 
was born in Warren County, Tennessee, 
December 12, 1822, the son of David and 
Jane (Morehead) Byrd, both natives of Vir- 
ginia. They had a family of twelve children, 
the subject of this sketch being the eleventh 
child. His father died when lie was fifteen 
years of age, and he remained with his mother 
until 1847, when he entered the army against 
Mexico, under General Taylor. He served un- 
til 1848, when he went back home, and in April, 
1852, took a steamer at New Orleans for Cali- 
fornia, via the Nicaragua route. July 8, 1852, 
they landed at San Francisco, having had to 
make the trip from the Isthmus in a sailing ves- 
sel. Mr. Byrd followed mining for about six- 
years in Placer County; in 1858 he went to 
Santa Rosa; and January 1, 1860, he arrived in 
Visalia, where he has ever since resided. He 
has dealt somewhat in stock-raising, but most 
of his time has been spent in professional 
work. He was first Supervisor of Visalia dis- 
trict, four years, and afterward was deputy as- 
sessor of Tulare County, and also deputy clerk. 
His next office was under sheriff, then deputy 
assessor, and again deputy clerk. He then 
served three years as deputy treasurer, and in 
1871 was elected Treasurer of the county. His 
term expired in 1874, since which time he has 
given his attention to his farm on King's river. 
Mr. Byrd has taken an active part in the pub- 
lic improvements of Visalia; has helped build 
the Masonic and Odd Fellows Hall on Church 
street, and was a stockholder in the Visalia 
& Goshen railroad. He was one year Mayor of 
Visalia, and two years a member of the city 



council. The Southern Methodist Church 
building on Court street is largely the product 
of his labors, and with the exception of one 
year he has been the recording steward of the 
church for twenty-five years successively. He 
stands prominently connected with the Masonic 
order, Visalia Lodge, No. 128. 

January 20, 1873, he married Sarah N. Fos- 
ter, a native of Arkansas, and daughter of John 
C. and Sarah Foster. This union has been blessed 
with four children: Leesie M., Pleasant W., Sarah 
D., who died at the age of live years, and John 
David. 



fMIL NEWMAN, manager of the Pioneer 
Land Company, Porterville, and the ex- 
ecutive head of the company's many en- 
terprises, was born in Sweden in 1854. After 
a seven-years classical course he took up civil 
engineering, and graduated at the Technical 
School at Orebro, Sweden. Then, seeking a 
broader field in which to practice his profes- 
sion, his attention was turned to the United 
States, and in 1873, at the age of nineteen 
years, he embarked for this country. Landing 
at New York, he proceeded westward, and 
settled at Tomah, Wisconsin, where he readily 
found employment as civil engineer for the 
Wisconsin Valley Railroad. His engagement 
of seven years with thern is the best evidence of 
his ability, and of the confidence which the 
railroad officials reposed in him. In 1880 the 
Wisconsin Valley railroad was sold to the 
company owning the Chicago. Milwaukee & 
St. Paul Railroad, and Mr. Newman was in the 
employ of that company three years, after 
which he took to the field and was engaged in 
railroad engineering through the Middle West- 
ern States, in both field and construction de- 
partments. 

In February, 1887, he gave up railroad 
operations and returned to his home at Tomah. 
He had married, at that place, in 1878, Mi>s 
Lulu Woodley, a native of Minnesota, and upon 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



519 



his return home at this time found his little 
daughter in ill health. He was advised, on her 
account, to seek a milder climate; settled up 
his business, and, in March, 1887, removed his 
family to California, settling at Riverside, 
where his brother, G. O. Newman, chief engi- 
neer of the Riverside Water Company, resided. 
Mr. Newman readily found employment at his 
profession, and among his first operations was 
the sewering of the city; but, after building 
the main sewer, he resigned and was engaged 
as engineer of the Riverside Improvement 
Company, in the sinking of artesian wells and 
the piping of water to the city, for domestic 
purposes. 

In 1888, through the influence of Mr. 
Thomas, president of the Pioneer Land Com- 
pany, of Porterville, Mr. Newman was induced 
to take charge of their landed interests, amount- 
ing to 5,000 acres. Porterville at that time 
was a backwoods number, in a dilapidated con- 
dition, with no inherent enterprise, and the 
railroad having just been completed, the com- 
pany was trying to move the town to its reser- 
vation. Through the enterprise of Mr. New- 
man, backed by the Land Company, the town 
was renovated, the company expending $17,000 
in cleauing up ditches and draining the swampy 
districts, and by a general cleaning up and 
clearing out of dilapidated structures. The 
company then agreed with the citizens that if 
they, the people, would subscribe $5,000 in 
improving their own property and in cleaning 
streets and alleys, the Laud Company would put 
in a system of domestic water supply, furnish- 
ing water to the town for tire and sprinkling 
purposes free of charge; they would also put in 
an electric light plant, furnishing free lights for 
street purposes, and build a hotel and start a 
bank, — all of which has been accomplished. 
Under this impulse the town started and made 
rapid strides forward. The Land Company 
have subdivided their lands into lots of twenty 
acres, and are rapidly disposing of them to ac- 
tual settlers. The town is furnished with an 
abundant water supply from the Tule river. 



The old company was reorganized, and the 
Pioneer Water Company incorporated, with 
Mr. Newman as president. They have a main 
ditch and laterals covering about twenty-five 
miles, and are constantly extending. The hotel 
is a two-story brick structure, 74 x 110 feet, 
centrally located and very complete in appoint- 
ments. The Pioneer Bank is a fixture, with 
Mr. Newman as manager, and E. W. Beebe as 
cashier. With this impulse of progression 
Porterville was aroused from her condition of 
lethargy, and she now has a position among the 
enterprising towns of the San Joaquin valley. 

Mr. and Mrs. Newman have one child, Iris 
Urd, who has been benefited in health by the 
genial climate of California, and is a joy and 
comfort to the household. 

Mr. Newman is personally developing ten 
acres in oranges and deciduous fruits. He is a 
member of Porterville Lodge, No. 303, F. & A. 
M., and of the Independent Order of Foresters. 
As a man of strict integrity and honesty of 
purpose Mr. Newman enjoys the respect of his 
town's people. To him is Porterville largely 
indebted for her present commercial position. 

L BERRY, a well-known citizen of 
, Delano, and a leading agriculturist, 

Np?j is an early-time resident of California. 
In 1850 he, in partnership with one Newton 
Peters, started from St. Joseph, Missouri, for 
California, with a band of 2,960 sheep. They 
spent fifteen months with their stock in the 
Rocky mountains, during which time their band 
increased to 3,680. Upon their arrival in Cal- 
ifornia they readily disposed of their stock at 
prices ranging from $14 to $18 per head. This 
was, so far as can be learned, the first introduc- 
tion of sheep into California. Mr. Berry then 
engaged in mining in El Dorado County for six 
years, with fair success. In 1858 he located at 
the old town of Sonoma and engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits for one year, during which 
time he married Mrs. Elizabeth McCracken, a 



520 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



widow lady of that town. They then spent two 
years in the San Joaquin valley, raising stock 
and grain. In 1861 he sold out and in partner- 
ship with his brother, John M. Berry, erected a 
large and expensive quartz-mill at Dayton, Ne- 
vada. No sooner had they completed their 
finely equipped mill than a freshet in 1862 
swept it from its foundation and scattered it in 
fragments for miles along the valley below, en- 
tailing a loss of about $40,000. They then en- 
gaged in placer mining at Placerville until the 
fall of 1863, when Mr. Berry returned to So- 
noma and re-engaged in grain raising. He pro- 
duced a heavy crop of wheat and barley. Wheat 
he was enabled to sell for $5.25 per cental and 
barley at correspondingly high prices. Mr. 
Berry had always been an extensive reader and 
had acquired studious habits, gratifying as cir- 
cumstances permitted and time offered an ardent 
desire for book knowledge. He had read and 
acquired a good practical knowledge of the law, 
and in 1869 began to practice at Sonoma and 
there spent seven years in the profession. He 
then removed to Santa Rosa, the seat of the Pa- 
cific Methodist Episcopal College, for the pur- 
pose of giving his children the best of school- 
ing facilities attainable. They remained there 
until the year 1879, and then took up their res- 
idence in Kern County, on a tract of 4,000 
acres of land, all of which he sowed to grain. 
Since that time Mr. Berry has followed farming 
in an unostentatious manner, on his property 
near Delano. Mr. and Mr. Berry have three 
daughters and one son. The daughters are mar- 
ried and are living in Tulare and Kern counties. 

flELDING A COMBS, M. D., was born 
in Montgomery County, Kentucky, Au- 
gust 10, 1825, the son of Ennis and Syd- 
nor (Hinds) Combs, who were both natives of 
Virginia, and the parents of six boys and four 
girls. Dr. Combs is the fifth generation prac- 
ticing the " healing art." II is great-grandfather, 
Dr. Hinds, was a surgeon in the British army 



and navy. He left this service and came to 
America, and was a surgeon in the Revolution, 
afterward settling in Virginia. Neither he nor 
his wife was a Christian at first, but in the early 
days of Methodist camp-meetings she was con- 
verted. At first he called her insane, but was 
induced by her to attend meeting, and he sub- 
sequently was converted himself, and was a 
devout Christian until death. The grandfather 
of Dr. Combs, J. W. Hinds, M. D., was born in 
Virginia. Dr. Ennis Combs was also born in 
Virginia. 

The subject of this sketch was educated at the 
literary academy at Mt. Sterling, and was a 
classmate of Judge Wallace, of San Francisco. 
In 1848 he graduated at the Medical College at 
Transylvania University, and in 1842 emigrated 
with his father to Independence, Missouri, and 
read medicine with him and Dr. Caldwell, sub- 
sequently attending the lectures. He began 
the practice of his profession at Independence, 
and later moved to Marshall, Saline County, 
Missouri, where he practiced until 1877. In 
1883 he graduated at the Louisville Medical 
College, and here he made a celebrated speech. 
Dr. Combs came to California in 1877 for his 
health, settling first in Lake County. In 1879 
he came to Tulare County, and bought a large 
ranch near Visalia, which, after a failure at 
farming, he sold out and moved to Visalia, 
where he has since been practicing medicine. 

Of his private life it may be said that. Dr. 
Combs was married August 15, 1848, to Eliz- 
abeth F. Carthrae, who was born in Kocking- 
ham County, Virginia, in 1828, and a daughter 
of Charles Wesley Carthrae, a native of Vir- 
ginia and of Scotch origin. Of this union the 
following is the issue: Dr. Howard M., of Visa- 
lia; James, a student at Vanderbilt University- 
Mary, Sydnor, Nanie and Sarah. The mother 
of these children died February 20, 1865. Dr. 
Combs joined the Methodist church in 1835, 
and when the division took place, he went with 
the Southern wing. He has been a prominent 
Mason for forty-four years, and is also a mem- 
ber of the I. O. O. F. Politically he is an en- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



521 



tkusiastic supporter of the Democratic party. 
His residence is at No. 123 North Locust street, 
and his office is on Main street, in the Perkins 
block. 



f[ C. DEAN, by virtue of his long residence 
} in California, merits representation in a 
^° work of this character. He was born in 
Yates County, New York, February 28, 1817. 
His father, Zebulon Dean, was a minister of the 
Freewill Baptist church, and was also a farmer 
and millwright. He died in 1831, when the 
subject of this sketch was a lad of fourteen 
years. Being of an industrious nature and act- 
ing on the good advice of his most estimable 
mother, young Dean applied himself to his stud- 
ies at school, and subsequently learned the trade 
of ship-carpenter, which he followed for many 
years. He was married at Milo, Yates County, 
New York, in 1837, to Miss Maria Houghtail- 
ing, a native of the Empire State. 

In 1845 Mr. Dean moved from Yates County 
to New York city, where he worked at his trade 
until July, 1846. At that time he enlisted in 
Stevenson's regiment for service in the Mexi- 
can war, and on September 26 they embarked 
on the old transport ship Susan Drew for Cali- 
fornia, via Cape Horn, bringing with him his 
w'fe and three children. Mrs. Powell, the 
youngest of the children, was then but three 
years old. 

There was 300 men including officers on board, 
and after a pleasant voyage of six months they 
entered Golden Gate, March 26, 1847, — too late 
for the war, as the fighting had all been accom- 
plished. However, they were in time for garri- 
son duty. In detachments they were stationed 
at Sonoma, Monterey, San Francisco, Santa 
Barbara and Los Angeles until July, 1848, when 
they were discharged. About this time gold 
was discovered in California, and Mr. Dean 
went to the mines. Not meeting with any 
great success in the mines, in 1849 he estab- 
lished a trading camp near Jamestown, on 



Wood's creek, keeping mining supplies. Af- 
ter remaining there one season, he left the 
mines, returned to Monterey and engaged in 
the carpenter business until 1856. Then he 
turned his attention to farming in Contra Costa 
County, and in 1859 came to Tulare County and 
homesteaded 160 acres of land, near Farmers- 
ville, east of Visalia, where he carried on farm- 
ing and stock raising, which was his home until 
1887, when he disposed of that property and 
purchased eighty acres on Tule river, west 
of Woodville, where he now resides. His 
handsome cottage and beautiful surroundings 
attracts the attention of the traveler as he jour- 
neys in that direction. In 1887 Mr. and Mrs. 
Dean celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniver- 
sary, and November 9, 1889, the good wife was 
summoned to her home above. Their six chil- 
dren are all settled in California, and their names 
are as follows: George E.; Sarah A., now Mrs. 
John Sanborn of Lemoore; Eliza M., wife of 
William S. Powell, deceased; Nancy A., now 
Mrs. S. Reed, of Deer Creek; Jessie D., now 
Mrs. E. H. Moore, of Oakland; and William 
P., who is married and resides with his father, 
taking charge of the ranch and making a pleas- 
ant home for his aged parent. They have 
buried three children, — Lycurgus R., Millard 
F., and Winnie G. 



tOWEN IRWIN was born in Putnam 
County, Indiana, in 1858. His father, 
Isaac A. Irwin, a Baptist minister, moved 
to Johnson County, Nebraska, in 1866, and 
there followed an agricultural life. Rowen ob- 
tained his education in the common schools of 
Nebraska, and at the age of twelve years evinced 
a taste for the law. To him the court-room was 
so attractive that he would frequently steal in 
and give up his meals in order to remain and 
listen to a legal argument. At the age of four- 
teen he began reading law, and at eighteen en- 
tered the law office of Irwin &Selby, Tecum seh, 
Nebraska. After remaining there about two 



.523 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



years the close confinement began to tell on his 
constitution, and for the benefit of his health 
he came West, locating in Josephine County, 
Oregon, where he mined and taught school 
about one year. 

In 1879 Mr. Irwin came to California and lo- 
cated at Hanford. Here he continued the study 
of law until 1882, when lie was admitted to the 
bar. Since that time he has been located at 
Hanford, but his business has by no means been 
confined to the county in which he resides. He 
is a devotee of his profession and engages in no 
side issues. Beginning with general law, his 
business is leading into a criminal practice, in 
which his successes are proof of his marked 
ability. 

Mr. Irwin was married in Hanford, in 1884, 
to Miss Mary B. Deardorf, a native of Califor- 
nia, and their union has been blessed with two 
children — Florence and Edgar Brutus. 



Y. ASHMORE is one of the pioneers of 
Inyo County, California. He was born 
in Clark County, Illinois, July 20, 1826, 
and when he was quite young removed with 
his parents to Coles County, same State, 'where 
he was reared to agricultural pursuits, his fathe r 
being a farmer. In their family were five sons 
and two daughters. At the age of thirty, the 
subject of our sketch came West and engaged in 
teaming, which has since that time been his 
chief occupation. He now owns a handsome 
piece of property in Inyo County, his post office 
address being Bit; Pine. 

Mr. Ashmore is unmarried. 



A. MAY is a descendant of English an- 
cestors. His parents came to this country 
at an early day, settled in Buffalo, New 
York, before the establishment of railroad trans- 
portation, and subsequently located in Wales, 
Erie County, where the subject of this sketch 



was born in 1847. Losing his mother at the 
age of twelve years, young May went to Peoria, 
New York, to live with his uncle. William Miy, 
a blacksmith by trade. He took advantage of the 
educational advantages offered there and applied 
himself to his studies in the high school, at odd 
times assisting his uncle in the shop. When 
he was eighteen he enlisted, at Rochester, in 
Company C, One Hundred and Ninety-fourtli 
New York Volunteers, and was sent to Elmira. 
The war, however, being nearly over, they were 
soon discharged and returned to their homes. 

After his discharge from the service, Mr. 
May went to Henry County, Illinois, to visit 
his father, and subsequently to St. Charles, 
Minnesota, where he engaged in farming and the 
lumber business. About 1870 he went to Can- 
ton, Lincoln County, Dakota, pre-empted and 
homesteaded 320 acres of wild land and began 
breaking the soil and sowing grain. The grass- 
hoppers in that section of the country were 
very destructive and crops uncertain. In 1875 
Mr. May was sergeant-at-arms at Yankton, 
then the capital of Dakota, and upon adjourn- 
ment of the Legislature he was sent by the cit- 
izens of the county to the States to solicit aid 
for the suffering settlers, the grasshoppers hav- 
ing entirely destroyed their crops. While in 
Dakota he took an active part in politics and 
was regarded as one of the leaders of his party. 
Mr. May was married at Yankton, in Decem- 
ber, 1876, to Miss Martha Jones, a sister of 
State Senator A. S. Jones, cf Dakota. They 
then came to California and, after passing a few 
months with his father and brother at Modesto, 
in April, 1878, settled at their present location,' 
southwest of Poplar, Tulare County. He bouo-ht 
a timber culture claim of eighty acres and 160 
acres of railroad land adjoining; set five acres 
to timber from rooted plants and cuttings, but 
experienced great difficulty in getting them to 
grow, and for four years kept filling in the va- 
cancies and made it a success. He now has 
forty acres in alfalfa and annually sows 175 
acres to grain. The country being undeveloped 
when Mr. May came here, he has devoted much 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



523 



time to experimenting with deciduous fruits, 
berries and vines, now having five acres in 
orchard and twelve in grapes. The water sup- 
ply for the valley being very uncertain, owing 
to the natural run of the streams, Mr. May is 
practically demonstrating the fact that, with 
abundance of water fifteen feet below the sur- 
face, every man owns his own water-right if he 
will but take the means and measures to raise 
it to the surface. He bored two wells about 
ten feet apart and erected over them an electric 
and gasoline engine with a centripetal pump 
connected with both wells, from which it draws 
alike and throws to the surface fifteen miners' 
inches of water. This is the first engine and 
pump of the kind erected in that part of the 
valley, and affords the most perfect power with 
the least trouble and consumption of fuel of any 
pumping apparatus the writer has ever seen. 
Mr. May is also giving much attention to rais- 
ing horses, and with his Percheron stallion, which 
weighs 1,500 pounds, is improving the standard 
of draft- horses. 

Mr. and Mrs. May have two children: E. 
Howard and Ivy, both at home and in pursuit 
of their education. Mr. May is a member of 
the I. 0. 0. F., of Woodville, and of the Farm- 
ers' Alliance, being lecturer of his lodge. 



^-^ 



jLFRED MORGAN, during his residence 
in Kern County, has thoroughly identified 
himself with the growth and development 
of its material interests. There is probably not 
a citizen in the county who is more favorably 
known in its agricultural and political circles. 
He has been a resident of California since 1870, 
having come West from Ogle County, Illinois, 
where he was born, October 8, 1850, in the 
town of Rochelle. He is a son of Nelson and 
Martha (Reynolds) Morgan, the former a native 
of Luzern County, Pennsylvania, and she of St. 
Lawrence County, New York. He was a farmer 
by occupation and emigrated to Ogle County in 
the pioneer days of Illinois, and there lived 



until his death, which occurred in 1857. The 
widow, now the mother of four children, re- 
married, this time wedding Mr. Gould Lewis, 
and removed to Story County, Iowa, where she 
has been a second time widowed. She raised 
three sons and one daughter by her first mar- 
riage, and the subject of this sketch is the eld- 
est. He came West with an uncle, James Mor- 
gan, a capitalist of San Francisco, who was at 
that time identified with Senator Stewart, of 
Nevada, and John Dixon, the three comprising 
the mining firm of Dixon, Morgan & Stewart. 
The subject commenced hi. business career as a ' 
quartz- miner in Amador County, California, in 
which he became an expert, and at the age of 
twenty-one was placed in charge, as a superin- 
tendent, of 250 men (miners) at Sutter Creek 
and at Jacksou. He continued mining for three 
years at these points and at Virginia City, Ne- 
vada, and at the latter point sunk the Union 
shaft, one of the largest of the kind in the min- 
ing regions. He later assumed the manao-e- 
ment of mines for Stuart, Haggin & Carr, in 
Smoky valley, Nevada, and finally came to 
Kern County in 1881, to superintend the Mc- 
Cluny ranch of 5,000 acres, located twelve 
miles west of Bakersfield. 

Mr. Morgan is a prominent business man, 
affable in his manners, and a popular Democrat. 
In 1888 he was elected a member of the county 
Board of Supervisors for a term of four years; 
also served as chairman of the Kern County 
Democratic delegation to the State convention 
at San Jose in 1890. 

Mr. Morgan was married June 4, 1874, to 
Miss Georgia, daughter of John Nash, a pioneer 
of Sacramento, and a native of Kentucky, who 
came to California in 1849. He dealt in boots 
and shoes in Sacramento, and later engaged in 
mining and stock-raising, at Carson, Nevada, 
and there died, in July, 1864, leaving a com- 
fortable fortune. Mrs. Morgan was born in 
Louisville, Kentucky, May 5, 1854. She is a 
lady of fine intellectual attainments and social 
accomplishments. They have one daughter — 
Fay Ethel, born April 7, 1882. A son, How- 



524 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ard, died in 1882, at four years of age. ' Mr. 
Morgan Las, during bis thus far busy life, ac- 
cumulated some property, and owns 640 acres 
of fine soil lying fourteen miles west of Bakers- 



field. 



—^^k^i^^f^^ 



fM. FERGUSON.— In the life of J. M. 
Ferguson we have an example of what 
° may be accomplished by energy and pluck 
when combined with judicious management in 
this wonderfully productive State of California. 

Mr. Ferguson was born in White County, 
Georgia, March 25, 1843, and passed his boy- 
hood days on the home farm. As soon as age 
and maturity permitted, he entered the Federal 
army and was mustered in at Nashville, Tennes- 
see, in January, 1863, as a member of Com- 
pany G., Tenth Tennessee Cavalry, under 
Colonel Habernathy. Their services were 
largely that of raiding through Tennessee and 
Mississippi, and post duty at New Orleans and 
Natchez, remaining in service to the close of 
the war, being mustered out in the fall of 1865 
at Nashville. 

On returning to his home, Mr. Ferguson 
found the country in an unsettled condition, 
and to him the soil seemed exceedingly poor in 
comparison with that of Tennessee. He soon 
afterward returned to Tennessee, and there 
began farming. He was married in Meigs 
County, that State, in 1872, to Miss Parthena 
C. Cundiff, a native of Meigs County, and 
there they continued to reside until the spring 
of 1875, when they started for California. 
Having friends at Poplar, Tulare County, whom 
they wished to visit, they came here, and were 
so pleased with the locality that Mr. Ferguson 
improved his soldier's claim and homsteaded 
160 acres of land west of Poplar. The country 
was dry and barren, but the South Side Tule 
river ditch was then hi progress of construc- 
tion, and feeling that water for irrigation was to 
be the salvation of the country, he entered with 
vigor into the completion of the ditch, and 



assisted in running through the first water. 
His capital at that time was slO in currency, 
valued at $7 in gold, but with fine health, a 
willing hand and a determination to succeed, he 
set to work to carve out a prosperous and happy 
home, and his earnest efforts have been 
rewarded with success. He first built a small 
cabin and then had to rustle for food for his 
family. To this end he engaged in sheep-shear- 
ing or any honest occupation which he 
could secure. In the winter of 1876 he put in 
his first crop, meeting with poor results, as the 
season was dry and conveniences for irrigation 
not completed. He then began peddling, secur- 
ing fruit about Piano and selling it at Kern- 
ville. In this he did an extensive business, 
and the season netted him $300. Then by 
degrees he worked into fanning and the stock 
business, renting other lands and sowing grain. 
From year to year he saved his earnings and 
made good investments, and is now the owner 
of 720 acres of land. In 1884 he planted an 
orchard which has developed very satisfactorily, 
and in the spring of 1891 he set thirty acres in 
vines. Forty acres he devotes to alfalfa, and 
his ranch is well stocked with horses, cattle 
and 'hogs. In October, 1887, Mr. Ferguson 
opened a general merchandise store in Poplar, 
and in November, 1890, was appointed Post- 
master; but, preferring out-door life to the con- 
finement of the store, he sold out his stock in 
the fall of 1890, and as soon as possible turned 
over the office to the new incumbent. 

Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson have eight children, 
three sons and five daughters. A handsome 
two-story cottage has taken the place of their 
original cabin, and they are now surrounded by 
all the comforts of life, happy in the enjoyment 
of their beautiful California home. 



fEORGE FISHER RICE, deceased, was 
one of the most highly respected and 
prominent pioneers of Tulare County, Cal- 
ifornia. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



525 



He was born in Warrick County, Indiana, 
November 16, 1832, son of James and Lncinda 
(Clark) Rice. He was educated in the public 
schools and in the university at Greencastle, 
Indiana. In February, 1854, at the age of 
twenty-two years, he started for California with 
a company of thirty-one young men, coming 
via Council Bluffs and Salt Lake and being 
seven and one-half months en route. Two of 
the party died of cholera before reaching their 
destination. Mr. Rice walked all the way from 
Council Bluffs, and reached the mining districts 
of this State on October 15, 1854. His only 
belongings at that time consisted of some school- 
books and a gun. The latter he had purchased 
in Indiana for twenty-five bushels of corn at 
twenty-five cents per bushel, and when he left 
his native State he had only $11.05 in money. 
Upon his arrival here he sold the gun for five 
dollars, and with this he paid for lodgings and 
breakfast for himself and three comrades. 

Mr. Rice was engaged in mining operations 
in Mariposa County for four years. He came 
to Tulare County in 1858. Few settlers were 
here then, and the Indians were numerous. 
For years many of the latter resided on his 
lauds. He always treated them with utmost 
kindness, they recognized in him a true friend, 
and were always peaceable and harmless. Some 
of them died, and the others at last moved 
away. Mr. Rice purchased 160 acres of land 
and engaged in farming and stock-raising. 
His ranch was located ten miles southeast of 
Visalia, on the outside creek of the Four creeks, 
and near the head of the Elk Bayou. This 
country then, as now, presented a beautiful 
appearance with its rich pastures and majestic 
oaks. On the banks of this stream the pioneer 
built his little home and began life, with willing 
hands and a brave heart, buoyed with bright 
hopes for the future, which, as the years rolled 
by, were fully realized. From time to time he 
added to his landed estate until he became the 
owner of 3,500 acres of choice land ; and on 
the river bank a new and commodious home 
took the place of the smaller one. 



Mr. Rice was married at Visalia, July 18 
1861, to Miss Frances N. Bell, a native of 
Iowa. To the new home he took his young 
bride, and in the course of time their union was 
blessed with four children, two sons and two 
daughters, Marietta, Jennie, Lewis C. and 
James. On June 26, 1876, after -fifteen years 
of happy married life, the devoted wife and 
mother was called to her last home, and the 
father and little family deeply mourned her loss. 
Mr. Rice was again married, in Visalia, March 26, 
1878, to Miss Frances Dibble, a native of Mari- 
etta, Ohio, and a graduate of the Marietta high 
school. She was engaged in teaching in Ohio, 
Iowa and Illinois previous to her coming to 
California, and after her arrival in this State 
taught one year. She is the daughter of Collis 
and Edna (Bingham) Dibble, of Ohio, her father 
having resided in that State for fifty-two 
years. 

As the years passed by Mr. Rice acquired 
other lands and became extensively engao-ed in 
ranching and stock-raising. During the late 
war he was a stanch Union man and a leading 
Republican, never hesitating to let it be known 
where he stood in regard to the great questions 
of the day. He was the Government enrolling 
officer and traveled over the country at a time 
when there was great excitement and much 
danger. While he differed from his fellow citi- 
zens, they respected him for his manly courage 
and he was never molested. His party nom- 
inated him as a candidate for the Assembly and 
afterward for the Senate. Owing, however, to 
the Republican minority of his section of the 
country he was not elected. He was a member 
of the A. (). U. W., and had been reared in the 
faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

In December, 1883, he was taken ill with 
pneumonia, and his death occurred on the 19th 
of the month. He was well known in this part 
of California, had a limitless circle of friends, 
and in his death not only his immediate family, 
but the community at large, sustained a heavy 
loss His remains were interred in the Deep 
Creek cemetery. Of his children, Jennie died 



52G 



niSTOKT OP CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



at the age of five years; Marietta, the elder 
daughter, was married, January 17, 1882, to 
"W. A. Gray, then of Lemoore, now Superior 
Judge of Tulare County, and a resident of Vis- 
alia. (See Judge Gray's history in this work). 
The older son, Lewis C., is a business man of 
Fresno, but makes his headquarters at home. 
The other son is engaged in conducting the 
extensive interests of the ranch. Both are ex- 
emplary young men, following in the footsteps 
of their honored father. Mrs. Rice still con- 
tinues to reside at the old homestead. 



jgpS AMUEL L. HOGUE.— Among the men 
ff|&j of mark in this county may be mentioned 
^p Samuel L. Hogue, whose record is a unique 
one and challenges our attention. Born in Illi- 
nois in 1857, coming to California in 1870, 
living in mountain mining camps, reaching 
Fresno County in 1874, making shakes and 
shingles or running a saw-mill, the years of his 
boyhood passed with scant opportunities for ob- 
taining an education. At the age of twenty he 
resolved to attend the State Normal School at 
San Jose and qualify himself for a teacher. 
Borrowing $600 to defray expenses, he left the 
sawmill and entered the school-room. He ap- 
plied himself closely to his studies, and in 1878 
received a certificate as a qualified teacher. 
Returning to Fresno County, lie secured a 
school, paid his debt the first year, and con- 
tinued teaching four years. The last year 
(1882) he taught in Selma, Fresno County, 
where he was also a Notary Public and a dealer 
in real estate. 

Mr. Hogue was one of the directors of the 
Fowler Switch Canal Company, and during the 
construction of the canal was secretary of the 
company. He took an active part in the organi- 
zation of the Republican party in Fresno 
County. In 1880 he was a member and secre- 
tary of the first county convention, and has 
been a member of every county convention 
since that date. After closing his school work 



in Selma, he moved to Fresno and opened a 
hardware business, which, however, was closed 
out in less than two years by a fire, leaving him 
in debt. In 1884 he returned to Selma, and in 
the spring of 1885 was appointed justice of the 
peace. After serving out that term lie was 
elected on the Republican ticket for another 
term, making a phenomenal run in a district 
overwhelmingly Democratic. 

Three years ago Mr. Hogue permanently 
located in Fresno, and in 1888 he was elected 
Justice of the Peace in this city. His term of 
office expiring January 1, 1890, he took up the 
practice of law, in which he is now engaged. 

Mr. Hogue owns a one-half interest in a fine 
vineyard of 160 acres, located four miles from 
Selma, in the development of which the owners 
have been very successful. 

January 1, 1881, the subject of our sketch 
wedded Miss Effie H. Brown, a native of Yolo 
County, California. Their family consists of 
four children. 



-=£*« 



»*>£=- 




HEATON ANDREW GRAY, Superior 
Judge of Tulare County, California, 
was born in Newburg, Fillmore County, 
Minnesota, October 10, 1853. His paternal 
ancestors came from England to America before 
the Revolution, and his grandfather, Elias Gray, 
was a soldier in the war of 1812. Judge Gray's 
father, Andrew Wheaton Gray, was a native of 
New York. He married Miss Moranda Purdy, 
who was born in Pennsylvania. Her ancestors 
came from France early in the eighteenth cen- 
tury and settled in Connecticut. They removed 
to Pennsylvania in 1790, and were the founders 
of the town of Pnrdyville, where for three gen- 
erations the family resided. Grandfather Purdy 
was an eloquent Baptist preacher, ponderous in 
size, weighing 400 pounds. He lived to be 
eighty-five years of age. Judge Gray's parents 
are now living at Lemoore, Tulare County, 
where they celebrated their golden wedding in 

v or? 

1884. Six of their children are living, five 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



527 



having died in infancy, the subject of our sketch 
being the youngest of the family. 

Judge Gray was educated at Iowa College, 
and in 1878 completed his studies in the law 
department of Harvard University, after which 
he began the practice of law in his brother's 
office. He came to Tulare County in 1879, and 
has since conducted a successful practice. For 
several years he has been on either one side or 
the other of nearly all the criminal cases and 
many of the civil ones in the county. In poli- 
tics he has been an active Republican, and has 
frequently stumped the county in favor of Re- 
publicanism and the candidates of the party. 
He was chairman of the Republican Central 
Committee in the last campaign, and was 
efficient in helping to secure the election of 
Governor H. H. Markham. In 1891 he was 
appointed Superior Judge of Tulare County by 
Governor Markham. His record as a judge is 
not yet made, but as he is a man of education 
and legal ability, the appointment was a fitting 
one and met with hearty approval. 

The Judge was married in 1882, to Miss 
Marietta Rice, a native of Tulare County, by 
whom he has one daughter, Eva. They reside 
in their pleasant home near the courthouse, in 
the center of Visalia. Judge Gray is associated 
with the A. O. U. W., and also with the 
Foresters. 



ip^ SHERWOOD, manager of the Fresno 
Milling Company, is a native of Maine 
born in 1848. His father, Charles k! 
Sherwood, Consul for the British Government, 
was a resident of Portland, Maine. 

Young Sherwood was educated at New Hamp- 
ton, New Hampshire, where he prepared for 
college. He, however, decided upon a business 
life, abandoned the idea of a college course, 
went to Boston, and engaged in the wholesale 
grocery business and later in the cotton busi- 
ness. He began as cotton sampler for Manning 
& Sears, the largest importers of raw cotton in 



Boston, soon became an expert and was given 
the work of outside manager of the business; 
remaining with the firm five years, until they 
were burned out. 

Under theadministrationof Grant and Wilson, 
Mr. Sherwood received the appointment of store- 
keeper of the port of Galveston, Texas, a posi- 
tion of trust. He had charge of all imports until 
they were released by the collector. Galveston 
was his home for three years, and while there he 
met and married Miss Willie Anderson, a 
daughter of Colonel T. M. Anderson, a prom- 
inent cotton planter of that locality. 

Mr. Sherwood came to the Pacific coast in 
the interest of John P. Jones, as auditor and 
paymaster in constructing the Los Angeles & 
Independent railroad, which was subsequently 
sold to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. 
Then he entered the employ of Deming, Palmer 
& Co., of Los Angeles, in their milling interests, 
remaining with them until the organization of 
the Fresno Milling Company. This company 
is composed of Mr. Sherwood; the Deming 
Brothers of San Francisco, where they have 
large milling interests in the exclusive manu- 
facture of fine meals, grits and feed; and John 
R. Cross of San Francisco, who is the manager 
of the Central Milling Company. The mill 
was built in Fresno in 1885, corner of N and 
Fresno streets, on the site of the old stone mill 
operated by M. J. Church. The mill and ware- 
houses occupy nearly half the block, the latter 
having a storage capacity of 200,000 sacks. It 
is equipped with the latest and most improved 
machinery, the roller process; the capacity is 
250 barrels every twenty-four hours, and the 
the mill runs day and night. They make rolled 
barley and do a general meal, feed and grit 
business, using over 100,000 sacks of barley 
every year and grinding 500 sacks of wheat 
daily. The main power is water, a thirty-tive- 
inch Victor turbine wheel being used, under 
a sixteen-foot head. They also have a full 
steam plant to be used in the event of any stop- 
page of water. This is the largest plant in the 
valley and is one of the most important inanu- 



528 



HI STOUT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



factoring interests. The grain being bought 
from the surrounding ranches, a large amount 
of money is distributed through the valley. 
Tins company has a large local market, receives 
large Government contracts to supply the posts 
through Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, 
ships great quantities of flour to Arizona to 
supply other requirements, and also has an ex- 
tensive trade in China. The firm built and 
operated the Cai.ital Mills in Los Angeles in 
1875, which were then the most important 
milling interests in southern California. Mr. 
C. W. Lenhart is the head miller of the Fresno 
mill. He formerly occupied the same position 
in the Pioneer mill of San Francisco, which 
has a capacity of 750 ban els per twenty-four 
hours. Mr. Lenhart stands high in his depart- 
ment of work, being regarded as a man of ex- 
cellent judgment, skill and ability. 

Mr. Sherwood is a member of the A. O. U. 
W. and the F. & A. M. In connection with 
Dr. Lindley, of Los Angeles, and Mr. Linner, 
he was instrumental in organizing the A. O. U. 
W. in Southern California. 



— <£<* 



: .;; ( .,f^ s 



IpEORGE WASHINGTON SMITH.— To 
flWjf enter into a detailed account of the varied 
*!£*■ experiences of this worthy pioneer of '49, 
would be to fill a volume of no small propor- 
tions with incidents of thrilling adventure, of 
the ups and downs of a miner's life and of hair- 
breadth escapes from the Indians. Want of 
space, however, will permit us to give only a 
succinct review of his life. 

George Washington Smith was born in New 
York, August 26, 1826, son of David and Lovisa 
(Palmer) Smith, both natives of New York. 
His paternal great-grandfather, an Englishman, 
was one of the n'rst settlers of Rhode Island, and 
his grandfather, Seth Smith, was horn in that 
State. His maternal ancestors were among the 
early settlers of New York. To his parents 
were born nine children, of whom, at this writing 
(1891), only three are living : the subject of this 



sketch, a sister, and a brother. George wa6 
the oldest sou, and was educated in his native 
State. In 1849, at the age of twenty-three 
years, he set out for California, leaving New 
York, February 6, on board the Clarissa Per- 
kins, and landing in San Francisco, September 
12. He began his mining experience at Hawks 
Par; was the first man to strike a pick into 
Rattlesnake creek, and with others was inter- 
ested in turning the course of the Tuolumne 
river. From his arrival in California until the 
spring of 1850 he mined $3,000; but the turn- 
ing of the Tuolumne river was a failure: he lost 
it all and found himself $2,500 in debt. At 
this time he was fortunate in finding rich dig- 
gings on the Little Humbug, and in six weeks 
paid up his indebtedness. He then went to Big 
Oak Flat and from there to Stockton, where he 
engaged in a teaming and livery business, which 
proved a paying one. Selling out in 1853, he 
went to Mariposa County, drove ox teams and 
delivered logs to the sawmills, and continued 
to make money. Soon after this he discovered 
a quartz mine and built a quartz mill, again 
sinking all he had accumulated. He then went 
over the mountains to Walkers, run and engaged 
in the butchering business. He was one of the 
discoverers of the Mono diggings. When the 
Esmerelda was discovered, he started a branch 
shop and engaged in buying stock and supply- 
ing uther butchers. This business was con- 
ducted with much risk, as the Indians at that 
time were very hostile. He had many a narrow 
escape from the red men, but his daring cour- 
age — that characteristic which is ever found in 
the make-up of the true pioneer — always tided 
him safely through dangerous places. 

In 1865 Mr. Smith located on a half section 
of land in Tulare County, afterward purchasing 
two other sections. He improved this property 
and lived on it until 1887, when he moved to 
his present ranch, near Vis-ilia, and built the 
home in which he now resides. Here he owns 
480 acres of choice land and is engaged in rais- 
ing hay, grain, hogs, horses and mules. 

Mr. Smith was married, in 1862, to Wise 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



529 



Nancy Parker, a native of Arkansas, and their 
union has been blessed with nine children, all 
natives of California and all now residents of 
Tulare County. Their daughter, Lottie, is the 
wife of J. E. Baker. Crosby married Miss 
Mary Tyer, and Seth wedded Miss Annie Mc- 
Call. Their other children are Luther, Burton, 
Lavonia, Louisa, Luina and Lawrence. 

In politics Mr. Smith is a Democrat. He 
was elected to the office of County Surveyor in 
1871; held the office two terms by election and 
twice by appointment. In 1878 he served as 
deputy sheriff of the county; is now engineer of 
the Alto irrigating district; was a prominent 
candidate of his county for Surveyor General of 
the State. He is associated with the Masonic 
fraternity, was made a Master Mason at Carson 
City in 1863, and is also a Knight Templar. 

Mr. Smith is a well-known and highly re- 
spected citizen of Tulare County. Time deals 
gently with him; he is still an active business 
man, and appears to have many years of useful 
life before him. 




jRS. BELLE R. STYLES, who has had 
charge of the Del Lante Hotel since its 
*^^^* completion, is the- pioneer hotel hostess 
of Traver. She is a lady of unusual business 
tact and ability, and performs the duties of her 
position in a most agreeable manner. 

Mrs. Styles was born in Arkansas, August 18, 
1845, daughter of Thomas and Nancy (Robin- 
son) French, both natives of Kentucky. Of 
their eleven children she was the sixth born, 
and is one of the five now living. She was 
reared and educated in her native State, and in 
1868 was married to Louis P. Coughran. The 
latter was born in Arkansas in 1825, came to 
California in 1849, and was a miner for several 
years. In 1856 he located in Tulare County, 
about two miles from the present town of 
Goshen, where he purchased a large tract of 
laud and engaged in cattle raising; and also 
dealt in sheep, becoming quite wealthy through 



his extensive business operations. Reverses, 
however, overtook him; he lost heavily, and 
finally closed out his stock interests and re- 
moved to Visalia, where he engaged in the 
hotel husiness. From that place he went to 
Lemoore and conducted a hotel and livery busi- 
ness two years; thence to Hanford, and from 
there to Traver. He built and conducted the 
" 76 " Hotel, the pioneer public house of the 
town. To Mr. and Mrs. Coughran eight chil- 
dren were born, namely: James T., William F., 
Robert E. and Walter E. (twins), Estella, Clyde 
H., Claud S. and Everet S. Mr. Coughran died 
in 1886, his death being caused by pneumonia. 
He was in every way a most estimable man, 
and his loss was deeply felt by his immediate 
family and his many friends throughout the 
county where he was known. 

After the death of her husband Mrs. Styles 
conducted the business alone, and when the Del 
Lante was finished she moved into it, February 
9, 1891. This is a beautiful and commodious 
hotel, built with modern improvements and 
nicely furnished throughout. 

In 1889 she was married to her present hus- 
band, D. W. Styles, a native of New Bruns- 
wick and a most obliging gentleman. He has 
charge of the hotel office. Thus all are workers, 
each faithfully performing his part. 



tNDREW J. LAFEVER is a veteran of the 
Mexican war and a California Forty-niner. 
Briefly stated, a review of his life is as 
follows: 

Andrew J. Lafever was born in Tennessee, 
November 14, 1827, son of William and Eliz- 
abeth (Roberts) Lafever, the former a native of 
Tennessee and a descendant of General La- 
fever, who came to America from France with 
General La Fayette, and aided the colonies in 
their struggle for independence; and the latter 
a native of South Carolina, of Scotch ancestry. 
Grandfather William Henry Lafever was born 
in New Orleans. Andrew J. was the third 



530 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



born in a family of seven sons and seven daugh- 
ters, all having lived to maturity except one, 
who died at the age of five years. Three brothers 
and four sisters still survive. He was reared in 
his native State. At the age of fifteen years 
he went to Missouri, and from there he made 
two trips to the Rocky mountains; and in 1846 
enlisted for one year in the Mexican war. In 
1847 Colonel Sterling Price was promoted as 
general, and then Mr. Lafever was chosen as 

o 

one of his escort. He was honorably discharged 
at Independence, Missouri, in October,. 1848. 

On April 4, 1849, Mr. Lafever started for 
California, coming via Salt Lake and the Las- 
sen route. At Deer creek the party stopped 
with Peter Lassen on the night of October 23, 
and remained with him two days. From there 
Mr Lafever went to Butte creek and then to 
Long's bar on the Feather river. After spend- 
ing two weeks at the latter place he went to 
Bidwell's bar, where he took out from two to 
three ounces of gold each day. Next he went to 
the South fork of the Feather river, and, with 
others, made a failure in trying to turn the 
course of the river, thereby losing $13,000. 
He mined for some time on Nelson's creek, 
after which he moved to Forbestown, and en- 
gaged in butchering and a general merchandise 
business. Eight months later he built the Lex- 
ington House, which he conducted until the 
spring of 1854; from that time till 1857 he 
had a store at Spanish Flat; went from there 
to Santa Rosa Sonoma county; in the spring of 
1858 took up his residence in Mendocino 
County, where he engaged in farming and 
stock-raising until 1872. During the year 1873 
he started to Colorado with 220 head of horses, 
but being taken sick at James E. Lover's, he 
bought the ranch on King's river and com- 
menced herding them there. During the en- 
suing winter the no-fence law was passed in 
Colorado, and Mr. Lafever remained upon the 
rauch with his horses. 

His health was somewhat impaired when he 
located on King's river, but there he fully re- 
covered, and remained until 1883. In that 



year he removed to Centerville, lived there two 
years, and came to Visalia January 7, 1886. 
He purchased forty acres of land, covered with 
a thick growth of oak trees, located in the edge 
of the town, and here he has built a comfortable 
home, cleared the land and surrounded himself 
with fruits and vines. The transformation of 
this woodland into a productive ranch required 
no small amount of labor, but the will power 
and energy of the Mexican soldier, combined 
with the courage and perseverance of the Cali- 
fornia pioneer, has accomplished the work. He 
now has ten acres set to fruit trees and vines, 
and along the line are 116 Eastern black walnut 
trees. Mr. Lafever expects soon to plant the 
rest of his land to fruit. 

He was united in marriage, in 1852, to Mi>> 
Catharine Tralinger, a native of Germany, who 
emigrated to the United States in 1846. They 
had a son, Henry C. Lafever, born January 1, 
1853. He grew up to be a fine-looking and 
intelligent young man, the pride and hope of 
his parents. On November 17, 1882, when 
eleven miles from home, in White Deer valley, 
Fresno County, he was murdered, the cause 
being a difficulty arising from their property. 
The perpetrators of the crime were arrested 
and tried, and the jury could not agree. While 
they were in consultation Mr. Lafever was 
attacked by one Laban Lashly, and in that 
quarrel Mr. Lafever got the advantage of his 
antagonist and killed him; but on trial he was 
readily acquitted. Excitement ran high, people 
took sides in the difficulty, and the prisoners 
were turned loose and never tried. That occa- 
sioned Mr. Lafever's removal from King's river, 
as he felt it unsafe to remain longer. 

Mr. Lafever is a member of the Independent 
Order of White Men, and has been a life-long 
Democrat, lie is possessed of a wonderfully 
strong constitution. Indeed, he comes from a 
hardy race, his father having attained the ad- 
vanced age of ninety-seven years. He is a man 
who keeps well abreast with the times, and takes 
a deep interest in the history of his comity Bad 
State. Among tlu pictures that adorn the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



531 




walls of his vine-clad cottage are to be found 
portraits of many of the prominent actors in 
the Mexican war, several fine groups of his 
comrades, and forty-niners, a picture of his 
father, taken at the advanced age of ninety- 
three, and a choice engraving of Washington. 
Mr. Lafever is an interesting converser, has a 
very retentive memory, and his many interest- 
ing reminiscences would fill the pages of a large 
volume. 



WILLIAM A. DAVISON, M. D., of Hot 
Springs valley, has taken up and de- 
veloped an enterprise that merits rather 
more than passing mention in the annals of 
Kern County. 

The Hot Springs valley is a lovely stretch of 
level country lying along Kern river at the 
eastern base of Greenhorn mountain. It is 
about four miles m length, one mile in average 
width and terminates northwardly at the west- 
ern point of Piute Mountain and the junction 
of the north and south forks of Kern river. A 
local writer has poetically stated that " its soil 
is naturally fertile, and whenever baptized by 
water smiles back with luxuriant vegetation." 

At a point about midway in this valley is a 
group of truly remarkable springs — remarkable 
for high temperature, volume of flow and medi- 
cal properties of the water. In the early min- 
ing days these springs were popularly resorted 
to by the miners for bathing and drinking pur- 
poses. The earthquake of 1877, which was 
notably heavy and in many places disastrous, 
caused the temperature of the water to rise sev- 
era] degrees, so much so, indeed, that for bathing 
purposes it could no longer be used without 
cooling. 

D. S. Lightner bought this property and im- 
proved it by curbing the springs, building a ho- 
tel, piping the water to baths located therein, 
and operated the same for several seasons. 
March 15, 1891, Dr. Davison purchased and 



took possession of the property and has refitted 
the hotel throughout and made extensive mod- 
ern improvements about the premises, making 
it a fascinating place for the tourist and invalid. 
The hot-water baths, the wholesome mountain 
atmosphere and the mountain drives into 
canons leading from the valley, all have their 
attractions. The sportsman can fish the trout of 
Kern river, shoot the quail and small game 
which abound in the foothills, or the bear and 
deer further up against the mountain peaks. A 
burro can carry its rider into the snow on Green- 
horn mountain, and within three hours' time 
to the heat of the summer's season. 

The re-opening of the Hot Springs by two 
such excellent people as the Doctor and his es- 
timable wife has marked a new epoch in the 
history of the valley, supplying as it does a 
long-felt want. Leaving the Southern Pacific 
railway at Caliente, boarding the morning stage 
coach for Kernville, the Hot Springs Hotel is 
reached after a few hours' ride through valleys 
and wild canons, covering a section of the most 
picturesque portion of Central California. 

Dr. William A. Davison is a native of Jeffer- 
son City, Missouri, born October 11, 1850. His 
father, Dr. Alexander M. Davison, was a South- 
ern man by birth, an eminent physician, and 
for many years prominent in the professional, 
social and civil history of Missouri. The Doc- 
tor's mother, by maiden name Matilda Madison 
Hite, was an accomplished lady and a niece of 
President James Madison. Of her six children 
the subject of this sketch is the fifth born. He 
received a scientific education and graduated at 
the St. Louis Medical College, March 13. 1873, 
since which time he has been continuously en- 
gaged in the practice of his profession. He 
came to California in 1877, first settled in San 
Diego, afterward traveled through Central Cali- 
fornia and finally located at Hot Springs as above 
stated. 

Dr. Davison was married in 1875, to Miss 
Annie M., daughter of John S. Kimbrough, a 
leading merchant of Clinton, Missouri. She is 
a lady of excellent social qualities, possessing 



532 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



rare business tact and fitting gracefully into the 
position she has taken as a landlady. 



>RANCIS J. HABER was born in Winne- 
bago County, Wisconsin, October 6, 1857. 
He was liberally educated, attending the 
rammar schools, academies and the State Nor- 
mal School, graduating at the latter institution. 
He then engaged in teachiug for a period of 
two years, and filled the office of Principal of 
the schools in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, prior to his 
departure for California in 1863. After his 
arrival in the Golden State, Mr. Haber came at 
once to Fresno, locating in this city in February 
of that year. Here he associated himself in the 
general real-estate and insurance business with 
his brother, who had preceded him to California. 
Under the firm name of Haber Bros, they have 
been doing a successful business, in which they 
are engaged at the present time. 

The subject of our sketch is a charter member 
of the Young Men's Christian Association of 
Fresno, organized August 26, 1886, and was 
president of the board of directors of that ef- 
ficient organization for about two years. He is 
also a leading member of the First Baptist 
Church of Fresno, and has been a member of 
the board of trustees of said organization for a 
number of years. 

Mr. Haber was married on the 12th of Octo- 
ber, 1866, to Miss Cora M. Goddard, a native 
of Nashville, Tennessee, by whom has two little 
daughters. 

-- -#^€(I£®1^ — 

JSAAC HORATIO THOMAS has been 
identified with the interests of Visalia, 
Tulare County, California, since 1858. He 
was born in Litchfield, Kentucky, January 19, 
1838, son of Isaac and Mary Magdalene (Golds- 
bery) Thomas, both natives of Kentucky. Their 
ancestors were Irish and Welsh, and were early 
settlers of Maryland. His father was a soldier 



in the war of 1812, was in the battle of New 
Orleans and was with General Harrison at the 
battle of Tippecanoe. In their family of eleven 
children all were reared to maturity, and ten 
are still living, Isaac Horatio being the young- 
est. He was brought up and educated in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, and attended the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian University at Lebanon, Ten- 
nessee. 

In 1858, at the age of nineteen years, lie 
came to California by water, and settled at 
Visalia, then just starting. With his brother, 
Joseph Hardin Thomas, he engaged in the lum- 
ber business until misfortune overtook them. 
They lost three sawmills in succession, the first 
by fire and the other two by flood, thus sustain- 
ing a loss of about $30,000. 

Mr. Thomas then turned his attention to the 
nursery business, in which he has been success- 
ful from the start and in which he has since 
continued. He first purchased twenty acres of 
land, located one mile east of Visalia, to which 
he subsequently added seventy acres, now having 
ninety acres devoted to a general assortment of 
trees. He makes a specialty of stone fruits, 
and has given the business much attention. 
He exhibited at the World's Fair in New Or- 
leans and received a diploma for the best 
growth of nursery stock in one year. He has 
also exhibited at the State and other fairs, and 
has always received first premiums for stone 
fruits. He was the recipient of a large and 
beautiful silver medal for the best exhibit of 
stone fruits at the Mechanics' Institute in San 
Francisco. In 1890 he obtained $700 worth of 
French prunes from a single acre of trees, tin- 
trees being loaded to such an extent that the 
ends of the limbs rested on the ground. He 
took $1,081 worth of the dried product from 
one acre of trees. 

Mr. Thomas was married in 1864, to Miss 
Caroline Cousley, a native of Missouri, who 
came to California when a child. Of the six 
children born to them, three are living, namely: 
Horace Martin, John Ousley, who is now his 
father's partner, and Annie. They reside in the 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



533 



beautiful home which Mr. Thomas built, and in 
which he expects to spend the evening of his 
life. 

Although he has given close attention to his 
personal affairs, Mr. Thomas is a public-spirited 
man and has done much to promote the best in- 
terests of Yisalia and surrounding country. He 
has held the office of City Assessor two terms, 
and has been a member of the fire department 
since 1868. Is a member of the State Board of 
Horticulture for the San Joaquin district, 
having received his appointment from Governor 
Waterman. Mr. Thomas acquired the name of 
the "widow's friend" by advertising to give to 
every widow in the counties of Fresno and 
Tulare who had land, a bill of trees for a family 
orchard. In this way he gave $700 worth of 
trees. He then advertised to give to every old 
maid over fifty-five years of age in the counties 
mentioned a similar bill of trees, thinking 
there were few single ladies in the counties who 
would consider they were over fifty-five. He 
received a letter from one lady, saying she 
would be pleased to receive a bill of trees, but 
was only forty-five years old. He sent the 
trees. At his own expense he kept up a Tulare 
County exhibit of stone fruits in the State 
Board of Trade rooms in San Francisco until 
the building in which they were displayed was 
burned. He is an enthusiast in horticultural 
matters, and has done much for his county in 
spreading its fame as the richest fruit county in 
the State. 

Mr. Thomas is a member of the I. O. O. F. 
in all its branches, and in politics was formerly 
a Republican, then an Independent, and now an 
American. 



fOHN M. HENSLEY, Sheriff of Fresno 
County, was born in Cass County, Mis- 
souri, in 1850. His father, J. J. Hensley, 
was engaged in agricultural pursuits in Mis- 
souri. He came to California in 1853 and fol- 
lowed the varied fortunes of the miner in Cal- 



averas County until 1858, when he moved to 
Tulare County, and the following year entered 
the stock business, in which he is still engaged. 

John M. was educated in the public schools 
of Fresno County. In 1870 he engaged in the 
sheep business for an interest in the flock. In 
this he was prosperous and became the owner 
of 7,000 sheep, but during the dry year of 1877 
he lost them nearly all. He disposed of those 
he had left, came to Fresno and was variously 
employed for several years. He secured a road 
contract between Buchanan and Coarse Gold 
Gulch, and was at work on the road for two 
years. In the fall of 1884 he was elected Con- 
stable of First township at Madera, and was 
re-elected in 1886. In 1888 he was elected 
county Sheriff, and moved to Fresno, being re- 
elected to this office in the fall of 1890. He 
has faithfully performed the duties of his office 
and given entire satisfaction to all concerned. 

Mr. Hensley was married at Woodville, 
Tulare County, in 1877, to Miss Harriet R. 
Monroe, and has a family of five children. He 
is a member of Madera Lodge, I. O. O. F., and 
of Madera Lodge, K. of P., being a charter 
member of both lodges. 



tRTHUR CROWLEY, senior member of 
the firm of Crowley Bros., Yisalia, pro. 
■"• prietors of the Visalia water works, was 
born in Windsor, Sonoma County, California, 
June 22, 1858. His father, John W. Crowley, 
a native of Missouri, came to California in 1851, 
settled in Souoma County, and was there en- 
gaged as a merchant and stock-dealer. He 
married America J. Clements, also a native of 
Missouri, and by her had three children, two 
sons and a daughter. The mother died and Mr. 
Crowley was subsequently married to Matilda 
Keifer, who bore him two children. He died 
in 1881. 

Arthur was ten years old when his mother 
died: the family removed to Tulare County in 
1862, where he was reared and educated. After 



534 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



completing his studies here he took a business 
course at Heald's Business College, San Fran- 
cisco. He was first engaged in the flouring- 
raill business five years. His health breaking 
down, he sold out and removed to Los Angeles. 
After recovering he returned to Tulare County, 
and, in February, 1889, in partnership with his 
brother, purchased the Visalia water works. 
The power for pumping the water from wells to 
tbe tanks is furnished by steam, and the water 
is piped over the city, the supply being pure and 
abundant, and furnished to the citizens at from 
one dollar per month up, according to the 
amount used. 

Mr. Crowley was married May 27, 1885, to 
Miss Emma Gilliam, a native of California, 
daughter of Rev. S. T. Gilliam, who was born 
in Missouri, and who came to this State in 
1849. They have two children, — Elsie, born in 
Los Angeles; and Emma, in Visalia. Mi'. Crow- 
ley is a Master Mason and a charter member of 
the Parlor of N. S. G. W. of Visalia, and of the 
latter organization he has been Secretary for 
several years. His political affiliations have 
been with the Democratic party. He has 
served as a member of the common council of 
Visalia. 



<rv "SO: 



»«#- 



fHARLES CONKLIN HART, one of the 
respected early settlers of Tulare County 
California, was born in Goshen, Litchfield 
County, Connecticut, in the year 1826. His 
grandfather, David Hart, and his father, Miles 
Hart, were both natives of Connecticut, the an- 
cestors of the family having come to this coun- 
try from England. His father married Laura 
Clark, also a native of Connecticut and a daugh- 
ter of Captain Nehemiah Clark. To them five 
children were born, of whom a brother and 
sister and the subject of this sketch are living. 
The latter was educated in his native State, and 
came to California in 1857. Before starting 
for the Golden State he was married to Miss 
Helen Payne, a native of Madison County, 



New York, and a daughter of Mr. Weston 
Payne. Their union has been blessed with five 
children, all born in Tulare County and all now 
living. Their names are Frederick, Charles, 
John, Carrie and Kittie. 

In 1862 Mr. Hart took up 160 acres of land, 
on which he has made a nice home and reared 
his family. For twenty-nine years he has lived 
on this ranch, leading the life of an industrious 
and successful farmer, and during this time he 
has also acquired other real-estate interests. 
His death occurred July 18, 1891. His chil- 
dren are settled near the old homestead, and are 
equally industrious and fortunate. Mr. Hart 
had been a Republican since the organization of 
the party. He was regarded as a most worthy 
citizen by all who had the pleasure of his ac- 
quaintance. 



§ JOSEPH W. SUMNER.— This venerable 
pioneer may appropriately be styled the 
patriarch of Kern river valley. He is one 
of its first settlers and has from the time of his 
coming been one of its most enterprising and 
influential men. 

He was born at Lubec, Maine, the extreme 
eastern point of the United States, January 3, 
1819. His father, Joseph Sumner, was a baker 
by trade and later became a merchant. He was 
a native of Massachusetts, born at Newburyport. 
The subject of our sketch lived at the home of 
his birth until he was thirty years of age; was 
engaged in ship-building, built several vessels 
and was part owner in the same; also engaged 
in merchandising. In 1849 he came to Cali- 
fornia, via Panama, and, upon his arrival in the 
land of newly discovered gold, went to Yuba 
County and engaged in placer-mining, remain- 
ing there eleven years. He then came to Kern 
County. The first three years of his residence 
here he mined at Coso (now in Inyo County), 
where he opened the Josephine mine. After 
that he came into the Kern river valley, pur- 
chased a claim of Lovley Rogers, and developed 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



535 



the Sumner mine. He incorporated a stock 
company and erected at Sumner a twelve-stamp 
quartz- mill, which, three years later, he sold to 
Senator John P. Jones. Judge Sumner has 
been constantly in the mining business on some 
basis or other, and is now operating the Mam- 
moth mine at Kernville. He has likewise been 
engaged in ranching and stock-raising; was one 
of the first men to introduce alfalfa into Kern 
County, which he did in 1870. Since that year 
he has served his district as Justice of the Peace. 
He has always been a man of frugal habits and 
remarkable enterprise and energy. 

In 1843 he was married, at Lubec, Maine, to 
Miss Mary E. Dakin, a native of Nova Scotia. 
They have two daughters living, namely: Alice, 
wife of A. Brown, of Kernville; and Josephine, 
wife of ftev. C. G. Belknap, a minister of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 

— ~h4H-4m— — - 

fAMHEL H. ROSS has been identified 
witli the interests of California since 1857. 
Briefly given, a review of his life is as 
follows: 

Mr. Ross was born in Missouri, February 29, 
1836, son of Guy and Rhoda (Meadows) Ross, 
the former of Scotch descent and a native of 
Kentucky, and the latter a native of Indiana. 
He was reared in Louisiana and obtained his 
education in the public schools. At the age of 
twenty-one lie drove an ox team across the 
plains to California, and after a safe journey of 
four months' duration he landed in this State 
and began mining in Plumas County. His 
mining operations, however, were not success- 
ful and he soon turned his attention to other 
pursuits. He worked for wages near Marys- 
ville, Tuba County, for G. G. Briggs, there re- 
ceiving his first lesson in horticulture. After 
this he engaged in farming and buying and 
selling land. He took a homestead claim, which 
was afterward claimed as a Mexican grant, and 
he lost it with all the improvements thereon. 
He then went to Yuba City and again worked 



for wages, being engaged in the fruit business " 
there eleven years. We next find him in Yolo 
County, where he had charge of a vineyard three 
years. In 1883 he went to Fresno County and 
purchased fifty acres of land, for which he paid 
$60 per acre. He improved it to orchard and 
vineyard and sold it in 1887 for $160 per acre. 
Then he conducted an eighty-acre vineyard two 
years; removed to Tulare lake and located on 
State land, but the water overflowed his land 
and it is now covered to a depth of two feet. 
In 1890 he came to Orosi, Tulare County, being 
attracted here by the fine fruit land. He pur- 
chased twenty acres, fifteen acres of which he 
has set to grapes and five to alfalfa. 

Mr. Ross was married, in 1861, to Miss 
Phebe Murphy, a native of Indiana, by whom 
he had two children. One died in infancy, and 
the other, Charles H., is a printer in Brooklyn. 
Mrs. Ross died in 1866, and in 1868 he mar- 
ried her sister, widow of Van Buren Rushing. 
Mr. Rushing was one of the first volunteers in 
the Confederate army, was wounded and taken 
prisoner at the battle of Missionary Ridge, and 
died in prison at Rock Island, Illinois. 

Politically Mr. Ross is a Democrat. He is a 
member of the A. O. D. "W. and the I. O. O. F., 
and is a Royal Arch Mason. He is also a mem- 
ber of the American Legion of Honor, and of 
the Chosen Friends. He organized the first 
council of Chosen Friends in California, at 
Yuba City, was a Deputy Supreme Councilor and 
has a beautiful badge presented to him by the 
Grand Council of the State, in honor of his 
having been the first Chosen Friend in Cali- 
fornia. 



«-£^*^— — 

>LFRED FAY, a rancher living northwest of 
Tulare, Tulare County, California, was 
born in Tully, New York, May 13, 1827. 
His father, a native of Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, moved to New York State in early life, 
and about 1843 to McHenry County, Illinois, 
and passed his life in agricultural pursuits. 



536 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



The educational advantages of the subject of 
our sketcli were exceedingly limited, as the 
duties of the farm were ever imperative, and 
the mind was only cultivated as the necessities 
of life and business demanded. He lived at 
home until 1850. Then, seeking a broader field 
than that offered by the farm, he went to Dar- 
lington, Wisconsin, and opened a general mer- 
chandise store. He was married, January 1, 
1852, to Miss Elsie E. Paddock, a native of 
New York State; and they continued to reside 
in Darlington until 1860. Mr. Fay remained 
in business till 1858, when he sold out and 
spent the rest of his stay at that place as a clerk. 

In 1860 Mr. and Mrs. Fay started for Cali- 
fornia by steamer f-om New York, crossed the 
Isthmus of Panama and made the Pacific voyage 
in the steamer Golden Age, landing at San 
Francisco. As they approached that city, a tug 
boat brought to them the news of Lincoln's 
election to the Presidency, which information 
was received with great rejoicing. 

Mr. Fay first settled in Napa County, where 
he was engaged on ranches until 1863; moved 
to San Mateo County and bought 480 acres of 
land and carried on general farming and stock- 
raising, keeping a dairy of thirty cows for but- 
ter-making. He followed these industries until 
1884, when he rented his ranch and moved to 
his present property, 160 acres in Tulare 
County, which he had purchased in 1873, at 
$5.25 per acre. He has a fine residence, sub- 
stantial out-buildings, well-kept grounds, and 
every thing about the premises indicates thrift 
and prosperity. He has been offered $150 per 
acre for this place, but prefers to keep it for a 
home and enjoy the many comforts which it 
affords. 



-=*«< 



>+>*>- 



l||OBERT PALMER, one of the pinoneers 
rV of Kern County, forms the subject of 
*^\ this sketcli. 

He was born at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, May 
7, 1823, son of Edward and Rebecca (Patton) 



Palmer, he being the next to the youngest of 
a family of five sons and two daughters. Mr. 
Palmer's maternal grandfather. Colonel Mathew 
Patton, was an officer under General Washing- 
ton in the Revolutionary war. The Patton 
family in Kentucky were leaders in local matters 
in the regions of country in which they respect- 
ively resided. Robert Palmer is the only mem- 
ber of his immediate family in California. BTJa 
father moved to Morgan County, Illinois, with 
his family when the subject of our sketch was 
about three years of age. There he was reared, 
received the rudiments of an education and de- 
veloped into a young man of upright life and 
studious habits. A'desire for greater success in 
life than he could attain in Illinois induced him 
to come West. In 1850 be started overland, 
via St. Joseph, Missouri, South Pass and 
Humboldt river valley, to California, reaching 
Placerville, August 23 of that year. He mined 
and explored in that section of California for 
some time, and in 1858 was one of the first to 
discover gold in Mono Gulch, Mono County, 
which was in the valley of Walker's river, and 
was one of the discovers of gold in the Aurora 
mining district. He came down Owens river 
through Walker's Pass to the Kern river coun- 
try in 1860, and located his first mining claim 
in this valley near the site of his present home. 
In 1878 he bought 280 acres of land in Hot 
Springs valley, where he has since lived and 
reared his family. 

In 1866 Mr. Palmer married Miss Rose 
Glennon, daughter of James Glennon, an Irish- 
man by birth and a resident of San Francisco. 
Mrs. Palmer was born in Ireland, October 10, 
1840, and came to America with her parents in 
1863. She and her husband have twelve chil- 
dren, as follows: Robert, born August 16, 1867; 
Margaret, July 11, 1868; Richard, June 18, 
1869; Edward, March 14, 1871; Mary E., March 
21, 1872; Lee, May 20, 1873; Rose, Septem- 
ber 29, 1874 ; Walter, November 21, 1876 ; 
Hettie, May 17, 1878 ; Rebecca, August 4, 
1879; Patton, October 23, 1880, and Nellie, 
September 29, 1885. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



537 



Mr. Palmer is a stanch Democrat, a well 
read and law abiding citizen, and one of the 
typical old time Californians. 



- | ' 3"S ' 1" ~ 

BfSENRY TYLER CHRISMAN, a promi- 
flli net, t rancher and early settler of C.ali- 
~ ! $M fornia, was born in Lee County, Virginia, 
January 14, 1880. He comes of an old and 
respected family of Virginia planters. His 
great-grandfather, a native of Germany, was 
the first man who stuck an ax in timber west 
of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and his great- 
grandmother was Scotch-Irish. Their son, 
ISTimrod Chrisman, born in Virginia, was the 
grandfatherof Henry T. Mr. Chrisman's father 
married Sally France, a native of Virginia, 
and by her had seven children, the subject of 
our sketch being the third. After the death of 
his mother, his father married a second wife. 

Mr. Chrisman was reared in Arkansas, and 
in 1853 crossed the plains to California. At 
first he worked for wages in San Diego, then 
went to San Francisco and from there to the 
mines, his mining experience, ho .\ ever, only 
extending over a period of twenty-five days. 
At Sonora he was employed to drive an ox 
team, for which he received $80 per month. 
From there he went to San Jose and did farm 
work for wages. In 1856 he came to Tulare 
County, and took up 160 acres of land, and 
since that time has continued to reside in this 
locality. He has half of the original ranch on 
which he first located, owning in all 700 acres. 
On this he is raising grain, hay, cattle, horses 
and hogs. He and his sons sow about 1,000 
acres annually. Mr. Chrisman has a fine fruit 
orchard of his own planting, which is now in 
full bearing. 

In 1856 he returned East and the following 
year re-crossed the plains to California. In 
1876 he made another visit to the East. 

Mr. Chrisman was united in marriage, May 
6, 1860, to Miss Matilda Elizabeth Parker, a 
native of Arkansas, and their union was blessed 



with five children, namely: William Francis, 
who died at the age of two years; another son 
lived to be twenty-six years old and died in 
1890; Mary Ovillah, who is now the wife of Mr. 
Loyal O. Cutler, resides near her father; and 
Ira and Job Elber, who are still at home. Mrs. 
Chrisman died in September, 1882. She was a 
devoted and loving wife for twenty-two years, 
and a lady of many estimable qualities, her loss 
being deeply felt not only by her bereaved 
husband and children, but by a large circle of 
friends. The daughter kept house for the 
father and brothers until her marriage, and now 
they live alone. 

Mr. Chrisman has been a Democrat all his 
life. Both his sons are intelligent and indus- 
trious young men. Ira has held the office of 
Deputy Sheriff of Tulare County two years, 
and has also been Deputy County Recorder two 
years. At this writing (1891) he is assisting 
his father in their extensive farming operations. 



§^ 




r-^fci 



S. CAMP was born in Lee County, 
Iowa, in 1849, son of S. K. Camp. 
.^Fr-I® His father moved to Iowa in 1844, 
and settled on what he supposed was Govern- 
ment land, but which proved to be the Half 
Breed tract, and nine years later Mr. Camp lost 
his land and all his improvements thereon. At 
that time, 1853, he emigrated to California, 
making the long and tedious journey across the 
plains with ox teams, and bringing with him 
his family of seven children. Reaching the 
Golden State in safety, they settled on the 
Stockton and Sonora road and rented the Half- 
way House, near Knight's Ferry. This was a 
frame with roof and cloth sides, containing four 
rooms, for which he paid $50 per month. A 
year later he built a two-story hotel, took up and 
fenced 1,000 acres of unsurveyed land and en- 
gaged in farming, stock-raising and hotel keep- 
ing (furnishing meals for a dollar), being thus 
employed for about ten years. Then he learned 
that his ranch was a Spanish grant, and again 



538 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



lie lost the results of his years of labor. In 
1864, the dry year, he sold his stock at a ruin- 
ous sacrifice,and afterward purchased 160 acres of 
land near Stockton, where he continued to reside 
until 1880. That year he came to Grangeville, 
Tulare County, where he died at an advanced 
age. 

W. S. Camp received a limited education at 
Knight's Ferry, traveling a distance of fifteen 
miles each day to attend school. At the age of 
sixteen years he began life for himself, by going 
to Modesto and settling on 240 acres' of Govern- 
ment land. Being underage, be could not pre- 
empt, but as he was a favorite with his neigh- 
bors his interests were protected. In 1869 he 
came to the Mussel Slough district, settled on 
160 acres of Government land and was among 
the first to engage in farming. The early agri- 
culturists were called " sandlappers " by the 
stockmen, who discouraged them in every pos- 
sible way. Difficulties were so great and the 
country so dry, that, after losing all he had, 
Mr. Camp began working for wages. In 1873 
the People's ditch was organized, and all took 
hold of the enterprise with an active interest. 
Scrip was issued at one and a half per cent, 
per month, and the laborers were paid at the 
rate of $5 per day, and in this way supplies 
were secured and life sustained until water was 
on the land. Mr. Camp, however, did not ap- 
prove of the management, and after some 
months of labor sold his interest for a small 
assessment. He then became interested in the 
Last Chance ditch, and through that, secured 
water for his land. After that more prosperous 
times followed. 

Mr. Camp was married, in 1876, to Miss 
Mamie Boyd, a native of Illinois. He built a 
residence on his ranch, and began life anew. 
From his wheat crop, which averaged from fifty 
to sixty bnshels to the acre, he paid off the 
mortgage of $1,500 on his land, which was 
drawing eighteen per cent, interest. In 1882 
he purchased 160 acres of adjoining land, for 
which he gave $8,000. He gave his attention 
strictly to his business enterprises, and, although 



he lost much stock during the dry year of 1876, 
on the whole, prosperity attended his labors, and 
from time to time he acquired other landed in- 
terests. He now owns over 1,000 acres of land 
in Tulare County, and about 1,600 acres in 
Fresno County. In 1876 he began planting 
fruit and vines. Now he has thirty-five 
acres in fruit on his home ranch, and in another 
place eighty acres devoted to vines, and this 
eighty acres he is colonizing under the name of 
La Rosa colony. Mr. Camp has 120 acres in 
alfalfa. He has been extensively engaged in 
breeding a fine class of driving horses from 
Hambletonian stock. Aside from his stock- 
raising, horticultural and agricultural pursuits, 
Mr. Camp engaged in real-estate business in 
1884 with F. J. "Walker, and handled large 
tracts of land in the Summit lake country, 
which they sold to settlers. They also dealt in 
lands in the Lucerne district. 

Mr. and Mrs. Camp have five children: Clara 
B., Charles "W., Maud, Benjamin Harrison 
and Ada. 

In conclusion we state that during the forty 
two years of Mr. Camp's life be has never sued 
and has never been sued in the adjustment of 
his business relations or obligations, and, con- 
sidering the amount of business he lias trans- 
acted, it is a fact worthy of mention and one of 
which he may justly be proud. 



SS RAN CIS RE A is an early settler of that 
Ts portion of Tulare County lying three miles 
j^ northwest of the village of Traver. He 
came to California in 1872, and to his present 
ranch in 1874, ten years previous to the birth 
of Traver. Other settlers came at the same 
time, but the country was so dry and the pros- 
pects for the future so poor that they soon be- 
came discouraged and left, and he was laughed 
at for remaining. To his original 160 acres of 
land he has since added other tracts, until he is 
now the owner of 720 acres, that, with the 
growth of the county and the introduction of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



539 



water for irrigation, has become quite valuable, 
worth at least $50 per acre. Thus have his 
staying qualities and his persistent efforts been 
rewarded. 

Mr. Rea was born in Macon County, Illinois, 
June 9, 1845. His grandparents, James and 
Hannah (Hutsinpetter) Rea, were early settlers 
of Virginia, and his great-grandfather and 
great-grandmother were born in the Old Do- 
minion, the former named Edward Rea, and the 
latter was a Miss Elizabeth Patton before her 
marriage. Francis Rea's father, William Rea, 
a native of Ohio, married Mary Howell, and 
Francis is the oldest of their six children, only 
three of whom are now living. He was reared 
in Illinois and educated in the public schools of 
that State, finishing his education in the Lom- 
bard University, Galesburg. David Rea, the 
second son, served three years in the One Hun- 
dred and Sixteenth Illinois Infantry, volunteer- 
ing at the age oi fifteen years; was honorably 
discharged. After returning: home in 1867, 
married Mary Loudenback, of Ohio. 

In 1862, when a boy of sixteen, Mr. Francis 
Rea enlisted in Company A, Thirty-fifth Illi- 
nois Volunteer Infantry, and during his service 
in the war saw much of hard fighting; partici- 
pated in the battles of Perryville, Stone River, 
Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, and in the series 
of battles in Sherman's campaign to Atlanta, 
besides many other lesser fights. At the battle 
of Ezra Church he was in a shower of bullets, 
and after coming out of the engagement his 
clothing was found to have been perforated with 
twenty-seven ball-holes. What is wonderful to 
relate, he was uninjured. A more remarkable 
escape from death is not on record. At the 
close of the war he was honorably discharged, 
returned to Illinois and took a course in the 
university at Galesburg. He was then engaged 
in agricultural pursuits in that State until 1872, 
the year in which he came to California. 

Arrived here, he located in Santa Clara 
County, and two years later came to his present 
ranch. When he settled here he had just 
money enough to build a shanty and buy pro- 



visions for six months. For a time he had 
difficulty to get along, but he held out bravely, 
and his persistent efforts have been crowned 
with success. While he has been chiefly en- 
gaged in wheat raising, he is now turning his 
attention to fruit culture, having planted an 
orchard and vineyard. 

Mr. Rea was married, in Illinois, in 1868, to 
Miss Mattie Ehrhart, a native of that State, of 
Virginia ancestry. They have had eight chil- 
dren. One of the sons, Clarence Wilbur, died 
when fifteen years of age. Roy was drowned, 
and Ethel died at the age of four months. The 
surviving children are Clara, wife of Benjamin 
Blincoe; Edgar, Francis Leo, D. Bunn and 
Neva. Mr Rea is a Republican and a member 
of the Grand Army of the Republic. He has 
served as Chaplain and is at pre.-ent Quarter- 
master of the post; has also served as senior 
Vice-Commander, and has the honor of baviuo- 
been a member of the first post organized in 
Illinois. 

— -~ £•**•$— J 

fAVID S. SNODGRASS was born in the 
town of Sparta, near Nashville, Tennessee, 
May 9, 1858. When about three years 
old he was left an orphan, his mother dying a 
few months previous to the breaking out of the 
Rebellion, and his father being killed in the war. 
A family of five children was thus left to care 
for themselves. Our subject managed to secure 
a good education. Very early in life he de- 
veloped a taste for study, and availed himself of 
every advantage afforded him in his native 
town. He attended Barrett College and Cum- 
berland Institute, after which he engaged in 
teaching. 

In 1881 Mr. Snodgrass came to California 
and entered the Normal School at San Jose for 
further study, graduating there in 1883. He 
then moved to Modesto, where he filled the posi- 
tion of vice-principal of the high school for 
half a year. He was called from Modesto to 
take charge of the schools in Fresno; and for 



540 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



three years was principal of the schools of that 
thriving city. He resigned his position there 
and moved to Selma in order to give his atten- 
tion to banking. He helped to establish the 
Bank of Selma and at once assumed the position 
of cashier. At present he is cashier and sec- 
retary and one of the bank's original stock- 
holders. Since he took up his residence here 
he has been identified with the best interests of 
the town, being one of the most prominent 
men in business circles. He is president of the 
board of directors of Selma Water Company, 
and also president of the Masonic Temple Asso- 
ciation, the object of the latter being to im- 
prove town property. Another organization 
with which he is connected and of which he is 
president is the Fire Commission, composed of 
three commissioners. He is also engaged in 
farming, especially vine and fruit growing, and 
is the owner of some handsome vineyard prop- 
erty. 

Mr. Snodgrass is courteous and unassuming 
in his manner, and from the advancement he 
has made since coming to California, and from 
the prominent and influential position he occu- 
pies, it is unnecessary to state that he is an ex- 
ceedingly popular man. He was married, June 
12, 1890, to Miss Emma L. Cottrell, a native of 
Ohio. 



JANCY BALET STOKES crossed the 
plains to California in 1850, and was a 
well-known and highly respected citizen 
of Tulare County for thirty years. A resume 
of his life is herewith given. 

Mr. Stokes was born in Kentucky, October 6, 
1814, son of John and Polly (Ray) Stokes, both 
natives of Virgiuia and of English ancestry. 
At the age of eighteen he participated in the 
Black Hawk war. In early manhood he wedded 
Elizabeth Moore, a native of Missouri, and 
there were born to them in that State, five sons 
and two daughters. In 1850, accompanied by 
his oldest son, John, he crossed the plains to 



California, and engaged in mining until 1^52. 
That year, leaving his son here, he returned 
East for his family and brought them across tin- 
plains to the El Dorado of the West, and on 
their arrival they located in Contra Costa 
County. In December, 1855, they located in 
Tulare County, and here the youngest child was 



born. 



Mr. Stokes engaged in the stock busi- 



ness, and from time to time invested in lands, 
and for thirty years was a successful rancher 
and stock-raiser, at the time of his death own- 
ing 1,500 acres of land in Tulare County. Dur- 
ing a portion uf his time his son John was a 
partner in the business, and helped to conduct 
their extensive interests. 

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Stokes 
are as follows: Rachel, wife of Miles A. 
Wason, a resident of Iowa; John, a wealthy 
rancher and stock-raiser of Tulare County; 
Levi; Martha, now the wife of Davis Sanders; 
Stokely C; Yancy J., who died in January, 
1891; Travis died in Los Angeles, in 1876; 
Harriet is the wife of B. F. Webb, Bakerstield, 
Kern County; and Benjamin Franklin. Mrs. 
Stokes died in 1872. 

In October, 1872, Mr. Stokes was again mar- 
ried, in Davis County, Missouri, to Mr6. Jane 
(Fuget) Amack, widow of Robert W. Amack, a 
soldier who lost his life in the Union army. 
She is a daughter of Jesse B. an«j Nancy Fuget. 
Her father was a Virginian, and one of the first 
settlers of Decatur, Indiana. He died in Iowa, 
in 1871, and his wife died the same year. By 
his second marriage Mr. Stokes h id one child, 
Ruthie Charlotte, born in Tulare County 

In March, 1886, at the age of seventy-one 
years, Mr. Stokes passed away at his home, 6ix 
miles west of Visalia. He was a man of high 
moral character, and was well aud favorably 
known as an early settler of the county. His 
political views were in harmony with Republi- 
can principles, and he had served as a member 
of the Republican central committee of the 
county. After his death his estate was ami- 
cably settled by his widow and children. Mrs. 
Stokes and her daughter reside in their pleas- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



541 



ant home in Visalia. They retain the old home- 
stead and 500 acres of land adjoining it. This 
property is leased. 



" "& * * ' , t " y *-«» 




|ORGAN J. WELLS, an early settler of 
K California and one of Visalia's estim- 



^§§3=* able citizens, came to this State in 
1852. He was born in Dickson County, Ten- 
nessee, June 15, 1833, son of Henry G. and 
Nancy (Wilson) Wells, both natives of Ten- 
nessee. The ancestors of the Wells family 
originally came from Germany and settled in 
the South, where they lived for many, many 
years. Morgan J. was the fourth of the seven 
children born to his parents, and is now the 
only survivor of his family. He was reared 
chiefly in Arkansas. 

At the age of nineteen Mr. Wells set out for 
California in search of the treasures hidden in 
her mines, and upon his arrival in this State at 
once began operations in the mines of San 
Joaquin and Fresno counties. In 1857 he 
came to his present location and took up 160 
acres of Government land, which he has farmed 
and improved and on which he has built a 
home. To it he has since added eighty acres 
more. He also owns 1,100 acres in another 
portion of the county, which is used as grain 
and pasture land. Mr. Wells was largely in- 
terested in stock-raising, having 7,000 head of 
sheep and 200 cattle. Early in bis farming 
career he raised on his ranch as high as fifty 
bushels of wheat to the acre. 

In 1857 Mr. Wells was united in marriage 
with Miss Catharine Fudge, a native of his own 
State, and a daughter of John B. Fudge. To 
them have been born six children, all in Tulare 
County, namely: Mary P., who married L. H. 
Douglass, and died in 1882, leaving one child, 
David; Sarah; Susan, who married D. R. Doug- 
lass and resides in Visalia; Maggie, who died at 
the age of sixteen years; John Henry, who 
passed away at the age of twenty; William 
Reed Wells is single and resides with his par- 



ents. Mr. and Mrs. Wells have journeyed 
through life together for thirty-five years. 
Time has dealt gently with them, and they ap- 
pear still to have many years of useful and hap- 
py life before them. 

Mr. Wells takes an active interest in the 
Masonic fraternity, being a Master and Royal 
Arch Mason. He is also a member of the A. 
O. U. W., and in politics he is a Democrat, hav- 
ing served as Sheriff of the county during tne 
years of 1880-'81-'82. During his term of 
office one Harris, a colored man, murdered his 
wife and child. With a posse Mr. Wells tried 
to arrest him. He refused to surrender and 
was killed. As an officer Mr. Wells gave close 
attention to his duties and served the county 
well. He is in every way one of Tulare 
County's most substantial and reliable early 
settlers. ' 



fAMES C. COLLTER, Under Sheriff of the 
County of Fresno, dates his birth in Alle- 
gheny County, Pennsylvania, in 1858. 
His father, Robert Collyer, a farmer by occupa- 
tion, moved to Pulaski County, Missouri, in 
1862, and died there in 1865. 

James received his education in the high 
schools of Jefferson City and St. Louis, Mis- 
souri. In 1877 he went to Washington Terri- 
tory, and on Puget Sound was engaged in lum- 
bering in various capacities for about three 
years. In Portland, Oregon, he was married, 
June 11, 1880, to Miss Julia C.Cornell, a native 
of New York State. They settled in Lewisville, 
Washington Territory, where he carried on a 
lumber business for a period of two years. At 
the end of that time he came to California and 
settled in Madera, Fresno County, being in the 
employ of the Madera Flume & Trading Com- 
pany, spending his winters in Maderaandhissum- 
mers at the mills in the mountains. He was 
assistant bookkeeper for the company, and in 
other ways looked after their interests. In 
January, 1888, he moved to Fresno to accept 



542 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the appointment of Deputy Sheriff, under J. M. 
Plensley, and at this writing occupies that posi- 
tion. 

Mr. and Mrs. Collyer have had four children, 
Alfred, Percy and Norma, and Ernst, now 
deceased. 

He is a member of Madera Lodge, No. 280, 
F. & A. M. 



fOHN JESSE FULGHAM is an early set- 
tler and an enterprising and progressive 
rancher of Tulare County, California. 

He was born in Mississippi, June 29, 1833, 
son of George and Eleanor (Calhoun) Fulgham, 
both natives of Georgia. The latter was a niece 
of John C. Calhoun, the noted statesman. Of 
the five sons born to Mr. and Mrs. Fulgham? 
only the subject of this sketch and two brothers 
survive. Their father was a cotton planter, 
having extensive interests in the South, and 
young Fulgham spent his boyhood days in Geor- 
gia, Texas and Louisiana. In 1852, at the age 
of eighteen years, he came with his father and 
family to California. They first settled in San 
Louis Obispo, then in Santa Clara, and later in 
San Juan, where the father improved a ranch. 

In 1855 the subject of our sketch started out 
in life to support himself. That same year he 
came to Tulare County, and in 1858 took up 
160 acres of land, upon which he now resides. 
He has made all the improvements on this 
place, and from time to time have made other 
purchases, now owning 690 acres. He gives 
his attention to general farming and stock-rais- 
ing. His specialty in cattle is Durham stock, 
and in horses, the Norman. He has progressive 
ideas in regard to his business, and realizes the 
fact that it costs no more to raise a horse worth 
$200 than one worth only half that much. He 
raises 300 to 400 thoroughbred and high-grade 
Berkshire hogs, and also gives considerable 
attention to the raising of poultry." He ships 
about $50 worth of eggs to San Francisco each 
month, and regards the Brown Leghorn as the 



most profitable breed of poultry. Mr. Fulg- 
ham has recently commenced fruit farming. 

He was married in I860, to Miss Amanda 
Caldwell, a native of Indiana, and to them have 
been born eight children, four of whom survive, 
viz.: Eleanor, wife of Mr. W. March, resides 
near her parents; William Jasper, Lulu May 
and Lottie Irene. 

In politics Mr. Fulgham affiliates w r ith the 
Democratic party. He is well known through- 
out Tulare County, and is highly respected by 
his neighbors and friends. 

— #^-fii:»^ — 



§K. J. D. WAGNER.— It is our pleasure, 
in this brief sketch, to record a few of the 
facts and incidents in the life of one of the 
pioneer physicians of Selma. 

Dr. Wagner is a native of Savannah, Tennes- 
see, born in 1844. His parentage is decidedly 
foreign, the German, the Scot and the Dane 
being represented in his ancestry. At the age 
of sixteen he entered the Confederate army, and 
fought for the Southern cause all through that 
memorable conflict. After the war was over, he 
took np the stndy of medicine, attended the 
medical school at Nashville, Tennessee, where 
he graduated in March, 1870. After receiving 
his diploma, he at once commenced the practice 
of medicine at his old home in Savannah, and 
there passed a successful professional career of 
thirteen years. In 1869 he married Miss p]liz- 
abeth Gray, a native of Hickman County, that 
State. Some years later her health failed, and, 
as her symptoms were that of consumption, it 
was deemed wise to seek an entire change of 
climate. 

Thus it was that, in 1878, the Doctor nun til 
to California. He at once came to Fresno 
County and bought some land near Fowler, liv- 
ing there for four years. In 18S2 he removed to 
Selma, where he has since resided. He is now 
actively engaged in the practice of medicine, is 
highly esteemed by his professional brethren, 
and has the confidence of all who know him. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



543 




Dr. Wagner is much interested in the growth 
and development of this section of California. 
He has invested in real estate, and owns valu- 
able property in and around Selma. He has a 
twenty-acre vineyard in full bearing and 200 
acres of improved land adjacent to the town. 
His residence is located on a valuable one-acre 
lot, and is within a stone's throw of the principal 
commercial buildings in Selma. 

The balmy climate of California, although 
perhaps it prolonged Mrs. Wagner's life, did not 
restore her health, and she died of consump- 
tion in 1886, leaving a family of five children. 

A gentleman of intelligence, pleasant and 
affable manners, a skillful and popular physi- 
cian, Dr. Wagner is a power for good in the 
community where he lives. 

[ILLIAM FAHEY, for many years a 
prominent hotel proprietor, now inter- 
ested in hotel business at Fresno, is a 
native of Ireland, born in County Galway, in 
1852. 

Brought up on a farm, Mr. Fahey in early 
life acquired the energetic habits of his class 
aud country. At the age of thirteen he emi- 
grated to the United States to visit and find a 
home among his relatives in Connecticut. His 
early educatioual advantages were limited, and 
the knowledge he possesses has been gained 
chiefly in the school of experience. He remained 
in Connecticut until 1869, when he came to Cal- 
ifornia. For several years he was a wage earn- 
er, working on ranches in Tuolumne County. 

Mr. Fahey began his hotel life, in which he 
has been so successful, in Merced, on March 10, 
1873. He bought ground and put up a small 
frame building. In 1877 this was burned 
down. He then erected a brick building, which, 
in 1879, he enlarged to meet the requirement, 
of his business, remodeling it in 1882. This 
house, the Tuolumne Hotel, is a two-story brick 
building, 50 x 105 feet, having a fine granite 
front and being equipped with all the modern 



improvements. Mr. Fahey also built lodging 
houses to run in connection with his hotel, and 
by catering to the, cheaper trade he has built up 
a large and extensive patronage. He owns his 
own water works, the supply being from deep 
wells; he also has a laundry and stable in con- 
nection with his hotel. 

In April, 1890, Mr. Fahey leased for a term 
of years the well-known Ogle House of Fresno, 
which he has renovated and improved. Having 
changed its name to Fahey's Hotel, he is now 
conducting it in his usual enterprising manner. 
This property is situated on Front street, oppo- 
site the depot. It will accommodate about 150 
people, and here, for the present, Mr. Fahey will 
reside, having leased his Merced property. He 
however, expects some time in the near future 
to build a private residence on his ranch of forty 
acres, which is located near Fresno. 

Mr. Fahey was married in Sonora, March 19, 
1871, to Miss Katie J. Fahey, a native of Cali- 
fornia, daughter of John K. Fahey, a prominent 
rancher aud stockman, who came to this State 
in 1851. This union has been blessed with five 
children. 



§EVT L. GILL, a rancher of Frazier valley 
Tulare County, California, was born in 
Circleville, Pickaway County, Ohio, in 
1837. His father was a farmer and extensive 
stock-dealer, and Levi was educated in the same 
industry, passing his early life with his father 
and from him securing many practical ideas iu 
the bnying and handling of cattle. 

He was married at Circleville, in 1858, to 
Miss Eliza A. Harriman, and settled on a farm 
of 2,000 acres near town. There he dealt ex- 
tensively in stock, buying and fattening for the 
Chicago market. From 1863 to 1873 he resided 
in Ringgold County, Iowa. In the spring of 1873 
Mr. Gill sold his interests in the East and moved 
his family to California, locating in Yokohl val- 
ley, where he purchased 1,480 acres of land and 
continued the stock' business, dealing in horses, 



544 



III STOUT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



cattle, hogs and sheep. In 1883 he moved to 
Frazier valley, made other purchases, and is now 
the owner of some 7,080 acres of land. He still 
follows the stock business, though of late years 
not quite so extensively, his years of exposure 
and hardship of travel having weakened his 
physique. The business is now chiefly managed 
by his sons, subject to his judgment and discre- 
tion. He cultivates from 700 to 1,000 acres in 
grain, and the number of horses, cattle and hogs 
he keeps varies with the market, the last two 
usually running up L to the hundreds. At one 
time he was extensively engaged in the sheep 
business, but that was when ranges could be 
rented for five cents per acre. When the coun- 
try began to settle up and the ranges were in 
demand, the sheep business ceased to be profit- 
able, and he retired from it. Mr. Gill built his 
present comfortable residence in 1888. Sitting 
in the midst of his roses, oranges and deciduous 
fruits, he can look over his broad acres and en- 
joy the results of his years of toil and hard- 
ship. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gill have ten children: Charles 
O., Willie and Fred (twins), Louis, Julia, Proda, 
Frank, Levi L., Mattie and Ora. Nine of them 
still reside at home. 




^— >■£■■!■ 4&<— . 

J. DEATER, of Madera, Fresno 
County, was born in La Grange Couu- 
H$sH ty, Indiana, June 29, 1854, a son of 
John and Nancy J. (Leighter) Deater, who 
reared a family of live children, our subject be- 
ing the only one living in California. His fa- 
ther died February 21, 1861, and his mother is 
still living in Warren County, Illinois, at the 
age of sixty-four years. Young Deater was 
only permitted the advantages of the common 
schools, and at the age of nineteen years began 
farming with his brother, N. C. Deater, upon a 
farm of 200 acres in Warren County, Illinois. 
He followed farming until 1888, and then took 
up mercantile life at Ellison, where he started a 
general merchandise store, which he later moved 



to Smithshire, on the line of the Santa Fe rail- 
road, then a new town, which Mr. Deater mate- 
rially aided in bnilding. He was also appointed 
Postmaster under the administration of Presi- 
dent Cleveland, and proved a careful and effi- 
cient officer. Mr. Deater carried a fine stock of 
goods and did an extensive business, but through 
too great expansion met with reverses, and in 
1889 resigned from his public office and sold 
out his business. He came to Madera in Febru- 
ary, 1890, and first found employment as book- 
keeper and salesman for Fred Barcroft, and Jan- 
uary 1, 1891, took the general agency for the 
Howard & Wilson colony tract of 23,000 acres, 
which was just opened to the public. 

Mr. Deater was married in Roseville, Illinois, 
in 1880, to Miss Mary E. Brown, and they have 
two children, — Mabel M. and Gertrude, who 
though bringing cares brought great brightness 
into the family. Mr. Deater was a charter 
member of Smithshire Camp of Modern Wood- 
man of America, at Smithshire, Illinois. 



-=£•*< 



»*£=- 



fUSTAVUS MILLER, Esq. — There are 
few pioneers of Kern County. California, 
whose names bear a more honorable rec- 
ord than does that of Gustavus Miller. 

He was born October 25, 1830, and for the 
most part was reared in Prussia, coming to 
America at the age of twenty years. His 
father, Henry Miller, was a well-to-do merchant, 
and carried on agricultural pursuits near the 
city of Coloma. He gave to his family all the 
advantages for gaining a good education. 

Tiie subject of our sketch landed in New- 
York city in 1850, and proceeded immediately 
to San Francisco, reaching the Golden Gate, via 
Panama, on the 1st of August, that same year. 
He engaged in placer mining in Trinity County, 
and continued in mining and milling in that 
vicinity about five years. He then went to 
Shasta, and for nine years did freighting with 
pack mules. Later, he was engaged in mining 
in Calaveras Connty, and still later in San Diego 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



545 



Count}', where he was among the first five men 
who discovered gold at Julian. 

In 1870 Mr. Miller took up his abode in 
Havilah, where he has since resided. He has 
also done good mining in this field; discovered 
and developed the Warrington mine, and sold 
the same for $12,000; opened the Bald Eagle 
in 1889, and sold it for a handsome price; and 
is still successfully engaged in the mining busi- 
ness. For eight years past he has been 
merchandising at Havilah. In the spring of 
1891 he was burned out, and sustained a loss of 
about $5,000. At this writing a new store is 
rising from the ashes of the old. For twelve 
years Mr. Miller has been the trusted agent for 
Wells, Fargo & Co., at Havilah, and for ten 
years has been the Postmaster of the town. 

He was married in Havilah to Miss Annie 
Reese, an estimable Welsh lady. 



— ** 



5f f^S' 



**=- 



B. HOLTON, a prominent business man 
of Selma, California, is a native of Illi- 
nois, born July 19, 1840. His father 
was a farmer, and the subject of our sketch 
spent his early life in the rural districts. In 
1849 the family home was moved to Oxford, 
Ohio, where he received a part of his education. 
It was at Winchester, Illinois, however, where 
he obtained the most of his schooling, — in those 
days amounting to a very little to the average 
man. 

In 1852 the family came across the plains to 
California, the journey consuming six months' 
time. After farming and piospecting some, 
Mr. Holton went to Placer County, and spent 
two years in the mines. Not being at all satis- 
fied with this sort of life, or with the profits 
derived from his labor, he moved, in 1856, to 
Yolo County. In that county his father owned 
a valuable farm of 480 acres, on which our sub- 
ject lived for a period of almost twenty-seven 
years. In 1885 he located in Fresno County. 
Here he purchased a ranch of 160 acres, which 
he still owns. This property is planted to vine- 



yard, and is nearly all in bearing vines. He 
also owns another vineyard of forty acres, ad- 
jacent to Selma. 

This large raisin product suggested to Mr. 
Holton the feasibility of establishing a raisin - 
packing industry in the town, which he has 
done, and with marked success. He is ex- 
tensively engaged in this work. During the 
past year he shipped twenty-five carloads of 
packed raisins, and the shipment for the ensu- 
ing year will doubtless be much larger. 

Mr. Holton was happily married in 1869 to 
Miss Ellen Grafton, a native of Illinois. They 
have two children. 

fOSEPH V. RODRIGUEZ, of Hanford, 
is a native of the Island of Pico, one of the 
group of the Azores Islands. This island, 
about 15 x 50 miles in area, is irregular in its 
land surface, the valleys being well adapted to 
farming and fruits. The climate being temper- 
ate, with frequent rains through the year, two 
crops can be annually secured, and the soil be- 
ing deep and fertile, wheat is grown year after 
year without any cessation. The fruits are 
similar to those of California, both citrus and 
deciduous. The father of our subject was one 
of the prosperous farmers of the island, and 
with him Joseph remained until his eighteenth 
year, learning the principles of agriculture. He 
then started out in life, coming by a sailing ves- 
sel to Boston, and, crossing the continent, ar- 
rived in California in 1869. After one year 
spent in Alameda County, he came to Tulare 
Connty in 1870, and after securing his natural- 
ization papers he took up 160 acres of land; 
but, the country being so dry and crops so un- 
certain, he could not make a living. He left 
his ranch, and afterward found employment 
with P. C. Phillips, of Kingston, a prominent 
rancher aud stockman, with whom Mr. Rodri- 
guez remained seven years. In May, 1877, 
he returned to his ranch and began farming, 
putting in wheat and beans, and also twenty 



546 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



acres in alfalfa, and in 1878 he farmed quite 
extensively. In 1879 he left his ranch in 
charge of his brother, and returned to the island 
of Pico, and was absent about two years. After 
returning to his ranch he gave his attention to 
tanning and stock-raising, adding to his land 
holdings until he now owns 400 acres, where he 
deals quite extensively in horses, cattle and 
hogs, with an interest in 6,000 sheep. He has 
fifty acres of alfalfa, fifty-five acres of fruit and 
vines, and the remainder of his ranch is im- 
proved in wheat. 

Mr. Rodriguez was married in September 
1887, to Miss Emilia Luigo, a native of Cali- 
fornia, and they have two children, — Joseph 
and May. 



.^EOKGE A. DODGE, proprietor of the 
ffljp Sandy Loam Stock Farm, situated four 
*W { and a half miles southeast of Han ford 
was born in McHenry County, Illinois, in 1814. 
His father, Elisha Dodge, a native of Vermont, 
emigrated westw ird in 1830, crossing the pres- 
ent site of Chicago when it was but a quagmire. 
He settled in McHenry County, where he was 
among the first settlers of that locality. Their 
nearest market was Milwaukee, sixty-five miles 
distant, where they exchanged farm produce for 
family supplies. 

The subject of this sketch remained at home 
until twenty-one years of age, and his first ven- 
ture in a business way was in Corn Planter 
township, Venango County, Pennsylvania, dur- 
ing the oil excitement of 1865. There he sank 
a well and with it all his money, but found no 
oil. He then worked for wages about one year, 
after which he returned home and rented his 
father's farm until the spring of 1869. In that 
year he decided to emigrate to California, cross- 
ing by railroad soon after the completion of the 
road, and landed at Stockton. In June of the 
same year, in partnership with his brother, 
David Dodge, they rented 1,200 acres of land 
in Merced County, and for three seasons fol- 



lowed wheat farming, receiving but one good 
crop. In the fall of 1873 Mr. Dodge came to 
Tulare County, and pre-empted 160 acres south- 
east of Hanford, in the Lake Side country, 
when there was not a house in sight. In the 
spring of 1874 the settlers organized the Lake 
Side Ditch Company, and Mr. Dodge was elected 
a member of the board of directors. After se- 
curing water he began farming, and continued 
the same until 1882, when he eutered the stock 
business with five head of brood mares and a 
fine trotting stallion, and since that date his 
chief interest has been in the breeding of fine 
horses. His ranch now numbers 320 acres, 100 
of which is in alfalfa and the remainder in grain, 
with a small orchard for family use. In 1884 
he built a half-mile track for exercising his 
horses, and attends to his own speeding, al- 
though keeping experienced men. He has fol- 
lowed closely his stock interests, which now 
numbers sixty head of horses, with two stand- 
ard-bred stallions and two non-standard-bred. 
His ranch is well equipped with convenient 
stables, corrals and outbuildings; also a black- 
smith shop, where all shoeing and repairs are 
performed. 

Mr. Dodge was married on the plains in 1876 
to Miss Louisa Waite, a native of Oregon, 
whither her father, Richard S. Waite, emigrated 
in 1850. Mr. and Mrs. Dodge have four chil- 
dren, — Fred A., Edna E., and lone M. and Irene 
M., twins. 



0*»- 



s^^»l 



fNDREW JASPER BUCKMAN.— 
Among the respected and enterprising 
ranchers of Tulare County, California, 
none are more worthy of mention in a work of 
this kind than the subject of this sketch. 

Mr. Buckman was born in Kentucky, January 
13, 1848. His father, Clement E. Buckman, 
was born in that State in 1821, his grandfather 
having been a pioneer of Kentucky. Their 
ancestors were among the earliest settlers of 
Maryland. Clement E. Buckman married Sei- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



547 



villa Ann Shanks, a native of Kentucky, and to 
them were born eleven children, eight of whom 
are living and all in California. The father 
came to this State in 1864, at once settling in 
Tulare County on lands in the vicinity of where 
Mr. Buckman now resides. He remained in 
this county until the time of his death. 

Andrew J. was the second born in his father's 
family. He attended school after coming to 
Tulare County, and in 1878 came into the pos- 
session of 120 acres of land. He subsequently 
acquired other lands, and is now engaged in 
general farming, raising grain, cattle, hogs and 
horses; is also engaged in horticulture. When 
he came to this farm it was new and unimproved. 
At first he built a small house and resided in 
it until 1888, when he erected his present com- 
modious dwelling. 

Mr. Buckman was married, October 2, 1872, 
to Miss Andrewella McCutchan, a native of 
Virginia. They have two daughters, Anna 
Laura and Cora J. Mr. Buckman belongs to 
the Farmers' Alliance, and in politics is a Demo- 
crat. He has been a resident of Tulare County 
for twenty-six years, is justly proud of the 
advancement this country has already made, 
and is interested in its further growth and de- 
velopment. 

D. KENNESON is a native of New 
England, born in Brownfield, Oxford 
kQl County, Maine, in the year 1855. 
Reared on a farm, he acquired habits of industry 
in early life that have been the foundation of 
his success in this State. At the age of ten 
years he began to work on the farm, and since 
the age of sixteen he has not only provided for 
himself, but has done much to aid his mother 
in the support of the family, his father having 
died in 1874. 

In the fall of 1874 Mr. Kenneson came to 
California. For several years he worked by the 
day on ranches in San Joaquin and Stanislaus 
counties. One year he spent in Oregon, in 




charge of the stock of M. B. Boot; returned to 
Stanislaus County, and was employed on his 
farm there. In February, 1881, he came to 
Fresno and engaged in teaming, his cash capital 
at that time being $100. Since then he has 
been remarkably successful in his business 
transactions. He purchased a five-acre tract on 
Blackstone avenue, which has proved a profit- 
able investment. On this property he erected 
a house and other necessary buildings, and in 
1884 sent East for his mother, his sister and 
two brothers. The boys are now well estab- 
lished in business, one at a trade and the other 
on a ranch; his mother and sister make their 
home with him. Mr. Kenneson also owns prop- 
erty in Tulare County, a tine ranch of 160 acres, 
well watered and under cultivation. In May, 
1887, he started his livery business on Merced 
and H streets, his outfit consisting of one bale 
of hay, two sacks of barley and four horses. 
The stable was owned by M. J. Donahoo, and 
was small and inconvenient. Eight months 
later Messrs. Kenneson and Donahoo became 
equal partners. They have given the business 
their strictest attention, and as a result it has 
grown rapidly until it now assumes vast pro- 
portions. The stable occupies nearly one-half 
of the block; they keep twenty tine horses and a 
first-class line of light and heavy carriages, and 
employ five men. They also board a large 
number of horses. The business which Mr. 
Kenneson began in such a small way he is now 
conducting with an outfit valued at $8,000. 

He was married in Sacramento, in November, 
1889, to Miss Jennie Brougbton, a native of 
California. Mr. Kenneson has a membership 
in the Oriental Lodge, No. 45, I. O. O. F., 
Marysville. 



fOHN JOHNSTON, one of the pioneers of 
'49, was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
in 1827, the youngest in a family of eight 
children. When he was quite small his father 
died, and in 1834 his mother and family moved 



548 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



to Ga'.lia County, Ohio, where John received a 
limited education in the common schools of the 
period. He learned the trade of carpenter, and 
was working at his trade when news of the 
wonderful gold discovery in California reached 
his Ohio home. 

Eager for adventure, Mr. Johnston dropped 
the saw and the hammer, went to Marietta, 
joined a small company under Captain Chapin, 
and with "prairie schooners" started across the 
plains for the new El Dorado. At the Hum- 
boldt river Mr. Johnston left the company, with 
which he had been traveling and joined the pio- 
neer passenger train, under John Lnrner, and 
continued with that party as far as the sink of 
the Humboldt. There the horses gave out, 
travel became slow, and Mr. Johnston started 
on foot to cross the Sierras, landing at Weaver- 
ville, Placer County, about September 15, 1849. 
After one day's experience at mining he became 
disgusted, left the mines and started for San 
Diego. From that place he brought a drove of 
cattle up to the mining camps, where he sold 
them. Then he went to San Francisco and 
bought about $6,000 worth of general mer- 
chandise goods, shipped them to Uniontown, 
now Areata, on Humboldt bay, and kept store 
for two years. Disposing of his interests there, 
he went to Half Moon bay, San MateT County, 
and purchased 2,000 acres of land and engaged 
in dairying and farming, which he continued 
with success until 1875. At that time he went 
to the foot of Walker lake, in Nevada, where, 
with his brother, James, he engaged in quartz 
mining about six years. In this venture they 
lost $150,000. 

In 1881 Mr. Johnston located in San Jose, 
remained there one year, and in 1882 came to 
Fresno. He worked at his trade a short time, 
after which, in 1884, he established himself in 
business, dealing in agricultural implements, 
pumps and windmills, and being prosperously 
engaged in this business until 1890. In May 
of that year he sold out to his son, A. G. John- 
ston and Mr. Roundey. who now conduct the 
business, under the linn name of Roundey & 



Johnston, at the corner of Mand Tulare streets. 
Mr. Johnston was married, at San Francisco, 
in 1856, to Miss Mary H. Carter, a native of 
New York State, and their union has been 
blessed with eight children, all living and in 
California. He is associated with the F. & A. M. 
and I. O. O. F. fraternities at Half Moon bay. 

■ — ... . t g . )n; . | i» .- — 



tLFRED HARRELL, County Superintend- 
ent of the schools of Kern County, Cali- 
fornia, was born in Merced County, this 
State, November 10, 1863. His parents, Alfred 
and Louise (Ward) Harrell, were among the 
pioneers of California, the former coming from 
Hardin County, Kentucky, and the latter from 
Arkansas. Alfred Harrell, Sr., came to this 
coast in 1849, devoted three years to mining in 
Mariposa County, and finally settled down to 
farming in Merced, where the subject of this 
biography received the rudiments of his educa- 
tion. He subsequently attended the public 
schools of Oakland, and in 1882 commenced 
teaching in Kern County. The years 1885 to 
1889 he taught in Bakerstield. He was elected 
County Superintendent of the schools of Kern 
County in 1886 and received a re-election in 
1890. His reputation as a tutor of the higher 
standard is based upon the results of his per- 
sonal work in Kern County, and his continuance 
in office is the strongest evidence of the esteem 
in which he is held by the public. Assuming 
direction of the educational affairs in Kern 
County at an early period in her marvelous 
development, he has kept fully abreast of the 
growing demands of the times for a mo r e per- 
fect system of education, and has anticipated all 
demands that devolve upon the incumbent of so 
important an office. 

Mr. Harrell was married, July 10, lSSti, t<> 
Miss Jennie, daughter of J. M. McKamy, a pio- 
neer of Kern County and a valued citizen of 
Glennville. They have one daughter, Bernice. 
In politics Mr. Harrell is a pronounced and 
steadfast Democrat. He is a courteous gentle- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



549 



man, and both socially and professionally is a 
popular citizen. 



L. BOONE. — A family of sixteen children 
and a worthy ancestry is represented by 
the subject of this biography. The name 
of Daniel Boone is familiar to every Ken tuck - 
ian ; the youngest brother of this distinguished 
pioneer is the grandfather of the numerous 
family we allude to, now scattered all over the 
Union. 

L. L. Boone was born in Warren County, 
Missouri, May 11, 1847. At the age of eighteen 
he came to California, crossing the plains with 
horses and being four months and six days en 
route. After his arrival here he completed his 
education in Solano County, after which he en- 
gaged in ranching, buying land in Yolo County 
and living there four years. He then moved to 
Contra Costa County, where be made his home 
for thirteen years, engaged in farming and 
stock-raising, with fair success. At the expi- 
ration of that period he sold out his interests 
there and went to Colusa County, where he 
continued his farming operations for two and a 
half years. He then moved to Fresno County 
and located on a ranch of 2,000 acres, two miles 
north of Reedley. He rents this land, which 
he devotes exclusively to farming, with good 
success. 

On Christmas day, 1870, Mr. Boone wedded 
Miss Jones, a native of California. They have 
two sons. Mr. Boone is highly respected in the 
community where he resides, and on agricult- 
ural matters is regarded good authority. 



►Swj* 



fOHN W. MARTIN, of Tulare County, was 
born in Livingston County, Missouri, in 
1850. His father, James Martin, a native 
of Virginia, was a dealer in tine horses and an 
importer of thorougbred running horses, before 
the civil war, when Viiginia took the lead of 



all States in the importation of that particular 
quality of horse. In 1850 Mr. Martin, accom- 
panied by his family, emigrated to California, 
making the journey with horse teams and taking 
with him a band of fine horses. He settled in 
Yuba County, purchased 500 acres of choice 
bottom land on the Yuba river, and gave his 
attention to farming, raising horses and culti- 
vating fruits. In 1855 he began planting a 
variety of fruits, his being among the first or- 
chards planted in California. After hydraulic 
mining was commenced his beautiful ranch was 
destroyed by the debris washing down and cov- 
ering land and trees. Mr. Martin died in 1861, 
leaving his son, John W., the subject of our 
sketch, a boy of eleven years with little on which 
to depend for a support. 

Feeling the need of an education, young Mar- 
tin completed the course of study as taught in 
the common schools of Yolo County, after 
which, by working in summer and saving his 
wages to pay winter tuition, he attended the 
State Normal School at San Jose, and in 1871 
graduated at the Hesperian College in Yolo 
County. He applied his education by teaching 
in Yolo County, beginning in 1868 and continu- 
ing in the profe^ion eight years. Having in- 
herited the love of fine horses from his father, 
he also owned and operated a small ranch of 
sixty acres, breeding fine horses and working 
into an extensive business. 

Mr. Martin was married in Yolo County, in 
1871, to Miss Emma Bonham, a native of Mis- 
souri, who died in 1880, leaving four children, 
— Allen Hayne, Laila, Benjamin and William. 
He was again married, in Solano County, in 
1885, to Miss Lizzie Smith, a native of Canada. 
This union has been blessed with two children: 
Claire and Leland Stanford. 

Mr. Martin continued to reside in Yolo 
County until 1890, when he came to his present 
ranch of 320 acres on Tulare river, west of 
Woodville, the ranch having been purchased in 
1873. He brought down his horses and will 
build up an extensive stud, at the head of which 
now stands Clay Duke, No. 275 of National 



550 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Register, with a record of 2:29. Two years in 
succession this horse has taken the first premium 
as a fine standard-bred stallion at the fair in 
Yolo County. His second stallion is Del Ray, 
also standard-bred, both horses being of the 
Kentucky trotting stock. Mr. Martin has about 
forty-five head of horses, among which are 
some choice brood mares. He has commenced 
the improvement of his ranch; will sow a large 
acreage to alfalfa for hay and green feed, and 
plant vines as a fruit industry. 

^+3-^ 



^\ON. GEORGE G. GOUCPIER was born 
[ r ) in Parkersburg, Virginia, February 12, 
qgftl 1855. His father. James Goucher, came 
to California in 1850, and three years later re- 
turned to Virginia, settled up his business, and 
in 1855 brought his family to this State, com- 
ing via the Isthmus of Panama, and arriving 
in San Francisco by that celebrated old steamer, 
Golden Gate, on April 12, 1855. After farm- 
ing in different localities, he located in Oak- 
land, where he now resides, engaged in the 
museum department of the State Mining 
Bureau. 

George G. was educated in the public schools 
of Napa valley, after which, by his own labors 
in teaching, beginning at the age of sixteen, he 
was enabled to gain a higher education at the 
Napa Collegiate Institute at Napa City. 

In November, 1875, he went, to Mariposa 
County, and for two years taught the Bear 
Valley School, in the meantime studying law. 
He was admitted to practice in 1877, and in the 
fall of that year, at the age of twenty- two 
years, he was elected on the Democratic ticket 
as District Attorney of Mariposa County, and 
re-elected in 1879 and 1882. At the expiration 
of his term in 1884, he was elected Assembly- 
man from the Sixty-seventh associate district, 
composing the counties of Mariposa and Mer- 
ced. To make this canvass he declined the 
nomination of Democratic elector in the Cleve- 
land campaign of that year. When his term 



expired in 1886, he was elected State Senator 
from the Thirty-second district, comprising 
the counties of Alpine, Mono. Mariposa and 
Fresno, and was re-elected from the same dis- 
trict in 1890. In 1887 Mr. Goucher was ap- 
pointed by Governor Bartlett to fill an unex- 
pired term on the Yo Semite Commission, and 
was reappointed in 1888 by Governor Water- 
man for a terra of four years. After serving 
one year under the latter appointment, Mr. 
Goucher resigned in June, 1889. He was a 
champion of the irrigation bills in both As- 
sembly and Senate, and an earnest worker 
for the interests of his constituents. He also 
took a prominent part in the bills pertaining to 
the mining interests; served as Chairman of 
the Committee on Corporations, on Mines and 
Mining, and on State Prisons; in the Senate he 
was a member of the Committee on Judiciary. 

In speaking of Mr. Goucher's political career, 
it should be further stated that he has been a 
delegate to every Democratic State convention 
since he was twenty-one years of age. In 
fraternal circles he is also prominent, being 
associated with the following lodges: Mariposa 
Lodge, No. 24, F. & A. M., of Oso Lodge, 
No. 110, I. O. O. F., at Bear Valley, and of 
Mono Tribe, No. 68, I. O. R. M., at Fresno. 

Mr. Goucher was married in Mariposa, July 
10, 1880, to Miss Marion Jones, daughter of 
Judge L. F. Jones, a prominent lawyer and a 
member of the last constitutional convention 
Mr. and Mrs. Goucher have two children, Allen 
H., born November 22, 1881, and Merle M., 
born October 18, 1889. 



'-^3- 



•> 



fEORGE DYER figures as a California 
pioneer. He landed in San Francisco Sep- 
tember 14, 1849, having sailed around Cape 
Horn to this coast. For about two weeks he 
worked at the carpenter's trade in San Francisco, 
receiving $16 per day. Then he weut to the 
mines in Calaveras County and mined two years; 
worked at his trade some in San Jose in the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



551 



spring of 1850, and was for a time engaged in 
merchandising at Murphy's Camp. He located 
on King's river, Tulare County, in 1852, being 
one of the first half dozen settlers in that valley. 
In early days he drove stock from Los Angeles 
over the dry and barren plains of Kern County 
to Tulare. 

Mr. Dyer was born at Plymouth, Maine, April 
23, 1830, the son of Puritan parents. He served 
his time as an apprentice to the trade of house 
carpenter, and left home at the age of seventeen 
years. He followed his trade at Lowell, Mas- 
sachusetts, for awhile, after which he set sail for 
California, as before stated, around Cape Horn 
in the bark Rochelle, commanded by Captain 
Stickney, of Salem, Massachusetts. 

Mr. Dyer married, in 1865, Miss Sarah Pol- 
lard, of Santa Cruz, California, by whom he has 
three children, — Clara L., Mary R. and Minnie 
G. He is now engaged in merchandising at 
Delano, Kern County, where his family are held 
in high esteem by a large circle of friends. 



JB|| M. CORBLY, one of the aged and most 
'11W respected citizens of Selma, forms the 
^k ° subject of this biography. 

Thrown upon his own resources at an early 
age with hardly a dollar in his pocket, he has 
plodded steadily along, tilling the soil in various 
States, earning an honest living and increasing 
his small bank account each succeeding year 
until now he retires from active work and seeks 
the rest he justly deserves. 

Mr. Corbly is a native of Monongalia County, 
West Virginia, born February 9, 1815. Early 
in life he served an apprenticeshhip of three 
years to the trade of tanner and currier, and the 
succeeding three years were entirely devoted to 
the active duties of this trade. 

He was married, February 4, 1836, to Miss 
Narcissa D. Wells, a native of West Virginia. 
After his marriage Mr. Corbly abandoned the 
tanning business and turned his attention to 
agricultural pursuits, an occupation he has fol- 



lowed for over fifty years. He located first in 
West Virginia and lived there twelve years. 
Then he went to Lynn County, Iowa, where he 
remained seven years, and during that time 
made money enough to buy a little land of his 
own. We next find him in Fayette County, 
Iowa, improving some Government land. At 
that time his family consisted of wife and six 
children, and the land in which they cast their 
lot was exceedingly wild and rough, with few 
signs of civilization visible — a situation requir- 
ing faith, pluck and fortitude. For three weeks 
they made their home in a tent, until a rude 
house could be constructed. Gradually things 
assumed a different aspect, and for eight years 
Mr. Corbly and his family continued to reside 
there. In 1863 he disposed of this property 
and moved to Missouri, bought a farm of 200 
acres and lived there two years. He again sold 
out, returned to Iowa, bought a farm of 214 
acres in Wayne County, and lived there nine 
years. There his children were sent to school 
and received the best educational advantages 
the place afforded. 

Mr. Corbly's next move was to Bates County, 
Missouri, where he remained for a period of 
nine years, and from that place, in May, 1882, 
the family came to California, at once settling 
on a farm of 160 acres in Fresno County, lo- 
cated four miles southwest of Selma. He after- 
ward disposed of this property and acquired a 
farm of 385 acres, thircy miles from Selma, on 
what is known as the " West Side." Mr. 
Corbly lives in a comfortable home in Selma, 
renting his farm and living a life of quiet 
retirement. 

His marriage has already been referred to. 
He was most happy in the selection of a wife. 
Fifty-four years ago, when this marriage took 
place, it was bitterly opposed by the parents on 
both sides. Great efforts were made to separate 
the young couple and break up the match — 
decidedly a love match — but all such efforts 
were futile; and when it came to the ceremony 
the young lovers were compelled to leave their 
homes. Their married life, although they have 



552 



HISTORr OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



had their share of hardships and privations, has 
been a very happy one, singularly free from 
disputes of any kind. They have reared a family 
of seven children. Their eldest, a daughter, 
died in 1869. One son is missing and has not 
been heard from for a long period. The other 
five are as follows: John D., Vernon County, 
Missouri; Absalom, Fresno County, California; 
Nancy, wife of Freeman Davis, Fowler, Cali- 
fornia; Mary, wife of James McDavid, Bates 
County, Missouri; and Emily. 

- -_-&*. ^/rX'Qgjyfo , *-!> 




IILLIAM K. TULLOCH was born in 
Inverness, Scotland, November 7, 1860. 
His father, now deceased, was for many 
years a Captain in the English army. At the 
age of fifteen William K. went to Edinburgh 
to be educated. He there entered Baliol Col- 
lege, a famous institution, in which he gradu- 
ated in the medical department in 1880. After 
completing his studies he entered the service of 
the White Star Steamship Company, and for 
seven years was in their employ. He was first 
detailed to the Liverpool service, between Liver- 
pool and New York, where, for one trip on the 
steamship Republic, he was the ship's doctor. 
He afterward became the company's purser, and 
in that capacity sailed all over the world. 

During one of his voyages on the Pacific, 
Mr. Tulloch landed on the California coast. 
Being delighted with the country and its won- 
derful prospect for further development, he re- 
signed his position with the company and de- 
cided to make his home in the Golden State. It 
was in 1887, therefore, that we find him making 
his way down to Fresno County. He located in 
Selma and has since resided here. Durincr his 
residence at this place he has been chiefly en- 
gaged in real estate operations, and from the 
outset has been uniformly successful in his 
transactions, turning hi? property over rapidly 
and always at a good profit. Mr. Tulloch now 
owns considerable land in the vicinity of Selma, 



which he is improving and devoting to the cul- 
ture of raisin grapes. 

Forty miles from Selma, on what is known u 
the West Side, he owns a tract of 1,280 acres, 
which promises to be of great value in the near 
future. Through Mr. Tulloch's efforts this 
locality is rapidly becoming settled; in fact, he 
is one of the pioneers of this section, and sees 
now a thriving town soon to be a •• tremendous 
reality." 

Aside from his real-estate interests, Mr. 
Tulloch has been for two years the lessee of the 
Whitson Hotel, Selma, the largest and best 
hotel in the place, — an arrangement, however, 
which ceased January 1, 1891. His residence 
with delightful surroundings, located in the 
heart of the town, is a very attractive one. 

The subject of our sketch was happily mar- 
ried, April 26, 1889, to Miss Nola E. Smith, of 
Sonoma County, California. Her father, Ralph 
Smith, was one of the early pioneers of this 
State. They have one child, a son. 

Mr. Tulloch met with a painful accident on 
April 16, 1890, which has deprived him of his 
left hand. He had been making preparations 
to shoot some poultry on his farm near Selma, 
and while bringing his shotgun through a high 
fence it came in contact with some brush, and, 
hitting the fence pickets, was accidentally dis- 
charged. The shoe passed through his left hand 
and wrist, making amputation of the entire 
hand necessary. 



tDOLPH LEVIS, one of the prosperous 
business men of Visalia, is the son of a 
German merchant and was born in Ger- 
many, May 4, 1849. He received his early 
education in his native land and at the age of 
fourteen years, in 1863, came to California, 
completing his studies at San Francisco. 

In 1865 Mr. Levis came to Visalia and ac- 
cepted a clerkship in the store of his uncle, 
Solomon Sweet. After remaining in the store 
five years he was absent for a time, but returned 





Cou ^0e^i^-L^6^ij 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



553 



in 1872 and became a partner in the firm. For 
several years he did the buying for the estab- 
lishment and in 1878 became manager of the 
house, still occupying that position. This is 
not only the oldest business house in Visalia, 
but is the leading one in Tulare County. The 
firm does an extensive business and employ 
from twenty-six to thirty men. The elegant 
double store, 120 feet deep, which they occupy, 
was built by Mr. Sweet. Since coming to Yis- 
alia Mr. Levis has given close attention to busi- 
ness, has been very successful and has made 
investments in real estate. 

He was married in 1880, and in 1883 pur- 
chased a nice residence, in which he has since 
resided. In politics he is a Republican. 

-n il? » % < l £ i j? i«-«°' 



jS^ON. WELLINGTON CANFIELD.-There 
fH are few men in Kern County whose name 
^SAg is more familiar to the people at large 
than that of Wellington Canfield. He is truly 
one of the Argonauts of California, having 
come to the State in 1850. 

He was born in the town of Alexander, Gen- 
esee County, New York, January 3, 1827. His 
parents were Augustin and Electa (Gillett) 
Canfield, natives of Roxbury, Litchfield County, 
Connecticut. He spent his boyhood in his na- 
tive county, receiving a thorough education in 
that popular and well-known school, the Gene- 
see and Wyoming Seminary. At twenty-three 
years of age his attention was attracted to the 
new El Dorado by the reported discovery of 
gold, and with two companions, Charles G. and 
Henry C. Ames, came to California, by way of 
the Isthmus, arriving at San Francisco in the 
month of August. He proceeded to the mines 
on the Merced river, and thence to Calaveras 
County. In 1851 he formed a partnership with 
F. A. Tracey, who was for many years a promi- 
nent actor in the business history of Bakersheld 
and Kern County, and they engaged in the stock 
business in Tulare County. In 1857 they con- 
tinned the business at Four Creeks, and in 1859 



in Fresno County. In 1863 they transferred 
their base of operations to Kern County, and 
pastured large bands of cattle on the then open 
range. In 1872 they commenced the purchase 
of lands, and they have from time to time added 
to their estate until they now own about 3,400 
acres, 1,200 of which lie on the north side of 
Kern river. Their well-known ranch of 2,200 
acres lies in the Canfield precinct, and it has for 
years been under the personal supervision of 
Mr. Canfield, upon which he also conducts an 
extensive dairy, milking about 300 cows; the 
milk is manufactured into cheese. This dairy 
is fitted out with modern appliances; and the 
product, owing to its excellent quality, finds a 
ready market. An abundance of artesian water 
from a well 480 feet deep supplies the dairy and 
stock. Another fea'ure, which has recently 
been added to this firm, is a newly set vineyard 
of fifty acres of Muscat raisin grapes, which is 
in a most thrifty condition. 

November 12, 1873, Mr. Canfield married 
Miss Julietta Cooley, at Attica, Wyoming 
County, New York, her native home. Mrs. 
Canfield's parents were George and Nancy 
(Hunter) Cooley. Her father was a native of 
Granville, Massachusetts, and her mother was 
born at Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New 
York. Mr. Cooley was by occupation a farmer, 
was a pioneer in western New York, and was a 
Democrat in politics, wielding an influence in 
the councils of his party. In 1844 he was a 
Presidental elector, and in 1848 a candidate for 
Congress, running far ahead of his ticket, al- 
though failing of election. Mrs. Canfield was 
educated at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, in Massa- 
chusetts, and graduated at that well-known in- 
stitution while it was under the charge of the 
celebrated Mary Lyon. She taught school in 
western New York for several years, holding a 
State certificate. She is a lady of fine domestic 
tastes, great energy and executive ability, and 
the evidence of these accomplishments are 
noticeable on every hand in and about the Can- 
tield home. 

Mr. Canfield's life has been a singularly in- 



554 



BISTORT OV CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



dnstrious and busy one. Awake to the needs 
and growing demands of a progressive country, 
he has acted promptly in, and contributed lib- 
erally to, all movements tending to the advance- 
ment of the community. In his opinions he is 
conservative, and thoroughly honest and frank 
in expressing thtm. He was chosen to repre- 
sent Kern County in the State Legislature of 
1873-'74, and his services were rendered with 
true fidelity to the highest welfare of his con- 
stituency. As a result of his many sterling 
qualities, he is held in the highest estimation 
by all who have known him. As one mark of 
the esteem, the voting precinct, as likwise the 
school district, in which he has for so many 
years lived, have been named in his honor. He 
is a quiet and unostentatious man in his life, 
and strictly temperate in his habits. He is a 
truly representative California!), and his wife 
an estimable lady; and upon the urgent sug- 
gestion of their many friends the ,publishers 
have graced this work with their portraits. 



— **<; 






¥ : %T; 0. GUARD, the Fresno County Tax 
M'/Vf Collector, was born in " Butterfly Vil- 
nSjferl lage," Mariposa County, California, 
in 1862. His father, William A. Guard, now 
deceased, emigrated to California from Illinois 
n 1850. He was a lawyer and an early County 
Clerk and District Attorney of Mariposa County. 
His death occurred when the subject of this 
sketch was quite small. 

Mr. Guard received a limited education in 
the public schools, and at the age of fifteen 
began to support himself. His mother moved 
to Fresno in 1867, and here they have since 
resided. In 1882 our subject was employed as 
secretary of the Fresno Water Company, re- 
maining with them one year and then entering 
the abstract office of William Faymonville. In 
1884 he was appointed Deputy County Clerk, 
under A. C. Williams, and occupied that position 
until the fall of 1889, when he was elected 
County Tax Collector. His duties in the clerk's 



office was connected with the Board of Super- 
visors, and were performed with entire satisfac- 
tion to all concerned. 

Mr. Guard is a charter member of Fresno 
Parlor, No. 25, Native Sons of the Golden West, 
which was established December 16, 1883. 

-.. g . » . ! ■ §, .»■ 



fAMES SCOBIE, deceased, was one of the 
respected pioneers of the Agua Caliente 
valley, Kern County, California. 
He was born in Ireland, March 17, 1828; 
spent six years as a sailor before the mast; came 
to America in 1851, and direct to California. 
After his arrival in this State, Mr. Scobie 
worked for General Banning of Los Angeles, 
driving stage between that town and Wilming- 
ton and San Pedro in 1853, remaining in his 
employ some years. In 1865 he located the 
place in Caliente which his widow now owns 
and occupies. In 1870 he went to Inyo County 
and entered a merchandising business at Lan- 
gunita, Little Lake post office. He, however, 
returned to the homestead, and died in Walker's 
Basin, February 11, 1888. 

He was married, January 4, 1876, to Miss 
Lizzie McGurck, daughter of Anderew Mc- 
Gurck, deceased, a pioneer of Walker's Basin. 
This union was blessed with one son, James, 
who is now a bright lad of ten years. Mrs. 
Scobie has successfully conducted the ranch and 
stock business since her husband's death, be- 
sides selling merchandise. She has thus shown 
herself to be a woman of affairs, having keen 
business judgment and foresight. 



flTDGE S. H. HILL. — Prominent among 
the pioneers of Fresno County we find the 
name of Judge S. 11. Hill. He was born 
in Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1822. 
His father was for many years Sheriff of that 
county, and was. serving in that capacity when 
the civil war broke out in 18(51. He took the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



555 



Confederate oath, and while in the service was 
taken prisoner by the Union army and was con- 
veyed to Dayton, Ohio. He was there treated 
with great respect, and, after a confinement of 
six months, was released and paroled. Plis 
death occurred in 1881, at the ripe old age of 
eighty-one years. 

S. H. Hill was educated in Williamson 
County, and finished his studies in the Boiling 
Spring Academy, in 1840. He then went to 
Nashville, Tennessee, where he was employed 
as clerk until the beginning of the Mexican 
war. He enlisted in " Bob" Foster's company, 
under Colonel W. G. Campbell, Second Ten- 
nessee Begiment, for one year, going to Point 
Isabella, Texas, and then across to Monterey, 
where they had a little fight, but no heavy serv- 
ice. Upon the expiration of his term of en- 
listment he went to New Orleans. There, he 
re-entered the service, enlisting in Company F 
of Second Begiment, Illinois Volunteers, and 
was elec.ed Second Lieutenant of the company. 
They were sent to Yera Cruz, but arrived after 
the battle; then to San Juan, and garrisoned 
Jalapa for six months, the city being in com- 
mand of Colonel Hughes, of Baltimore. They 
remained there until peace was declared. On 
return to New Orleans, July 4, 1848, there was 
a great demonstration, and Zachary Taylor made 
the leading speech. The regiment was then 
sent to Alton, Illinois, where they were dis- 
charged. 

Mr. Hill returned home for a visit, and soon 
afterward secured employment as steamboat 
clerk on the old Governor Jones, which plied 
between Nashville and New Orleans, remaining 
thus engaged until 1850. He then went to Bay 
County, Missouri, and for nine years taught in 
the public schools of that county. In 1859, 
with Josh. B. Craven, E. S. and Samuel Kin- 
caid, he started with ox teams for Pike's Peak. 
At Ft. Laramie they met and had a long talk 
with Horace Greeley. It was his opinion that 
Pike's Peak was over-estimated, and he advised 
them to push on to California, which they did, 
passing through Virginia City and arriving at 



Hangtown, near Placerville, in September, 
1859. Instead of visiting the mines, they 
came direct to King's river, where W. W. Hill 
a brother of our subject, was living. W. W. 
Hill was elected County Treasurer in 1868, and 
served in that capacity for six years. 

In 1862 S. H. Hill began teaching school at 
Millerton, and later at Centerville and Kingston, 
following this profession until 1875. During 
these years he served as County Superintendent 
and organized the first public school in the 
county. In 1875 he was elected Justice of the 
Peace of Fresno, and located here. For four- 
teen years, until January, 1889, he served faith- 
fully in this judicial position. During his 
residence in this county he has acquired consid- 
erable real estate, being now the owner of 320 
acres of land wes!: of Fresno, and much valu- 
able eity property. 

Judge Hill was first married in Missouri, in 
1855, to Miss Anna Kincaid. After his settle- 
ment in California she was unwilling to come 
here to reside, and they separated by mutual 
consent. By her he had two children, who have 
visited him in his western home. In 1876 lie 
was married, in Fresno, to Miss S. B. Baley, 
daughter of Judge Gillum Baley, whose sketch 
appears elsewhere in this work 

The Judge is a member of Fresno Lodge, 
No. 186, I. O. O. F. 



— <&*i 



■<•£=- 



T. B IKK HEAD, deceased, one of the 
representative citizens of Fresno County, 
was born in Yell County, Arkansas, in 
1844. His father, John Birkhead, a native of 
Kentucky, was an early pioneer of Arkansas. 
After residing in that State some years he 
pushed his way westward, and in 1857 settled 
near Merced Falls, Merced County, California, 
where he was engaged in farming and stock- 
raising until his death, which occurred in 1867. 
That same year his widow and five children — 
three sons and two daughters — moved to Fresno 
County and located on the San Joaquin river, 



556 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



near Millerton, the old county seat. Here the 
eons, G. W., B. S. and J. T. took up a section 
of school land, and began the raising of stock. 
Since then they have added to their land until 
they now own 3,000 acres. They started with 
cattle, but in 1873 changed to sheep, their flock 
averaging from 2,000 to 6,000. Their sheep 
are all Spanish merinos, and they breed for both 
wool and mutton. G. W. Birkhead died in 
1878, since which time the other brothers have 
conducted the business. They also do some 
farming in connection with their stock interests. 

J. T. Birkhead came to Fresno in 1889 to 
look after some business interests, expecting to 
remain in the city in order to give his children 
the benefit of good educational advantages. The 
family reside at the corner of P and Merced 
streets. Mr. Birkhead has been so closely occu- 
pied with his ranch interests that he has given 
little attention to public or political matters. 
He was, however, District Judge for one term 
of two years, and also served as roadmaster 

eighteen months. This occurred while he re- 
ts 

sided on the farm. He died March 14, 1891, as 
the result of a kick by a horse. 

He was married on Big Dry creek, in 1878, to 
Miss Angeline Cole, a native of California, and 
one of a family of ten daughters. Mr. and 
Mrs. Birkhead had four children, — George T., 
Ida Allyn, Joe and Ben C. 

■.• ■g . l .. fg ". 



P| B. DONAHOO, an early pioneer and 

H? prominent miner in Fresno County, was 

^ ° born in Wisconsin, in 1849, but was 

reared in Iowa, where his father moved in 1850 

and carried on farming. 

Our subject received a limited education in 
the common schools. At the age of fourteen 
years he went to Lisbon, Iowa, and entered 
upon a three years' apprenticeship to the trade 
of machinist and general blacksmith, and after 
serving his time worked at that trade two years. 
Then he served another apprenticeship of three 
years to the brick mason and plasterer's trade, 



thinking the two trades could be advantageously 
combined and would afford greater facilities for 
work in the new developments of the country. 
Being a natural mechanic, he became master of 
his trades and always commanded the highest 
wages. 

In 1868 Mr. Donahoo came to California to 
join his brother, M. J. Donahoo, who came to 
this coast in 1864 and was then established at 
Toll House, having a blacksmith shop, store 
and saw-mill. Soon afterward Mr. P. B. Dona- 
hoo became manager of the blacksmith and re- 
pair shops, and built up an extensive business. 

In 1874 the subject of our sketch was married 
to Miss Virginia Caroline Perry, a native of 
Arkansas, who came to California in infancy 
with her parents, in the company started by 
Captain Fancher, and, but for a division of the 
company, would have been in that horrible 
Mountain Meadow massacre of historic note, 
which was perpetrated by the Mormons under 
the leadership of John D. Lee. Many years 
afterward this Lee was captured and taken to 
the scene of the tragedy, and there, seated on 
his own coffin, was riddled with bullets. 

In 1876 Mr. Donahoo separated from his 
brother and went to Centerville. There he pur- 
chased an interest in the blacksmith and wagon 
shop of W. J. Hutchinson, the present assessor 
of Fresno County. Two years later he sold his 
interest in the shop and bought a ranch of 481 
acres, located near Centerville, which he still 
owns, it being now rented for wheat farming. 
In 1878 Mr. Donahoo went to the old Adobe 
placer mine on the San Joaquin river, and 
there, in partnership with his brothers, W. H. 
and M. J. Donahoo, and M. Bennett, he con- 
structed a dam, forty feet high, across the river 
to divert the water to a gravel bed which was 
very rich in mineral deposits. The dam, how- 
ever, was carried away by a freshet, a heavy loss 
was incurred and the project was abandoned. 
In 1879 he returned to Toll House and worked 
for his brother about eight months, after which 
he returned to his ranch and remained two 
years. He then purchased a ranch of 100 acres 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



557 



where the county hospital now stands, which he 
improved and sold at a considerable profit. At 
that time he moved to Fresno and has since 
made his home in this city. He is engaged 
in real estate and mining speculations, mining 
interests having occupied much of his attention 
since 1883. He is a member of the firm of 
Donahoo, Nelson, Dunlap & Co., who deal ex- 
tensively in vineyard, timber, mineral and city 
property. 

Mr. and Mrs. Donahoo have one child, Will- 
iam Avery Donahoo, who was born on the ranch 
in 1878. 

In concluding this biography we make men- 
tion of a device invented by Mr. Donahoo in 
1888, which he thinks will become prominent 
in road-sprinkling. Instead of the ordinary 
wagon and tank, he has two circular iron tanks 
which operate as wheels, and with axle connec- 
tion run as a cart. It is to be propelled by 
either steam or horse power, or gasoline engine. 
Mr. Donahoo has also just completed a new in- 
vention in the shape of a street-sweeper that is 
considered the most complete ever introduced to 
the world, as it can do double the amount of 
work that others can do and without creating 
dust, requiring no sprinkling. 



A. HODGES is one of Selma's leading 
real-estate agents and practical farmers. 
■W Q To the real-estate agent Selma owes much 
for her past and present prosperity. The real- 
estate agent has pioneered the way and by un- 
tiring efforts secured an entrance for the wedge 
of subdivision and progress that has so success- 
fully broken up the big landed estate occupied 
by an occasional shepherd or cow-boy into 
smaller holdings — the homes of intelligent and 
industrious farmers and fruit-raisers. Among 
the first gentlemen to enter the real-estate busi- 
ness at Selma was I. A. Hodges. Mr. Hodges 
has been for many years identified with this 
part of the State. He settled in the vicinity of 
Sejma, even before the town of Selma had been 



thought of, and has had a prominent part in 
the locating, constructing and operating several 
of the ditches that irrigate the country. On 
coming to the county he located a few miles 
north of Selma and entered upon the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, and for some time proved him- 
self a practical farmer. Having been here from 
the first and witnessed the transformation of 
the country from a series of wheat-fields to 
that of one continuous body of vineyards and 
orchards, and'all the while taking an active part 
in the mighty work that effected the change, he 
is possessed of that degree of knowledge of the 
country and familiarity with the location of its 
hest soil, most irrigable lands and most desira- 
ble sections neceasary to constitute him a first- 
class colonization agent and land-broker. Fully 
aware of the exigencies and demands of the 
times, Mr. Hodges has secured bonds upon 
some of the best lands in the county and has 
subdivided the same into colony lots containing 
five, ten, twenty and forty acres, which he offers 
to actual settlers on the most favorable terms. 
Knowing that water for irrigation is the chief 
object to be obtained, after the acquirement of 
good soil, Mr. Hodges has made the most satis- 
factory arrangements for furnishing water in 
abundance upon all the lands he has for sale; 
and knowing as well as any the true value, as 
well as the market value, of good lands in the 
vicinity of Selma, has secured his lands at 
prices ranging from $40 to $200 per acre, ac- 
cording to soil and location. 

One feature Mr. Hodges has added to his 
real-estate business that stamps him a man fully 
up with the requirements of the times. He has 
listed a large amount of land, subdivided into 
tracts to suit the purchaser, which he offers for 
sale on the "long-time" plan — that is to say, 
with all payments on principal deferred from 
five to eight jears, at reasonable interest an- 
nually in advance. Mr. Hodges, from his prac- 
tical knowledge of the results reached by the 
average vineyardists and orchardists, is thor- 
oughly satisfied that the purchasers of his lands 
offered on the "long- time" plan, has absolutely 



558 



U1S10UY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



no risk to run if be be blessed with ordinary 
heal tb and strength and will only exercise good 
judgment and be industrious. 

In short, Mr. Hodges is in a position to sup- 
ply the wants of homeseekers or parties seek- 
ing profitable investments. 



fP. LETCHER was born in Lancaster, 
Kentucky, May 9, 1825. His father, 
° Alexander Letcher, was a carpenter by 
trade, and one of a small family, there being 
only twenty-five Letchers in the whole United 
States. Among the cousins of E. F. Letcher 
are Governor John Letcher, of Virginia; and 
R. P. Letcher, prominent in politics and at one 
time Minister to Mexico, was his uncle. Alex- 
ander Letcher had nine children, F. F. being 
now the only surviving member of the family. 

The subject of our sketch, in 1846, enlisted 
for the Mexican service, entered the First Mis- 
souri Mounted Volunteers, was elected Orderly 
Sergeant of Company H, under Captain Rodg- 
ers, First Battalion of the First Missouri 
Mounted Volunteers, commanded by Colonel 
A. W. Doniphan, and was mustered in with the 
recdment at Fort Leavenworth, Jims 24, 1846. 
They marched to Santa Fe, then to El Paso, 
near which place w>as fought the battle of Bras- 
cita, on December 25, 1846 — a four hours' 
engagement — then to El Paso, where they re- 
mained in camp two months. The regiment 
was at the battle of Sacramento, near Chihua- 
hua, January 28, 1847. AVith 750 men, four 
pieces of artillery and two howitzers, they met 
4.200 Mexicans and nine pieces of artillery, 
well fortified on a mesa. The battle lasted 
from 1 o'clock in the afternoon until sundown, 
resulting in 750 Mexicans killed and wounded 
and on the Union side only one man killed and 
two wounded. The following day they inarched 
to Chihuahua, the city surrendered and the reg- 
iment remained in camp two months. They 
then marched to Taylor's camp, Monterey, and 
re- enlisted for three months, but were not en- 



gaged in active service and were returned to 
New Orleans, where they were discharged in 
June, 1847. 

Mr. Letcher then returned to hi6 Lome, 
where he was engaged in farming until 1850. 
In that year he started for California, in com- 
pany with his brother, crossing tlr plains with 
eight yoke of oxen and wagons, and, after a 
pleasant and uneventful journey, arrived at 
Hangtown September 5, 1850. They drove 
their oxen to Sacramento and sold them for 
$200 per yoke, after which they went to the 
mines on Trinity river, where, in company with 
Joseph Yountz, they discovered the Kenyon 
creek diggings, which was very rich. With a 
small rocker each man made $100 a day. 

In 1851 Trinity Connty was organized, and 
as deputy assessor Mr. Letcher made the first 
assessment. In the tall of 1851 he went to San 
Jose to join his brother and wife who had just 
arrived by steamer. There he purchased 151 
acres of land adjoining Lick's mill, and en- 
gaged in wheat farming, but sold half his prop- 
erty the same year to W. M. Williams. Subse- 
quently he located 160 acres of Government 
land. He was then variously employed for sev- 
eral years; was in mercantile life at Alviso, 
deputy sheriff of Santa Clara County, and in 
stock business near San Francisco. About 1856 
he went to San Luis Obispo County, bought 
2,500 acres of land and continued the stock 
business there, keeping about 800 head of cat- 
tle. In the drought of 1864 he lost all his cat- 
tle except twenty-two head. Then he turned 
his attention to the sheep business, which he 
followed quite extensively until 1871. At that 
time, fearing another dry season, he drove his 
flock of 4,700 head to Pioche, Nevada. There 
he bought four meat markets and engaged in 
butchering, selling them about a year later and 
also disposing of the remainder of his sheep. 
He then bought Floral Springs, organized a 
water company and brought water into Pioche, 
a city of 6,000 inhabitants. After the sue. 
ful completion of his scheme he sold out and 
returned to California. In Monterey County 



HISTORY OF CBNTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



559 



he was engaged in quicksilver-mining for two 
years, and, owing to depreciation of the prod- 
uct, he lost money by the operation. In 1874 
he went to the mine at Galeyville, Arizona, re- 
maining three years, with poor success, how- 
ever. He then engaged in farming in Sanse- 
mone valley, b.nt, the Indian raids being frequent 
and dangerous, he returned to California in 
1882 and settled in Fresno County. Here he 
purchased a ranch of 151 acres, situated on the 
Toll House road, which he has improved by 
planting figs, grapes and oranges. His land 
being in the warm belt and away from fogs, his 
trees and vines have attained a remarkable 
growth. 

In the fall election of 1888 Mr. Letcher was 
elected Supervisor of Fresno County for a term 
of four years. 

Mr. Letcher was married in Fulton, Missouri, 
in 1848, and his wife's death occurred in San 
Luis Obispo Couuty, California. His second 
marriage took place at San Jose, in 1868, when 
he wedded Miss Martha Young. He has two 
children, married and engaged in business in 
Portland, Oregon. 



1B|EV. P. M. BANNON was born near 
§]|ff Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, Jan- 
^H uary 11, 1852. " He studied the classics 
under a Latin teacher in Ireland; came to Cali- 
fornia at the age of seventeen; studied higher 
mathematics, surveying and engineering at St. 
Mary's College, San Francisco; studied philoso- 
phy and theology at the Franciscan College, 
Santa Barbara, and St. Vincent's College, Los 
Angeles; was ordained priest by Bishop Mora 
at the cathedral, Los Angeles, April 30, 1879; 
appointed assistant to Rev. Peter Verdaguer, at 
the Church of Our Lady of Angels; afterward 
appointed assistant to Rev. A. Ubach, at San 
Diego; then assistant to Rev. P. Carrases, at 
Yisalia; and finally, February 1, 1884, ap- 
pointed first pastor of the parish of Bakersfield, 
including Kern and Inyo counties. 



Father Bannon's labors in the vineyard of 
the Lord Jesus have met with high apprecia- 
tion and have been crowned with a most grati- 
fying success. A man possessed of a kind, sym- 
pathetic heart and a truly Christian spirit, he 
has drawn about him a wide circle of friends 
and parishioners, and is thus enabled to exert a 
wide influence for the spiritual welfare of man- 
kind. 



fHRISTIAN BACHTOLD is at the head 
of a flourishing business enterprise, the 
largest milling establishment in the vicin- 
ity of Selma, Fresno County. 

Mr. Bachtold was born in Switzerland, in the 
Canton Schaffhausen, in 1853. At the age of 
fifteen he began to learn the miller's trade, and 
served a three years' apprenticeship to it. After 
that he traveled extensively through France and 
Germany for observation and study, desiring to 
perfect himself in his trade, thereby gaining 
much useful information that has served him 
well in his career in this country. 

At the age of twenty Mr. Bachtold came to 
America and settled in Syracuse, New York 
where he engaged in the milling business for 
two years. At the expiration of that time he 
came to California, arriving in the Golden State 
on Christmas, 1875. After a short time spent 
in San Francisco, he went to Portland, Oregon, 
three months later coming back to San Fran- 
cisco. At the latter place he assumed charge 
of the G. P. McNear mill, located iu Petaluma. 
After an engagement of two years there, he 
went to Nevada and had control of a large mill- 
ing establishment eight years, being very suc- 
cessful in his work. In the meantime he in- 
vested in land, at one time owning a ranch of 
1,200 acres. He subsequently disposed of his 
property at a good profit, closed out his milling 
interest and came to Fresno County, locating 
where we find him to-day. He is now owner 
and manager of the flourishing mill at Selma. 
The exact date Mr. Bachtold took charge of 



500 



II I STORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



this establishment was April 5, 1886, purchas- 
ing the property from the Frye Bros., who 
built the mill in 1882. It was poorly equipped 
and consequently the business was an unprotit- 
able one. Its new owner at once made a few 
necessary improvements, but found that a suc- 
cessful business could not be built up without 
an entire set of new machinery. He acted ac- 
cordingly. In four months' time he began to 
improve and enlarge the building, and soon he 
had it fitted out with a full roller system of 
George T. Smith's latest improved gradual re- 
duction process. In these improvements he 
spent $7,000, but the result was gratifying 
alike to the proprietor and patrons of the mill. 
The reputation it at once acquired for making 
good flour has been maintained up to the pres- 
tirne. The product of this mill is used not only 
in Selma and vicinity, but is sent to Fowler, 
Sanger, Kingsbnrg, Traver, Huron, and even to 
Bakersfield, sixty miles distant, the capacity of 
the mill being now fifty barrels per day. 

Mr. Bachtold is personally a very popular 
man, and stands in the front rank of Salem's 
enterprising citizens. He was married, Janu- 
ary 21, 1888, to Miss Libbie Hartmann, a native 
of Indiana. 



fC. SHEPARD, City Engineer of Fresno, 
was born in Yorkshire, New York, in 
9 1852. His father, Henry Shepard, M. D., 
emigrated to Iowa in 1853, purchased 200 acres 
of land and carried on general farming. 

Mr. Shepard received his education in the 
Iowa and Michigan State universities, grad- 
uating at the latter institution in 1876. He 
then began the practice of his profession as 
engineer and surveyor in Omaha, in the employ 
of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, remain- 
ing until 1880, when he assisted in making a 
topographical survey of the Missouri and Mis- 
sissippi rivers for the United States Govern- 
ment. In 1881 he returned to the employ of 
the Union Pacific and remained until he came 



to Fresno County in 1882. He then followed 
his profession and also improved a vineyard in 
Washington colony. This property he sold and 
afterward bought forty acres near Fowler, in 
1885, which he improved and now considers 
one of the finest small vineyards in the valley. 
That same year he opened an office in Fresno, 
where he has since lived and devoted himself 
more closely to his profession. In 1885 he was 
appointed deputy county surveyor, holding the 
office until 1888, when he was appointed city 
engineer by the Board of Trustees. In 1886 
Mr. Shepard surveyed and published by con- 
tract with the Board of Supervisors, the pres- 
ent standard map of Fresno County. He en- 
tered into partnership in a general survey 
business with Mr. I. Teilman, in 1888. 

Mr. Teilman was born in Denmark, in 1860, 
and emigrated to California in 1877. He stud- 
ied his profession at the Vander Naillin En- 
glish school, San Francisco, and graduated in 
1884. The firm designed and laid out the 
Fresno sewerage system in 1889, which is con- 
sidered very complete. They also engineered 
the laying of the first bituminous rock pave- 
ment in the city. In Mr. Shepard's official 
capacity he has graded and curbed sixteen miles 
of streets about the city of Fresno. The office 
of the firm is situated on the corner of I and 
Mariposa streets. 

Mr. Shepard was marrie'd in Fresno County, 
January 1, 1888, to Miss Mary A. North, 
daughter of J. W. North, the founder of River- 
side. 

■ — ■■' ■ »^ • i"t • s 



§L. CECIL, one of the pioneers of Delano, 
aud the trusted agent of the Southern 
9 Pacific Railroad Company and Wells, 
Fargo & Company's Express lias been a 
resident of Kern County since 1874. He was 
born in McMinn County, Tennessee, February 
27, 1849; a son of Thomas Cecil, a farmer and 
stock-raiser. Mr. Cecil enlisted in the Union 
army at the age of fifteen years, and served tin- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



561 



til the close of the Rebellion ; was educated at 
the East Tennessee Wesleyan University, Athens, 
Tenneesee, and left his native State for Cali- 
fornia, May 10, 1870. He drifted into railroad 
work, and first took a position as railroad and 
express agent at Biggs station, in Butte County, 
in 1872, and has been with these companies, 
at various points, ever since. The fact of 
his general local popularity and long service 
with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and 
Wells, Fargo & Company's Express is certain 
proof of his eminent fitness for the responsible 
position he has so long and faithfully tilled. 
He is a fixture at Delano, owning one of the 
finest improved ranches which border the town 
plat, one-fourth of a mile north of this prom- 
ising town, situated in this naturally beautiful 
section of country. 

Mr. Cecil with all his other duties has found 
time to officially direct the affairs of his school 
district, and was very prominently mentioned 
as a candidate for county treasurer, but declined 
to make the fight. 

Mr. Cecil married, January 10, 1871, Miss Mary 
E. Smith, daughter of J. T. Smith, of Reynolds- 
burg, Ohio. They have six children: Cora M., 
Lewis B., Adria B., Jennie E., Mentor M. and 
Nellie A. 

fH. HALL. — A few incidents in the life of 
Selma's enterprising merchants may be 
a found in the sketch which follows. 

J. H. Hall was born in Manitowoc County, 
"Wisconsin, in 1862, and is one of a family of 
six children. He was reared and educated at 
that place and remained there until 1885, when 
he made up his mind to take a look at the Pa- 
cific coast, coming to California in that year. 
After spending three months in Stockton, he 
came to Fresno County and in May of that year 
settled in Selma, where he still resides. 

Mr. Hall at once turned his attention to the 
lumber business and has since been actively en- 
gaged in this enterprise. He is associated in 



business with Mr. Kittle, the firm name being 
Hall & Kittle. They operate a large yard and 
planing-inill in Selma and also have a branch 
yard in Kingsburg. In all matters affecting 
the growth and development of Selma Mr. Hall 
takes a lively interest, and is distinctly one of 
the most prominent citizens of the place. He 
is a member of the order of Odd Fellows. 



fOEL McMILLEN, a typical California pio- 
neer, came to this State in 1850. He is a 
native of Maine, born in Kennebec County, 
February 22, 1833. His father, Andrew Mc- 
Millen, was a coastwise mariner, and lost his 
life at sea in 1837, off the coast of Maine, 
leaving a young widow and the subject of this 
sketch, an only son about four years of age. 
He grew to manhood in his native town, and 
learned the trade of a ship-joiner. He aban- 
doned that occupation, however, and in 1849 
started for the gold fields of California. He 
first mined on Don Pedro's Bar, Tuolumne 
County, about one year, with average success, 
when he drifted into the freighting business be- 
tween Stockton and the mining towns. This 
business he successfully followed for about 
eight years, and then engaged in farming and 
stock-raising, which he has since pursued in 
San Joaquin, Tulare and Kern counties. He 
owns 800 acres of fine tillable soil near Delano, 
which is abundantly irrigated and on whiuh he 
has fine herds of stock. He has been a resi- 
dent of Kern County about twelve years, and 
has seen Delano aud the country surrounding 
gradually develop from a dry, barren plain, into 
a beautiful country, possessing all the require- 
ments for a good, healthy locality, having good 
schools and a well regulated society. 

Mr. McMillen was married March 25, 1870, 
to Miss Henrietta Matlock, a native of Otsego 
County, New York, town of Schenevus. She 
is the mother of six children: Clara A., now 
Mrs. John C. Page, living near Bakersfield; 
Clarence E., Joel W., John II., Zorayda L. and 



502 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Edith O. No man in Kern County holds a 
more honorable place in the estimation of the 
people of the county than Joel McMillen, 
being, as he is, in accord with all the best citi- 
zens of the county in all public movements and 
moral reforms. 



-*g*.-si 







SCHWARTZ, Jr., the junior member 
of the mercantile firm of M. Schwartz 
'° & Son, of Delano, is a native of Po- 
land, Germany. His father, M. Schwartz, Sr., 
a hardware merchant in that country, came to 
America, bringing with him some capital and 
a wife and three children, of whom the subject 
of this sketch is the youngest. The two older 
are: Ala Schwartz, a plumber and gasfitter; and 
Mary, now Mrs. I. S. Wolf, both of San Fran- 
cisco. The present firm of M. Schwartz & 
Sou was, prior to locating in Delano, engaged 
for about ten years in merchandising at Colum- 
bus, Nevada, when, in 1888, they sold out their 
interests and opened their present business. 
The fire of 1890, which proved disastrous to so 
many citizens of Delano, resulted in a very 
heavy loss to this enterprising firm, who carried 
a heavy stock. They recovered, however, from 
the general wreck of their business, reopened 
in temporary quarters and have just taken up 
their abode in one of the finest business blocks 
in Central California. This beautiful structure 
is built on one of the most valuable business 
corners in Delano, and is 50 x 100 feet in size. 
The walls are constructed of stone and brick 
and are surmounted with a tin roof. It con- 
tains a basement the full size of the structure, 
which is well lighted and supplied with a 
freight elevator. The front of this store con- 
tains large French glass, and the interior ar- 
rangement and finish are upon the most durable 
and modern plan. 

Mr. M. Schwartz, Jr., the subject of this 
sketch, married, in 1889, Miss Sarah Cohn, a 
native of Butte County, this State, and a daugh- 
ter of H. Cohn, a merchant of Biggs. Mr. 



Schwartz is in every essential sense an enter- 
prising citizen, and aids with an open hand 
all worthy local enterprises. 

£ ■ » ■!■ 2» 



tLBERT DILLEY, one of Fresno's business 
men, was born in Santa Clara, California, 
in 1862, son of Abraham Dilley, who for 
many years was connected with the Cook mills 
of Santa Clara. 

Young Dilley received a limited education, 
and at the age of nine years began to do for 
himself. For two years he was employed in 
dairy work at the New Almaden quicksilver 
mine; served an apprenticeship of three years 
at the carpenter's tra le at Centerville; followed 
the miller's trade three years and a half; went 
to the quartz mines on Dry creek and mined 
one year; came to Fresno and worked in the 
old Rockaway restaurant on H street for sev- 
eral years. In 1885 he made a trip through 
Colorado and Nevada, and after his return to 
California again followed mining on Dry creek, 
where he lost about all he possessed. He was 
then unsettled until November, 1890, when, in 
partnership with Mr. C. H. White, he estab- 
lished a restaurant on the corner of 1 and Mari- 
posa streets, Fresno. 

Mr. Dilley is a member of Fresno Lodge, 
No. 68, Ancient Order of Druids, and of Mono 
Tribe, I. O. R. M. 

He was married, in Shasta County, California, 
September 4, 1887, to Miss Mary E. Stiff. 
They have one child, Iva Pearl, born Novem- 
ber 27, 1888. 

§ > $!> ■■ rrrj t. ^f=3-H^^g-§ 

fAMES PORTEOUS, proprietor of the 
Fresno Agricultural Implement Works, 
represents one of the leading interests of 
Fresno County. This industry was evolved to 
meet the necessities of the vineyardists in af- 
fording facilities to more rapidly improve and 
care for the extensive vineyard interests of the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



563 



valley, and it has increased with the develop- 
ment of the country. 

Mr. Porteous was born in Haddington, Scot- 
land, in 1848. His father, William Porteous, 
and uncle, G. Porteous, were proprietors of the 
largest agricultural implement works in Scot- 
land. He was educated in his native town and 
took a special interest in studies pertaining to 
the business in which his father was engaged. 
He then entered his father's shop and learned 
the process of handling and manufacturing 
hard wood, and became skilled in his profes- 
sion. 

In 1873 he emigrated direct from Scotland to 
California. After four years spent in working 
at his trade and looking about the State, he set- 
tled in Fresno, in 1877, and started a small 
wagon-shop on the present site of the Grand 
Central Hotel, doing his own work and thus 
laying out the foundation for his now extensive 
business. 

In December, 1879, he bought five lots on 
the corner of L and Tulare streets, and moving 
his tools there and hiring a blacksmith, he 
started a more complete establishment, but still 
did his own wood work. With the manufacture 
of heavy mountain wagons, capable of carrying 
from five to eight tons, his business began to 
increase, and with the invention of his patent 
scraper in 1883, a boom set in and since then 
he has not known dull times. His scraper is 
five feet long and is used in leveling ground and 
opening ditches, and for its practical worth and 
ability has gained a wide reputation, being man- 
ufactured under a royalty in both Chicago and 
Stockton. Mr. Porteous has also in ven. ted a raisin 
mill, which will stem and grade from ten to fif- 
teen tons of raisins per day, and which is a 
great labor-saving machine. Other inventions 
of his are the Presno Weed Cutter, for clearing 
weeds from the rows and cutting underneath 
the vines, and the Fresno Five-Gang Vineyard 
Plow, so arranged as to plow close to the vines. 

Mr. Porteous has added to his land and his 
shops now cover 150 x 225 feet, being still too 
small for his extensive business. He does all 



his own moulding, casting, wood-work, black- 
smithing and painting, and has the most perfect 
and complete machinery in every department, 
his establishment being the only one in the 
State which makes a chilled two-gang plow. 
He also does an extensive business in heavy ag- 
ricultural machinery and farm wagons. In bug- 
gies and road wagons alone he carries a stock of 
$15,000. The number of hands employed in his 
establishment averages from thirty to forty. 
The word " fail " is unknown to Mr. Porte- 
ous; he says any required machine he cannot 
buy he will invent. He has extensive interests 
in both city and ranch property. 

— .~. g . » . i . S — 




ONPOE SNYDER, one of the pioneers 
of Fresno County and one of the enter- 
prising founders of the town of Selma, 
lives in quiet retirement about a half mile from 
the center of the thriving town he helped to 
build. 

Monroe Snyder was born in Holmes County, 
Ohio, July 25, 1830. His father, now deceased, 
a native of Pennsylvania, was a farmer by occu- 
pation ; and it was on a farm that young Snyder 
received his early training. At the age of twen- 
ty-one he engaged in cabinet-making for a short 
time. In 1852 he came to California, making 
the trip by water, via the Isthmus of Panama. 
For a year or more he engaged in mining, and 
then, in 1854, settled down in Yolo County, 
where he turned his attention to farming until 
1876. He owned 160 acres of fine land in that 
county, and he also cultivated much rented 
land. His farming operations were uniformly 
successful and at various times quite extensive. 
He never sought public life or office of any de- 
scription, and aside from the office of Marshal, to 
which he was elected in the town of Woodland, 
he was always to be found quietly but earnestly 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was one 
of the first farmers to locate in Yolo County. 

In 1876 Mr. Snyder settled in Fresno Coun- 
ty. Some unfortunate operations in real estate 



564 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



just before leaving Yolo County had reduced 
his bank account, which had been a good one, 
to almost nothing. And it so happened that with 
$65 in his pocket, a wife and six children, he 
landed in this county and took up 160 acres of 
land, commenced farming and has here contin- 
ued to reside. At that time there was not a 
neighbor within four miles, and not a green 
weed in sight. Four years later we find him 
actively engaged in building the town of Selma, 
and much of its present prosperity is due to his 
energetic efforts. He was one of four who owned 
the town site, and in order to enlarge and de- 
velop the settlement he actually gave away a 
large part of the one-fourth interest, which he 
originally owned, to settlers who would be an 
addition and benefit to the town. He had un- 
limited confidence in the future of this valley, 
and the opinion he formed fifteen years ago has 
never been changed. 

Mr. Snyder has acquired some property of 
late years, but is not now actively engaged in 
land operations. Modest and unassuming, he is 
greatly respected in the com in unity in which he 
has been a resident so long. 

In 1858 he made a visit of five months to his 
old home in Ohio, and during that time was 
fortunate enough to meet the lady who four 
years later became his wife. She is a native of 
Holmes County, Ohio, and her maiden name 
was Jaue Elizabeth Lemon. Mrs. Snyder has 
rendered her husband invaluable assistance in 
his career in both Yolo and Fresno counties. 
Their happy union has resulted in a family 
of niue children, the two oldest being deceased. 
Those living are as follows: Jeanie Marsha, 
Charles Curtis, Lizzie Anuetta, Monroe Oal- 
bert, Harry Worth, Carl Ross and Myrtle Opal. 



fRANTZ S. BENSON, of Delano, is a na- 
tive of the State of Missouri, born at the 
town of Linn, the county seat of Osage 
County, December 9, 1862, a son of Hugh Ben- 
son, a pioneer of Osage County and a farmer of 



the town of Linn. He died in Linn, July 22, 
1881, at sixty-five years of age. Mr. Benson's 
mother, Nancy Moore, is a daughter of Patrick 
Moore, also a pioneer of Osage County, and for 
many years served as Justice of the Peace. 

The subject of this sketch received a good ed- 
ucation in the public schools of his native place, 
and also took a course of study at Hooper In- 
stitute, in Missouri. He commenced teaching 
school in 1880, in the Osage County public 
schools, later occupied a position as tutor in 
Hooper Institute, afterward taught in the pub- 
lic schools of Cowley County, Kansas, and two 
years in Stanislaus County, California. He lo 
cated at Delano in 1888, and for two years took 
charge of the Delano schools. In 1890 he was 
elected Justice of the Peaue for the Delano dis- 
trict. He holds a commission as Notary Pub- 
lic, and is also doing a general insurance bus- 
iness. He was married August 21, 1884, to 
Miss N. E. Allee, a daughter of Buford Allee, 
a native of Missouri. Mrs. Benson's paternal 
grandfather was a pioneer of Missouri, and was 
a friend and personal acquaintance of Daniel 
Boone. Mr. Benson has one son, Edward. He 
owns one quarter section of land near Delano, 
and as a citizen stands high in his community. 



fOHN CURTIS HERRINGTON, proprie- 
tor of the saddlery and harness establish- 
ment, Nos. 1918 and 1920 Mariposa street, 
Fresno, is a native of New York, born in 
Greenwich in 1854. 

Mr. Herringtou's education was obtained in 
the common schools and academy of his native 
town, and at the age of fifteen he was appren- 
ticed, at Fair Haven, Vermont, to learn the 
trade of saddler and harness-maker. After 
three years' service in Vermont, he returned to 
New York State, drifted from town to town, 
and worked as opportunity offered. 

In 1876 he came to California and first set- 
tled at Merced, where he secured a position 
with Mr. II. W. Leeker, harness-maker, remain 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



565 



ing with him until September, 1882. He then 
came to Fresno, and in partnership with Mr. 
Leeker opened a small harness store on Mari- 
posa street. Two years later Mr. Herrington 
purchased his partner's interest, and has since 
continued the business alone. In 1887 he 
bought the "Weaver & Dunbar building and 
moved his stock into his present spacious apart- 
ments. His salesroom is 25 x 80 feet, work-shop 
25 x 40 feet, and the number of men employed, 
ten. The best grade of harness is manufac- 
tured here, with Henry Steintniller, an experi- 
enced workman, in charge. Mr. Herrington 
keeps a large stock of harness, saddles, blankets 
and all other horse furnishings; also does car- 
riage trimming and all other repair work in the 
leather line. He has a fine artificial display 
horse, which is said to be the only one in the 
county. 

Mr. Herrington was married at Modesta, in 
1882, to Miss Kate Williams, and has two chil- 
dren, Mabel and Lewis. They reside on the 
corner of J and Stanislaus streets, and Mr. 
Herrington owns other improved city property, 
and also some outside lots. He is a member of 
Merced Lodge, No. 208, 1. O. O. F. Mr. Her- 
rington has been identified with the best inter- 
ests of Fresno ever since he established his 
home here. As a citizen, he is much respected 
by all who know him. 



►*-*« 



§R. E. E. BROWN, the son of Lawrence M. 
Brown, and the grandson of Hon. Elam 
Brown, distinguished pioneers of Contra 
Costa County, California, was born in that 
County, December 3, 1857. The Hon. Elam 
Brown, deceased, and his family emigrated to 
California in 1846. He was the second pioneer 
resident of Contra Costa County, and was 
greatly respected and beloved by all who knew 
him. Lawrence M. Brown, his third son, also 
deceased, was born in Illinois, and moved with 
his father to this coast in- 1846. 

Dr. E. E. Brown was well educated at his 



home, and subsequently attended the Berkeley 
University, where he graduated with honor. 
He early developed a taste for the medical pro- 
fession, and for a time studied in San Francisco. 
He afterward went East, continued his studies 
in Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated at the 
Hospital College of Medicine in that city in 
1882. 

Returning to California, Dr. Brown settled in 
Selma, Fresno County, where he has since con- 
tinued to reside, engaged in the active practice 
of medicine and surgery. He enjoys a lucrative 
practice, and is well and favorably known 
throughout this locality. He is the Coroner of 
this county, and also holds the position of 
Health Officer in Selma, a position he has held 
for more than a year. He is a member of the 
Board of Pension Examiners, whose duties 
extend throughout the entire San Joaquin val- 
ley, from Stockton to Los Angeles. Another 
important office he fills is that of official exam- 
iner in this locality for the largest life insurance 
companies in the East. He was married July 
27, 1884, to Miss Blanche Cullom, daughter of 
Judge Cullom of Selma. They have one son. 

1?|K. ALFRED D. MoMASTER was born in 
1115 Nortl1 Carolina, December 13, 1854. 
wf His childhood and youth were spent at 
his home, and at the age of seventeen he went to 
Kansas and Missouri, looking for business open- 
ings, in the latter State he lived four years, 
engaged in the mercantile business. 

At the age of thirteen, when near his home, 
in North Carolina, our subject met with a teri- 
ous accident. He was engaged in felling a tree, 
and had almost severed the large trunk, when, 
by an unexpected motion, it suddenly broke, and 
as the Doctor expresses it, the tree "kicked" 
him, crushing his limb close to the hip. Ampu- 
tation was necessary, and was resorted to at 
once, the Doctor losing his entire left leg. 

After his business career in Missouri, he com- 
menced the study of medicine in St. Louis, 



5G6 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL OAJAFORNIA. 



entering the medical college there, and gradu- 
ating in the year 1879. He then began the 
practice of his profession in Springfield, after 
which he practiced in Arkansas for a short 
time. In the spring of 1882 he came to Cali- 
fornia, opened a drug store in Mendocino 
county, and also practiced his profession there 
for three years. His next move was to Santa 
Rosa, Sonoma County. Eight months later, in 
1886, he came to Selma, Fresno County, where 
he has since continued to reside. Here he has 
a general practice of medicine and surgery, and 
is eminently successful. 

Dr. McMaster has been twice married. His 
first wife, nee Miss Delina J .Reed, a native of 
Missouri, died April 19, 1886. Of the three 
children she bore, one is now living. His 
second marriage was in November, 1888, with 
Miss Nellie Turner, a native of Merced County, 
California. By her he has one child. 



WILLIAM T. SUTTENFIELD is a na- 
tive of California, born in Mariposa 
County, March 12, 1861. His father, 
now a resident of San Bernardino County, was 
a pioneer, coming to the State in 1849 and en- 
gaging in the stock business. William T. was 
educated in the city of Stockton, which was the 
family home for a number of years. After 
completing his studies he went to Nevada, 
where, like his father, he gave his time and at- 
tention to stock-raising. Four years later he 
returned to Stockton and engaged in the lumber 
business, in which he has been interested ever 
since with the exception of one year he spent 
in San Bernardino County. At Stockton he 
was in the employ of Messrs. Moore & Smith 
for three years; became a skilled lumberman and 
was popular with his employers. It was in 
1889 that he came to Selma and purchased the 
interest of D. B. Stephens, the pioneer lumber- 
man of the town, and since then has successfully 
carried on his business here, greatly enlarging 




the business so that at pre: jnt it is a very pro- 
fitable one. 

Mr. Suttenfield has a twenty-acre raisin 
vineyard near Selma, one year old, which will 
yield its owner a good profit the coming season. 
He is a member of the Native Sons of the 
Golden West, Knights of Pythias and the 
Ancient Order of Foresters. 

Mr. Suttenfield is unmarried. 

£&■§&-*& 



WfFff. P- MILLER, M. D., proprietor of the 
WAvi'lf Popular Drug Store, Fresno, was born 

['"^Mo jn Camden, Knox County, Maine, in 
1859. He received his literary education in 
the Waterville Classical Institute, Waterville, 
Maine, graduating in 1879, after which he took 
a medical course at the University of Vermont, 
and graduated in medicine and surgery in 1883. 
Dr. Miller began the practice of his profes- 
sion in Bristol, Maine, and was located there 
until 1888, when he came to California. Sep- 
tember 1, of that year, he opened an office in 
Fresno, and conducted a general practice until 
April, 1889. At that time he was induced to 
establish the Popular Drug Store, No. 1145 J 
street, which he has since successfully conducted. 
The Doctor is a member of and medical ex- 
aminer for Fresno Lodge, No. 186 I. O. O. 1'. 
He is also associated with Mono Tribe, No. 68, 
I. O. R. M., being Sachem of the tribe. 

Dr. Miller was married at Bristol, Maine, in 
1888, to Miss Emma Smith. 

fEORGE C. MOORE, an enterprising 
young man residing in the Wild Flower 
JO D 

district, Fresno County, California, is a 

native of Pike County, Missouri, born July 30, 
1863. At the age of nineteen he went to 
Wellsville, that State, where he attended the 
best schools of the neighborhood for two years. 
At the expiration of that time he started for 
California. Arrived in the Golden State, he set- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



567 



tied near Minturn station, Fresno County, and 
there for a time engaged in the cattle business 
with S. N. Straube. These gentlemen now own 
and operate one of the finest stock ranches in 
the valley, located eight miles from Selma and 
sixteen miles from Fresno. It consists of 160 
acres, and is well equipped for the purposes in- 
tended. Among the horses raised here are some 
fine specimens. A visit to this ranch will 
amply repay the tourist. 

Mr. Moore also has land interests in his old 
home in Missouri. He is unmarried. 



■^~£*< 



»*-£=- 



tLEXANDER P. DAVIS, a pioneer, was 
born in Pennsylvania, November 12, 
... 1826. His paternal ancestors originated 
in Wales, his grandfather Davis having been 
born there. George Davis, his father, was a 
native of Pennsylvania and a soldier in the 
war of 1812. His mother, nee Rebecca Por- 
ter, was born in Virginia, her father being a 
native of the Old Dominion and her mother of 
Ireland. To George Davis and his wife nine 
children were born, Alexander P. being the fifth 
and one of the four now living. 

Until he reached his twentieth year his life 
was spent in his native State — reared on a farm 
and educated in the public schools. He then 
went to Virginia, and for nine years was engaged 
in cultivating lands belonging to his aunt. In 
1856 he came to California, located in Placer 
County and mined for seven years, meeting 
with moderate success. He has never since 
lost his interest in miniug, and is still to some 
extent engaged in developing mines; is the dis- 
coverer of one in Fresno County. He has a 
quartz-mill, and a road is now being improved 
from it to the mine, which will soon be in ac- 
tive operation. He and his partners have assays 
of the ore, ranging from $30 to $600 per ton. 
They have named their mines Oranhana, Moni- 
tor, Peeler and Dipper. Mr. Davis has also 
been in the timber business in Tulare, Cala- 
veras and Santa Cruz counties, having followed 



that business thirteen years. For twelve years 
he did an ice business in Fresno and Tulare 
counties. He came to his present location in 
Tulare County in 1888, purchased 329 acres of 
land, built a comfortable home and planted trees 
and vines. One hundred and twenty acres are 
devoted to Muscat grapes, and both vines and 
trees are in a flourishing condition. He also 
has eighty acres of land on the West side, and 
is raising wheat and some stock. 

In 1880 Mr. Davis returned East and married 
Dranna L. Baker, a lady he had known when 
they were both young. They now reside at 
their pleasant home on the ranch, surrounded 
by all that goes to make life happy in this sunny 
clime. 

Before the war he entered the service as 
Second Lieutenant in the One Hundred and 
Forty-fourth Virginia Artillery Company, 
being promoted to Captain of the company. 
He is in politics a stanch Republican, and is 
one of Tulare County's most honorable and 
reliable citizens. 



§AVID C. ABBOT, the first and only sue. 
cessful carriage and wagon manufacturer 
in Delano, opened his shops in Decem- 
ber, 1886, under any but encouraging circum- 
stances, the citizens of the town even telling 
him that there was not patronage enough to be 
had from the surrounding country to warrant 
the investment in a decently equipped shop and 
furnish the investor a competency. Mr. Abbot, 
however, commenced the erection of his shops, 
pushed them to completion and commenced bus- 
ness, and the good citizens of the town with 
himself were surprised, to see the business come 
from a circuit of thirty to forty miles about 
Delano. The secret of his snecess is briefly 
explained by saying that he is a thorough 
mechanic, learned his trade by a long service 
near Columbus, Ohio, and has assiduously fol- 
lowed it from the time of his youth. 

He is a nati e of Morris County, New Jer- 



568 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



eey, born J line 9, 1836. He left liome at sev- 
teen years of age, and at the age of twenty-one, 
had acquired a knowledge and skill in his 
adopted calling, and started for California. He 
located at San Jose, where he manufactured 
carriages and wagons for twenty years, and built 
up an excellent business reputation. He closed 
out his interests there and came to Delano at 
the above named date. He started in, and still 
pursues the general olacksmithing and wagon- 
making business. In the face of some compe- 
tition, his business still increases and thrives. 
In connection with this, he sells a large quan- 
tity of agricultural implements, and deals also 
in coal, iron and lumber, in which lines of 
industry he is the pioneer. He also has the first 
and only carriage-painting establishment in the 
city. Thus he has become identified with the 
material growth of Delano. He is a Republi 
can from birth, and is proud of the fact. He 
married at Oroville, California, in 1861, Miss 
Alary Escudaro, a daughter of Dr. Escudaro 
State of Jalisco, Mexico. She died in 1879, in 
Santa Clara County, leaving two daughters and 
two sons now living; four children are deceased. 



tB. BUTLER is another one of the pros- 
perous citizens of the Wild Flower Dis- 
a trict, Fresno County, California. 

He was born in North Carolina in the year 
1845. Soon after his birth the family home 
was moved to Alabama, where he lived until he 
reached his twenty- third year. After the usual 
common-school education, his boyhood was 
mainly spent on his father's farm, and it was 
there that he obtained ideas of farmino- and 
stock-raising that bave been of invaluable aid 
to him in his California career. 

During the Rebellion, Mr. Butler served in 
the Confederate army, and was in many im- 
portant engagements, holding the position of 
Sergeant in his company. 

In 1868 he made a prospecting tour through 
Texas, Mexico, Arizona and California, returning 



home only to start for the Pacific coast again in 
1871, and this time to make it his home. The 
entire family came to California then and settled 
in Yolo County. Mr. Butler remained there 
for ten years, engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
with good success. 

In 1877 he had purchased a plat of land in 
Fresno County, his present location, ten miles 
from Seltna, and in 1881 moved to this locality. 



Here he is encraged in 



leral far mi ne and 



. general farming 
stock-raising. He added other lands to his first 
purchase, and now owns about 600 acres in the 
Wild Flower district. He also has a thriving 
vineyard of seventy-five acres, from which he 
expects much in the near future. His comfort- 
able residence is beautifully situated, long rows 
of handsome cypress trees leading to the main 
highway. Mr. Butler devotes all his time to 
his ranch interests, except when called away to 
attend to public duties, which is not infrequently 
the case. He is the present Supervisor of 
the Fourth district of Fresno County, his term 
of office lasting four years from January 1, 1891. 
He was elected to this office on the Democratic 
ticket in a district which is strongly Republican, 
a flattering tribute to his popularity in this sec- 
tion. He is one of the directors of the Selma 
irrigation district, and for a long time was one 
of the directors of the Fowler Switch Canal 
Company. 

In 1880 Mr. Butler wedded Miss Mary 
Stephens, a native of Yolo County, California. 
They are the parents of three children. 



fAVID S. COHN, junior member of the 
firm of Cohn & Co., and the pioneer 
merchant of Dinuba, arrived at this place 
in November, 1888, before a blow had been 
struck, put up a temporary store building, 
18 x 30 feet, moved his goods in a wheelbarrow 
from the rail road near by, and established bnai 
ness in a s:nall way, being here a year before 
the senior member of the firm, Mr. S. Oohn, 
came to town. As the town and surround incr 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



569 



country became settled, their business grew, 
and the following year, 1889, it was found nec- 
essary to have larger facilities for doing busi- 
ness. They then erected a building of adobe 
and concrete, 50 x 85 feet, in which they are 
now doing an extensive business, dealing in all 
kinds of general merchandise. They have done 
their share in helping to build up the town and 
advance its interests, and their success has 
been most satisfactory. The firm have also in- 
vested in lands, and are interested in the pro- 
duction of raisin grapes. They own 320 acres 
of choice lands, and of this, 140 acres are 
already set to vines, the rest to be planted to 
the same the ensuing spring. 

Mr. S. Cohn, senior member of the firm, re- 
sides in San Francisco. The subject of this 
sketch has been associated with him in business 
since 1876, having been located at different 
places. Both are natives of Germany. 

David S. Cohn's father came from Germany 
to this country in 1861, and since his arrival 
here has heen a prominent merchant of Butte 
County. Reared in Butte County and brought 
up to the mercantile business with his father. 
David early acquired a thorough knowledge of 
the practical details of his work, and since he 
was seventeen has been in business for himself. 
He is as thoroughly identified with California 
and her interests as if he were a native son of 
the golden West. 



Utf HOMAS E. TAGGART, M. D., was born 
in Chester, Randolph County, Illinois, 

tJK December 25, 1861, son of John L. and 
Anne E. Taggart. His father was also a native 
of Illinois, and was a farmer and stock-raiser 
by occupation. Thomas attended the home 
schools, spent one year in the high school at 
Sparta, Illinois, and two years at the National 
Normal School, Lebanon, Ohio, and afterward 
entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
at Chicago, where he spent three years and 
graduated February 22, 1886. He then re- 

36 




turned home, and two months later came to 
California, arriving at Los Angeles, April 19, 
1886; thence to Tulare, and from that place to 
his present location in Delano, Kern County. 
Here he has established a fine practice, and is 
held in high esteem, both as a skillful physi- 
cian and as a worthy citizen. Dr. Taggart has a 
twin brother, Charles F. Taggart, who is a 
prominent and successful practicing physician 
of Tulare. 

The Doctor was married December 23, 1888, 
to Miss Abbie V. Denny, daughter of J. R. 
Denny, of Los Angeles. 



D. NELSON was born in Lee Count}', 
Iowa, in 1847. His father, John M. 
Nelson, an extensive farmer and 
stock-raiser, crossed the plains to California in 
1850, and two years later returned to Iowa with 
$16,000 — the result of his labors in the mining 
districts of this State. His death occuired in 
1857. 

In 1862, W. D. Nelson, with his mother and 
her family, moved to California and settled at 
Linden, San Joaquin County. At the age of 
nineteen he began to work for himself and en- 
gaged in teaming from Shingle Springs to Vir- 
ginia City, which he followed about two years, 
and then turned his attention to wheat farming- 
near Stockton. In the latter occupation he did 
an extensive business, sowing from 1,000 to 
2,000 acres in wheat. Being with the machine 
durino- the threshing season, he learned engineer- 
ing, and in 1874 accepted the position of en- 
gineer at the Paradise flour mill in Stanislaus 
County. In 1876 he became interested in a 
raining claim near Coulterville. The venture, 
however, was a losing one, and he abandoned his 
interest in it and returned to agricultural pur- 
suits, which he followed until 1882. His 
knowledge of heavy farm machinery gained for 
him a position with the Northwestern Manu- 
facturing Car Company, and later with Hawley 



570 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Brothers, of San Francisco, as traveling sales- 
man through California. 

In 1886 Mr. Nelson settled at Traver, as a 
member of the firm of Kitchner & Co., in the 
business of warehouse, agricultural implements, 
rtal estate and insurance, and in 1888 he or- 
ganized the Traver Warehouse & Business As- 
sociation, where he remained until he came to 
Fresno in 1889. He here accepted a position 
with the Fresno Agricultural Implement Works, 
as solicitor and collector, remaining with them 
until September, 1890, when he became mana- 
ger of the Fresno branch store of Truman, 
Hooker & Co., of San Francisco, in the han- 
dling of general hardware, agricultural imple- 
ments and road and farm wagons. 

Mr. Nelson was married at Stockton in 1871, 
to Miss Mary E. Garrison. They are the 
parents of three children: Eva, William Garri- 
son and Albert Leroy. 

The following are the fraternities with which 
Mr. Nelson is connected: Traver Lodge, No. 
292, F. & A. M.; of Chapter No. 44, R. A. M., 
of Visalia; Mt. Whitney Lodge, I. O. O. F.; 
and the A. O. U. W., of Traver. 

fEORGE M. KOBLER, manager of the 
Kohler House, Fresno, was horn in Den- 
mark in 1854. At the age of fifteen, 
after having received a limited education, he 
was apprenticed to the trade of carpenter and 
wheelwright. 

In 1874 Mr. Kohler emigrated to the United 
States and direct to California. He found em- 
ployment on the wheat ranch of Friedlander & 
Chapman in Fresno County, where he worked 
two years. Then he was employed at his trade 
on the Madera flume. In 1878 he came to 
Fresno and opened a butcher shop, which busi- 
ness he followed until 1888. During the boom 
he wa6 very successful in real-estate transac- 
tions. In 1889 Mr. Kohler rented the Tremont 
House, of thirty rooms, corner of I and Inyo 
streets. lie changed the name to the Kohler 



House, and is now managing the hold in a 
most satisfactory manner. He contemplates 
erecting a new hotel in the same locality in the 
near future. 

Mr. Kohler was married in Fresno, in 1882, 
to Miss Lottie Pickford. 







ILLIAM L. TADLOCK is a native of 
Anderson County, Tennessee, horn Au- 
gust 7, 1865. He was brought up on a 
farm, which was then the family home; but, 
unlike most farmers' sons, he was favored in his 
educational opportunities. After attending the 
public schools he entered Roane College in 
Roane County, Tennessee, and there completed 
his studies. He then taught school for two 
years in Kansas, and, in 1887, came to Califor- 
nia to try his luck, thinking his business chances 
better here than in the East. 

For a time Mr. Tadlock was employed in 
Traver, Tulare County, after which he visited 
Kern County and finally, in 1889, settled in 
Selma, Fresno County. At present he is en- 
gaged in the livery business in this flourishing 
town. He enjoys a good patronage, and con- 
ducts a very popular and well-equipped stable. 

Mr. Tadlock is one of the pioneers in a sec- 
tion known as the West Side, located forty 
miles from Selma, which promises to he a 
thriving settlement in the near future. He 
located 160 acres of land in that locality in 
1888, and still owns the property. The future 
outlook for this land is flattering, the soil being 
adapted for raisin culture. 



^^e©i. 



> 



S. WYATT is ranked among the early 
pioneers of California, and as such 
deserves mention in this work. A 
review of his life, briefly stated, is as follows : 
W. S. Wyatt was horn in Bardstown, Ken- 
tucky, September 29, 1823, and was reared in 
Montgomery County, Missouri, to which place 




BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



571 



his parents emigrated in 1825. He received a 
limited education in the subscription schools of 
that period, which were held in log school- 
houses, and afterward learned the trade of black- 
smith with his lather, following that trade until 
1841. In that year he went to St. Louis to try 
mercantile life, but returned home in 1844 to 
superintend his father's farm and shop. In 
1846 he went to Fort Leavenworth and en- 
listed in Company I, Second Regiment, Missouri 
Mounted Volunteers, under Colonel Sterling 
Price. They were sent to Santa Fe and remained 
there one year, having no heavy fighting but 
some skirmishing in the surrounding towns; re^ 
turned to Ft. Leavenworth and were discharged. 
After receiving his discharge, Mr. Wyatt 
went home and again took the management of 
the farm and shop. In 1850 he set out for Cal- 
ifornia. The company in which he traveled 
waa formed by Dr. W. W. Bland and was com- 
posed of seventeen men, their outfit consisting 
of four wagons with four yoke of oxen to each 
wagon. They crossed by Fort Kearney and 
Fort Laramie and the South Pass, arriving at 
Hangtown, September 2, 1850. After selling 
their teams, Mr. Wyatt began mining at Rough 
and Ready, Nevada County. In April, 1852, 
he left the mines and engaged in teaming from 
Stockton to Coulterville, following that occu- 
pation until 1856, when he came to Fresno 
County and settled at Fresno Crossing, work- 
ing at his trade and miuing there until 1859. 
In that year he went to Millerton, and in March, 
1860, was appointed Deputy Sheriff under J. 
Scott Ashman. In 1866 and 1867 he served 
one term as County Assessor; after that fol- 
lowed various occupations until 1874, when he 
came to Fresno. In 1875 he was again ap- 
pointed Deputy Sheriff under J. Scott Ashman, 
and under succeeding sheriffs, E. Hall and O. 
•I. Meade, he continued as deputy until 1887. 
Since then his attention has been given to his 
own private affairs. He has built a number of 
houses on G street, which he has rented. 

Mr. Wyatt was married at Sacramento, in 
1884, to Mrs. Georgiana Wood. They reside 



in quiet contentment in their comfortable home 
at the corner of G- and San Benito streets, 
Fresno. 

B. LOWRY was born in Hempstead 
County, Arkansas, July, 1852. His 
father, now residing in San Bernardino 
County, California, was a farmer in his Eastern 
home, and our subject therefore spent his early 
days on a farm. In 1861 the family moved to 
California, crossing the plains to the San Joa- 
quin valley, the trip consuming six months and 
twenty-one days. 

In this valley Mr. Lowry engaged with his 
father in farming for several years. In 1869 
he launched out in business for himself, takino- 
up a quarter section of land in Fresno County, 
on which he was engaged in farm work, stock- 
raising, etc., for a period of sixteen years, after 
which he located in Fresno. There for three 
years he conducted one of the most popular 
livery stables in the place. In February, 1889, 
he came to Selma, and has been in this thriving 
town ever since He is the proprietor of the 
St. George livery stable, the largest one in 
Selma, and does a flourishing business. 



fAURE BROS., of Delano, consisting of 
Peter and Joseph, occupy an important 
position as citizens and business men of 
Delano. They are of French nativity, and emi- 
grated from their native home in the high Alps 
mountain regions of France to California in 
1881. Like many other young men of their 
race they arrived here with no capital but an 
honest determination and strong and willing 
hands to legitimately make their way in the 
world. They were reared to the business of 
farming in the mounta.ns of France, and dis- 
ciplined to industry and frugal habits of living. 
Of their father's family. Jack is the eldest, and 
is a professional clerk in the world-renowned 



572 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



cafe of Delmonico, in New Toik city; Cyril 
came first to California in 1880, and is married 
and a resident of Porterville; Peter, Frank and 
Joseph followed in 1881. All of these four 
brothers have been successful sheep-raisers, and 
have ranged their stock in the vicinity of 
Delano. The Fame Eros, are dealers in mer- 
chandise in Delano, having sold out their sheep 
business. They are credited in business circles 
as straightforward business men, and are build- 
ing up a lucrative trade. 



fPANK E. TADLOCK, Jr., son of F. E. 
Tadlock, Sr., a native of Kentucky, was 
**> born in Provo City, Utah, in 1854, while 
his parents were en route for California, arriv- 
ing here wheu but a few months of age and was 
therefore practically a native Califomian. He 
lived with his parents in Oakland for two years, 
then for fifteen years in Merced County, but 
before he reached his majority he pushed out 
for the interior and was engaged for some time 
in sheep-raising and mining enterprises. In 
1870 lie came to Fresno and engaged in the 
insurance business. Mr. Tadlock was a self- 
made man and acquired his education by per- 
sonal effort and contact with the world. He was 
successful and made a steady advancement in 
the volume of business. Mr. T. was iden- 
tified with the interests of Fresno County for 
twenty years; he was a splendid business man, his 
judgment on real estate ranked highly and was 
much sought after. He will be remembered 
for his many good qualities of head and heart, 
and for his many kindly acts. The personifiea 
tion of honesty and integrity, he had the confi- 
dence of all who entrusted him with their business, 
and in a social way one of the most popular of 
men. Pie transacted much business for Dodge, 
Sweeney & Co., Balfour Guthrie, and many 
other men of large means, though men of small 
means received the same attention and consider- 
ation. About four years ago his health began 
to fail, but, being ambitious and energetic, he 



could not take time for a much needed rest; he 
gradually grew worse. He visited Arizona, but 
returned little improved. Again at close ap- 
plication to business he failed more rapidly, 
though he labored on, never giving up, continu- 
ing at his post when life was fast ebbing away. 
On the 22d of February, after repeated attack B of 
stomach trouble, ot which he had been a long suf- 
ferer, he went to San Rafael, Highland Springs 
and Santa Cruz, thence to San Jose. He tailed 
to derive any benefit whatever, but continued to 
grow weaker. With his wonderful energy and 
determination, he traveled home, where, after 
ten days of suffering he passed away. 

Pie was unmarried, but kept a home where he 
supported and so affectionately cared for his 
widowed sister and little niece. He died on the 
13th of May, surrounded by his loved ones and 
numerous friends. His death was widely and 
sincerely mourned. 



■IpyENRY LANZ, proprietor of the Fresno 

IIh} Soap Works, was born in Southern Ger- 

;£<(f many in 1850. He obtained his education 

in the public schools and learned his trade under 

his father, who was a manufacturer. 

At the age of nineteen Mr. Lanz emigrated to 
the United States and located in Eudora, Kan- 
sas, where he found employment as a clerk in 
the general merchandise store of Pilla Bros., 
remaining there two years. He then went to 
Colorado, and in the mining settlements of 
Georgetown and Central City passed two years. 
In 1873 he came to California and was em- 
ployed in a hotel at Alvarado until 1875. In 
that year he returned to Germany to visit his 
home and to acquire further knowledge of soap 
manufacture. After one year of study, in com- 
pany with his brother, Louis Lanz, he came 
back to California and in partnership with him 
started a soap manufacturing establishment, 
which, in 1882, they moved to Oakland. Louis 
Lanz is still carrying on the business there. 
Henry sold his interest in 1885 and came to 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



573 



Fresno. He purchased a lot, 125 x 150 feet, on 
F street, put up buildings and started his Pio- 
neer soap manufactory. Here he is engaged in 
the manufacture of Lanz' Cold Water Borax 
Bleaching Soap, and family, laundry and toilet 
soaps. He also manufactures sal soda. His 
business is rapidly increasing and he expects to 
enlarge facilities as requirements demand. 



Wl EOPOLD VIGNAVE is one of the promi- 
ju/ff nent members of the French colony in Cen- 
%F^ tral California, and a genuine pioneer of 
Kern County. He was born in Basque, France, 
November 25, 1835, and emigrated to America 
and to California in 1856. He immediately 
engaged in mining in El Dorado County for two 
years when he went to Santa Barbara County, 
and followed the stock business at Bucario. In 
1864 he came to Kern County and continued in 
the same business, ranging his stock on the site 
of the growing little city of Bakersfield. Mr. 
Vignave is a typical Frenchman, socially in- 
clined, reliable and frugal in all his business 
relations. He located at Granite station, Kern 
County, in 1888, where he conducts a comfort- 
able hotel and wine rooms, and is also the Uni- 
ted States Postmaster of Elmer post office. He 
suffered the death of his wife in 1884, since 
which time he has remained single. 

tAMPSON OTHELLO MARSHALL, a 
resident of the prosperous and thrivino- 
Wild Flower district, Fresno County, was 
born in Missouri, February 25, 1849. He is 
the oldest of a family of seven children. The 
son of a prosperous farmer, he was reared and 
educated on a farm. In 1866 the entire family 
moved to California, the voyage via the Isthmus 
of Panama consuming twenty-three days. After 
a year spent in Solano, Mr. Marshall bought 
property in Yolo County, and there resided 
until 1886, actively and successfully engaged in 



farming. In 1886 he moved to the Wild 
Flower district, where he is now engaged in the 
stock business. His ranch here consists of 160 
acres, forty of which are devoted to the culture 
of raisin grapes. The vines being two years old 
will soon yield the owner a handsome profit. 
Mr. Marshall also owns 160 acres of land in 
Mendocino district, which he rents. 

He was married in the year 1878, to Miss 
Hattie Van Patten, a native of Contra Costa 
Count}', California. Their family consists of 
four children. 



fOSEPH SPINNEY, the pioneer brick- 
maker of Fresno, was born in Cadiz, Spain, 
and at the age of twelve yiars emigrated to 
the United States, landing at Cape Ann. After 
working on a farm for three years, he was em- 
ployed in a brick-yard at Booth Bay, Maine, 
where he remained four years and learned the 
trade of brick mason as well as that of brick 
manufacturer. He then beojan makincr brick 
and shipping to the Boston market. 

In April, 1877, Mr. Spinney came to Cali- 
fornia and settled at Fresno. He immediately 
established a brick-yard, as the nearest point at 
which brick was made was Visalia. Having no 
capital he began business in a small way, suf- 
ficient, however, to meet the demand at that 
time. His was the only yard in town for sev- 
eral years, and he furnished brick for all the 
early buildings. Also being a mason, Mr. 
Spinney did contract work, and during the rapid 
growth of Fresno he had an extensive and lu- 
crative business. By contract he furnished 
brick and built the Barton Opera House, the 
Farmers' Bank building, the Bradley block, 
the Griffith block, the Denicke, Gilmore, Ha- 
inan and Walker blocks, the Young Men's 
Christian Association building, Episcopal and 
Catholic churches, West Side schoolhouse, and 
many buildings of lesser capacity, too numerous 
to mention. He has invested largely in city 
property and has built fifteen cottages, which he 



574 



HI STORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



owns and rents. In 1S90 Mr. Spinney built 
his West Side Hotel, on Fresno street, and sev- 
eral other business buildings. The hotel is a 
throe-story brick building, 50x100 feet. In 
the spring of 1891 he planted to vines the Spin- 
ney colony, consisting of 160 acres, situated 
west of Fresno. This tract will be subdivided 
and sold in twenty-acre lots. Mr. Spinney also 
owns 640 acres north of Fresno, on the South- 
ern Pacific, railroad, besides other ranch prop- 
erty. He is a stockholder in the First National, 
Fresno National, Fresno Loan & Savings, and 
People's Savings banks of Fresno, and is also a 
stockholder in the Belmont Street Car Company. 

The subject of our sketch was married in 
Maine, to Miss Elizabeth Hatch, and their union 
has been blessed with three children, — Rosa, 
Fied and May, all at home and attending school. 

Mr. Spinney is a member of Fresno Lodge, 
j\o. 186, and Encampment of the I. O. O. F., 
and a charter member of the A. O. D. W. When 
he landed in Fresno in 1877, he was without 
capital and with scarcely money enough to pro- 
vide necessaries for his family; his position of 
wealth and prominence to-day speaks volumes 
for his intelligent and persistent industry. 



-=**« 



»*3>- 



fAPTAIN J. B. ROBINSON is a conspicu- 
ous figure in the development of one of 
the most beautiful and fertile sections of 
Kern County, and is one of the most influential 
pioneers of the progressive little town of De- 
lano. His eyes rested with admiration upon 
the spot before the town had existed in the mind 
of an)' man. 

Captain Robinson is a native of the common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, born on the isle of 
Martha's Vineyard, which comprises a portion 
of Dukes County, May 3, 1828. His father, 
John Robinson, was a thrifty farmer on that 
island. At the age of seventeen years the sub- 
ject of our sketch left home and went to sea on 
a whaling vessel out of New Bedford. He fol- 



lowed that occupation successfully up to the 
year 1860, filling with signal credit all the posi- 
tions on a whaling vessel, from sailor to that of 
master of a ship, and during that time navi- 
gated the Arctic and Behring seas, rounded 
Cape Horn, and sailed up the Pacific coast at 
various times. In 1864 he joined the United 
States navy as ensign, in which capacity he 
served the Union until the close of the war; 
took part in several engagements off the coast 
in front of Charleston, at Hilton Head and Port 
Royal, and was also at the capture of Fort 
Fisher. 

After the surrender of General Lee he was 
mustered out of the service, and took up his 
residence in Charlestown, South Carolina, where 
he remained two seasons, engaged in the mer- 
cantile business. Owing to the continued ill 
health of his family he returned with them to 
Massachusetts, after which he made a voyage of 
the South Pacific ocean, commanding the bark 
Palmetto, owned by Charles R. Tucker & Co., 
of New Bedford, Massachusetts. This voyage 
consumed about fear years of time. The Cap- 
tain then returned to his New England home, 
and rejoined his family in June. 1872. The 
following September he came to California. At 
this time the Southern Pacific railway had been 
constructed as far south as Tipton, in Tulare 
County, and Captain Robinson, having read of 
the new country, decided to visit it. He ac- 
cordingly traveled south into Kern County, and 
passed the spot where Delano is now located, it 
being at that time only an arid plain and show- 
ing no touch of the hand of modern progress 
save the stakes which had been driven in locat- 
ing the railway line. He engaged in sheep- 
raising seven miles south of this place, and was 
one of the first to take an active part in estab- 
lishing and shaping the civil and political af- 
fairs of the new town. He was the first Justice 
of the Peace and Notary Public, and held the 
office from 1877 to 1887. He also took an 
active and prominent part in organizing the first 
public school of Delano; was the prime mover 
in taking the initiative in organizing what has 



ErSTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



just been incorporated as the Kern and Tulare 
Irrigating District. 

Captain Robinson was married in 1860 to 
Miss Sarah D. Barrows, daughter of Hon. Thos. 
Barrows, both natives of Martha's Vineyard. 
They have one daughter, now Mrs. William E. 
Whittetnore, of Hartford, Connecticut. 

Tl\e Captain is one of the substantial and 
most highly- respected citizens of Central Cali- 
fornia, and has acquired a considerable estate. 
No man is more public-spirited and ready to 
promote with his means and personal energies 
any and all worthy public movements than he. 
He is an honored member of the Henry Clay 
Wade G. A. R. Post, No. 201, Massachusetts. 
He has broad and liberal views upon all religi- 
ous questions, and practically encourages all 
moral reforms. He is, in short, a man of the 
hour, and just such a citizen as has become an 
absolute necessity to all progressive and grow- 
ing towns. 



fEORGE C. GRIMES was born in Hub- 
bardston, Worcester County, Massachu- 
setts, in January,. 1835. He received an 
academic education at Chester, Vermont, where 
he was prepared for a collegiate course; but, 
being inclined to mercantile pursuits, he en- 
tered Comer's Commercial College, Boston, 
where he graduated in 1854. On January 1, 
1855, he accepted a clerkship in the Suffolk 
Bank of Boston, where he remained four years. 
One year he was employed as ship's-clerk with 
Page, Richardson & Co. Ship life becoming 
monotonous and lie being filled with that spirit 
of enterprise and progression peculiar to the 
early settlers of the Pacific coast, he sailed from 
New York, February 6, 1860, on the steamer 
Northern Light, and arrived in San Francisco 
on the 3d of March, where he remained only a 
few weeks. The mining fever having seized 
him, he traveled by boat, stage, mule and snow 
shoes to Rabbit creek, in Sierra County, and en- 
gaged in mining; but, soon learning that "All 



is not gold that glitters," he left the mines and 
returned to San Francisco, where he remained 
until the great Comstock mines attracted his 
atteution. Proceeding to Virginia City, Ne- 
vada, he engaged in the wood and lumber trade. 
In 1869 became back to California, and in 1870 
located in Woodland, Yolo County, where he 
engaged in mercantile business. 

In 1877 Mr. Grimes married Miss E. J. 
Freeman, and remained in Woodland until 
1879. In that year he formed a partnership 
with G. N. Freeman in the general merchandise 
business at Capay Valley, twenty miles west of 
Woodland. In 1887 the great tidal wave that 
swept toward Southern California took him 
along. He visited Santa Barbara, Los Angeles 
and San Diego, and finally located in Fresno in 
March, 1888, where he has since resided, and 
where he intends to remain. 

Mr. Grimes, among other things, has taken a 
lively interest in Freemasonry, and is a faithful 
follower of that ancient order, having received 
the Master Mason, Royal Arch and Knights 
Templar degrees; also attained the thirty-sec- 
ond degree, Scottish Rite. He has been twice 
elected High Priest of Trigo Chapter, which 
position he now holds. He is also a Past Patron 
of the Order of the Eastern Star. In this branch 
of Masonry his wife shares honors with him, she 
being a Past Matron of Raisina Chapter, No. 
89, O. E. S., and Grand Electa of the Grand 
Chapter of California. 

Mr. Grimes has seen much of the growth and 
development of California, has devoted thirty 
years of his life to advance her interests, and is 
confident that the day is not far distant when 
her shores will be settled with the most pros- 
perous and happy people in the world. 

j|P>ENRY HANSBERGER, one of the early 
WmS arrivals in the Wild Flower region, and 
*sM also one of its most successful ranchers, 
forms the subject of this biography. 

A native of the State of Virginia, he was born 



UISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



April 21, 1848, the son of a Methodist clergy- 
man, his father being now deceased. At the 
age of twenty he went to Missouri and there en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits for ten years, 
meeting with fair success. In the fall of 1879, 
after much deliberation — his wife heing in poor 
health — Mr. Ilansberger concluded to try his 
hud; in the West, and came to California. He 
at once settled in his present location, the Wild 
Flower district, Fresuo County, being among 
the early pioneers of this locality. Not a tree 
was then to be seen in a country which is now 
highly cultivated and which is becoming thickly 
populated. Mr. Hansberger owns a fine place 
of 280 acres, sixty acres being devoted to the 
raisin grape, the vines three years old and doing 
well. The other products of his farm are wheat, 
alfalfa and stock. 

The subject of our sketch has been twice 
married. On October 13, 1872, he wedded 
Miss Stone, of Missouri, who died in 1883, 
leaving a family of three children. In 1885 he 
married Mrs. Lottie Mellen, and by her has two 
children. 

^?£&^%^*&<^ 

§MAN PIS, deceased, was a pioneer of Cal- 
ifornia and a respected citizen. He was a 
° native of France, born January 17, 1838. 
He came to America at eighteen years of age 
and located in Calaveras County, where he 
joined a brother, Francis, who had preceded him 
to this country. Here he learned the baker's 
trade, and later engaged in the butchering busi- 
ness and also did some mining. In 1868 he 
located at Hornitos, in Mariposa County, where 
he remained until J.872. He then removed to 
Snelling, where he kept the Planters' Hotel. 
In the winter of 1874 lie located in Sumner, 
Kern County, and managed the Railroad Hotel 
at that place. He located at Delano in 1875, 
where he was a successful hotel-keeper, and also 
owned and conducted a livery business and ex- 
tensive sheep-shearing corrals. He was an en- 
ergetic, ambitious and popular business man. 



He died at Porterville, Tulare County, in 1888. 
Mrs. Mandis, after spending eighteen months in 
Los Angeles, returned to Delano in October, 
1890, where she is conducting the Brown House, 
in a manner that reflects great credit upon her- 
self as an astute business woman and a first- 
class landlady. Her maiden name was AIi>> 
Frances Saiz. She was a daughter of Pedro 
Saiz, a Peruvian by birth, and a hotel-keeper at 
Hornitos. The marriage took place at Snelling, 
in 1875, where her parents then lived. Mrs. 
Mandis has five children: Ellen, Margarita. 
Urban, Ulese and Hortense. 



GOTII, although a native of Denmark, 
has identified himself with California 
^ps^° and is a stanch believer in American 
enterprise and industry. 

He was born in Copenhagen, in 1854, and is 
a graduate from a commercial college of that 
city. After serving four years in a military 
capacity, in 1877 he secured leave of absence 
and, as Constable, shipped on an emigrant ves- 
sel for Australia. Four months at sea and in a 
vessel with 557 emigrants, many of whom were 
hard characters, his passage was made extremely 
lively and his position far from that of a sine- 
cure. 

On their arrival at Australia, as Mr. Goth 
could cot speak English, he found employment 
as " bushman,'* in herding cattle and sheep, 
sheep-shearing and also mining. Thus was his 
time employed for three years. He then went 
to the coast at Queensland and secured a peti- 
tion as receiving clerk in a mercantile house, 
where he remained three years. His health fail- 
ing, he was advised by a physician to take an 
ocean voyage, and in the spring of 18S4 he 
landed at San Francisco. He at once sought 
out-door occupation and soon found employ- 
ment on a ranch on the Sacramento river, where 
he became familiar with heavy farm machinery 
and gained information that has since been of 
irre.it value to him. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



577 



In 1885 Mr. Goth came to Fresno in the em- 
ploy of R. B. Johnson, dealer in agricultural 
implements. He at first accepted a menial 
position and his earnest efforts to perform his 
duty well gained for him promotion. He 
became salesman, and during Mr. Johnson's 
absence in Europe, in 1887, Mr. Goth was en- 
trusted with the entire management of the bus- 
iness. He remained with Mr. Johnson until 
the business was sold to Messrs. Truman, Hooker 
& Co., in 1890, and then became cashier for the 
new firm, in their extensive business in hard- 
ware, agricultural implements, buggies, wagons 
and all farm machinery. 

Mr. Goth was married in Fresno, in 1890, to 
Miss Emma Loesch, native of Lawrence, Kan- 
sas. He is a member of the Fresno Lodge, No. 
186, I. O. O. F. 



G. BRATTON is one of the most intelli- 
gent of the many highly esteemed and 
well-to-do pioneers residing in the vicin- 
ity of Selma. Fresno County. He was born in 
Brown County, Ohio, in the year 1838. James 
Bratton, his father, now deceased, was a promi- 
nent and successful physician. "When T. C. 
was quite young the family home was moved to 
Kentucky, and there for many years our subject 
was engaged in agricultural pursuits. In Octo- 
ber, 1861, he enlisted in the Federal army, and 
was captain of Company D, Sixteenth Kentucky 
Infantry. The company took part in a number 
of engagements, the most important of which, 
perhaps, was the siege at Knoxville. The Federal 
troops in this memorable battle were in com- 
mand of General Sherman. Mr. Bratton was 
seriously wounded at different times during his 
service in Mav, 1864, and was incapacitated for 
active work. He was, therefore, appointed on 
a court-martial, sitting in Louisville, where he 
was engaged during the remainder of the war, 
being mustered out of the service in February, 
1865. He then engaged in busiuess in Louis- 
ville for one year, afterward settling in Johnson 




County, Missouri, where he remained until the 
summer of 1875, following a mercantile life 
with good success. 

The past eighteen years of Mr. Bratton's 
career have been spent in California. He came 
from Missouri direct to Fresno County, and took 
up a soldier's homestead, a quarter section of 
land, located two and a half miles southwest of 
Selma, upon which he has since made his home. 
Here he has been engaged in farming; is now 
raising fruit, and also has some fine stock. His 
residence, situated on a slight elevation, is 
beautifully located, and is surrounded with 
attractive grounds. Mr. Bratton, being one of 
the first to locate in this community, has been a 
witness to the marvelous development in the 
soil and the wonderful resources of this locality. 
He helped to organize the Centerville & Kings- 
burg Ditch Company, and since then has been 
one of the directors of the company. The 
organization of this company dates back to the 
year 1876, the first excavation commencing in 
1877. 

In 1866 Mr. Bratton was united in marriage 
■with Miss Mary Jane Elmore, a native of New 
York State. 



Wa AYTON J. HANSBERGER is a native of 
wk Stafford County, Virginia, born in the year 
^^ 1850. At the age of seventeen he started 
out in life for himself, settling in the State of 
Missouri, where he successfully engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits until 1878. In that year he 
emigrated to California. 

Mr. Hansberger moved to his present ranch 
of 160 acres, located near Selma, Fresno County, 
in the spring of 1879. He is engaged in gen- 
eral farming, and also has a raisin vineyard, of 
eighty acres,which is in splendid condition. A 
farm of 160 acres west of his home place he is 
■also operating. Mr. Hansberger is eminently 
successful in his agricultural pursuits, and 
throughout the community he is highly respected 
and esteemed. 



078 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



He has been twice married. In 1877 he 
wedded Miss Nanny Stone, who died in 1889, 
leaving three children. His second marriage 
occurred October 26, 1890, the lady of his 
choice being Mrs. Julia Reed, daughter-in-law 
of Mrs. E. F. Hammers. 



tLBERT G. WILKES, deceased, was one of 
the early pioneers of California. Although 
he never personally figured in the history 
of Kern County, his immediate descendants 
have become important factors in its settlement 
and civil and social developments. Throughout 
Central California, and particularly in Contra 
Costa County, the Wilkes family name was 
familiar. 

Albert G. Wilkes was a native of Murray 
County, Tennessee, born in 1820, and came to 
Missouri in 1830. He came to California in 
1849, on a prospecting trip, and spent about 
three years in the newly discovered gold fields 
of the State. He returned to his home and 
family in Missouri, and later emigrated with 
them to the Golden State in 1856. Two 
daughters and four sons comprised the family, 
viz.: W. Perry, Thomas E., Joseph A., John P., 
Mary E., now the wife of Charles McClelland, 
of Concord, California, and Minerva, who died 
in 1884. The mother, whose maiden name was 
Lucy F. Adcock, was born at Lynchburg, Vir- 
ginia, in 1813. Upon arriving in California 
Mr. Wilkes located in Contra Costa County, 
and purchased 1,000 acres of land, which he 
operated as a stock and grain ranch. Here he 
lived until 1873. He then moved to Stockton. 
He also owned a beautiful home in the city of 
Stockton, where he lived, reared and educated 
his family, and where he died, February 1, 1880. 
Mrs. Wilkes died in the prime of her woman- 
hood in 1862, after which the father was married 
to Miss Jane Toomey, of Contra Costa County, 
who died June 8, 1891, at Hanford, Tulare 
County, seventy-three years old. 

Of this substantial California family W. 



Perry Wilkes is the senior member. He left 
the parental roof in 1863, spent a year mining 
in Arizona, and in 1864 located at Glennville. 
Associated with Colonel John C. Reed, he opened 
the first store in his town, and in the latter part 
of 1867 he became sole owner, and continued 
the business one year when he sold out, built 
the Lynn's Valley Hotel, which is still standing, 
and in 1867 becajie the first Postmaster of 
Glennville. After his resignation as Post- 
master, in 1868, he was in the sheep raising 
business until in 1877, when he was elected 
Auditor of Kern County, and held the office one 
year, when he resigned on account of ill health. 
He also held the office of Justice of the Peace 
of his district for five years. The years 1885 
to 1889 were spent in merchandising, since 
which time he has been engaged principally in 
stock-raisino-. He was married in 1866 to Miss 

o 

Margaret A., daughter of Colonel John C. 
Reid, and a native of Belknap, Texas. She 
died in 1885, leaving a family of five children: 
Albert R., Irene, Orlena (deceased,) Austie and 
Carl. Mr. Wilkes remarried September 4, 1889, 
Miss Betty Cromer, daughter of Jeremiah Cro- 
mer, of Washington County, Maryland. Mr. 
Wilkes tauo-ht the first school at Glenuville f;r 
one year in 1865, and has been foremost in 
local matters. He owns a beautiful home, and 
is highly esteemed. 

Thomas Wilkes, the second eldest of the fam- 
ily, is also a prominent citizen of Glennville; 
was born in Missouri October 19, 1844, and as 
before stated crossed the plains with the family 
in 1856. He has by his own personal efforts 
and industry become one of the solid and influen- 
tial men of Kern County. He located in Lynn's 
valley, October 1, 1S70, and has stea lily engaged 
in stock-raising, in which he takes the lead. 
His sterling traits of character and stability as 
a business man has given him a prestige enjoyed 
by but few in his community. He married, 
April 6, 1863, Miss Elizabeth C. Gilliam, 
a daughter of Robert Gilliam, an influential 
farmer of Contra Costa County, California, and 
an Oregon pioneer of 1846. He was a native 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



579 



of Missouri, and lived in Contra Costa County 
from 1858, but died in Oregon while on a visit 
in 1887. Mrs. Wilkes was born in Clay 
County, Missouri, February 17, 1844. She is a 
thoroughly domestic lady, of fine womanly 
qualities, and is the mother of six children: 
Andrew, who died in infancy; Emma, bora May 
5, 1866; now Mrs. H. J. Carver; Lulu A., at 
home, born February 4, 1868; William E., 
born January 6, 1872; Charles M., born July 
30, 1876, and Elmer C, born February 3, 1883. 
Mr. Wilkes owns about 4,000 acres of good 
agricultural and grazing lands, upon which he 
ranges vast herds of stock. They are devout 
Christian people and take an active part in 
church work, besides aiding liberally in other 
worthy benevolent causes. 



f""UDGE DANTE E. PRINCE was born in 
Altaville, Calaveras County, California, on 
April 13, 1864. 
The subject of our sketch attended the public 
schools, and at the age of fourteen years entered 
Santa Clara College. He took the commercial, 
scientific and literary courses in that institution, 
and graduated in 1885, receiving the degree of 
B. A. He then returned to take the post-grad- 
uate course, but was appointed professor of Eng- 
lish and bookkeeping, and remained as a teacher 
in the college for two years. 

In July, 1887, Mr. Prince met Judge David 
S. Terry in San Francisco, and through his ad- 
vice came to Fresno, entered the Judge's office 
and began the study of law. He pursued his 
studies assiduously for about two years, after 
which, in April, 1889, he was admitted to prac- 
tice. In the spring election of 1889, Mr. Prince 
was elected City Recorder of Fresno, and through 
his administration of justice did much toward 
making the recorder's court one of the most 
prominent criminal courts of the city. In this 
court, March 29, 1890, was seen the first negro 
jury in the State. The case arose from trouble 
in the colored church, and the Judge impaneled 



a jury from among their own peers. The ver- 
dict rendered was thoroughly satisfactory and 
peace ever after prevailed in the church. An- 
other case which gained widespread notoriety, 
was that of two brothers who were arrested for 
disturbing the peace. One, as a defense, charged 
his wife with being an improper person to care 
*or their children, and that she was not rearirg 
them as a mother should. This was a serious 
charge, and Judge Prince, being young and in- 
experienced, was for a moment somewhat puz- 
zled until there occurred to him the brilliant 
thought of asking the little three-year-old " tot " 
if she had learned to pray; and when she knelt 
down in the midst of a crowded court and lisped 
her simple prayer as sweetly as an angel could 
have done, asking God's "blessing on father, 
mother, and everybody, there was scarcely a dry 
eye in the room. This childish action was 
sufficient evidence to the Judge that the children 
were wisely governed. The brothers were found 
guilty, and a fine imposed, which was, however, 
quickly paid, and the father, whose heart had 
been softened, caught up and kissed the little 
child, and immediately thereafter took wife and 
child home, where peace and quiet have since 
reigned. 

In the fall election of 1890 Recorder Prince 
was elected Justice of Third Township, and on 
January 1, 1891, he resigned the office of 
recorder to accept that of Justice of the Peace. 

He is President of Parlor No. 35, N. S. G. 
W. ; District Deputy Grand President of the 
Young Men's Institute of California, and Chief 
Ranger of the Fresno Court of the Independent 
Order of Foresters. 

fAMES W. McOUTCHAN was born in 
Virginia, July 29, 1858, but was reared 
and educated in Tulare County, California, 
He comes of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His par- 
ents, William Y. and Catharine (Firebaugh) Mc- 
Cutcban, were both natives of Virginia. To 
them were born five children, four of whom are 



580 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



living, the subject of our sketch being the 
youngest child. Twenty years ago his father 
settled on 160 acres of land, on a portion of 
which James W. now resides. The father died 
in 1873 and the mother is still living. 

Mr. McCutchan was married, in 1885, to 
Miss Belle Doty, a native of Sacramento County, 
California, and a daughter of Francis Doty, who 
came to this State in 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Cutchan have two children: William Francis 
and Earl Clifton. He is a member of the 
Farmers' Alliance, and in politics is a Demo- 
crat. An enthusiastic and enterprising rancher, 
he takes a just pride in the growth and devel- 
opment of Tulare County. 



J. McCONNELL, one of the prominent 
business men of Fresno, was born in 
Gaylesville, Cherokee County, Alabama, 
in 1838. His father, Joseph McConnell, a 
native of Georgia, was an early emigrant to 
Alabama, and helped to move the Indians to 
their reservation. He subsequently carried on 
farming and cotton-raising, owning 1,200 acres 
of land. 

The subject of our sketch attended the high 
schools of Alabama, and afterward the Hiawas- 
see College in Tennessee. Still later he studied 
engineering and surveying, but devoted most of 
his time to mercantile pursuits up to 1859. In 
that year he was married, at Gaylesville, to Miss 
Margaret Miller, and they went to White 
County, Arkansas, where Mr. McConnell took 
up 160 acres of Government land, farmed and 
raised hogs until the opening of the war. 
They returned to Alabama and he enlisted in 
the Nineteenth Alabama Regiment, under 
Colonel McSpadden. The regiment was as- 
signed to Heineman's Division, under General 
13ragg, and was engaged at the battle of Chicka- 
mauga, where Mr. McConnell was shot through 
the body. He was disabled for a year, and 
after his recovery again joined the army as 



Forage Master for Day's Brigade, remaining in 
that capacity until the close of the war. 

From the time peace was declared until 1870 
he was engaged in agricultural pursuits at 
Gaylesville. In the spring of that year he 
came to California, and in the fall settled near 
Centerville, purchasing 480 acres of land and 
enlacing in farming and stock-raising. Of 
this property, bottom land on King's river, he 
had 160 acres in alfalfa, from which he cut 
about 300 tons of hay, besides pasturing 400 
head of horses and cattle. He raised the Nor- 
man and jHambletonian strains of horses, and 
kept about 100 head; also 100 head of Durham 
stock. Growing tired of rural life, Mr. Mc- 
Connell sold his ranch in 1887, and came to 
Fresno. For a year he was engaged extensively 
in real-estate transactions, owning much city 
and country property. July 1, 1888, he formed 
a partnership with B. M. Hague, and bought 
out the grocery store of Austin & Coffman, in 
the Fiske block, and twelve days later were 
burned out. They then bought the store of 
George Smith, No. 1943 Mariposa street, where 
they now carry on a successful business in a 
general grocery line, with an assortment of 
stone, wood and willow ware. 

Mr. and Mrs. McConnell have no children, 
but have reared three children of a deceased 
sister — two sons and one daughter. The young 
men are interested in the store, and largely con- 
duct the business. 

-~£^M* 




-I* 



ADE J. WILLIAMS, proprietor of the 
Union Market, Fresno, was born in 
p4poj Vacavillc, Solano County, California, in 
1863. His father, M. L. Williams, a farmer 
and extensive stock dealer, now resides in 
Fresno County. Wade J. received a public- 
school education, and at the age of sixteen en- 
tered upon a business career. He purchased a 
little band of sheep, and, as his own shepherd, 
attended their wanderino-s from King's to San 
Joaquin river, and from the Sierras to the Coast 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



581 



Range. He followed this industry about nine 
years, with a flock numbering from 3,000 to 
15,000 head. In 1888 he sold his sheep and 
engaged in butchering. He purchased the mar- 
ket and • business of M. Madison, No. 1938 
Mariposa street, and about twelve days later his 
market was totally destroyed by fire. Nothing 
daunted, be resumed business and has since 
carried it on successfully. Mr. Williams has 
some real-estate interests here, owning eighty 
acres in vineyard, adjoining the Barton vine- 
yard, and also having town property. 

He is a Native Son of the Golden West, and 
is associated with Fresno Parlor, No. 25. Mr. 
Williams was married in Fresno in 1888, to 
Miss Alice McSweegan. 



— =$<+' 



! ■ ; - ' 



*>£=- 



||gJRAM HUGHES.— The venerable Hiram 
fjfj) Hughes is one of the resolute pioneers of 
Tg/(| the Pacific coast. To give a complete 
narrative of his exploits and experiences from 
boyhood would require the pages of a volume 
the size of this entire work, and we can there- 
fore only touch briefly upon some of the many 
incidents of his remarkably busy and eventful 
life. 

Mr. Hughes was born near Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, March 18, 1810. His father, William 
Hughes, was an expert gunsmith and mechani- 
cal blacksmith by trade. He was a native of 
Maryland, and his wife, nee Priscilla Ballou, 
was of French origin and a daughter of Stephen 
Ballou. William Hughes died about 1840, 
aged fifty-seven years, and Mrs. Hughes passed 
away in 1832, at the age of forty-seven years. 
They reared a family of twelve children. Hiram 
inherited the mechanical instincts of his father 
and became a thorough and successful gun 
smith. He has alvays found it easy to make 
with tools and material anything that he might 
undertake. 

In early manhood Mr. Hughes engaged in 
stock trade in Missouri, which business be 
abandoned in 1849 and came to California. He 



turned his attention to mining and became one 
of the most successful miners in those times. 
He discovered valuable deposits and developed 
and conducted heavy mining enterprises. Mr. 
Hughes is a recognized naturalist and has been 
associated in bis explorations and writings with 
some of the leading professional naturalists of 
modern times. He is a man of keen observa- 
tion and extensive research. In chemistry and 
mineralogy he has a wide fund of practical 
knowledge. He has been an extensive traveler 
and mineral prospector. After a successful 
career as a miner, he invested in large tracts of 
land in Calaveras County, California, which he 
in turn sold, and in 1869 brought about 600 
head of cattle to Long Tom, in Kern County. 
He also purchased his present home, 280 acres, 
in Lynn's valley, to which he has made addi- 
tions and now owns about 3,000 acres of farm- 
ing and grazing land. In his farming ex- 
periences, as in other things, he has been 
successful. He is one of the chief stockholders 
and a director of the Kern Valley Bank, of 
Bakersfield. 

Mr. Hughes was united in marriage, July 
22, 1837, in Osage County, Missouri, to Mrs. 
Lncinda (Johnson) Bowen, widow of Thomas 
Bowen. She was born in Tennessee, Septem- 
ber 11, 1810, and, while now well advanced in 
years, is vigorous in both mind and body. They 
live in their quiet and picturesque mountain 
home, surrounded by ail the comforts of life 
that tastes demand or hearts desire, and at their 
door the stranger as well as the friend receives 
a cordial welcome, the needy never being turned 
away empty-handed. 



tWARNEKROS, proprietor of the Pio- 
neer Gun Store, Fresno, California, was 
, ® born in Berlin, Germany, May 28, 1852. 
His school advantages were limited and his ed- 
ucation has been gained principally by observa- 
tion and experience. At the age of fourteen 
he was apprenticed to the trade of gun-making 



582 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and the manufacture of surgical instruments. 
In 1868, after serving his apprentictship, he 
emigrated to the United States. As a skilled 
workman he readily found occupation in New 
York city, and with Otto, Williams & Tieman, 
wholesale druggists and manufacturers of sur- 
gical instruments, he remained ten years. He 
then passed one year in Arizona and Mexico, 
coming to California in 1870, and working at 
his trade one year in San Francisco. From 
there he went to Portland, Oregon, where he 
opened a store, in which he kept guns, cutlery 
and surgical instruments. 

While in Portland, Mr. Warnekros was mar- 
ried, in 1875, to Miss Anie Baltes. The fol- 
lowing year he sold his store and removed to 
Petaluma, Sonoma County, California, and 
opened a similar establishment. The " know- 
ing ones " said -'he couldn't continue for over 
two weeks;" but he settled with the expectation 
of remaining, which he did for eight years, 
and in that time built up a large and very satis- 
factory business. 

In 1882 Mr. Warnekros made a trip with his 
family to his old home in Berlin, being absent 
about nine months. Returning to California, 
he reduced his stock, moved to Fresno and 
opened a store on J street, near Mariposa. As 
his business increased he replenished and en- 
larged his stock, and on November 1, 1890, 
moved to his present spacious room, 25x45 
feet, in the Fiske block, where he keeps an ex- 
tensive assortment of sporting goods, cutlery 
and sewing machines. Mr. Warnekros is a con- 
servative businessman, always looking carefully 
after every detail of his establishment and 
using every effort to please his customers. By 
his honorable business methods he has been 
successful and has accumulated much city and 
ranch property. He still holds the property at 
Petaluma and has improved the corner of L and 
Inyo streets, 150 x 150 feet, where his residence 
is located. He also owns three cottages, all sup- 
plied with water from his own well and windmill. 
He is planting sixty acres to vines on the Gold 
Ditch, and owns 320 acres of other ranch property. 




Mr. and Mrs. Warnekros have three children: 
Willie, Frank and Alfred, all at home, acquir- 
ing an education. 

Mr. Warnekros is a member of the Knights 
of Honor. 



MBjILTON D. HUFFMAN was born in Co- 
lumbus, Ohio, December 5, 1857. His 
home for many years, however, was 
in Pettis County, Missouri, to which place his 
parents, both now living, moved from the Buck- 
eye State when he was an infant. Mr. Huff- 
man is one of a family of seven children, and 
during his youth received excellent educational 
advantages. After completing his studies he 
engaged in farming operations, but was not sat- 
isfied with the results there obtained, and de- 
termined to seek his fortune in California. 

In the year 1881 we find him in Fresno 
County, settled in the Wild Flower district, 
and here he has since remained. His property 
consists of a quarter section of land, all under 
cultivation. He has been eminently successful 
in his career here, devoting his attention princi- 
pally to sheep-raising. During the past year 
he erected a very attractive residence, and the 
grounds surrounding it are laid out in excellent 
taste, adding much beauty to the place. 

Mr. Huffman was married, in 1876, to Miss 
Laura Elliott, of Missouri, and by her has two 
children, both daughters. 



■ S »' S ' | '~ 



fAMES JEFFERSON RHYMES, deceased, 
was one of those men who seemed to be 
born and fitted to lay out and walk the 
paths of a pioneer. It may at least be said that 
he occupies a place in the hearts of the people 
of Kern County and their civil councils that 
would warrant this statement. He came into 
the county in the very earliest days of its set- 
tlement, and was a member of its first Board 
of Supervisors. He was a man of enterprise, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



583 



personal integrity and prompt decision, and 
was therefore a man of influence in his com- 
munity. He came to California in the year 
1849, as a miner. From that time up to 1860 
he followed that calling, when he took np his 
residence in Tulare, now in Kern County. He 
located and developed the present home of 
Thomas Flippen. 

He married in 1858, Miss Eliza Sellers, a 
native of Mississippi. Mr. Rhymes died in 
1883, at fifty-nine years of age, and Mrs. 
Rhymes in 1888, at forty- five years of age, 
leaving three sons and one daughter, — John, 
Stonewall J., Frank and Maria. Stonewall was 
born in Lynn's valley, April 24, 1864, and was 
married to Miss Zoe, daughter of A. B. Bar- 
beau, of Glennville, Kern County, in 1890. 
He is one of the progressive and rising young 
men of Kern County, and has 940 acres of land, 
and ranges 200 head of cattle and twenty 
horses. 



C. BLAYNEY is a native of Washing- 
ton County, Pennsylvania, born in 1843. 
°° He was but a lad when his father moved 
to Kansas and established his home on a farm 
in that State. There Mr. Blayney was reared and 
educated and afterward engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits. In 1863 he was drafted and 
subsequently volunteered as a soldier in the 
civil war, remaining in the service until peace 
was declared. He then resumed his former oc- 
cupation of farming and stock-raising. 

In 1874 Mr. Blayney came to California, set- 
tling in Visalia, where he was engaged in saw- 
milling for a time and afterward gave his atten- 
tion to surveying. After making a brief sojourn 
in San Luis Obispo County, be moved to Napa 
valley and lived there six years, a part of this 
time acting as foreman on the large estate of 
Senator Ewer. In 1881 he moved to Fresno 
County and settled on a ranch of 160 acres, 
three miles east of Fowler, where he still resides. 
He owns a fine vineyard of fifty acres, and is al- 



so extensively engaged in farming on rented 
land. Few citizens of the community are more 
highly esteemed than he. He is conservative 
in his views, quiet and retiring in his disposi- 
tion, and possesses many admirable traits of 
character, which account for his success and 
popularity. 

Mr. Blayney was happily married in the year 
1866 to Miss Alice Stone. Of the ten children 
born to them seven are now living. 



M. HAGUE, one of Fresno's merchants, 
is a native of Tennessee, born in Monroe 
County, in 1834. His father was a 
farmer and emigrated to Missouri in 1841, and 
to Carroll County, Arkansas, in 1850. Reared 
in the rural districts, Mr. Hague received only 
a limited education, and at the age of twenty 
engaged in farming on his own account. He 
was married at Berryville, Arkansas, January 3, 
1855, to Miss Elizabeth C. Berry, daughter of 
B. H. Berry, the founder of the town. After 
farming three years he engaged in mercantile 
life at Berryville, first as clerk for one year, and 
afterward as partner, being thus occupied when 
the war broke out. 

Mr. Hague at once disposed of his interest in 
the store and enlisted under Colonel More, and 
for eighteen months was on the line as ranger, 
subject to the orders of General Price, of the 
Confederate army. He then joined the regular 
army, under General Heineman, but remained 
in the "Western division. After the battle of 
Prairie Grove, Mr. Hague was taken sick and 
was unable to perform further duty. Partially 
recovering, he returned to Berryville. 

The summer of 1865 found the subject of our 
sketch on bis way to California, making the trip 
with ox teams and traveling by Salt Lake and 
the Bitter Creek route. He landed in Sutter 
County and there carried on farming for four 
years. Then he passed one year in Stanislaus 
County. In 1870 he returned to Berryville, 
engaged in mill business and trading in stock, 



584 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and remained there until 1875. In that year he 
again came across the plains to California, hav- 
ing eight mules and two wagons and being in 
company with a large train. This time he came 
by Mason Valley and the Big Tree route and 
landed in Stanislaus County. After farming 
for one year, he bought a band of 150 mustangs 
and started for Arkansas. Meeting with an oppor- 
tunity to sell out at Eureka, Nevada, he dis- 
posed of his mustangs, returned to Mason val- 
ley, Esmeralda County, and farmed there for 
four years. 

In the spring of 1882 Mr. Hague came to 
Fresno County and settled at Wild Flower,where 
he farmed from 300 to 1,000 acres in wheat, 
and remained until 1888. He then came to 
Fresno. On July 1, of that year, in partnership 
with D. J. McConnell (whose sketch appears 
elsewhere in this work), he entered into the gro- 
cery business, which he has since followed, at the 
same time being interested in real-estate trans- 
actions. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hague have six children. His 
sons are associated in the grocery business at 
1943 Mariposa street, Fresno. 



^^^k-^e 






fB. BURKS was born in Jackson County 
Alabama, in 1824, and was reared in 
° Boone County, Missouri, to which place 
his parents moved the year following his birth. 
His father carried on general farming in Boone 
County, passed the rest of his days there, and 
died in 1840. 

Mr. Burks received a limited education in 
the log schoolhouse of the period, aided ma- 
terially in the support of the family, and con- 
tinued to operate the saw and grist mill which 
had been owned by his father. In 1844 he and 
his cousin engaged in peddling. They devised a 
scheme, that of exhibiting a company of Osage 
Indians through the East, by which they ex- 
pected to reap a rich return. AVith this object in 
view, they set out for the Indian Territory; but, 
owing to a very wet season and the loss of 



clothing in fording streams, their scheme was 
thwarted and they returned home, sadder if not 
wiser men. Mr. Burks then managed the mill 
until 1848, when he took up 160 acres of Gov- 
ernment land on the Grand prairie in Boone 
County, and there began farming and stock- 
raising. In 1854 he sold out ami bought 240 
acres near the present town of Sturgeon. With 
others, he assisted in founding the town, and 
he established a general merchandise store, 
which he continued until 1860. He then en- 
gaged in the livery and stage business until 1863. 
At that time, on account of his sympathy with the 
Southern cause, his property was confiscated 
by the Union army. He was afterward arrested, 
but was released on parole and took the oath. 
He then engaged in farming, continuing his 
agricultural pursuits until 1868; went to Ne- 
braska City, and as clerk was employed until 
1871; from that year until 1873 occupied a sim- 
ilar position at Crete. 

In 1873 Mr. Burks removed with his family 
to California, and settled at Fresno on the 2d 
of January, 1874. The town was then small 
and among its inhabitants was very little ob- 
servance of law and order. Mr. Burks was 
variously employed here at first, and from one 
thing and another finally drifted into the paint- 
ing business, which proved quite profitable 
although he had never had any experience in 
the work before. In 1876 he went to Ventura 
County, where he farmed and ran a saw-mill for 
four years; then returned to Fresno and opened 
a stationery store. In 1883 he established his 
present cigar business, his store being known 
as Uncle Burks' cigar store. In 1882 he pur- 
chased four lots, corner of J and Tuolumne 
streets, Fresno, which he has since improved 
with a nice cottage and line grounds, and where 
he now resides, happy in the enjoyment of his 
comfortable surroundings. 

Mr. Burks was married, in Boone County, 
Missouri, in 1845, to Miss Eliza Gallup. She 
is a descendant of the Branningberg family of 
Germany and a direct heir to a portion of that 
vast estate of $25,000,000, which is now held 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



585 



by the State and in process of liquidation. Mrs. 
Burks is still living and in perfect health. 
Their three sons and two daughters are all 
nicely established in life. 






W*%» 



fEFFERSON GILBERT JAMES, a Cali- 
fornia pioneer and a prominent stockman 
in Fresno County, was born in Pike Coun- 
ty, Missouri, December 29, 1829. His father, 
John R. James, a native of Virginia, emigrated 
to Missouri in 1820, and, although a physician 
by profession, devoted himself to agricultural 
pursuits. 

Young James received a limited education in 
the primitive log schoolhouses of that period, 
attending to farm chores in the mornings and 
evenings. He remained at home until 1850, 
when, in company with his brother, T. B. 
James, his brother-in-law, J. L. Alford, and a 
friend, George Ogle, he started across the plains 
for California. They joined the company of 
Captain Jeff. Al man, consisting of about fifty 
wagons, and crossed through the South Pass of 
the Rocky mountains, then the Green and Raft 
rivers. The party being large, progress was 
very slow, particularly in crossing rivers. After 
crossing Raft river Mr. James and his party 
decided they would act independently of the 
company; so they sawed the spokes from their 
wagon-wheels and made them into pack saddles, 
securely fastening their entire outfit upon the 
backs of their eight mules. The mules being 
untrained, this was a difficult undertaking, but 
was finally accomplished. The first day out 
they passed 1,400 emigrant wagons, the com- 
pany with which he had been traveling being 
among the number. It may be stated here that 
he never saw any of them again on the road. 
After that our party made more rapid strides 
toward this coast, and, without unusual adven- 
ture, arrived at Hangtown, now Placerville, on 
August 4, 1850. They took their mules to 
Hick's ranch on the Cosumnes river and turned 
them out. Mr. James and his brother went to 

37 



Greenwood valley on the Middle Fork of the 
American river, and on Rocky-Chuckie bar 
they began their mining operations, working in 
this locality with sluice and rocker until April, 
1852, clearing $3,500 each. They then returned 
to Missouri, via the Nicaragua route and New 
York, making the journey from New York to 
Missouri by rail. Like many others who have 
visited this coast, and have returned to their 
Eastern homes, Mr. James decided to come 
back to California. His brother, however, re- 
mained in the East. Purchasing ninety-one 
young cows and securing sufficient help to 
manage his stock, Mr. James again set out for 
California, in April, 1853. coming across the 
plains, through Salt Lake City to Jacks' valley, 
near Carson City, Nevada. At the latter place 
he left his stock to winter, and he came to 
Placerville and mined until spring. He then 
returned, brought his cattle into this State, 
turned them out on Cottonwood Island in the 
Sacramento river, fattened them and sold the 
drove at $50 each, thus making the investment 
a profitable one. 

Mr. James again engaged in mining at Placer- 
ville, and was associated with J. M. Douglas, a 
merchant of that town, in buying gold dust. 
June 14, 1857, our subject purchased a horse 
and started on horseback for Los Angeles. At 
that place he bought 960 head of cattle, and 
has ever since been extensively engaged in the 
stock business. In the fall of that year he 
drove his cattle to the " 25 " ranch (named for 
a cattle brand '■ 25 "), near Kingston, then 
called Whitmore's ferry. From this place his 
cattle scattered all over the plain between King's 
and San Joaquin rivers. In the spring of 1858, 
with vaqueros, he visited the several rodeos in 
the valley and gathered his stock together and 
drove them to the head of Fresno slough, where 
he remained about five years. He then began 
purchasing land on the border of the San Joa- 
quin river, Fresno and Fish sloughs, and is now 
the owner of about 60,000 acres, upon which he 
keeps many thousand head of cattle and breeds 
horses and mules. 



586 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CAUF0RN1A. 



In 1860 Mr. James returned to Missouri. At 
Elk Springs he was married to Miss Jennie L. 
Rector, whom he brought back with him to 
California. They made their home on the 
ranch until 1867, then spent one year in Stock- 
ton, after which they settled in San Francisco, 
where they now reside. They are the parents 
of one child, Maud Strother, who is now the 
wile of Walker C. Graves, a prominent lawyer 
of San Francisco. Mr. Graves was a candidate 
on the Democratic ticket at a recent election for 
attorney general, but was defeated with the 
rest of his ticket. 

Mr. James formerly sold his cattle at Sacra- 
mento and in the mines. In 1867 he started a 
wholesale market in San Francisco, where he 
now carries on a very extensive business, butcher- 
ing and selling each year about 7,500 beeves, 
30,000 sheep and 4,500 calves. In 1886 he be- 
came interested in the Fresno Loan & Savings 
Bank of Fresno, and since 1888 has been presi- 
dent of the bank, the capital stock of which is 
$300,000. In 1882 he was elected a member 
of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, and 
in 1886 was elected School Director, and re- 
elected in 1888. 

[OLOMON DECKER, an old resident of 
of California, and also a pioneer of Fresno 
County, forms the subject of this biog- 
raphy. 

Mr. Decker is a native of Ohio, born in the 
year 1827. When he was eight years old, his 
father, now deceased, moved the family to Illi- 
nois, and there engaged in farming. In that 
State Solomon was reared, and when old enough 
to assist in the care of the farm he devoted all 
his time and energies there. 

After a year spent in Wisconsin, Mr. Decker 
started, in 1853, across the plains with ox teams 
for California. The trip was made in six 
months' time, and was uneventful. Arriving 
jn the Golden State, he at once engaged in min- 
ing, remaining thus occupied for five years, with 



good results. He then settled in Napa valley, 
thirty miles west of Sacramento, where for six- 
teen years he engaged in farming, his ranch con- 
sisting of 160 acres. He gave much attention 
to the cultivation of fruit and vegetables on a 
large scale for the city market, and in this he 
had excellent success. While a resident of 
Solano County, lie served four years as Public 
Administrator of the county, a position of 
responsibility. 

In 1876 he moved to Tulare County, and 
two years later to Fresno County, settling 
on a ranch of 160 acres, three miles east of 
Fowler, where we find him at present. He is 
engaged in fruit-raising, having a raisin vine- 
yard of seventy acres. He also rents land upon 
which he is extensively interested in general 
farming. 

Mr. Decker was married in 1866, to Miss 
Lottie Nichols, a native of Wisconsin. Of their 
six children, five are living. Their names are 
as follows: George Edgar, Jessie Pearl, Blanche 
E., Clarence Oscar and Meda A. 



t\ A. ROSE was born in Sacramento, Cali- 
j fornia, in 1858, son of M. R. Rose, a 
\ Q machinist by trade and proprietor of the 
Capital Iron Works of that city. Young Rose 
was educated in the public schools and in the 
Sacramento Business College, graduating in the 
latter institution in 1876. He was then em- 
ployed as bookkeeper at the Sacramento flour 
mills for one year, after which lie entered his 
father's establishment and learned the trade of 
machinist, and also studied the theoretical part 
of hydraulic engineering, which particular 
branch he followed for several years, in boring 
wells and setting pumps and windmills. 

In 1887 Mr. Rose came to Fresno, and for 
one year was engineer of the Fresno water 
works. He then followed his profession until 
January, 1890, when he was appointed deputy 
superintendent of streets, and inspector of 
sewers, under A. H. Cummings. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



587 



Mr. Kose was married in Sacramento, in 1880, 
to Miss Carrie M. Brainard, a native of Indi- 
ana, and their union has beeD blessed with two 
daughters. Mr. Rose is ex-secretary of Fresno 
tire department, and a member of Sunset 
Parlor, No. 26, N. S. G. W., Sacramento. 



-=£<*« 



>*&=r 




R. FURNISH was born in Boone 
County, Missouri, in 1838. He was 
3 left an orphan in infancy, and was 
taken by his uncle, N. B. Burks, with whom he 
lived until he reached manhood. His educa- 
tion was limited and was obtained under many 
difficulties. He worked with his uncle on the 
farm until 1858, at that time starting out in 
life for himself, as a teamster. He owned four 
yoke of oxen, in which he took great pride, they 
being the admiration of the country. 

In 1859 Mr. Furnish started for California, 
as an assistant in bringing a band of cattle to 
this coast. The journey was a slow and tedious 
one, their supplies were hauled with ox teams, 
and they lost about 200 cattle on the road. They 
crossed by Sublette's cut-off, the sink of the Car- 
son river and through "Ragtown," arriving in 
San Joaquin County, where the cattle were 
turned loose to graze. Mr. Furnish then joined 
his brother, G. N. Furnish, who came to Cali- 
fornia in 1854, and together they engaged in 
the hog business, buying young pigs, fattening 
them and selling at a profit. 

Mr. Furnish began his business career with a 
cash capital of $250, given him by his uncle 
Burks with the advice to "Keep good company, 
tell the truth, and pay your debts," which has 
been the rule of his life and the secret of his 
success. He continued in the stock business 
for many years, coming as far south as Fresno 
County to secure cattle to drive to Stockton, 
Sacramento and the mines. 

In December, 1867, Mr. Furnish married 
Miss Lucy Silvy, daughter of Elijah Silvy, 
founder of the town of Silvyville, where they 
were married. Mr. Furnish then located at 



Stockton and for one year was engaged in run- 
ning a stage to Sacramento. After the death 
of his father-in-law, he moved to Silvyville, 
where, during the next three years, his time 
was employed in settling up the estate. He 
also continued his stock speculations, buying 
for Heilbron Bros., wholesale butchers of Sacra- 
mento, 

In 1873 he came to Fresno County, and, with 
his brother, was engaged in the sheep business 
for three years, keeping about 3,000 head. He 
afterward turned his attention to cattle specula- 
tion again, and purchased bands in Oregon, 
Nevada and Arizona, driving and trading until 
188g, when he settled in Fresno and bought a 
half-interest in the People's market on Mari- 
posa street, with George Kohler. He was after- 
ward in partnership with several others at the 
same stand until 1888, when he became asso- 
ciated with his present partner, Mr. Mickle. 
The firm of Furnish & Mickle are now engaged 
in a thriving business, Mr. Furnish doing the 
buying and outside business while his partner 
superintends the market. 

Mr. and Mrs. Furnish have five children. 
They reside at their comfortable residence, No. 
1525 J street. 



E. BECKWITH, a Fresno merchant, was 
born in Lyme, Connecticut, December 
13, 1831. His ancestors had inhabited 
the town of Lyme for more than one hundred 
years and were among the most prominent cit- 
izens of the place. Mr. Beck with is one of a 
family of eleven. children, ten of whom are still 
living, the youngest, at this writing, being fifty 
years of age. He was educated in the common 
schools of his native town, and at the age of 
seventeen began his mercantile life as a clerk in 
a general merchandise store in Lyme. For sev- 
en years he remained in the same establishment, 
the last two years having a partnership in the 
business. 

In the spring of 1856 Mr. Beckwith went to 



588 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Blooinington, Illinois, and there, November 8, 
1856, he was married to Miss Ellen M. Brown, 
a native of Lyme. They settled in Saybrook, 
where, in partnership with his brother, J. D. 
Beckwith, he engaged in general merchandise 
business, which they continued for twenty years. 
In 1876 they closed out the business and the 
two families came to California and settled at 
San Jose. They subsequently purchased 320 
acres of land in Sacramento County, which they 
farmed for several years; but, owing to frequent 
overflows, they lost nearly every crop and about 
$10,000. In partnership, they again began 
mercantile life, at Decoto, Alameda County, 
which they continued for three years. In 1884 
R. E. Beckwith came to Fresno and established 
his present grocery store, which he has since 
successfully carried on, keeping a general stock 
of goods and doing a thriving business. He is 
also interested in real estate here; has sixty acres 
in vineyard at West Park, forty of which were 
improved in 1885, and now produces a hand- 
some return; owns a comfortable Lome at the 
corner of M and Merced streets, and also other 
city property. 

After thirty-four years of happy married life, 
Mrs. Beckwith departed this life December 16, 
1890, leaving a bereaved husband and five chil- 
dren to mourn her loss. 



afSAAC N. PARLIER was born in Illinois, 
fj in October, 1842. He was reared and edn- 
^s- cated in that State and spent his young 
manhood in farming occupations. During the 
war he enlisted in the regular troops, not, how- 
ever, until the last year of the conflict ; and he 
was mustered out after a service of nine months. 
In the year 1874 Mr. Barlier came to Cali- 
fornia and settled in Stanislaus County, where 
he was engaged in ranching for three years. 
He then, in 1877, removed to Fresno County, 
where we now find him engaged in farming, 
raisin culture and stock-raising. His ranch 
consists of 400 acres, and is located seven 



miles northeast of the town of Selma. Eighty- 
acres of this fine property are in a raisin vine- 
yard, which promises much to its owner. Mr. 
Parlier also owns 320 acre6 of unimproved land 
in Kern County. 

He was married in October, 1863; to Miss 
Laird, a native of Illinois. They have had 
nine children, all of whom are now living. 

Mr. Parlier belongs to that small band of 
pioneers in this section who located their homes 
originally in an absolutely barren and desolate 
region. At that time one could ride twenty 
miles without being able to find a switch to use 
on his horse. This seems well nigh incredible 
as one views the splendid farming lands and 
rich foliage of this locality at the present day. 



fM. MeKAMY, Se., is a pioneer of Cali- 
fornia, and is dated as a Forty-niner. He 
° is a native of Tennessee, born March 9, 
1822, a son of James McKamy, a merchant of 
Athens, Tennessee, who later lived in Grayson 
County, Texas. He came North in 1812, as a 
soldier, and fought at old Fort Sandusky, Ohio, 
under Colonel Craughen, then a Lieutenant 
commanding a company of cavalry from Roane 
County, Tennessee, and served in all of General 
Jackson's campaign in the South. He died at 
Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee, in 1826. 
He was a native of the "Old Dominion" (State 
of Virginia), born at Augusta, and was reared 
in Rockbridge. He died when the subject of 
this sketch was about four years of age. Mr. 
McKamy's mother was Mary Houston, a daugh- 
ter of William B. Houston. She died when 
our subject was five years of age, leaving him 
with two sisters; one, Mrs. H. M. Early, is now 
living in Tennessee, and the second is deceased. 
Upon his arrival in California Mr. McKamy 
turned his attention to mining in Mariposa 
County, which he continued four years. He 
then entered stock and grain-raising; in San Joa- 
quiii County, and also did some team freighting 
between Stockton and the mining towns. In 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



589 



1873 he located in the Poso creek .valley and 
engaged in sheep-raising, and in 1876 located 
on his present place at Glennville, where he has 
since resided. 

He married, March 4, 1852, Miss Eleanor E. 
Petty, a daughter of William Petty. Mrs. 
McKamy was born in Alabama, and came to 
California with relatives in 1849. She is the 
mother of eight children: Isabel, now Mrs. P. 
J. Garwood, of Poso creek ; Mrs. Minerva Col- 
lins, deceased; Jame3, a resident of Bakersfield; 
John M., Jr., of Poso creek; Julian F., at home; 
Daniel, deceased; Virginia, wife of Alfred Har- 
rell, of Bakersfield, County Superintendent of 
the Public Schools of Kern County; and Fannie, 
wife of Bohna Hughes. Mr. McKamy is a 
man of strong traits of character, well versed 
upon local public matters, and has served eight 
years on the Board of Supervisors of Kern 
County. 



fL. NIGHTINGALE, one of the recent 
settlers of Kern County, was born in 
° New York, in 1858. His father, George 
H. Nightingale, is a native of Binghamton, 
New York, and his mother of Chenango 
County, same State. Mr. Nightingale came to 
California in 1882, locating in Tulare County, 
until he took his present claim of 160 acres of 
land near Granite station. In 1882 he married 
Miss Minerva Wilson, of Santa Cruz County, 
and they have five children: Elouise, Willison 
E., Kingsley, Isabel and Eliinul F. Mr. Night- 
ingale's postoffice is Elmer. 

UHOMAS YOST, a prominent business 
man of Fresno, was born in Marshall 
^ County, West Virginia, December 25, 
1840. His father, a well-to do farmer, moved 
to Pike County, Illinois, in 1853, and there 
continued his agricultural pursuits. Thomas 
worked on the farm in summer and attended 



school in winter, acquiring a fair knowledge of 
reading, writing and arithmetic, about all that 
was taught in country schools in those days. 

At the breaking out of the civil war in 1861, 
Mr. Yost was living with his father at Bement, 
Illinois, and at once enlisted in the service. 
From memoirs written by C. S. Colvig, 
Orderly Sergeant of Company A, Twenty-first 
Illinois, and a comrade of Yost throughout the 
war, we glean the following facts in regard to the 
efficient services the subject of our sketch ren- 
dered to his country. At Decatur, Illinois, he 
enlisted in a company then forming under Cap- 
tain S. S. Goode, for the thirty day<s' (State) ser- 
vice, and on May 9 went to Mattoon, Illinois, 
where, with other companies from the different 
counties in the Seventh Congressional district, 
the regiment was organized and mustered into 
the service by U. S. Grant, who was at that time 
a captain. Grant rather objected to Mr. Yost, 
on account of his stature not being quite up to 
the standard required by army regulations, but 
the bright appearance of the boy finally over- 
came his objections and Thomas was mustered 
in. The biographer says Grant was an infallible 
judge of a good soldier. The truth of this 
statement was verified in the case of Thomas 
Yost. When the thirty days expired the regi- 
ment was mustered out at Springfield. Mr. 
Yost, with many others, then enlisted for three 
years or during the war, and U. S. Grant Was 
appointed colonel of the regiment. 

From June 27, 1861, until wounded at the 
battle of Chickamauga, Thomas Yost took part 
in all the battles, skirmishes and inarches in 
which his regiment was engaged, and during 
that time was appointed Corporal in Company 
A. At the battle of Knob Gap Mr. Yost dis- 
tinguished himself, he being the first to reach a 
piece of artillery that the enemy was compelled 
to abandon, and with the assistance of two of 
his comrades, who came up a moment later, 
turned the piece on the retreating enemy. 
December 30 the army brought up in front of 
Murfreesborongh and found the enemy in force. 
The brigade to which the subject belonged was 



.-,11(1 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



01 tiered to charge an almost impregnable posi- 
tion held by the artillery and infantry of the 
enemy. The brigade was repulsed with fearful 
slaughter, and compelled to fall back about 200 
yards. Mr. Yost, however, did not retire with 
the command, he with a few other comrades tak- 
ing a position within 100 yards of the enemy, 
Y cist himself laking the advantage of the pro- 
tection of a tree. He soon fired all his ammu- 
nition away, and then supplied himself from the 
cartridge boxes ot the dead and dying around 
him, holding this position until darkness 
enabled him to join his comrades. That the 
enemy had located and tried to dislodge him was 
evident from the number of bullets on their side 
of the trees, found after the battle. 

At the memorable battle of Chickamangai 
w hen the enemy were trying to obtain a posi- 
tion by which they could hold the Chattanooga 
and La Fayette road, the only one in possession 
of the Union forces by which McCook's supply 
train could pass to the rear, the Twenty first 
Illinois was ordered into action, advancing in 
the face of a murderous infantry fire and soon 
gaining position in fair range of the enemy. 
At this time Yost saw that further advance by 
the regiment was impossible, and in a hand-to- 
hand conflict, in which it was hard to distin- 
guish friend from foe, he received a wound 
which broke both arms, and from the loss of 
blood he became unconscious of the awful con- 
flict raging around him. When he revived, it 
was to find himself in the hands of the enemy 
who moved him to a temporary hospital close 
by. One of the Rebel surgeons told him his 
chances for life were very small. "Well," said 
Yost, "if I die, I have done my duty." After 
lying for twenty one days in an open field near 
a farm house, he was moved to Libby prison, 
and was subsequently taken to City Point, where 
he was exchanged and sent to Annapolis, Mary- 
land, arriving there in the clothes in which he 
was wounded two months before. By request of 
Governor Yates, he was transferred to Chicago 
to recover from his wounds. Although inca- 
pacitated from further duty, his comrades 



insisted on his returning and taking a commis- 
sion in his company, which he was compelled to 
decline. 

In 1865, with one arm still in a sling, Mr. 
Yost 6ecnred a position as clerk at Bement, Illi- 
nois, and remained there until 1866, when he 
came to California. He started with a large 
freight train for Salt Lake City, from that place 
went over the Oregon emigrant route to Walla 
Walla, down the Columbia river to Portland, 
Oregon, and arrived in San Francisco on 
December 28, 1866. Unable to obtain other 
employment, he spent one year doing such work 
as he could on a farm near San Jose, returning 
to Illinois in the fall of 1867, and remaining as 
clerk in his old place at Bement two years. 

In 1869 Mr. Yost was married to Miss 
Emma Thomas of Homer, Illinois, and accom- 
panied by his wife, he returned to California 
and settled at Hollister, San Benito County. 
After farming one year, with ill success, he 
became a salesman in a store at Hollister, being 
thus employed until 1873. He was then 
appointed Postmaster, under President Grant, 
and held the position until 1887. He also 
opened a stationery store and built up an exten- 
sive business. 

In 1887 Mr. Yost came to Fresno and estab- 
lished a jewelry and stationery store at the cor- 
ner of K and Mariposa streets. The following 
year he was burned out, but refitted and 
restocked his store, and now keeps the most 
complete stationery and jewelry store in the val- 
ley. He owns a comfortable residence, 2230 
Kern street, where he lives with his family. 
Mr. and Mrs. Yost have one son. Howard L., 
and the energies of all are concentrated in the 
maintenance of their handsome store. 

Mr. Yost is still a sufferer from his wounds. 
He is an enthusiastic G. A. R. man, attending 
all the meetings and doing his share of the 
work of keeping up the local organization. 

His son, Howard L.. on the twenty first anni- 
versary of his birthday, May 26, 1891, received 
a surprise present in the form of a partnership in 
his lather's business, and both father and son 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



591 



wore highly congratulated by the press of the 
city and friends generally, as young- Howard is 
universally regarded as worthy of such a pro- 
motion. The occasion was appropriately cele- 
brated at their residence. 



— *+< 



><«£=- 



D. DANNER is a member of one of the 
leading pioneer families of Kern County. 
His father, Nathan Danner, now a resi- 
dent of White River, Tulare County, this State, 
was born in North Carolina, December 5, 1822. 
When a young man he emigrated to Missouri, 
and from there, when gold was discovered in 
California, came to this State, making the jour- 
ney across the plains with ox teams in 1849. 
For a time he followed mining with fair success 
and subsequently turned his attention to the 
mercantile business in La Grange, Stanislaus 
County, continuing there several years, doing a 
profitable business. He finally disposed of his 
interests there and went back to Missouri, where 
he engaged in farming. August 21, 1853, he 
married, in Missouri, Miss Minerva Pierce, who 
was born in East Tennessee, February 16, 1835. 
Her father, Edward Pierce, was born in Mc- 
Minn County, Tennessee, in 1810, and her 
mother, Abigail (Frazier) Pierce, was born in 
North Caroling in 1812. They removed from 
Tennessee to Greene County, Missouri, where 
the father followed agricultural pursuits. After 
several years spent in farming in Missouri, Mr. 
Danner returned with his family to California, 
this time making the journey via the Isthmus 
of Panama. Locating near La Grange, he en- 
gaged in stock-raising, and in this met with 
various reverses. The flood of 1862 destroyed 
all the improvements he had made on his ranch, 
and his family barely escaped the horrors of 
that memorable flood with their lives. From 
there he removed to Merced County and located 
six miles below Snelling, where he lived until 
1871. He then took up his residence in the 
Woody precinct, Kern County, and there fol- 



lowed stock-raising about eighteen years; thence 
to White river, Tulare County, his present 
home. During the late war his sympathies 
were with the Confederacy, but he took no 
active part in the conflict. Although born and 
reared a Democrat, he has not been regarded as 
a politician and has never sought or filled a po- 
litical office. lu religions matters, he and his 
wife have been devout members of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church South. Of their four 
children, John C, Minerva J. (now Mrs. Thomas 
M. Tippen of Lynn's valley) and Jefferson D., 
whose name heads this sketch, all still survive. 

J. D. Danner was born near La Grange, 
Stanislaus County, November 27. 1861, and at 
the age of ten years came with his parents to 
Kern Couuty. Until about seventeen, he at- 
tended the public schools of the county, after 
which he engaged in stock-raising. That busi- 
ness, however, not being congenial to his tastes, 
he disposed of his stock interests, went to San 
Francisco and took a course of study in Heald's 
Business College, graduating as an accountant 
at that institution, February 4, 1887. 

Mr. Danner was married in San Francisco, 
September 11, 1888, to Miss Rose Carver, one 
of Lynn's valley's most accomplished ladies. She 
was born in San Andreas, Calaveras County, in 
1864, and came with her parents to Kern 
County in 1869. She graduated at Heald's 
Business College, San Francisco, in 1882, and 
two years later at the State Normal School in 
Los Angeles. For several years she was engaged 
in teaching in Los Angeles County, acquitting 
herself most creditably and leaving there a rec- 
ord as an efficient tutor. 

Until 1890 Mr. Danner followed the business 
of an accountant and salesman. In that year 
he purchased the stock and store of EL E. 
Richardson at Glennville, the trade center of 
Lynn's valleyand the adjacent stock and mining 
country. He recently received the appointment 
of Notary Public by the late Governor Water- 
man; also received the appointment of Post- 
master of Glennville, by Postmaster-General 
Wanamaker. 



o'J2 



UI STORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Mr. and Mrs. Danner have one child, Rose 
Edna, born July 19, 1889. 



fEORGE STUDER, the owner of a com- 
fortable home and a very productive vine- 
yard in Central colony, Eresno County, 
California, was born in Switzerland, in 1832. 
He learned and followed the trade of tailor in 
his native land until 1852, when he emigrated 
to the United States. In and about New York 
city be continued work at his trade for many 
years, as cutter in large manufacturing estab- 
lishments. 

Mr. Studer was married, at Yonkers, New 
York, in 1854, and in that city established his 
home, where he was prosperous in business and 
enjoyed happy domestic life. About 1870 his 
wile was taken ill, and, after a lingering disease, 
died June 18, 1872, leaving four children. 
With increasing expenses and other reverses, 
Mr. Studer lost everything he had accumulated. 
Through the influence of a brother, then living 
in California, he was induced to come West with 
his little ones. They made the voyage via the 
Isthmus of Panama, and arrived at San Fran- 
cisco, January 20, 1874, and at once sought his 
brother, who was engaged in the sheep business 
in Fresno County. Mr. Studer began sheep- 
herding for his brother, but, being remote from 
church and school privileges, he soon tired of 
the life, and established a home for himself and 
little ones in Fresno. This city was then a 
village of thirteen houses, two hotels, two livery 
stables and three stores. June 24, 1874, with a 
cash capital of $5, Mr. Studer opened a tailor 
shop on the corner of J and Mariposa streets, 
making, repairing and cleaning clothes. His 
earnest efforts, assisted by his daughters, met 
with substantial results, and one year later he 
purchased of George McCollough, on Mariposa 
street, between I and J streets, three lots, and 
erected his first shop and residence, contracting 
to pay $730, $100 in cash and the rest in 
monthly payments. Here he resided and 



labored for seven years, when he sold his prop- 
erty for $2,800, and had a stock of goods 
valued at $3,000. He then moved to Brown's 
building, corner of J and Mariposa streets, and 
bought five acres near the city, on which lu 
built his home. In Fresno, in 1885, Mr. Studer 
was married a second time, the lady of his 
choice being Miss Laura Frost. He continued 
his business, and prosperity attended his efforts 
until his retirement in 1888, when he sold out 
to L. F. Winchell, and bought his present vine- 
yard of twenty acres, located at the corner of 
Cherry and Central avenues. The vineyard had 
been neglected, and the house was in bad con- 
dition, but under his well directed efforts both 
have been much improved, and his ranch is 
considered one of the most productive small 
ones in the colony, the net output from it in 
1890 being $3,117.19. He has an acre and a 
quarter devoted to white Adriatic figs, which 
net $365 per acre. He has also purchased 
twenty acres on East avenue, Washington colony, 
which is partly improved. 

Mr. Studer has reared and educated the chil- 
dren by his first marriage, and his home is now 
made happy by the three little ones born to him 
by his present wife. 



r 

§F. PETERS, of Fresno, was born in 
Erzeroom, Asia, January 2, 1856, son 
° of P. K. Peters, also a native of Asia, 
born in 1805. The father became one of the 
leading wholesale and retail manufacturers of 
farming tools and hardware of Erzeroom. He 
was also extensively engaged in farming and 
stock -raising, having 1,300 acres of land. Mr. 
Peters had five children, three sons and two 
daughters. In 1877, because of the oppression 
of a monarchical government, he emigrated to 
the United States to make a new home and en- 
joy the freedom of American citizens. He 
engaged in business in the East until 1883, 
when became to California. With his son, A. 
F. Peters, he purchased vineyard property near 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



593 



Fresno, where he now resides in the enjoyment 
of a happy home. 

A. F. Peters was educated in Erzeroom, after 
which he entered the manufacturing establish- 
ment of his father and learned ' the trade of 
machinist. On his arrival in the United 
States, in 1877, he went to Philadelphia, where 
his brother resided, engaged in the stove and 
tinware business, and with him remained about 
eighteen months, learning the trade of plumber 
and tinsmith. Then he went to Worcester, 
Massachusetts, and found employment in an 
iron last manufactory, in which he worked until 
1883, the time of his coming to California. 
He and his father bought forty acres of land 
which they have improved. During the boom 
Mr. Peters formed a city addition of his twenty 
acres and sold it out in town lots, at a largely 
increased value. He has been somewhat inter- 
ested in mining, has worked at his trade, and 
feels well satisfied with his progress in the 
country of his adoption. He is now engaged 
in the jewelry business and has a thriving trade 
in his well-stocked store, No. 1113 J street, 
Fresno. 

Mr. Peters was married in Erzeroom, and is 
the happy father of six children. He is a 
member of Yo Semite Lodge, No. 171, A. O. 
U. W., and also of K. P. and National Guard. 

|||EV. JOSEPH PINCENEY MORRISON, 
VmL deceased. — A complete and truthful history 
^$\ of the life of this truly good and faithful 
pioneer clergyman would furnish profitable 
reading to the present and coming generations. 
He has done his life's work faithfully and has 
passed away, and many facts that are needed for 
our desired purpose are out of reach. Mr. Mor- 
rison was a native of North Carolina, born May 
7, 1801. He was a son of William Morrison, a 
planter by occupation, who removed to Tennessee 
when the subject of this sketch was quite young, 
and died in 1836 while making the journey with 
his family from North Carolina to Missouri. 



The subject of this sketch enjoyed the ad- 
vantages of a good education, and joined the 
Cumberland Presbyterian ministry at about 
thirty years of age. He spent several years in 
the State of Alabama and Tennessee doing 
ministerial work, and later, about eighteen years 
in the State of Missouri. Joseph P. Morrison 
was first married before he attained his ma- 
jority, to Miss Matilda Brown, of Tennessee. 
The result of their union was three children, 
all of whom preceded him to the other world. 
His wife died in 1827, and in 1831 he married 
Miss Nancy Steel, of Alabama. A daughter 
was born to them, who still survives. His 
second wife died in 1835; and in Missouri he 
met and married, May 20, 1849, Miss P. E. 
Hale, a daughter of Judge Isaac Hale, a leading 
farmer of Richmond, Missouri. They finally 
removed to Oregon, crossing the plains in 1862, 
and in 1869 came to California. After spend- 
ing one year in Tulare County, they located in 
Kern County, in 1871, and in 1872 took up 
their present residence in Lynn's valley. Six 
children were born to them, four of whom are 
living, namely : Isaac N. and Thomas O, of 
Delano; Nancy M., now the wife of Dr. W. W 
Oglesby, of Cottage Grove, Oregon ; and 
William H. is on the old homestead, and is 
Justice of the Peace of his district. Rachel A. 
married R. N. Furgeson, and both are now de- 
ceased, leaving a little daughter, Grace, a ward 
of Mrs. Morrison. Sara J., deceased, was the 
former wife of Dr. Oglesby. Mr. Morrison 
died the death of the righteous man, September 
26, 1887, having had a long and useful life. 
Mrs. Morrison is a lady of culture, great forti- 
tude, and many charming womanly graces. 
The home comprises 160 acres of foothill land. 






H. BIXBT, vineyardist and rancher in 
Washington colony, Fresno County, 
>a California, is a native of Vermont, 
born in Springfield, in 1846. At the early age 
of five years he had the misfortune to lose his 




594 



HISTORY Of CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



father, and the family being left in reduced cir- 
cumstances, he was bound out until twenty-one 
years of age. At nineteen, however, he gained 
the consent of his employer and emigrated to 
Bureau County, Illinois, working as a farm la- 
borer in that State and Iowa. In 1873 he 
pushed west as far as Eureka, Nevada, and, 
finding that town over-supplied with laboring 
men, he continued on to California and landed 
in Alpine County. There he engaged in wood- 
chopping, and later as a contractor in supply- 
ing the mines. He was financially successful, 
but through failure of mines lost $1,500. 

In November, 1878, Mr. Bixby came to 
Washington colony, and with $1,100 bought 
twenty acres of land and established a home, 
making improvements as circumstances would 
admit. He is now the owner of eighty acres, 
thirty of which are in vines, nine in trees and 
twenty in alfalfa. He has built a comfortable 
home, and has everything conveniently arranged. 
He has also built two barns, one, 60 x 64 feet, 
the other, 56 x 60 feet. He feels well satisfied 
with his investment and now values his prop- 
erty at $40,000. 

Mr. Bixby was married in Bureau County, 
Illinois, February 9, 1870, to Miss Rachel K. 
Fulton, and their home is made happy by the 
presence of three children, Blanch R., Albert 
J. and Guy C. 



W. BONES, an architect and prominent 
citizen of Fresno, California, was born at 
Valley Forge, Chester County, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1818. He received his education in 
the common schools, and at the age of sixteen 
was apprenticed to learn the carpenter's trade. 
In 1840 he went to Philadelphia, where he fol- 
lowed his trade for several years as contractor 
and builder. In 1846 he was married, in that 
city, to Miss Maria "West, a descendant of Ben- 
jamin West, the great American painter. 

In 1850 Mr. Bones sought a new field of la- 
bor, made the voyage via the Isthmus of Pan- 



ama to this coast, and landed at San Francisco 
July 29. He soon secured employment at $10 
per day, and, being a man of great push and 
energy, and one of the few who know how to di- 
rect others, he took up contract work and did a 
prosperous business. In 1853 he returned 
East and brought his wife to California. Two 
years later he built a handsome residence in 
Alameda, where he resided for many years, and 
still owns the property. During his residence 
there he was prominently identilied with the 
growth and development of San Francisco and 
surrounding towns, following his trade until 
1870, when he made an advance step and took 
up architecture. Although self-taught, he at- 
tained a remarkable degree of success, and is 
justly proud of his achievements. 

Being an enthusiastic and law-abiding citizen 
Mr. Bones joined the vigilance committee in 
1856, and was active in the suppression of 
crime and the maintenance of order during 
those days. In 1878 he was nominated as 
Senator from the Eighteenth district by the 
workingmen, and elected by a rousing majority. 

In August, 1882, the subject of our sketch 
located in Fresno, opened an office and con- 
tinued his work as an architect. He is the de- 
signer of many of the most important buildings 
of the city, among which may be mentioned 
the Ogle House, the Grand Central Hotel, the 
Masonic Temple, the Fiske block and the city 
hall. Mr. Bones is still active in his profes- 
sion. Time has dealt gently with him, and, 
although he has passed his three score and ten 
years, he is still tilled with the vigor and en- 
thusiasm of youth. Having always been 
strictly a temperate man, disease is unknown 
to him, and he feels equal to many years of 
service yet. 

In June, 1886, Mr. Bones suffered the loss of 
his beloved wife, who for forty years had been 
his companion and comforter. She left two 
sons and one daughter. 

Mr. Bones has been a Republican since 1856, 
on national affairs, but in municipal matters he 
goes in for " men and measures." As a man of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



595 



integrity and honor, he stands high in the com- 
munity. Mr. Bones occasionally courts the 
muses. At the centennial anniversary at Fass- 
king Park, Alameda, July 4, 1876, he delivered 
the following original poem : 

Fame raised her trumpet and the bugler blew: 
Great Washington has come! What praise is due 
His name so great, so good, so high, 
We'll laud it to the very sky. 

From rigid North, from sunny South, 
And every land beneath the sun. 
Our conquering heroes shall go forth 
To sound the fame of Washington. 

Fling out your banner to the breeze, 
Unfurl the stripes o'er land and seas, 
Drive back its foes in deadly strife, 
And guard its honor with your life. 

O, glorious starry banner bright, 
We'll raise thy folds on high, 
And shout aloud with all our might 
Until the echoes reach the sky. 

Then, freemen, rally for the strife; 
Your glorious works shall ne'er be done ; 
And liberty, — oh, guard it with your life, 
For many a century yet to come. 

America, thy great fame shall ever live : 

To thee our homage we will give. 

Heroic deeds shall never die 

Till Time's last whirlwind sweeps the vaulted sky. 

~&*~ — * ■ >-< r ^~1 '*T' "l— rC *-* * '. ***" 

WILLIAM P. GRAHAM is a native of 
Danville, Virginia, born December 18, 
1837. When he was seven years old 
his father, William L. Graham, a physician, now 
deceased, moved the family home to Campbell 
County, where he was reared and received his 
early education. He completed his studies at 
Emory and Henry College in southwestern Vir- 
ginia, graduating at that well-known institution 
in the year 1859. 

In the spring of 1861 he enlisted in the 
Confederate army, joining the Second Virginia 
Cavalry, under Colonel J. B. Stewart. In the 
memorable first battle of Manassas he was made 
First Lieutenant, and was afterward promoted 
to Captain of his company. As Captain he was 
with his company engaged in the second battle 




of Manassas, the battle of the Wilderness, and 
many skirmishes. 

At the close of the war he returned to the 
family plantation in Virginia and lived there 
for two years. Tobacco was the principal crop, 
and in this staple article Mr. Graham speculated 
from time to time, making money and buying a 
plantation near Lynchburg, Virginia, with his 
surplus profits. After a residence there of two 
years he bought an interest in the Alleghany 
Springs in southwestern Virginia, and was man- 
ager of that resort for a year and a half. Then, 
selling out at a profit, he moved to Washington 
city, being engaged in the real-estate business 
at the national capital for several years. 

His health at that time being poor, he decided 
to go to Europe for the benefit of the sea 
voyage, and twice he made the trip, with only 
temporary relief, however. Other means hav- 
ing failed, the Captain, in 1887, determined to 
try California climate, and in May of that year 
he came West and spent the summer in Alameda 
County. In the fall of that year he located in 
Fresno County, and since then has made his 
home in Selma. He owns a highly improved 
raisin vineyard of forty acres, located five miles 
north of the town, and devotes his time and 
attention to this industry. His health has been 
greatly benefited by the balmy climate of Cali- 
fornia, and now he is entirely relieved from the 
troubles which afflicted him during his life On 
the Eastern coast. 

Captain Graham was married, in 1874, to 
Miss Bettie Adams, a native of Halifax County, 
Virginia, and has a family of four children. 



IP|R. J. L. MoCLELLAND, son of John 
f f/J McClelland, deceased, is a native of Mer- 
^f cer County, Pennsylvania, born in 1852. 
His early life was spent on his father's farm in 
Iowa, to which place the family moved in 1857, 
and he was afforded the usual opportunities for 
study at the grammar schools and academy. 
He subsequently tcok a classical course of study 



596 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois, 
where he graduated in 1872. 

After finishing his studies Mr. McClelland 
went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania where he 
pursued journalism for a period. He was en- 
gaged for a time on the Pittsburg Leader, 
and was also the editor of the Pittsburg 
Herald. 

On account of failing health he started for 
California in 1875, and after his arrival in this 
State he engaged in journalism in San Fran- 
cisco, subsequently teaching school in various 
parts of California for some four or five years. 
In 1882 he took up the study of medicine, en- 
tering the California Medical College, where he 
remained for two years. He afterward entered 
the Hahnneman College, San Francisco, where 
he achieved distinction, occupied the highest 
position in his class, and when he graduated, in 
1884, was selected as its valedictorian. Some 
time after his graduation the Doctor was offered 
the position of demonstrator of anatomy at the 
college, and also the chief of dispensary, staff of 
physicians, offers which he felt obliged to de- 
cline, as he had previously located in Fresno, 
and was actively engaged in the practice of his 
profession there. 

After a residence of five years in Fresno Dr. 
McClelland moved to Selma, where he now re- 
sides on his ranch of 160 acres, located three 
miles southwest of the town. He is at present 
devoting most of his time and attention to the 
care of a raisin vineyard which he has on his 
place. It consists of ninety acres, and is one 
of the most promising in this vicinity. His 
ranch is beautifully located, an attractive feature 
of the place being the grounds which front the 
house. 

The Doctor was married July 20, 1878, to 
Miss Sophia J. Bird, a native of Tulare County, 
California, by whom he has three children. 

Mrs. McClelland has taken her husband's 
place in the active practice of his profession, 
she being a physician, having graduated in the 
same class with her husband. She now has a 
large and well-established practice in Selma and 



vicinity, and thus far has been eminently suc- 
cessful. She is a great favorite in whatever 
office she is called upon to fill, both socially and 
professionally. 

#^-6SM# 



tEV. OBED D. DOOLEY may justly lay 
claim to the title of the pioneer preacher 
of Central California. He came to the 
State as early as 1850, from Ralls County, Mis- 
souri, where he was born in 1830, near New 
London, the county capital. His father, Thomas 
Dooley, was a native of Kentucky, a farmer by 
occupation, and raised a family of three sons and 
four daughters. His mother, by maiden name 
Matilda Webster, also of Kentucky birth, was of 
New English ancestry. Obed D. Dooley was 
the third of this family. The reports of won- 
derful gold discoveries in California enticed him 
from his native home. He mined during the 
years 1850-'51, when, owing to poor health, he 
abandoned that work and went to Sacramento 
and engaged in ranching near that city until 
1854, and later he spent two years in Green 
valley, where he studied for the ministry under 
the Rev. J. M. Small. He then entered upon a 
course of study at Sonoma College, Sonoma 
County, where he spent two and a half years, 
assuming his first charge near Stockton, Cali- 
fornia. He continued his labors in the San 
Joaquin valley up to the year 1869, and then 
took up his residence in northern Kern County, 
where he has a comfortable home ranch of about 
240 acres, and where he has unceasingly min- 
istered to churches in that locality. Although 
advanced in years and his health somewhat im- 
paired, he still fills his appointments at Delano 
and Glennville. His life has been a busy and 
useful one. He has organized churches at 
Salida, Merced, Mariposa, Tule River, Lynn's 
Valley, Bakersfield and Delano. He has also 
done a great deal of missionary work aside from 
his labors as a church organizer. 

February 18, 1872, he married Mrs. Caroline, 
the widow of George W. Bronk, and a daughter 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



597 



of the late Christian Bohna, a sketch of whom 
appears on another page in this work. By this 
union four children have been born: Walter L., 
Tnomas F., Sarah Ida B. and Jonathan. The 
children of Mrs. Dooley by her former marriage 
are Charles Henry, Virginia E., Frank, Martha 
and George W., Jr. Mr. Dooley is a man of 
sterling traits of character, and positive in his 
nature. Aggressive in his work, his adminis- 
tration of the affairs of his various parishes has 
been most successful and popular. 



--s-K 



^*^=~- 



fD. SMITH, a rancher in Washington 
colony, Fresno County, California, is a 
9 native of Westfield, New York, born in 
1857. He came to California with his father, 
C. C. Smith (a sketch of whose life will be found 
on another page of the work), in 1870, and set- 
tled in Stanislaus County. 

Mr. Smith's early education was received 1 in 
the East, and after coming to California he 
entered the State Normal School at San Jose, 
where he took a three years' course, graduating 
in 1878. He was then engaged in teaching 
in Merced Connty for eighteen months, after 
which, for a short time, he was interested with 
his father in the sheep business. In 1880 he 
began mercantile life as a clerk for Simon 
Jacobs at Merced, but in 1881 he again joined 
his father, on the ranch of Major Redding, 
and engaged in the stock business for Falkner, 
Bell & Co. of San Francisco. In 1884 Mr. 
Smith went to Arizona on a prospecting tour, 
being interested in mining until 1886. At that 
time he came to Washington colony, spent one 
year on the ranch of his father, and on January 
1, 1887, purchased ten acres on the corner of 
Lincoln and Cherry avenues, which he has 
since improved and where he has established 
his home. 

January 1, 1887, Mr. Smith was married, in 
Central colony, to Miss Jennie Robinson, a 
native of California. They are the parents of 
one child, Mabel, born September 6, 1889. 



Mr. Smith has his land devoted to vines, 
deciduous fruits and alfalfa. He has a neat and 
attractive home, and is comfortably situated. 



|||ASCHAL RUTLEDGE, deceased, was one 
WRm of the many pioneers of California who 
^C have done their life-work and passed to 
the country from whose bourne no pioneer re- 
turns. He was a man of strong characteristics 
and of bright intellect. He was born of old 
South Carolina stock, at Greensville, July 15, 
1823. His father, also named Paschal Rut- 
ledge, was a wealthy planter and reared his 
family in affluence, giving his children good 
schooling. 

The subject of th:s sketch, after attaining his 
majority, was apprenticed to learn the tinner's 
trade, and upon coming to California in 1849 
he engaged in the hardware and tin business in 
San Fraucisco. He suffered two severe losses 
in his business by fire", when he turned his at- 
tention to stock-raising and farming in Tuol- 
umne County and that section of the State up 
to the time that he located in the Wood pre- 
cinct, in Kern County, in May, 1873. Paschal 
Rutledge was a man of intellectual attainments, 
a ready writer, and was for years a popular con- 
tributor to various weekly and daily journals 
published on the coast, and at one time editor 
of a weekly paper in Stockton. 

He was married, September 24, 1846, to Miss 
Mary Ann, daughter of William McElroy, a 
Scotchman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They 
have six children living : Frank A., born De- 
cember 8, 1851; Mary H., November 14, 1853, 
now the widow of JolmuaF. Lewis; Edward P., 
born December 19, 1854; Anna E., wife of 
Henry Bohna, born September 7, 1856; Chris- 
tiana B., now Mrs. E. M. Ashe, of Bakersfield, 
born March 4, 1859; and James C, born April 
5, 1862. Emma, the first-born of the family, 
was boru January 12, 1848, and died at fourteen 
years of age. These children, except the two 
oldest, were born in California. Mrs. Rutledge 



598 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



was born in Philadelphia, January 1, 1821, and 
still survives her husband, who died in August, 

1882. 

B. MATHEWS is a native of Dent 
County, Missouri, born in 1858. When 
a he was three years old his father died, 
leaving his mother with a family of seven chil- 
dren, one son and six daughters, to support; 
and while yet a mere boy young Mathews as- 
sumed the care of the farm and did what he 
could to support the family. His mother had 
been left somewhat involved after her husband's 
death, and it required a severe struggle to settle 
up matters; but her affairs were satisfactorily 
adjusted after much labor and the practice of 
the strictest economy. 

In 1877, at the age of nineteen years, our 
subject, with his mother and one sister, came to 
California and settled in Fresno County, where 
he now lives, half a mile from the center of 
Selma. His ranch consists of eighty acres, fifty- 
five of which are set to vineyard, the vines doing 
well The residence is a spacious one, lately 
built, adjoining which is the small wooden 
shanty, still preserved, where its owner first 
lived fifteen years ago— five years before the 
town of Selma was thought of. Mr. Mathews 
has had a prosperous career since he landed in 
the Golden State. He owns considerable prop- 
erty in the thriving town of Selma, and has 
other land interests in the county besides the 
rauch already described. 

On the fourth of July, 1888, he was united 
in marriage to Miss Anna Allari, a native of 
San Francisco. 



fHARLES O'NEAL, a Fresno County 
rancher, located on Willow Creek, is a 
native of Illinois, horn in Vermilion 
County, in 1832. His father, William O'Neal, 
a Kentuckian, emigrated to Illinois in early 



life and remained there, engaged in farming 
and blacksmithing until 1845, when he moved 
his family to Texas. The year following their 
removal So,uth, Charles enlisted at San Antonio, 
in the Texas Cavalry, called " The Rangers," 
under Colonel Bell. They were assigned to the 
frontier of Texas, but their only fighting was 
with the Indians. After about thirteen months 
of service he was mustered out at San Antonio. 

Mr. O'Neal then returned to Navarro County, 
Texas, and remained in that locality until 1856, 
when he started across the plains for California, 
in company with Captain Burns and his party. 
They followed Cook's trail by Fort Belknap and 
El Paso. The company numbered about 200 
souls. On the Great Desert the water supply 
gave out and both man and beast suffered ex- 
treme thirst. Mr. O'Neal and some others of 
the party made long trips at night to get water 
for the sufferers. At Santa Cruz, Sonora, he 
left the train and went into Mexico. Young 
and eager for adventure, he joined the forces of 
Governor Gondarezand participated in the revo- 
lution. Eight months later he went to Arizona, 
thence to California, arriving iu this State in 
1857. Until 1859 his time was spent in trav- 
eling from one mining district to another and 
all through the San Joaquin valley. In that 
year he was engaged as superintendent of the 
Santa Rita stock ranch by Messrs. Ilildrith & 
Dumphrey, and remained with them about three 
years. Then he was employed by Miller & Lux 
on their stock ranch until 1864, when he went 
to Watsonville and opened a saloon and billiard 
hall, and remained thus enlaced until 1876. In 
1878 he moved to his present ranch on Willow 
creek, which he purchased of Mrs. Captain 
Mace, now of Madera. He first bought 160 acres, 
and by more recent purchases has added to it 
until he is now the owner of 1,500 acres, 1,000 
acres of which is tillable. This property is situ- 
ated in the foothills, at an elevation of 1,350 
feet, and is considered fine orange and fruit 
land. Mr. O'Neal keeps 150 head of stock and 
about sixty hogs. His home being located on 
the old Yo Semite road, he keeps a small bote! 



HISTORY OF CENT UAL CALIFORNIA. 



599 



and accommodates travelers. A ( post office has 
been established at this place, called O'Neals, 
and the subject of our sketch is Postmaster. He 
also has a store and blacksmith shop, which he 
rents. 

Mr. O'Neal was married in Watsonville, in 
1870, to Miss Betty Douglass, daughter of G. 
N. Douglass, Assemblyman from El Dorado 
County in 1859. They are the parents of five 
children, three daughters and two sons, all liv- 
ing at home. 

In addition to the property already referred 
to, Mr. O'Neal also owns several mines, and is 
connected with mining speculations. He joined 
the Masonic order in 1861, at San Juan, and is 
now a member of Fresno Lodge, No. 247, F. & 
A. M.; also holds a membership in the L 0. R. 
M. of Watsonville. 



fOHN W. V. CALDWELL is one of the 
leading farmers and stock-raisers of Lynn's 
valley, his stock interests also extending 
over into the San Joaquin valley and adjacent 
hills. He is one of the pioneers of the State, 
having first come to California in 1853. 

Mr. Caldwell was born in Fayette County, 
Alabama, April 11, 1831. His father, William 
Caldwell, was a farmer and carpenter, and the 
latter business, as a contractor, he followed many 
years of his life. He was a South Carolinian 
by birth and married Miss Frances F., daughter 
of Josiah Box, a minister of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church South, anJ a native of South 
Carolina. Mr. Caldwell's father was a son of 
William Caldwell, also a farmer. Mr. Cald- 
well's wife was a daughter of James Raben, an 
American and Revolutionary soldier. 

John W. V. Caldwell is the fourth born in a 
family of ten children. He was reared on a 
cotton plantation, and acted for several years as 
his father's superintendent. Upon coming to 
California, he first located in Sonoma County, 
where he lived two years. In 1855 he settled 
in Lake County, and there remained until 1856. 



He was engaged in the livery business in Santa 
Rosa, and later in Tulare, residing at the latter 
place until 1865. It was not until 1872 that 
he located in Kern County. Since that time 
he has continued to reside here. His home in 
Lynn's Valley comprises 160 acres of fine farm- 
ing land, and he also owns 2,160 acres of land 
in Tulare County. 

The subject of our sketch has been twice mar- 
ried. His first wife, whose maiden name was 
Alvina E. Roberts, he wedded at Santa Rosa in 
1860, and her death occurred in 1868. In 1873 
he married Miss Annie L. Hill, a daughter of 
one of the pioneers of 1849 and a miner in the 
central counties of the State. Mr. and Mrs. 
Caldwell have seven children, viz.: Elizabeth M. 
(Bessie), Frances, Fannie B., John H., Alonzo 
H., Laura A. and James R. H. 

Mr. Caldwell is an energetic and enterprising 
farmer. He herds about 2,000 head of sheep, 
thirty cattle and twenty-five horses. 



fHARLES H. ROBINSON, a native of the 
State of New Hampshire, was born De- 
cember 6, 1833. When a boy he was 
sent to Phillips Academy, Andover, a famous 
preparatory school, where he pursued his studies 
for a time, subsequently entering the New 
Hampshire Institute, where he graduated. 

After finishing his studies Mr. Robinson lo- 
cated in Illinois, and for a time worked at the 
carpenter's trade in Woodford County, and also 
engaged in farming. When the war broke out 
he enlisted in 1861, in the Forty-seventh Illi- 
nois Infantry, and during that memorable strug- 
gle he participated in no less than twenty-eight 
important engagements. Mr. Robinson was 
First Lieutenant of his company. 

In 1868 he came to California and settled in 
Sonoma County, where he made his home for 
four years, engaged in farming and fruit raising 
with good success. From there he moved to 
Tulare County and located on a Government 
claim northeast of Hanford, remaining on it 



coo 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



three years. He was one of the first arrivals 
in that district, helped to build the first ditches 
ever constructed in that section of the country, 
and took an active hand in its early develop- 
ment. For some time he acted as the Deputy 
Assessor of the county. 

In May, 1877, Mr. Robinson moved to Fres 
no County, and located on a ranch of 160 acres, 
seven miles east of the town of Sehna, and here 
we find him to-day. He is the owner and pro- 
prietor of the Sequoia farm and vineyard, a 
very attractive, highly cultivated and a good 
paying piece of property. 

Mr. Robinson was first married in 1858 to 
Mary Jane Lovejoy, a native of Illinois, who 
died in 1862, leaving one daughter, now Mrs. 
John E. Sage of Selma. In 1865 he was united 
in marriage with Lenora L. Ormsby, also of 
Illinois. By her he has had two children, both 
now deceased. 




SAHLON LEVIS was born in Bucks 
County, Pennsylvania, February 28, 
1825. He was one of seven sons, all 
reared on the home farm. In 1838, when his 
father died, the family scattered, and Mahlon 
went to Illinois. "With three of his brothers, in 
1842, he engaged in the lumber business in the 
pine woods of Wisconsin, remaining there sev- 
eral years. 

In 1849, with the other ^old hunters, he 
came to California, and for two years tried his 
luck in the mining districts of this coast. He 
was unsuccessful, however, and returned to 
Wisconsin, where he lived for a period of 
eighteen years, giving his attention to the lum- 
ber business. At the end of that time he again 
came to California. Locating in Tulare County, 
he had a band of sheep for four years. In 1877 
Mr. Levis came to Fresno County and settled 
on a tract of 320 acres, upon which he still 
lives. This property is situated four miles 
northeast from Selma. At the time he located 
here he was financially embarrassed. The dry 




year had caused heavy losses in the sheep in- 
terests of the country, and, like thousands of 
others, he was a sufferer. To-day we find him 
the owner of a valuable ranch, fifty acres of 
which are in raisin vineyard, some of the vines 
being nine years old, and the rest of his land is 
devoted to grain and alfalfa. 

In 1853 Mr. Levis married Maria E. Olden. 
Of their eleven children, four are married and 
have families. 

Mr. Levis is one of the prominent old settlers 
of this community, highly respected and hon- 
ored by all who know him. 



D. CRICHTON, Justice of the Peace, 

Fresno, was born at Eureka, Hum- 
° boldt County, California, July 12, 
1863. He is the fourth in a family of four sons 
and two daughters, his parents being natives of 
Scotland. His father, David Crichton, is a farmer 
and stock raiser, cultivating 160 acres and hav- 
ing a stock ranch of 640 acres, with mountain 
grazing adjoining. He keeps about 600 head 
of cattle. 

Mr. Crichton received his education in the 
common schools and Phelps' Business College 
of Eureka, and graduated in 1880. He was 
then employed as bookkeeper by his brother-in- 
law, P. McAleenan, who owned a large brewery, 
remaining with him until 1884. In that year 
he opened a general merchandise store, in part- 
nership with his brother-in-law, A. C. Dan phi ng, 
which he continued until 1886, when he sold 
his interest on account of failing health. After 
spending a year in rest and travel over the State, 
he located in Fresno in 1887, and was employed 
as clerk in the office of S. N. Griffith, also doing 
some speculating in real estate. His evenings 
were occupied in reading Blackstone, as the 
study of law had always been his ambition; arid, 
upon leaving Mr. Griffith, in 1889, he entered 
the law office of Messrs. Warlow & Van Meter, 
devoting his time and energies in pursuit of this 
profession. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



601 




In November, 1890, Mr. Crichton was elected 
Justice of the Peace of Fresno, and assumed 
the discharge of his duties January 5, 1891, 
opening his court-room in Temple Bar building, 
corner of K and Mariposa streets. 

He owns forty acres of land in Central colony 
and sixty acres on Dry creek. Mr. Crichton 
has identified himself with Fresno and her best 
interests, and is regarded as a promising young 
business man. He is a member of Central 
California Lodge, No. 67, I. O. O. F., and Vine- 
land Lodge, No. 116, K. of P. 

< iP"V'*~i*' 

WILLIAM A. SANDERS, a prominent 
rancher of Fresno County, is a native 
of Wisconsin, born January 26, 1837. 
Early in his life the family moved to Missouri, 
and after two years back again to Wisconsin, 
and located on a farm near the city of Madison. 
This farm was the home of our subject during 
the following eighteen years. In his seventeenth 
year he began to teach public school during the 
winter seasons, attending school in the summer, 
takin~ an especial interest in the study of min- 
eralogy (including assaying), geology, botany 
and surveying. 

The Sanders family moved to California in 
the year 1859. During the first three years of 
his career here William A. traveled extensively, 
engaging in various occupations. For a time 
he was in coast marine service, later a printer 
in San Francisco, an employe of the United 
States Government, and finally went as an 
assayer with a prospecting party overland 
through Arizona to Central Mexico. During 
this trip, in a fight with Apache Indians in 
Arizona, Mr. Sanders was wounded. 

Returning to California^ he taught school for 
four years in Red Bluff, and followed this by 
serving as principal of Shasta, Chico and Mi 11- 
ville public schools for the eight years follow- 
ing. 

Professor 



Sanders located on his present 
Tins place is lo- 



ranch of 260 acres in 1874. 

38 



cated three miles west of the town of Reedley, 
and is a valuable piece of property. He is ex- 
tensively engaged in fruit culture, as well as 
general fanning and nursery and seed business, 
and is quite successful in all his operations. 

The preference he evinced in early life for 
the study of mineralogy, geology and botany 
has already been referred to. During his long 
and eventful career in California, and in his 
travels in various countries, the Professor has 
added much to his knowledge of these subjects 
through special investigation. He is a fluent 
writer, and frequently contributes to the daily 
papers and magazines the results of his travels 
and research. 

He was married, in October, 1875, to Char- 
lotte E. Gilbert, a native of Wisconsin. Their 
family consists of four children. 



tC. CROSSMAN, mechanical engineer of 
the Fresno Fire Department, was born in 
- Q Lake County, Michigan, in 1842. After 
receiving a limited education he. entered the 
shops of the Michigan Central Railroad, and 
there learned the trade of machinist and engi- 
neer. 

When the civil war broke out, Mr. Crossman 
enlisted, in 1861, at Niles, Michigan, in Com- 
pany E, Twelfth Michigan Regiment, under 
Colonel Graves. The regiment was placed in 
the Northwestern Department, under General 
Grant, and after about one year of service the 
subject of our sketch was detailed to the Secret 
Service Department connected with the North- 
west, the Mississippi, Cumberland, Potomac and 
Tennessee. Mr. Crossman was in many heavy 
battles, and was wounded three times ; but, with 
unflagging enthusiasm and true patriotism, he 
served to the close of the war, and was honor- 
ably discharged at Niles in 1865. 

Then, resuming his trade as engineer, he ran 
the steamer Favorite on Lake Michigan until 
1867, when he emigrated to Omaha, where he 
served in several engineering capacities until 



602 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



1871. In that year he took up his abode in 
Virginia City, and for eleven years was con- 
nected with the Bonanza mining firm, in both 
mining and mechanical engineering. 

Id 1882 Mr. Crossman located in San Fran- 
cisco, where, for a brief time, he was connected 
with the Street Cable Company, after which he 
went to the Hawaiian Islands and was engaged 
in engineering work until 1885. Coining back 
to California then, he settled in Fresno and 
worked at his trade three years. In 1888 the 
city council appointed him mechanical chief of 
the fire department and engineer of engine 
No. 1, which position he has continuously and 
satisfactorily filled. 

Mr. Crossman was married, at Virginia City, 
Nevada, in September, 1877, to Miss Ella M. 
Patrick. They are the parents of two children. 

ZgSENRY BOHNA, one of the respected and 
fjln influential citizens of Kern County, is a 
nM son of the late Christian Bohna, who was 
a native of Saxony, Germany. He emigrated 
to America in 1833, locating in Pike County, 
Arkansas, and remained there until 1859, when 
he took up his residence in California, locating 
at Bakersfield in 1860. Here he remained for 
two years, and in 1862 was driven from that 
locality by the historic flood of that date. He 
spent about five years in Oregon and Idaho, 
when in 1867 he returned to Kern County and 
resided with his relatives until his death, which 
occurred in 1872, at the residence of a daugh- 
ter, Mrs. A. J. Maltby. 

Of the family of eleven children, Henry, 
the subject of this sketch, is the fifth. He was 
born in Arkansas, October 15, 1842, and has 
devoted, his life thus far to stock-raising, and, 
aside from two years spent near Bakersfield, and 
four years — 1863 to 1867 — spent in the mines 
of Idaho, he has resided in the Woody district. 
He has about 320 acres of valuable grazing 
land? and ranges about 100 head of cattle and 




twenty-five head of horses, and raises some 
grain and hay. 

Mr. Bohna was married February 16, 1876, 
to Miss Annie E., daughter cf Paschal and 
Mary Ann (McElroy) Rutledge, and they have 
six children: Paschal E., Christie M., Lena E., 
Clara, Mary Ann and Roy. Mrs. Bohna was 
born in Tuolumne County, California, Septem- 
ber 7, 1856, and, being raised by pious parents, 
she at the age of sixteen united with the Chris- 
tian Church, or Disciples, and, with the help of 
her worthy husband, she is trying to bring up 
her children in the fear of the Lord. 

ILLARD BROOKS has been engaged 
in ranching at Oleander, Fresno County, 
California, since 1882. He is one of 
the representative citizens of the place, and as 
such deserves mention in this work. 

Mr. Brooks was born in Brooklyn, New 
York, in 1860, son of J. W. Brooks. For many 
years his father was connected with Messrs. 
Mnnsell & Thompson, in the stove business. 
He emigrated to California in 1849, and was a 
member of the firm of Tav, Brooks & Backus, 
of San Francisco. They did an extensive stove, 
tinning and plumbing business, shipping all 
their goods from the East by water. Mr. 
Brooks remained thus employed for four years, 
after which he returned East and settled in 
Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he resided for 
several years. In 1875 he again sought the 
Pacific coast, located in Oakland and established 
a stove and tin store and plumbing business. 

Willard Brooks was educated :it Elizabeth, 
New Jersey, and came to California in 1877. 
He joined his father in Oakland, remained with 
him two years and learned the trade of plumber. 
In 1879 he went to the Auburn mines, Placer 
County, where he was employed as engineer for 
fourteen months; then returned to San Fran- 
cisco and was employed by the Steam Laundry 
Association. In 1882 he came to Oleander. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



603 



aud, with his father, bought twenty acres of 
laud on Maple avenue. They planted sixteen 
acres in Muscat vines, and the rest in different 
kinds of fruits. Their house and barn and sur- 
rounding grounds are conveniently arranged, 
all showing the thrift and prosperity as well as 
the good taste of the owner. The father died 
October 13, 1890. 

Mr. Brooks was married in Oleander in 
March, 1888, to Miss Bertha Louise Galloway, 
daughter of J. D. Galloway. They are the 
parents of one child, Munsell Van Wie Brooks, 
born December 23, 1889. 



-=&*< 



>*^~ 



§EMUEL HARP is one of the pioneer resi- 
dents of Fresno County. In November, 
1871, he became a rancher on a quarter 
section of land, located a mile and a half north- 
east of where the town of Kingsbury now 
stands, and has ever since made his home iu 
this vicinity. When the thriving village of 
Kingsbury was established, in 1873, he at once 
identified himself with its best interests, and 
all through the years of its existence he has 
been one of its prominent and popular citizens. 
Lemuel Harp was born in Johnson County, 
Arkansas, January 19, 1852. When he was 
five years old his father moved to California 
aud settled in Merced County. Lemuel was 
reared and educated there, remaining in that 
place until he reached his nineteenth year, 
when he came to his present location. He then 
engaged in farming on property which he still 
holds. With others he took an active part in 
pushing through an irrigation system whereby 
water could be had in quantity. It was not 
until 1886 that Mr. Harp abandoned the pur- 
suit of farming and took up his residence in 
town. Here he has a very attractive home, the 
grounds surrounding it comprising seven acres. 
At present Mr. Harp is interested in real-estate 
operations. He helped to organize and is now 
president of the company which owns the "Far- 
ley's Addition," a very valuable property. He 



is a director in and secretary of the River Bend 
& Cole Slough Irrigation Company, and for 
two years he has been a Notary Public. 

Mr. Harp was happily married November 3, 
1881, to Miss Loretta Traber, a native of Illi- 
nois. They have one child. 



tC. BRYAN, the owner of a well-improved 
ranch at Oleander, Fresno County, Cali- 
° fornia, is a native of Danville, Vermont, 
born in March, 1843. His father carried on 
farming at that place, and also operated a brew- 
ery. Young Bryan remained at home, received 
his education and worked on the farm until 
August, 1862, when he enlisted at Danville in 
Company C, Third Vermont Infantry, under 
Colonel Hyde, a West Point cadet, and joined 
his regiment at Hagerstown, Maryland, in Oc- 
tober, soon after the battle of Antietam. He 
participated in many important engagements, 
among which were the battles of Fredericks- 
burg, Gettysburg and the Wilderness; was 
wounded at the latter place and lay in hospital 
five months. After his recovery he again joined 
his regiment, was in the battles of Cedar Creek, 
Petersburg and Richmond. He received an 
honorable discharge at Washington, June 19, 
1865. 

The war over, Mr. Bryan returned to his 
home in Vermont, and subsequently went to 
Worcester, Massachusetts, where he learned the 
trade of carpenter and cabinet-maker, remain- 
ing there four years. He then followed his 
trade at Orange, Massachusetts, and Brattleboro, 
Vermont, where for two years he worked in the 
Estey Organ Manufactory. 

In 1876 Mr. Bryan moved to California, and 
settled in San Jose, where he followed his trade 
two years; spent one year in Yolo County, after 
which he went to Umatilla County, Oregon, 
and carried on grain and stock farming for five 
years. In 1883 he came to Oleander and pur- 
chased twenty acres at the corner of Sumner 
and Maple avenues, which is nicely improved in 



604 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



vines, trees and alfalfa. Mr. Bryan is some- 
what engaged in real-estate speculations and in 
mining interests. He is president of the San 
Joaquin Mining Company, which was incor- 
porated in December, 1890. 

At Orange, Massachusetts, in 1871, Mr. 
Bryan wedded Miss Amy L. Johnson. Their 
union is blessed with one child, Nellie Frances, 
born in 1872. 



ff D. GALLOWAY, Postmaster and Justice 
of the Peace of Oleander, Fresno County, 
9 was born in New York city in 1830, 
early in life emigrating with his parents to Ber- 
lin, Green Lake County, Wisconsin, where his 
father engaged in farming. 

The subject of our sketch learned the printer's 
trade in Wisconsin, and was employed at his 
trade until September. 1861, when he enlisted 
in the Third Wisconsin Battery, under Captain 
Lucius H. Drury, and was appointed Sergeant 
of the sixth gun. In 1862 he was appointed 
Quartermaster. The battery was in the Army 
of the Cumberland, under General Thomas, and 
was engaged at the battles of Stone River and 
Chickamanga. At the latter battle they lost 
their guns, and were afterward stationed in the 
fort at Chattanooga. In June, 1864, Mr. Gal- 
loway was relieved from duty by Generals 
Thomas and Steadman, and thus allowed to 
publish the Daily Gazette, of Chattanooga, for 
J. R. Hood, who was editor and also Post- 
master. He received his discharge from mili- 
tary service on October 10., 1864, but continued 
to publish the paper until June, 1865, when he 
returned to Berlin and followed farming. 

Mr. Galloway was married in Berlin, in 1858, 
to Miss A. M. Johnson. In 1869 he moved to 
Queen City, Missouri, on the North Missouri 
railroad, and was employed as station agent, 
and also operated a railroad restaurant, with 
great success. In 1874 he returned to Berlin 
and opened a general grocery store, which he 
continued until 1882. He then passed one year 



as organizer of the A. O. U. W. of Wisconsin, 
and one year as an officer in the Wisconsin State 
Prison at Waupun. 

In 1884 Mr. Galloway was induced to come 
to California through the influence of his 
brother-in-law, A. C. Bryan (whose history will 
be found on another page of this work), and 
settled in Oleander, purchasing twenty acres on 
Cedar avenne. He has since set sixteen acres 
to Muscat vines and built a fine two-6tory cot- 
tage. On November 23, 1887, he was appointed 
Postmaster at Oleander, and in January, 1889, 
he built his present post office and opened a 
small grocery and variety store. In the fall of 
1890 be was elected Justice of the Peace and 
Notary Public of Oleander. 

Mr. and Mrs. Galloway have three children 
living, viz.: Frank J., Bertha L. and Carrie 
Belle. Mr. Galloway is a member of Berlin 
Lodge, No. 38, F. & A. M., of Wisconsin, and 
of the G. A. R., of Berlin. 



-=**< 



»**=- 



If 



JLLIAM DAVENPORT JAMES is a 
forty-niner, a veteran of the civil war 
and a worthy old resident of the city of 
Visalia. 

He was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 
August 5, 1827. The ancestors of the family 
came from England to America in 1662, and 
brought with them the good old family Bible, 
now over 200 years old. The chest which was 
made to bring over a part of their effects hears 
the date, in brass nails, of 1662. Mr. James's 
father, Samuel James, was born in New Eng- 
land and married Phebe Kempton, a native of 
Massachusetts. Her relations were proprietors 
of the Cuticura remedies, and amassed a vast 
fortune in that business. Mr. James was next 
to the youngest of a family of nine children, of 
whom four sons still survive. He was educated 
in the common schools of Massachusetts, learned 
the trades of machinist and carpenter, and was 
employed at different places until the commence- 
ment of the great Rebellion. He was in Mobile 



HISTORY OP CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



605 



when the war began and his name was put on 
the State militia, but he made his escape to his 
old home in New Bedford and enlisted in the 
Union army, in April, and was sworn in at 
Fortress Monroe, May 23, 1861. His battalion 
was numbered the Twenty-ninth Massachusetts. 
Mr. James served in the Army of the Potomac, 
in the Second corps, and later in the ninth 
corps; was with his command nearly all the 
time and participated in all its battles. When 
his first term of enlistment expired he re-en- 
listed and did active duty till the close of the 
war. He was taken prisoner by General Lee's 
forces, spent a week in Libby prison and was 
paroled, as that occurred just at the close of the 
conflict. Mr. James passed all through that bloody 
struggle without ever receiving a wound, although 
he was shot at many a time by sharpshooters. 

In 1851 he married Miss Ruth A. Swasey, of 
Newport, Rhode Island, a daughter of Captain 
Alexander Swasey. He was born in Newport 
and sailed on the high seas from the time he 
was sixteen until he reached an advanced age, a 
greater portion of the time as captain, and it is 
a fact worthy of record that he never lost a ship 
or met with a serious accident. He held the 
position of Collector of the port at Newport, 
under the administration of William H. Harri- 
son, in 1840. Mr. and Mrs. James have had 
seven children, four of whom are living, namely: 
Clara, wife of Henry W. Dean, Postmaster of 
Visalia; Alice, wife of Roswell C. Smith, son of 
the present Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island; 
and William A., a miner. 

Mr. James came to Visalia in the spring of 
1873 and took up a Government claim of 160 
acres, located five miles east of Tulare, which he 
still owns and is having farmed to wheat. Iu 
1879 he purchased lots in Visalia and built a 
pleasant home, in which he now resides with his 
wife, who has been the partner of his life for 
the past forty years. They have surrounded 
their home with choice ilowers and trees and it 
is indeed a delightful retreat. Some of the trees 
of his own planting have grown to be seventy- 
five feet high. 



When Mr. James came to California in 1849, 
it was on a schooner of only eighty-five tons' 
burden, and had twenty-four passengers on 
board. He went into the mines at Hauo^own, 
dug considerable gold, returned East, and came 
back again to this coast in 1853. He thei; 
worked at Puget Sound in a planing-mill, and 
it was his privilege to watch the first cargo of 
dressed lumber move out of that harbor. 

Mr. James became a Republican at the organ- 
ization of the Republican party and has ever 
stood firm by the party that preserved the 
Union. 



p^ENRY MARTIN DETLES was born in 
telj San Fraucisco, June 16, 1860, the son of 
-nM German parents, who were early settlers 
in California. When quite young he had the 
misfortune to lose his father, who was scalded 
to death at Redwood City, by taking the cover 
off the malt boiler, when the steam blinded him 
so that he fell over. When he was nine years 
old his mother placed him in a Protestant 
orphan asylum, and after remaining there four 
years he was taken to be raised and educated by 
Jefferson Walker, of Colusa County. After 
living with him two years and not receiving the 
consideration he had reason to expect, his 
mother took him and he made his home with 
her a year. Then he went to Half Moon Bay 
and worked for wages. Returning to his mother 
in the city, he obtained a situation in a commis- 
sion house, remained there- until 1883, then 
went to Tehama County and engaged in ranch- 
ing. 

In 1890 Mr. Defies and his stepfather, Gus 
Brown, purchased the ranch of eighty acres, 
near Traver, Tulare County, which the former 
is managing and preparing to plant to fruit. 
He was married, in 1885, to Miss Catherina 
Peters, a native of San Francisco, by whom he 
has one child — Dora. 

Mr. Defies is a member of the Patriotic Sons 
of America, and is in politics a strong Demo- 



6C6 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



crat. He is a man of good business ability, is 
an enthusiast on the fruit question and is an 
active and industrious citizen. 

**<&•*£ 



fRANCIS S. FUG ITT is a member of one 
of the pioneer families of Lynn's valley, 
Kern County, California. He is a son of 
William Fugitt, of Glennville, a worthy farmer, 
a sketch of whoi-e life appears elsewhere in this 
work. He was born in Clay County, Missouri, 
April 2, 1849, and came to this State in 1852. 
Here he grew up under the influence of rural 
associations. He gained a common school edu- 
cation and learned the art of making a living in 
a mountainous country, teaming in and out of 
Lynn's valley for several years. He then set- 
tled on the south fork of Kern river, on 160 
acres of land, which he subsequently sold to 
William Scodie. His present ranch, 240 acres 
of tine land, is located near the forks of Kern 
river, and of this 200 acres are under feuce. 
Mr. Fugitt ranges about forty head of cattle 
and keeps ten horses. He has twenty-five acres 
devoted to alfalfa. 

December 30, 1874, Mr. Fugitt married Miss 
Amanda J., oldest daughter of E. A. Johnson, 
Esq. Their children by name are as follows: 
Edith, born February 19, 1876; Thomas E., 
December 8, 1877; Sarah G., January 19, 1880; 
Harry F., January 16, 1883; W. A., October 
10, 1885; and Nellie, May 20, 1890. 



<#** 



Jfi'^d* 



|||1ILLIAM HELM was born at Durham, 
Jffl Canada, a small town on the Chadigee 
river, which flows into the St. Law- 
rence, about forty miles from Montreal, March 
9. 1836. His parents were George and Mary 
(Oliver) Helm, both natives of Scotland, where 
they were married, and shortly afterward re- 
moved to the continent of North America. He 
enjoyed the advantages of a pleasant home dur- 
ing his early childhood. When he was ten 



years old the family moved to the vicinity of 
Hamilton, Canada, now a large and thriving 
city, where the father bought a farm. 

Attaining his majority in 1859, the subject of 
this sketch started out for himself, " Westward, 
Ho " being his motto. He engaged passage by 
water for San Francisco, via the Isthmus of 
Panama, arriving safely at his destination after a 
voyage of twenty-five days. His cash capital 
at that time was $5, and he paid that amount 
as steamer fare to Sacramento. He settled in 
Placer County at tirst, working at various oc- 
cupations for a period of two years, after which 
he engaged in the sheep business on Bear river. 
In 1864, closing out his interests there, he 
drove his sheep to Oregon, where he sold out 
for about $15,000, which represented his profits 
to that date. He then went back to Sacramento, 
where he bought more sheep. In July, 1865, 
he brought his sheep down to the San Joaquin 
valley, and has since continued his residence 
here. By dint of hard labor, great diligence, 
and careful attention, he has made a success of 
the sheep business and has amassed large prof- 
its. Mr. Helm still has large interests in the 
Dry Creek district, at which point he settled 
when first coming to this county. His ranch is 
located six miles east of Fresno and comprises 
12,000 acres. Besides his large sheep interests 
ou this place he has a vineyard of 200 acres, 
which is just now coming into bearing. 

To illustrate the rapid growth which has 
taken place in Fresno and vicinity since Mr. 
Helm moved here, he states that for eight years 
after his settlement he had no neighbor nearer 
than twelve miles. His was the only settle- 
ment between the present city of Fresno and 
the foothills. A visitor to the Fresno of to- 
day will appreciate the vast change which has 
taken place since then. Since 1877 Mr. Helm 
has made his home in Fresno. His residence, 
situated on a rive-acre tract of land at the cor- 
ner of Fresno and R streets, is one of the finest 
in the city, and the taste displayed in the arrange- 
ment of the beautiful and attractive grounds 
which surround this home, indicates the culture 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



607 



and refinement of the family. Mr. Helm also 
owns other valuable property in Fresno, on 
which substantial business buildings are located. 
He is the vice-president of the Bank of Central 
California," and the president of the Fresno 
Canal and Irrigation Company, of which he 
was one of the organizers. 

Personally Mr. Helm is a man of extreme 
modesty and simple habits. His genial dispo- 
sition combined with his sound judgment com- 
mands for him the respect of the entire com- 
munity, and he is a citizen that Fresno could 
ill afford to lose. 

Mr. Helm chose for his life companion Miss 
Fannie S. Newman, a lady of English ances- 
try. Their union has been blessed with seven 
children, all living, viz.: George, who has 
charge of his father's sheep ranch; Frank, 
engaged in banking business; Jesse, now Mrs. 
Cox of Bakersfield; and Fannie, Mary, Agnes 
and Maud. 



fAMUEL JAMES HINDS.— As one of 
the prominent attorneys of Fresno, this 
gentleman is entitled to consideration in 
the history of Central California. 

Mr. Hinds was born in Barren County, Ken- 
tucky, November 22, 1850- In 1860 his father 
and family crossed the plains with ox teams, 
and established their home in California. 
Samuel J. attended Santa Clara College two 
years and a half, after which he studied law 
three years with Byers & Elliott of Stockton. In 
this office he met many celebrated attorneys, 
known throughout the State. Following his 
valuable experience with this distinguished law 
firm, Mr. Hinds went East and entered the law 
school at Albany, New York, graduating at 
that institution in 1873. 

Beturning to California, he entered the law 
office of D. M. Delmas,, of San Jose, and re- 
mained with him one year, and afterward 
opened an office for himself and practiced 
there six years. During this period Mr. Hinds 



was engaged in much important litigation. He 
was attorney for the Farmers' National Gold 
Bank and also for the same institution when it 
reorganized as the first National Bank of San 
Jose. In 1882 he came to Fresno and associ- 
ated himself with Judge Campbell, with whom 
he practiced several years. He is now alone in 
his professional work. He has an extensive 
practice in both civil and criminal law, being 
particularly successful in the latter, as also re- 
markably successful in the timber land litiga- 
tion in the circuit courts of the United States. 

Personally Mr. Hinds has many pleasing 
traits of character. His candor and integrity 
inspire the confidence of all with whom he is 
associated. As a lawyer he excels in his clear 
conceptions of a cause, and such a logical pres- 
entation of the facts as carries conviction with 
his argument in the minds of the jury and 
court. 

Mr. Hinds was married November 11, 1873, 
the day of his graduation at the Albany Law 
School, to Miss Jennie Wing, of Dutchess 
County, New York. They are the parents of 
three bright children. 



tLEXANDER GORDON.— The history of 
one of the prominent and successful vine- 
yardists of Fresno County is contained in 
this biography. 

Mr. Gordon was born in Hants County, 
Nova Scotia, in 1846. His father being a 
farmer of limited means, the education of Alex- 
ander was largely gained by observation and 
contact with his fellowmen instead of through 
school facilities. He came to California in 
December, 1869, soon after the first overland 
railroad was completed, and settled in San Joa- 
quin County, entering into a partnership with 
W. C. Miller in the sheep business and keeping 
about 2,000 head. In 1874 they came to Fresno 
County, continuing in the same business with a 
herd averaging from 10,000 to 12,000 sheep. 
This partnership existed for seventeen years, 



608 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



until 1887, when Mr. Gordon sold out to Mr. 
Miller. 

Seeing that the great industry of this valley 
for the future would be the culture of the raisin 
grape, Mr. Gordon, in 1888, started a vineyard 
of 145 acres, reserving fifteen acres of the prop- 
erty for building purposes and pasture, this 
land being situated two miles ease of Fresno. 
After setting out his vineyard of Muscat grapes, 
he immediately erected a handsome residence 
and suitable outbuildings, costing $17,500. His 
vineyard has shown wonderful results, and is 
considered one of the best, for its age, in the 
State. In the season of 1890, when the vines 
were thirty months old, he dried 123 tons of 
raisins and sold 113 tons of second crop to the 
winery. Individual acres made two tons of 
raisins. Mr. Gordon has been offered §600 per 
acre for his vineyard. 

He was married, in Nova Scotia, in 1874, to 
Miss Ellen Grant, and this union has been 
blessed with eight children, all residing at 
home. 

When Mr. Gordon arrived in California he 
was §40 in debt, and his first work here brought 
him only $25 per month; but, in a country 
with such rich and varied resources as Califor- 
nia has, honest toil is sure to win, and he went 
to work with a determination to succeed, and as 
a result he is to-day worth $140,000. He owns 
1,000 acres of land near the city, and much 
property in Fresno, both improved and unim- 
proved. In 1876, in connection with N. 
Manasse, he built the Kohler House on I street, 
of which they are the present owners. They 
are also associate owners of twelve houses and 
other property in this city, as well as a brick 
business block in Madera, erected in 1891, with 
a frontage of 150 feet on the principal street, 
and containing six stores, with lodging rooms on 
second floor. He is the owner and projector of 
the Caledonia colony, which he has just placed 
upon the market in twenty-acre tracts. As a 
member of the extensive real-estate firm of Vin- 
cent, Chittenden, Cole, Sharp & Gordon, he has 
done a great deal toward placing settlers on the 



lands of this vicinity. Mr. Gordon is also 
interested in banking, being a director in that 
leading financial institution, the Farmers' Bank 
of Fresno. 



fA. DAVIDSON, M. D., is the oldest res- 
ident physician of Hanford, Tulare Coun- 
31 ty, California. 
He was horn in the District of Columbia, and 
graduated in medicine and surgery at the Royal 
College of Surgeons in London, in 1850. After 
an experience of three years at Chatham, Eng- 
land, which was then the army medical head- 
quarters and hospital depot for all troops, 
returning from foreign service, he entered the 
English army as staff assistant-snrgeon. serving 
in different regiments wherever he wa6 assigned. 
In 1852 he was medical purveyor at Corfu, the 
seat of government of the lower Ionian islands, 
a republic under the protection of Great Brit- 
ain. In 1854 he was stationed at Malta, when 
war was declared with Russia. He then went 
with the army to Scutari, Varna and Shumla, 
and, September 14, 1854, arrived at old Fort 
Eupatoria, on the shores of Crimea and Tartnry. 
He then followed the fortunes of war through 
Alma, Inkerman, Balaclava, and was at the siege 
of Sevastopol until the armistice was declared. 
After that he took charge of the wounded and 
invalids on board the troop steamship Simoon 
and returned to Malta, thence to England where 
he resigned his position. 

In 1858 Dr. Davidson went to Vera Cruz, 
Mexico, and a few months later to New Orleans, 
where he settled and followed his profession un- 
til the breaking out of the civil war in 1861. 
He was appointed surgeon in the cavalry under 
Colonel Turner Ashby ; and in 1862 was assigned 
to the navy department, serving in different 
departments under a roving commission until 
the close of the war. 

Dr. Davidson came to California in 1865 and 
*ettled at Kingston, Fresno County, then a 
small town, the country being used chiefly by 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



609 



stockmen. In July, 1877, he went to Fresno 
and made that his home until December, 1879, 
when he located in Hanford and established 
himself in the practice of his profession. He 
purchased property on Eighth street and built 
his present comfortable home, office and other 
buildings, and is now the oldest resident phy- 
sician of this locality. Having had an extended 
experience in surgery, the Doctor is widely 
known through the valley in that department 
and in medicine also has an extended practice. 

Dr. Davidson was married, at Centreville, 
Fresno County, December 25, 1873, to Miss 
Nanny Ellis, a native of Texas. Their union 
has been blessed with eight children: John E., 
Winnie E., Louis C, Reginald A., Harriet M., 
James A., Lillias R. and Georgia G. 

For more than nine years the Doctor has been 
Health Officer of Hanford. Although this is a 
position of little honor or remuneration it is 
one of great responsibility, as on its proper 
management is dependent the health of the 
entire community. 



fULTON G. BERRY.— At the age of fifty, 
when most men begin to wear a discour- 
aged look, especially if the battle of life is 
against them, the snbject of this sketch arrived 
in Fresno. That was five years ago, in 1885. 
A glance backward at his career will show 
something of his training and also serve to il- 
lustrate what a poor man with plenty of pluck, 
nerve and persistence can accomplish in the rich 
country described in this volume. 

Mr. Berry was born in Maine in the year 
1834. In 1851 he came to California., — a six- 
foot stripling of seventeen. A good job of 
steady work, that of driving a sand-cart, being 
offered him in San Francisco, he became a dra}'- 
man, and worked for six months at days' 
wages. At the end of that time he bought a 
horse and dray, and set up in business for him- 
self, continuing thus employed for six years. 
The next four years he spent in the grocery 



trade, and then for two years he was engaged 
with Mr. Alexander Badlam in the real-estate 
business, after which he became a charter mem- 
ber of the Pacific Stock Exchange. From that 
he went into the old board, paying $30,000 for 
his seat, and, of course, failing, as the majority 
of good brokers did in those days. 

After serving for three years as commissary 
of State's prison, he bought a seat in the Prod- 
uce Exchange for $1,000, but, not having the 
means to carry on the business, he sold it and 
came to Fresno to take charge of the Grand 
Central Hotel. The wonderful success that Mr. 
Berry has achieved in this city is worthy of rec- 
ord. Soon after settling in Fresno he took a 
pair of burros, and with his wife drove about 
the town and vicinity, saying on his return, 
"This country is good enough for me, and I 
think we can trust our fortune here." 

Although in debt and with less than $50 of 
borrowed money, with opportunities lying all 
about him for quick turns in real estate, he de- 
cided on a bold venture: bonded a ranch for a 
large amount, went to San Francisco, told his 
story, and found a partner to put up the money. 
For his half of the amount ten per cent, inter- 
est was charged. He returned to Fresno, and 
in ninety days sold the property at a profit of 
$20,000, clearing his first $10,000. In the 
meantime, in thirty days after his advent in 
Fresno, he had bought a half-interest in the 
furniture of the Grand Central Hotel, — on time, 
of course, — and six months later he purchased 
his partner's interest. After selling the ranch 
he paid $7,500 for city lots, selling part of 
them in less than a year at a profit of $84,000. 
He then bought the hotel for $55,000. Mr. 
Berry has acquired much property in the city, 
which has rapidly advanced in price, and it may 
be truthfully said that to-day he is one of the 
principal property-holders of Fresno. He also 
owns valuable vineyard lands which is fast im- 
proving. In the electric light and gas com- 
panies he has large interests. In fact, Mr. 
Berry is associated in some way or another with 
every important business enterprise in the city. 



610 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



He was married in 1857 to Mary E. Torrey, a 
native of Maine, and lias two daughters. Such, 
in brief, is an account of the life of one of Fres- 
no's prosperous citizens, — a man of tireless 
energy, and unconquerable grit and determi- 
nation, who conquers apparently insurmountable 
obstacles by the sheer force of his strong 
personality. 

fJS. STRAUBE, a prominent business man 
of Fresno, was born in Montgomery 
° County, Missouri, in 1854. At the age 
of eighteen years he emigrated to California, 
and first located at Knight's Ferry, Stanislaus 
County, there being employed in a flour-mill 
and subsequently engaging in the stock busi- 
ness, his principal interest in this line being in 
sheep, though to some extent engaged in cattle 
raising also. 

Since December 1, 1875, he has been a resi- 
dent of Fresno County, and at present is living 
in Fresno, where he is extensively engaged in 
real-estate transactions. It is to the breeding 
ranch, however, that Mr. Stranbe has devoted 
much time, money and attention; and as pro- 
prietor of the celebrated Poplar Grove Breeding 
Farm, he is known far and wide. 

This property is located sixteen miles south 
of Fresno, and consists of 160 acres of choice, 
rich land of a sandy loam; is supplied with an 
abundance of running water, and is excellently 
adapted to the growth of all varieties of 
grasses. Rows of graceful poplars, from which 
the farm takes its name, line the avenues 
through the place. The splendid appointments 
about the farm indicate to the practiced eye 
that this is the home of the natural-born trot- 
ters. The feed here being so nutritious and the 
climate so well adapted to the early and healthy 
development of fine horses, it would indeed be 
difficult to find a more desirable situation for a 
farm of like character. This is regarded as one 
of the best stock ranches in the San Joaquin 
valley, and the fame of its stallions is known 



throughout the country. The buildings are 
substantial, and in every way adapted to the 
purpose intended. At the rear of these is an 
excellent three-quarter mile track, which is 
used for exercising the horses. Mr. Straube 
enters and trots more horses of his own raising 
at California meetings than any other breeder 
in the San Joaquin valley, and in the progress 
of breeding and developing the trotter he has 
kept pace. 

The residence of this farm is particularly at- 
tractive, and is one of the most delightful re- 
treats to be found in this beautiful valley. 

Mr. Straube was married in August, 1882, 
to Miss Laura MacGee, of Jacksonville, Illi- 
nois. Three children have been born to them, 
all of whom are now deceased. 



fOHN S. JONES has been a resident of 
California since 1871, and is now a promi- 
nent business man of Reedley. 

Mr. Jones was born in Tennessee, December 
25, 1855. Charles Jones, his father, was a native 
of Virginia and a descendant of one of the fam- 
ilies that settled in the South at an early day. 
His death occurred when the subject of our 
sketch was a child, the latter being reared and 
educated in Connecticut. 

After coming to California, Mr. Jones spent 
ten years of his life in business in San Francisco, 
and for the past ten years he has been buying 
wheat, being now the agent for Eppenger & Co., 
San Francisco. For six years he was a resident 
of Traver, moving from there to Reedley in the 
spring of 1891. He annually buys and ships 
about 30,000 tons of wheat. He moved his 
house from Traver to this place on the wagon 
road, a distance of twenty-five miles, added to 
and improved it, and now has a comfortable and 
attractive residence. He has a one-third inter- 
est in the Mount Campbell vineyard, and is the 
owner of several tracts of valuable fruit and 
grain land, 1,067 acres in all, in Fresno and 
Tulare counties. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



611 



Mr. Jones was married to Miss Rosie Mc- 
Devitt, a native of Boston, Massachusetts. 
Their two children, Eugene Weston and Lena 
Belle, are both natives of the Golden State. 

In politics he is a Democrat. He is a Royal 
Arch Mason and charter member of the Traver 
Lodge. 



f~|UMNER F. EARL is one of the leading 
j| enterprising business men of Reedley. 
"^p He was born in Rockford, Illinois, Octo- 
ber 26, 1856. His father, John Volney Earl, 
was born in New York State, and is a descend- 
ant of English ancestry, who settled in America 
early in the history of the country. His 
mother, nee Miss Mary E. Bullard, was a native 
of Illinois. Sumner F. was the second in their 
family of three children, and when he was only 
a child both his parents died. At the age of 
sixteen he came alone to the Golden State to 
make his own way in the world. He attended 
the public schools of California three years, and 
the University of the Pacific two years, after 
which he clerked in a store in Santa Clara 
County two years. He was next employed as 
bookkeeper and assayer for the Afterthought 
Mining Company. When the town of Traver 
was started he was present at the sale of town 
lots, and was engaged by The 76 Land 
and Water Company as their secretary, : which 
position he still retains, and is now, 1891, trans- 
acting all their business, making sales of their 
lands and attending to their collections. In the 
fall of 1890 he organized the Carmelito Vine- 
yard Company, and was elected secretary and 
superintendent of the same. They have pur- 
chased 800 acres of land, and have planted 
eighty acres to raisin grapes, and eighty acres 
to a variety of fruit trees, and are still planting 
vines and trees. In this enterprise their high- 
est expectations are more than realized. Mr. 
Earl is also one of the originators, a stock- 
holder and secretary of the Re.dley Store Com- 
pauy. They have built a large and elegant two- 



story brick store, the upper floor being used for 
offices and lodge rooms, and the down stairs for 
a retail establishment. They have erected a 
beautiful three-story brick hotel in the town, 
and in the near future the Bank of Reedley, 
of which Mr. Earl is secretary, expect to erect 
a new bank building. The cost of the store 
building was over $18,000, and the hotel is to 
cost $30,000. He is also one of the organizers 
and a director in the Traver Improvement Com- 
pany, and of the Traver Music Hall Associa- 
tion. In company with two other Reedley 
business men, Mr. Earl is interested in the 
Mount Campbell vineyard, which consists of 
eighly acres of land, sixty-seven acres of which 
are in raisin grapes, nine in oranges, one in figs 
and three in French prunes. On this property 
as well as on many others in this locality the 
growth of trees and vines is phenomenal. Mr. 
Earl is also engaged in the real-estate business, 
and has over 800 acres of choice fruit lands for 
sale. In addition to his various business enter- 
prises he is keeping six complete sets of double- 
entry books, and stands high as an expert 
accountant. 

In 1886 Mr. Earl was united in marriage with 
Miss Christene Rademaker, a native of Detroit, 
Michigan. She is a graduate of the California 
State Normal School, and for some time pre- 
vious to her marriage was a successful teacher 
in the schools of this State. 

Mr. Earl is a Master Mason and a charter 
member of the Traver and Reedley lodges. In 
politics he is a Republican. 



-=$«K 



>*-%=- 



jZIAS BINGHAM was born in New 
Hampshire, February 6, 1832, and be- 
longs to the sixth generation of the 
Bingham family born in America. Thomas 
Bingham came to this country from Sheffield, 
England, about the middle of the seventeenth 
century, and from him is descended the Ameri- 
can family of Bingham. Thearon Bingham, 
father of the subject of our sketch, was born in 



612 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



New Hampshire. He married Almeda Gillow, 
a native of that State, and the granddaughter 
of an Italian who joined his fortune in the 
Revolution, under command of General La 
Fayette. They had six children, — five sons and 
one daughter. One son died in infancy, and 
another, who came to California in 1852 with 
his brother Ozias, died in Westminster, Los 
Angeles County, in 1877. 

Mr. Bingham is the fourth child of the fam- 
ily, and at the age of twenty he came to this 
State witB the intention of getting gold, return- 
ing East and obtaining a thorough education. 
He mined in Yuba and Sierra counties, and 
was one of the first to adopt hydraulic mining, 
and during his experience in the mines he 
averaged about $10 per day in one claim, which 
was worked out in a few weeks. He continued 
mining for about three years, and has since 
been engaged at it several times, with varied 
success. He tried farming in Marin County, 
and remained there five years; moved to Solano 
County and took up a homestead, and after 
erecting buildings and making other improve- 
ments on it sold out and purchased land near 
Vacaville, where he resided six years and sold 
again; located in San Jose, and was for some 
time engaged in the real-estate business at that 
place; resided in Stockton five years; removed 
to Modesto, and from there came to Tulare 
County in 1886. At first he purchased a place 
at Traver, where he lived until December, 1890, 
when he came to his present locality near Di- 
nuba, and purchased a twenty-acre raisin vine- 
yard, which is now in bearing. 

Mr. Bingham was married in California, in 
1864, to Miss Josephine Williams, a native of 
Iowa. She came to this State in 1853, and is a 
thorough pioneer in every respect, having wit- 
nessed the wonderful development of this great 
commonwealth. With her husband she has 
seen many of the hardships of life incident to 
the early settlement of a new country, and with 
true pioneer bravery they have met and over- 
come the many obstacles as they presented 
themselves, and are now happy in the posses- 



sion of a comfortable home in this sunny clime. 
Both are members of the Presbyterian Church 
at Traver, and Mr. Bingham holds the office of 
elder in the same. He is a member of the F. 
& A. M., having been made such in 1858, and 
while at Vacaville was Master of the lodge. 
He was a charter member of the A. O. U. W. 
at San Jose, and now belongs to the same lodge, 
No. 17. In politics he is a Republican: has 
held the office of Justice of the Peace in Marin, 
Solano and Tulare counties, and during ten 
years' service has never had a decision reversed 
by the higher courts. 

PR. CHESTER ROWELL, prominent in 
the profession in California, was born in 
Woodsville, New Hampshire, on the 
banks of the Connecticut river, in 1844. 
Except a few years passed in his native town 
he grew to maturity in Illinois, where his 
father emigrated with his family of eight 
sons in 1849, and died in 1850. The family 
were thereafter known as " Widow Rowell's 
boys." In 1861 they were prompt to respond 
to their country's call for recruits, and five 
joined the Union forces in defense of their 
flag, which had been dishonored at Fort 
Sumter. Th) youngest, a boy of fifteen, 
was taken ill and obliged to return home, 
but four of the brothers were in active serv- 
ice forty months, in the Department of the 
Tenuessee. They were in the principal cam- 
paigns and battles of the West, and through 
all were more or less wounded; none svere 
seriously so, and were never off duty during 
their entire term of service. 

After the war Mr. Rowell went to Chicago, 
and in the family of a very prominent physi- 
cian began the study of medicine, which was 
continued more systematically after his arrival 
in San Francisco, in 1866, under the direct pre- 
ceptorship of his cousin, Dr. Isaac Rowell. He 
graduated at the medical department of the 
University of the Pacific in 1870. He then 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



613 



began practice in San Francisco, and in 1874 
came to Fresno, where he soon secured the 
confidence of the people, and has succeeded in 
building up a very extensive practice in both 
surgery and medicine. In the fall of 1876, as- 
sisted by a number of prominent Republican 
residents of the county, Dr. Rowell started the 
Fresno Republican, which was nnder his edi- 
torial management for about three years. The 
course of the paper was independent and vigor- 
ous though Republican in sentiment, and it was 
his conduct of the Republican that gained for 
him the confidence and respect of the people of 
San Joaquin valley, and eventually, in 1879, 
made him State Senator from a district that was 
strongly Democratic. By his independence the 
Doctor gained the enmity of the Southern 
Pacific Railroad Company, and though in 1882 
and 1886 he was the universal choice of his 
party for Railroad Commissioner his nomination 
was defeated by the above company. For sev- 
eral years the Doctor has been a member of the 
State Board of Health, and in January, 1891, 
he was appointed Regent of the State University 
by Governor Markham. His public offices have 
been those of honor and not of emolument. He 
has always been a great traveler, and though 
having visited nearly every prominent city in 
the world he is about making an extended tour 
through Russia. Dr. Rowell is modest and un- 
assuming in manner, and becomes more retiring 
with advancing years. He has unabated faith 
in the ultimate prosperity and wealth of Fresno 
County, and is recognized as one of her sub- 
stantial citizens. 

-4$~&~$i> 



fOSEPH MARIOTT, one of the successful 
ranchers of Lemoore, is a native of Eng- 
land, born in 1823. In 1853 he left his 
native land and went to Australia. From there 
lie came to California in 1865 and settled in 
Contra Costa County, where he continued to re- 
side until 1870. That year he came to his 
present location, bought eighty acres of unim- 



proved land, and by building, planting and cul- 
tivating has greatly enhanced the value of his 
place, making it one of the most desirable in 
this vicinity. 

Mr. Mariott chose for his life companion and 
wedded Miss Ann Radcliff, a native of England. 
Their three children are: John William, who 
died June 6, 1888; Maria, wife of L. W. 
Stronce; and Joseph, who married Miss Annie 
Yelkin, and has two children — Laura and Ines. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mariott are now on an extended 
visit to their old home in England, which they 
had not seen for thirty-eight years, and in their 
absence their son Joseph is conducting the farm. 
While ^having charge of the home place he is 
also cultivating other lands. Like his father, 
he is a properous and honored citizen. 



fE. WHITSON.— One of the leading spirits 
and also one of the founders of the flonr- 
01 ishing town of Selma, forms the subject 
of this sketch. 

Born in Indiana, January 17, 1838, Mr. 
Whitson had few school advantages, such 
opportunities being exceedingly rare in the 
State of Indiana in those days. At the age of 
six years he had the misfortune to lose bis 
father, and all the time and strength of his boy- 
hood went to the support of the family. After 
reaching his majority he worked to earn money 
for such schooling as he received. 

In 1856 Mr. Whitson went to Iowa, where he 
engaged in farming until 1861. The war com- 
ing on he enlisted as a soldier in the Thirteenth 
Iowa Infantry, under Colonel C. C. Crocker. 
He was three years with General Sherman in 
the Southwest, being in the battles of Shiloh, 
Corinth, siege of Vicksbnrg, and Atlanta, after 
which he returned to his farm in Iowa. 

In 1879 he came to California and located a 
soldier's land warrant on the 160 acres of land 
where Selma now stands. The first two years 
of his life on this claim was a lonesome, forlorn 
and desolate period. Only a shanty here and 



614 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



there could be seen on the plains. In his cabin 
at night he was tolerably certain of tarantulas 
and scorpions for company, and the night-owls 
did their part in supplying him with music. 
Since then the growth of the town has been 
remarkable, and it should be recorded that 
much credit is due to Mr. Whitson for his ener- 
getic and vigorous work in helping to bring 
about this happy result. 

He constructed, and is the proprietor of, the 
Whitson Hotel, erected at a cost of $52,000, a 
sightly building and an orderly and well-kept 
house. He is at present, and has been for a 
number of years, Postmaster of the town. 

Mr. Whitson was married, January 10, 1882, 
to Ellen Rosalind Staley, a native of Virginia. 
They have no children. 



l|l|\ A. HOY, of Hanford, Tulare County, was 
fHf' k° rD ' n Randolph County, Illinois, in 
tT ^ 1845. His father, Bartholomew Hoy, 
was a native of Hoboken, New Jersey, aud em- 
igrated to Illinois in 1833. There he engaged 
in peddling Yankee notions, gradually securing 
lauded interests until he acquired 900 acres of 
land, where he successfully engaged in general 
farming and stock-raising. Our subject lived 
at home until fifteen years of age, and was then 
apprenticed to learn the trade of carpenter, the 
agreement being that during the first year he 
should work for his board, the second year for 
his board and $1.50 per week, and the third 
year board and $2.50 per week; but should he 
lose more than three days in a year the time 
was to be made up at the end of the term. Op- 
portunities in those early days for learning trades 
were limited, and consequently the terms and 
conditions were exceedingly arbitrary. After 
learning his trade Mr. Hoy earned a little 
money, which he devoted to a higher education, 
attending the University of Notre Dame at 
South Bend, Indiana. In 1857 he engaged as a 
traveling salesman for a tobacco house in Chi- 
cago, with whom he remained until 1874, when 



he started westward. Stopping at Salt Lake, he 
went to the mining camps at Ophir and was 
variously engaged until July, 1870, when, after 
passing the Centennial Fourth of July at Ogden, 
with three companions they started with a team 
for California. Crossing by the old emigrant 
trail, passing Lake Tahoe, through Plaeerville, 
they arrived at Fresno September 16, 1876. 
Mr. Hoy then followed his trade until February, 
1877, when he came to Hanford, upon the 
opening of the town. He bought and improved 
town property, after which he resumed his trade 
and for many years was the leading contractor 
of the town. In 1880 he went into the business 
of undertaking, which he has since continued. In 
1887 he took the agency for the Cyclone wind- 
mill, in the sale of which he has been very suc- 
cessful, retiring from his trade and giving this 
business his entire attention. 

Mr. Hoy was married in Hanford, in Febru- 
ary, 1877, to Miss Clara A. House, a native of 
Illinois. They have six children, namely: Ed- 
win A., Jessie A., Charles A., Henry II., Clara 
A. and John R. 

Mr. Hoy is a member of the I. O. O. F. 
lodge of Hanford, and takes a great interest in 
the progress and development of his adopted 
town. 



fANIEL RHOADS, one of California's most 
highly respected pioneers, came to this 
coast in 1846. A resume of his life will 
be found of interest to many, and is as follows: 
Daniel Rhoads was born on his father's farm 
four miles south of Paris, Edgar County, Illi- 
nois, December 7, 1821. His father, Thomas 
Rhoads, a native of Kentucky, was born in 
1795. Their ancestors were English people, 
and grandfather Daniel Rhoads was a soldier 
under Washington in the Revolutionary war. 
Thomas Rhoads married Elizabeth Forster, 
born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, daughter 
of Thomas Forster, of Irish and German 
descent. They became the parents of eleven 
children, nearly all of whom grow to maturity; 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



615 



six are still living, and have attained a good old 
age. Reared a poor boy, Daniel's educational 
advantages were necessarily limited. After he 
reached manhood he became interested in an 
account of General John C. Fremont's first trip 
to California, and determined to come to this 
coast. He accordingly prepared himself for the 
overland journey, his outfit consisting of two 
yoke of oxen, a wagon, a rifle, ammunition and 
provisions. In 1843 he had married Amanda 
Esrey, and on this trip to California he was 
accompanied by his wife, other members of the 
party being an uncle and family, his father and 
family and brother-in-law and family. A por- 
tion of the time they traveled in company witb 
other emigrants. On April 7, 1846, they 
crossed the Missouri river at St. Joseph, Mis- 
souri, and their arrival at Johnson's ranch, in 
the Sacramento valley, was October 4, that same 
year. Mr. Rhoads, two other men, his three 
sisters and wife are the only survivors of that 
memorable and dangerous journey. The com- 
pany stopped and rested for a month at John- 
son's ranch, and while there, rived stakes from 
oak timber, receiving in payment a beef, which 
kept them in meat for some time. Mr. Rhoads 
worked for Messrs. Grimes and Sinclair, near 
Sutter's Fort, overseeing Indians and receiving 
about $25 per month for his labor. When Fre- 
mont went to whip the Mexicans, all of the men 
in this party went with him except Mr. Rhoads, 
who remained in charge of the families. 

He was at work near Sutter's Fort when news 
was received of the awful sufferings of the Don- 
ner party in the mountains. The story of this 
brave but unfortunate party who left Spring- 
field, Illinois, and were overtaken by snow in 
the Sierras just as they were entering the prom- 
ised land, is familiar to all. Mr. Rhoads and 
Jobn Sinclair at once started on foot for John- 
son's ranch, fifty miles distant, the condition of 
the roads making it impossible to get there with 
horses. Four days were spent at the ranch in 
preparing food for the snfferars. They cracked 
wheat, dried beef, and as soon as possible started 
for the rescue. Mr. Rhoads, his brother John 



P., and twelve others comprised the number 
that set forth with the provisions. A portion 
of the way the supplies were carried on pack 
animals, but from Piney Ridge, a distance of 
eighty miles, each man had to carry seventy-five 
pounds on his back besides his blanket, hatchet, 
etc. To carry this heavy weight and travel with 
snow-shoes over trackless mountain, required no 
little courage and perseverance, and at Bear val- 
ley half of the party gave out and declared they 
could go no further. Seven, however, were 
determined to proceed, even if they died in the 
attempt, and of these seven, only two, Mr. 
Rhoads and Seth Mootrey are now living. They 
continued their perilous way, were received with 
great joy by the members of the Donner party, 
and except for their bravery many more would 
have been victims of starvation. Mr. Rhoads 
relates many interesting incidents connected 
with this journey and their return trip. Before 
reaching the place where they had left their 
pack mules, they were met by a second relief 
party that had been sent from Yerba Buena by 
Commodore Stockton. 

In June, 1847, Mr. Rhoads moved to the 
Cosumnes river, and the following October to 
Sonoma. In 1848 he returned to Sacramento, 
and soon settled on the Briggs and Burris 
ranch, a mile below where Gait now stands, and 
was there when gold was discovered at Sutter's 
mill. The next two years he spent the sum- 
mers in mining on the American river, and real- 
ized about $8,000 in gold dust. In 1850, 
accompanied by Mrs. Rhoads, he returned to 
Missouri, via the Isthmus route, and visited 
friends and relatives, after which he came back 
to Sacramento County. In April, 1851, he 
removed to the neighborhood of what is now 
Gilroy, and purchased a 1,000-acre stock ranch. 
In 1857 he drove his stock across the Coast 
Range to the lower King's river, his family 
beina: at that time in San Jose, where his chil- 
dren were attending school. In the fall of 1860 
he brought them to his present home near 
Lemoore, having built for their reception an 
adobe house. 



(516 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Mr. and Mrs. Rhoads are the parents of four 
children, viz.: Sarah, Mary, John W. and 
Elvira H. Sarah became the wife of J. F. 
Phillips, and by him had six children. Mr. 
Phillips died, and Mrs. Phillips did not long 
survive him. Their children are being reared 
by grandpa and grandma Rhoads. Mary is the 
wife of George F. Keiffer, and Elvira married 
Harry Dawson. Mr. Rhoads has given to each 
of his children 240 acres of land near him, on 
which they have comfortable homes. The old 
home place consists of 1,000 acres; the origi- 
nal adobe house has been remodeled and added 
to; the trees which this worthy pioneer has 
planted have grown up and cast a friendly shade 
over it, and his home presents a most attractive 
appearance, and is indeed a fitting place for this 
venerable pioneer and his estimable wife to pass 
the declining years of their useful lives. Mr. 
Rhoadc spends much of his time in the open 
air, frequently making trips to the mountains. 
From one of these mountain outings, he and his 
wife returned June 25, 1891, having on that 
day driven forty-three miles in a carriage. Both 
have long been members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church South. He contributed $500 
toward the building of their house of worship 
at Lemoore, and is now steward of the church. 
" Uncle Dan," as he is familiarly known, is a 
genial, kind-hearted old gentleman, and has the 
respect and esteem of all who know him. He 
is a noble man and a grand specimen of the 
California pioneer. 



fHOMAS LAW REED, the founder of the 
prosperous young town of Reedley, Cali- 
fornia, is a native of Ohio. He was born 
March 13, 1847, son of George and Sarah Reed, 
natives of England. Of their six children he 
was the third born. The father came to Cali- 
fornia in 1852, and in this State lost his life, 
whether from disease or by the hand of an assas- 
sin is not known. Deprived of a father at an 
early age, his opportunities for an education 



were limited. He was reared in Ohio and at 
the age of eleven years began to earn his own 
living and assist in the support of his mother 
and her family. 

Mr. Reed was only seventeen when the great 
war broke out, and he and his brothers, J. R. and 
D. G. responded to the call for Union soldiers. 
He enlisted in Company A, Sixty-sixth Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry, in the fall of 1863. He 
participated with Sherman in his campaign and 
triumphant march from Atlanta to the sea, and 
was in the war until its close, being at the grand 
review at Washington, and before he reached 
his twentieth year returned home a veteran anil 
a victor. 

For four years he worked on a farm for Mr. 
Filbrick. At the end of that time he was in- 
duced to go to Kent County, Michigan, and 
embark in the cheese factory business, which, 
however, proved a failure. In 1875 he came to 
California to make anew effort for success. He 
landed in Yolo County in the spring of that 
year, with not money enough left to get his 
freight from the depot. He was at once em- 
ployed by Mr. Adam Stiner and soon had enough 
to pay his expenses. That fall he rented 160 
acres of land, the owner furnishing everything 
and he doing the work. He resided in Yolo 
County for eight years. From there he removed 
to Smith's Ferry, Fresno County, arriving 
there March 3, 1884, with eleven head of horses 
and mules, and $1,100 borrowed money. He 
camped in the old ferry house and plowed and 
seeded till the twentieth of March following?: 
put in 200 acres and planted over 2,000 bags of 
wheat. He summer-fallowed till it got too dry 
to plow. Then returned to Yolo County and 
harvested his crop there, coining back to Fresno 
County in the fall with his family. The next 
spring he planted 200 acres of Egyptian corn and 
raised 900 sacks of the same. The people who 
saw him plant said, " You are a fool. You 
can't make the interest on four bits per acre." 
It was on the 17th of November, 1885, that he 
returned. That fall he hauled the lumber for 
sheds for the stock sixty miles. He sowed his 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



617 



summer-fallow to wheat and harvested from it 
fourteen sacks to the acre. At that time he be- 
gan to invest in lands, first purchasing 168 acres 
at $22.50 per acre. Prosperity attended his 
efforts and his landed estate increased to 2,500 
acres. In 1887-'88 he bought the land on 
which Reedley is built. When the railroad was 
constructed, in 1888, he gave the company a 
one-half interest in 360 acres, and they platted 
the town which was named in honor of him. 
Soon afterward Mr. Reed sold his interest in 
the town site and 800 acres of adjoining land 
for $120,000. His home ranch, which consists 
of 1,400 acres of choice fruit and grain land, is 
located one mile from Reedley. On this place 
he has a large variety of both deciduous and 
citrus fruit trees, eighty acres in raisin grapes, 
and forty acres in alfalfa. This year, 1891, he 
has 7,500 acres of wheat, and 2,500 acres of 
summer- fallow for anothpr year. He uses 100 
head of mules and horses in his farming oper- 
ations, and has three combined harvesters and 
threshers that cut and thresh daily thirty-five 
acres of grain, using five men to a machine and 
from twenty-six to thirty mules, one man driv- 
ing them all. 

Mr. Reed was married at Charlestown, Por- 
tage County, Ohio, to Miss Amantha A. Smith, 
a native of Massachusetts. Of the seven chil- 
dren born to them all are living except one that 
died in infancy. Their names are as follows; 
Horace M., Nina, Edmond Rosco, Jessie, Edith 
A. and Dolly. 

Mr. Reed is a charter member of the Dick 
Yates Post, of the G. A. R., Traver, and in 
politics is a Republican He is a director of 
the Alta irrigation district. Is interested in 
educational matters, and has been a member of 
the School Board since coming to the place. He 
aided in the erection of the school building, do- 
nated a lot to the United Brethren Church, and 
gave $300 toward building their house of wor- 
ship. Mr. Reed has a remarkably fine uhysique 
and is in the prime of life. Always public- 
spirited and generous, he never does anything 
by halves. He is eminently worthy of the suc- 



cess that has crowned his efforts in this sunny 
land. 

Such, in brief, is a sketch of the founder of 
the promising town of Reedley. 

C. WHITE, Fresno, California. Several 
industries have conduced to the wealth 
° and prosperity of Fresno, but by all odds 
the most important of these, and the one which 
has given to the community its world-wide fame, 
is that of raisin-growing. Beyond a doubt the 
credit of the supremacy in that held lies here, 
and each succeeding year but adds to the stabil- 
ity of this verdict. And yet of what recent or- 
igin is this industry in Fresno! But fifteen 
years previous to this writing the first few vines 
of the first raisin-vineyard of Fresno were 
planted, and the pioneer raisin-grower of Fres- 
no, though to-day one of her foremost citizens, 
is yet a young man. That honor, aud it is a 
note-worthy one, belongs to the gentleman whose 
name heads this article. On this account, as 
well as because of his high standing in the com- 
munity, and the qualities which have always 
placed him in the front rank in progressive move- 
ments, a more than passing mention of him be- 
comes valuable, and indeed essential in a volume 
designed to record for the present, and preserve 
for the future, a history of Fresno. Hence the 
following outline sketch of his career, necessa- 
rily brief on account of the scope of this work, 
is appended. 

T. C, White was born in the town of Essex, 
county of Chittenden, Vermont, on February 
22, 1850. His parents, Calvin and Hannah 
(Furman) White, were both natives of Ver- 
mont, and were of old New England families. 
In fact, the father came of one of the original 
families of New England, being a direct de- 
scendant of one of the Whites of the Mayflower 
party. In 1858 Calvin White removed with 
his family to Colchester, Vermont, where he es- 
tablished himself in mercantile business, and in 
farming. He was, however, a wheelwright and 



G18 



HTSTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



blacksmith by trade. He lived there until his 
death, which occurred about 1871, when in his 
fifty-fifth year. His widow survived him until 
1889, when she died at the age of sixty-four 
years. Our subject was the second son in a 
family of five boys and four girls, and when the 
brother older than himself went as a Union sol- 
dier in the civil war, he commenced assisting 
his father about the store. He began his edu- 
cation in the public schools, and so continued 
until he reached the age of about fourteen 
years, and then began attendance at the com- 
mercial college at Burlington. 

After completing his course there he became 
book-keeper for a firm of that city, and remained 
there until 1872, when suffering from rheuma- 
tism he went to Boston to seek the relief af- 
forded by proximity to the salt water. While 
recovering his strength he was employed for a 
considerable portion of the time, according as 
his health would permit, and opportunity offer. 
Plaving become imbued with the idea of enter- 
ing into the glove-manufacturing business, he 
made preliminary arrangements to embark in 
it in partnership with a Boston friend. In order 
to familiarize himself sufficiently with the proc- 
esses and methods of the business, he went in 
the winter of 1875-'76 to Gloversville, and there 
and in Johnstown, which neighboring towns are 
the headquarters of the glove-making industry, 
he remained for about a year. His observations, 
however, were against the advisability of em 
barking in the business, in Massachusetts, owing 
to the difficulty of competing with a locality 
where were centralized all the facilities of the 
trade, including tanneries and all similar ad- 
juncts. Having given up the idea, and being 
influenced by letters received from his brother, 
Ray White, from Fresno County, California, 
in which the advantages of the climate were set 
forth, he started West, and arrived in Fresno and 
April 27, 1877. It was his intention to remain 
only during that summer, and go back to the 
East in the fall. But events shaped themselves 
so that he remained, and located permanently, 
an occurrence of mutual advantage to himself 



and Fresno County. When he arrived here he 
had but $325, and even that sum he had gained 
by hard knocks in the employment of others, 
and handicapped by ill health. lie had been 
here but a very short time when he bought a 
twenty-acre tract in the Central colony which 
he set about improving, but sold later at a hand- 
some advance to K. B. Williams, who is yet the 
owner. The place is situated on Cherry ave- 
nue, about three miles from Fresno. That fall 
he was married, and as the lady, who then be- 
came his wife, was commencing the improve- 
ment of a place with her sister, he bought from 
the sister an interest. This tract of eighty acres 
is the present home place of Mr. White and 
family. Some four or five acres of Muscatel 
grapes had been planted by the ladies in 1876, 
and Mr. White continued the planting of what 
proved a splendid raisin vineyard, and packed 
the first raisins for commercial purposes on the 
first raisin-vineyard, known as Raisina vineyard, 
in the great center of that industry. With char- 
acteristic foresight and prudence, having em- 
barked in raisin-growing, he went to Woodland, 
Yolo County, and there, from R. B. Blowers, 
the pioneer raisin man of California, he acquired 
a thorough and detailed practical knowledge of 
the methods and processes of handling the grapes 
fmm the vines to the packing-box. His intelli- 
gent investigations placed the industry on a 
practical basis at the start, and there was no loss 
of time or product in the learning. For several 
years the raisin output of this district was 
readily absorbed by the California market, but 
when finally the product became' too extensive for 
such limited confines, there came a temporary 
period of stagnation which was soon overcome 
by the opening of the Eastern market. The in- 
dustry has become a great one, peopling a large 
area with an intelligent class of citizens, and 
building the beautiful city of Fresno. Mr. 
White was the father of this industry, and has 
been ever since in the front ranks of its promo- 
ters. In 1883, when he had gotten his place in 
prime order, be built a beautiful and tasteful 
residence, one of the ornaments of this region 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



619 



Extending his interest, lie bought a 320-acre 
tract in the Mussel Slough district, near Han- 
ford, improved it, and in 1889 sold an interest 
therein, as well as in his home place. In 1887, 
during the boom, he bought and sold a number 
of pieces of property in the vicinity, and suc- 
cess attended him in each transaction. He has 
retained a number of valuable tracts, however, 
and in addition to those already mentioned he 
lias the following: 160 acres lying seven miles 
west of Fresno, now in grain but well adapted 
to fruit: thirty acres north of the city, but close 
to the limits; 160 acres, devoted to grain, in the 
Wild Flower district, about eighteen miles south 
of Fresno; 240 acres, close by the last men- 
tioned tract, which he is planting to raisin- 
grapes, having set out eighty acres already in 
1890—91. He also owns a half-interest in a 
tract of 120 acres near Selma, which is now in 
grain, and has much city property. Included 
in the last there are three entire blocks, one- 
half-block between Mariposa and Fresno streets, 
a large lot on M street, besides a number of 
other scattered lots, and three houses, one of 
which is a tine large structure. 

He has taken an active and earnest part in al- 
most every movement that has been made for 
the benefit of Fresno. He was one of the prime 
movers in the formation of the Central Califor- 
nia Colony Water Company, which was organ- 
ized about 1880 to secure the water right from 
the Fresno Canal & Irrigation Company, and 
was elected president of the company, which 
position he has since retained. He is now serv- 
ing his thii'd term as president of the Emigrant 
Ditch Company, which takes its waters from 
King's river, and is the only company except 
the Fresno Canal & Irrigation Company which 
has the right of appropriation; their right is to 
196 cubic feet per second. They have fifteen 
miles of main canal, and branches running over 
the entire Wild Flower district, the principal 
office being at Wild Flower. Since the last 
election of officers Mr. White lias been a direct- 
or of the Flower Switch Canal Company, one of 
the largest in the county. He is a director of 



the First National Bank of Fresno, and former- 
ly held that relation to the Belmont Street Rail- 
way Company, of which he is yet a stockholder. 
He is also a stockholder of the Fresno Fair 
Grounds Association, and was appointed by 
Governor Markham a director of the Twenty- 
first Agricultural District. In November, 
1887, he was chosen to represent the Third 
(Fresno) District in the County Board of Su- 
pervisors to fill the vacancy caused by the res- 
ignation of A. T. Covell. He served out the re- 
maining year of that term, and was again cho- 
sen at the regular election in 1888 for a term of 
four years. In 1890 he became chairman of 
the board, and is universally recognized as hav- 
ing had no superior in that executive position. 
In connection with the County Board of Trade 
he has always been an interested worker, hav- 
ing been a member since organization, and be- 
ing a present director. In 1890, at the conven- 
tion at San Francisco, he was chosen a member 
of the executive committee of the California 
World's Fair Association to represent the San 
Joaquin valley. In this capacity he took a 
prominent part in shaping the legislation which 
resulted in the appropriation of $300,000 to as- 
sist in properly representing California at the 
World's Columbian Exposition. To carry this 
legislation to a successful issue he gave much 
time and attention, and took a leading part in 
the work at the front in Sacramento and San 
Francisco. As one of the provisions of the bill 
was for the appointment of World's Fair Com- 
missioners for the State, Mr. White's commit- 
tee, while still in existence, has completed its 
work. 

The subject of this sketch was married -in 
Fresno, November 27, 1877, to Miss Augusta 
P. Fink, a native of Wisconsin, born near Ra- 
cine. One son has blessed this union, Harry 
Fink White, born September 11, 1879. Mr. 
White's history since coming to this commu- 
nity conveys a lesson. Then a young man of 
twenty-seven years, with a very limited capital 
in money, he started in the race when things 
did not look as they do now, and in the few 



620 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



years that have elapsed since that time he has 
become a successful man from every standpoint. 
He has accumulated wealth; public and private 
positions of honor and trust have been bestowed 
upon him, and beyond all, he has established a 
reputation for uprightness and integrity that is 
as solid as the community itself. His success 
has been accomplished by the process of build- 
ing up, instead of pushing down others. 

The best financiers are they whose genius of 
accumulation is accompanied by that quality of 
liberality which enables them to accompany 
their own advancement with a proper consider- 
ation for the communities with which they are 
identified. Mr. White belongs to that class 
who can occasionally look over the prospect of 
immediate financial profit on each investment in 
order to build somewhat for the future. Hence, 
he enjoys not only the confidence of all who know 
him, but also the esteem of the entire commu- 
nity, such as is reserved for the man of liberal 
views. 

One of the latest enterprises in which Mr. 
White has engaged is the Producers' Raisin- 
Packing Company of Fresno, incorporated in 
1891, and made up of about 100 raisin growers 
of this locality. It promises much for the fu- 
ture of that industry, and is an intelligent move 
in the right direction. The company has leased 
the building formerly occupied by A. Lusk <fe 
Co. as a packing house. Mr. White is presi- 
dent of the company. 



fA. NEAME, a rancher southwest of 
Hanford, was born in Kent County, 
3 England, in 1863. His father, A. Neame, 
was an extensive lumber and timber merchant of 
London. Our subject was educated at Hailey- 
bury College, in Hertfordshire, and after passing 
one year in Germany he returned to London 
and passed two years in the business of his 
father. Through James S. Robinson the soil 
and climate of the Lucerne district were brought 
to his attention, and in the spring of 1884 Mr. 



Neame left his home and country to visit Cali- 
fornia, and to investigate the possibilities of her 
undeveloped future. He came direct to Han- 
ford, and after passing about one year in the 
family of Mr. Robinson he purchased his present 
ranch of seventy acres, in the fall of 1885. He 
began sowing wheat, gradually working into 
alfalfa, of which he now has forty-five acres, 
with ten acres in vines. He is also engaged in 
breeding horses, keeping about thirty head, with 
a fine trotting stallion called Sideon N., a son 
of the well-known Sidney. He has a number 
of running horses, which show great speed and 
are now in training. Mr. Nearoe's ranch is 
complete in a cottage home and outbuildings, 
and his entire attention is devoted to his stock 
interests. 



^••^•^ 

Ig^ENRY HACKETT was born in Ireland, 
f S]) April 15, 1808. His parents emigrated to 
~w(f the United States in 1812, and settled in 
New York, where the father, Thomas Hackett, 
was engaged in the manufacture of harness. 
Henry was apprenticed in New Jersey to learn 
the trade of iron roller, working bar iron into 
merchantable sizes. 

In 1882 Mr. Hackett was married, in New 
York, to Miss Elizabeth Cornell, of the promi- 
nent Quaker family of Cornells, so distinguished 
in the early history of New York. In 1833 
they settled in Wayne County, Michigan, 
twenty-two miles from Detroit, and located 320 
acres of Government land, at $1.25 per acre. 
The country was then wild and unsettled, and 
in the midst of the forest Mr. Hackett built a 
sawmill and supplied lumber for the country 
trade, and was also engaged in general farming. 
He assisted in building the Michigan Central 
railroad, the first railway in that State. In 
1860 he emigrated with his family to Califor- 
nia. They shipped horses, wagons and supplies 
from Detroit to the terminus of the railway 
system in Iowa, and at that point, which was 
near Burlington, they embarked in the •• prai- 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



621 



rie schooner " for their long trip across the 
plains. Mr. Hackett drove eight horses and 
started alone with his family, but ere long they 
were joined by other emigrants and soon a 
large company was formed. The only particular 
hardship they encountered on the journey was 
the absence of sufficient feed for their stock. 
At Lake Tahoe, finding plenty of feed, good 
water, fish and game iu abundance, they en- 
camped four weeks, giving their stock time to 
recuperate. They then pushed forward toward 
their destination, and arrived in Sacramento in 
September, being there in time to witness the 
laying of the corner stone of the State capitol. 
Mr. Hackett settled at Mud Spring, near 
Placerville, El Dorado County, rented a hotel 
and did an extensive business. Being on the 
Washoe route, between Sacramento and Placer- 
ville, teaming was extensively carried on, and 
his hotel was the popular hostelry. In 1864 
the incoming railroad spoiled his business, and 
from there he moved to Gold Run, an extensive 
hydraulic mining camp in Placer County, built 
a fine hotel and conJucted it until 1870, when 
he came to the vicinity of Grangeville, Tulare 
County. Here he homesteaded 160 acres of 
land, which was subsequently claimed by the 
railroad company, and under protest he had to 
pay their price. The country being dry and 
overrun by wild horses and cattle, crops were 
uncertain, and the rough side of life was upper- 
most. Mr. Hackett was among the first to agi- 
tate irrigation and to start the ditches. After 
water was acquired and the " no-fence " law 
passed the farmer began to prosper. In 1878 
Mr. Hackett set out a small family orchard, and 
gradually established a comfortable home. He 
now owns 234 acres of land, eighty acres of 
which are in alfalfa and twenty-four iu vines. 
In connection with his farming he has also been 
interested in stock-raising. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Hackett eleven children 
were born, seven of whom are living, scattered 
in different parts of the country. George 
Henry lives with his father and takes charge of 
the ranch. Mr. Hackett joined the Masonic 



order in Wayne County, Michigan, in 1860. He 
is a prominent Royal Arch Mason, and a mem- 
ber of the Masonic Veteran Association of the 
Pacific Coast. 

Such is an epitome of the life of one of Tu- 
lare County's worthy citizens. 



|||SENRY W. DEAN, Postmaster at Visalia, 
fUD ^ mare County, California, was born m 
-frtls Pawtucket, Rhode Island, August 10, 
1858. He is the son of Charles Dean, a native 
of the same State, and a grandson of William 
Dean, who was boru in Massachusetts. The 
Deans are direct descendants of Silas Dean, 
who crossed the ocean in the Mayflower and 
landed with the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock in 
1620. Charles Dean married Miss Catherine 
Wassen, of German origin and a native of New 
York, her ancestors having come to this country 
from Germany and settled on the Hudson 
river. Of the five children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Dean, Henry W. is the youngest. 

He was educated in the public schools of 
Providence, Rhode Island, and in the Morey & 
Goss College of that place. Por two years he 
clerked in a grocery store, and then engaged 
with his father in contracting, and building, 
continuing in this business until 1884, when he 
came to California. For a time before leaving 
Rhode Island he had been foreman on the pub- 
lic works at Pawtucket. 

After locating in Yisalia Mr. Dean engao-ed 
in the commission business, but was so far from 
the market and freights were so high he was 
compelled to abandon it. He then became a 
member of the firm of Knupp & Anderson, 
searchers of records, and doing an abstract 
business, and continued with them until he re- 
ceived the appointment of Postmaster, May 24, 
1889. He had previously been a member of 
the Republican club, and had given the party 
all the assistance possible. His first appoint- 
ment was to fill a vacency caused by the resig- 
nation of Mr. S. Mitchell, and after this he was 



022 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



endorsed for the place by nearly all the business 
men of Visalia and the Republican County 
Committee. 

In 1883 he married Miss Clara James. Soon 
after their marriage they came together to Cal- 
ifornia, and their union has been blessed with 
one child, Leita. 

Mr. Dean is interested in a ranch, and has 
given some attention to fruit culture. As a 
business man he is prompt and reliable, and is 
held in high esteem by all who know him. 



fD. TYLER is the oldest living representa- 
tive of the original settlers on Tule river, 
° Tulare County, California. He has been 
engaged in agricultural pursuits and in the 
stock business here since 1859, and as a pioneer 
is justly entitled to more than a passing men- 
tion in the history of his county. 

Mr. Tyler was born in Marcellus, New York, 
in 1827, the son of Job Tyler, a farmer and 
minister of the Seventh- Day Baptist denomina- 
tion. His early life was rather migratory, his 
father moving to Ohio in 1834, and to St. 
Joseph County, Michigan, in 1836. Educa- 
tional advantages in those days were limited, 
and young Tyler's schooling was confined to the 
three months' winter term, not infrequently 
being detained at home to accomplish some 
work on the farm, and not attending school at 
all after he reached his fourteenth year. 

In 1851, with his father and brother Jim, 
Mr. Tyler started for California via New York 
and the Isthmus of Panama. Their steamer 
was the first to land emigrants at Aspinwall. 
At Panama they embarked on the English brig 
Tryphena, with 130 passengers, the vessel being 
much overloaded and having only a meager 
supply of water and stores. The sufferings on 
that terrible journey of sixty -five days from 
Panama to San Diego were intense. The last 
thirty days they had no bread, and only half a 
pint of water each day. Their small allowance 



of beans or peas must be cooked in salt water 
or the greasy " slush " that came from the cook- 
room. For twenty days they were nearly 
starved, and Mr. Tyler's father contracted dis- 
ease to which he succumbed while in port at 
San Diego, and he was there laid at rest. Our 
subject and his brother then re-shipped for San 
Francisco, arriving there February 29, 1852, 
just four months after leaving New York. They 
went to the mines at Nevada City, and followed 
life in the mining camps, either in boarding- 
house or in actual work in the mines, until 
1859, when, hearing that cattle were selling low 
in Tulare County, they started for Tule river, 
with a view of purchasing and driving to the 
mines. Upon their arrival, however, they found 
the statement to be without foundation; and, in 
partnership with Leu Red field, they settled on 
Tule river and engaged in the stock business. 
This association continued until 1865, when 
Mr. Redfield withdrew and the Tyler brothers 
continued in partnership until 1871, when they 
separated, J. D. Tyler remaining on the river. 
His present place of 160 acres was homesteaded 
under the first homestead law in 1864. He has 
since added to his original holding, now own- 
ing 200 acres, much of which he farms in 
grain, alfalfa and fruit. He is also largely in- 
terested in horses and cattle, and rents two 
sections of land for a stock range. 

Mr. Tyler was married at Visalia in 1864, to 
Miss Mary J. McKelvey, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania and a daughter of George McKelvey, who 
came to California in 1852, by way of Cape 
Horn. They have five children: Clyde D., 
Carl R., Chris W., Corda F. and Clair H. 

Mr. Tyler is a charter member of the Por- 
terville branch of the Farmers' Alliance, and 
was its first president. He has never sought 
the emolument of public office, and has always 
avoided every suggested nomination. He was 
the first Republican on Tule river, and in 1859 
his was the oniy Republican vote out of the 
thirty-one votes oast. When the county was 
filled with Southern sympathizers in 1861, 
he stood firm in his convictions and was 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



623 




only the more respected for loyalty to his 
country. 



WILLIAM VAN BUCKNER was bom 
in Kansas, August 31, 1859, son of 
William G. Buckner, a native of Ten- 
nessee. When quite young he had the misfor- 
tune to lose his mother, and in 1863 he came to 
California with his father. Until he was nine 
years old they lived in San Joaquin County, and 
from that time until he was twenty-one years 
old Stanislaus County was his home. His next 
move was to Tulare County, and that was Octo- 
ber 1, 1881. In connection with his father and 
brother he purchased 240 acres of land, 130 of 
which he now owns and on it built a house and 
barn. He first engaged in the stock business, 
afterward turned his attention to raising grain, 
and in 1888 began the fruit business. He has 
forty-five acres in raisin grapes, and the pros- 
pect for success in this department is very flat- 
tering. He is a machinist by trade, and 
commands a salary of $10 per day running a 
th resh i n g- n i achi n e. 

Mr. Buckner is one of the organizers of the 
Lemoore Alliance Fruit-Packing Company, 
established for the purpose of marketing their 
own fruits. He is a member of the Foresters, 
and in politics is a Republican. 

On November 27, 1884, Mr. Buckner wedded 
Miss May Sprague, a native of Wisconsin, and 
two children have been born to them — Ross 
and Hugo. 



JBIREEN BERRY CATRON is one of the 
vmf hardy sons of Missouri, who crossed the 
V^ plains in the days of '49, to make a home 
and fortune in the new El Dorado of the West. 
He was born in La Fayette County, Missouri, 
October 10, 1829, and comes of German an- 
cestry. His parents, Solomon and Elizabeth 
(Jennings) Catron, natives of Virginia, were 



married in 1820, and to them were born fourteen 
children, thirteen of whom they reared to ma- 
turity, and ten — five sons and five daughters — 
are still living. The mother, at this writing, 
has reached the advanced age of eighty-six 
years, the father having died in 1865. The 
subject of our sketch was their lifth child, and 
was reared in Missouri. At the age of sixteen 
he enlisted in the army of the United States 
and served in the Mexican war. At nineteen 
we find him a rugged young man, en route to 
California with ox teams, braving the dangers 
of the plains and making the overland journey 
in safety. 

Arrived at his destination, he at once em- 
barked in mining at Gold Run. For nearly 
three years he was successful; then Dame For- 
tune forsook him and he lost all he had made. 
From the mines he went to Sonoma County, 
spent two years there, and afterward went to 
Lake County, which was then unsurveyed. In 
the latter county he took up a claim and en- 
gaged in stock-raising, continuing that business 
ten years. He came to his present location in 
Tulare County in 1864 and purchased 400 acres 
of laud. Settlers were then few in this section 
of the country, there being only two further on 
the frontier than himself. On this property he 
has resided twenty-seven years; has improved it 
and sold a portion of it. In the meantime he 
purchased 872 acres in the hills, which he uses 
as a stock ranch. 

Mr. Catron was first married, in 1864, to 
Mrs. Frances A. Barnett, whose death occurred 
in 1878. In 1881 he wedded Amanda M. 
Maxon, daughter of E. D. Maxon, whose his- 
tory appears elsewhere in this work. 

Mr. Catron was among the pioneers who set 
on foot the enterprise to open up the first ditch 
for irrigating purposes in his part of the county. 
This is now called the People's Consolidated 
Ditch. In politics he has been a life-long Dem- 
ocrat. Although he has been a resident of Cal- 
ifornia since before the great State was born 
into the Union, and although he is a veteran of 
a war in which the soldiers covered themselves 



624 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



with glory forty- five years ago, still he appears 
young and vigorous He is a worthy citizen, a 
man of generous impulses, and one of the solid 
ranchers of Tulare County. 

fC. SMITH owns a lovely home in 
Washington colony, California, where he 
9 resides with his family. A brief review 
of his life is as follows: 

Mr. Smith was born in Canada, in 1834, but 
his earliest recollection is of Genesee County, 
New York, where his parents emigrated soon 
after his birth. The education he obtained was 
a meagre one, as at the age of eight years he 
began his own support, being bound out to a 
fanner, with whom he remained until sixteen 
years of age. At that time he was employed by 
J. D. Patterson of Chautauqua County, who 
was extensively engaged in raising fine sheep, 
and remained in his employ until 1868, much 
of the time being superintendent of his farm 
and stock business. 

Mr. Smith was a member of the Sixty-eighth 
New York Regiment, State militia, under Col- 
onel Forbes. In 1864 the regiment was called 
out to reinforce the army at Gettysburg, but 
the Confederates retreated before they arrived. 
They were returned after a thirty days' service. 

In 1867 Mr. Smith came to California to 
represent Mr. Patterson and look after his in- 
terests in establishing a large sheep ranch of 
20,000 acres in Stanislaus County, stocked with 
tine Merino sheep. In 1868 Mr. Smith, in 
partnership with W. L. Overheiser, bought of 
Mr. Patterson 2,000 head of Merino sheep, for 
which they paid $100,000. This partnership 
continued until 1873, when W. S. Chapman 
purchased Mr. Overheiser's interest, and Messrs. 
Smith & Chapman conducted the business until 
1877, when they sold their flock of 7,000 head 
to Mr. Patterson, and Mr. Smith acted as man- 
ager for about eight months. He then went to 
Merced and engaged in the wool business, and 
in 1880 moved to Madera to tit up the exten- 



sive stock ranch of Falkner, Bell & Co., of Sau 
Francisco. In the spring of 1881 Mr. Smith 
bought forty acres of land, corner of East and 
Lincoln avenues, Washington colony, which he 
placed in charge of his eldest son. In 1883 he 
severed his connection with Falkner, Bell & 
Co., in order to take charge of his own property. 
He has erected an attractive house, out-build- 
ings, improved dryer and all necessary appoint- 
ments to the proper maintenance of a first-class 
ranch. Mr. Smith came to this place with a 
capital of $3,000, $2,500 of which he paid for 
the ranch. By his wise and careful manage- 
ment of the property, the ranch is now netting 
him $4,000 per year and is paying its own im- 
provements. 

Mr. Smith was married, in Westtield, New 
York, in 1854, to Miss Phoebe Drake, and their 
union has been blessed with nine children, seven 
of whom are living. He is a member of Yo 
Semite Lodge, No. 74, A. O. U. W., and of the 
G. A. It. of California. 



ILEY WILLIAMS came to California 
i/m/if in 1849, and was among the early set- 
[H3£ft] tiers of Tulare valley, in the vicinity of 
Smith's mountain, and near where the village of 
Dinuba now stands. 

Mr. Williams was born in Indiana, Decem- 
ber 28, 1830, son of Alexander and Ruth AYill- 
iains, natives of the State of North Carolina, 
and of Scotch and English ancestry. He was 
one of a family of ten children, was reared and 
educated in Missouri, and in his nineteenth 
year came to the gold fields in California. He 
mined at Rough and Lteadyand in various other 
mining districts; was also engaged in the mer- 
cantile business. Thirty years of his life were 
spent in Santa Clara County, in the stock busi- 
ness, and during the drouth he met witli severe 
reverses. He was in Tulare County in 1850, 
but di«l not locate on his ranch here until 1883. 
He was married at San Jose in 1854, to Mi.-s 
Mary E Tennant, a native of Loud in, England., 




HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



625 



and a daughter of William and Dorindo Ten- 
nan t. Her parents were natives of Loudon, 
were of Scotch descent, and for many years 
prominent citizens of San Jose. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Williams eleven children were born, six of 
whom are living. Two of the sons, William A. 
and James F., reside near Dinuba; John, at the 
age of twenty-one, was killed by a train at Gil- 
roy; Fanny is the wife of J. T. Mickles, of 
Fresno; and three of the daughters, Emily Jose- 
pnine, Annie and Mary Dorindo, are at home 
with their mother. 

Mr. Williams died of heart disease at Le- 
moore, this county. For years he was one of 
the prominent citizens of Gilroy, Santa Clara 
County. He was a man of the highest moral 
integrity, and his sudden death was a source of 
much bereavement to his family and many 
friends. One of the sons resides on the ranch 
and manages the estate for his mother. Mrs. 
Williams is a lady of intelligence and refine- 
ment, and possesses more than ordinary ability. 

1||||ILLIAM B. ROBB, junior member of 
'\'\/u/;) the hrin of Edwards & Robb, dealers in 

I— sJsH general merchandise, Orosi, is an enter- 
prising young man who has cast his lot in this 
promising village, and is on the high road to 
success. He and his partner purchased the pio- 
neer store and stock of Mr. Shafer six months 
after it had been established. Both are courteous 
and obliging business men, enjoy the confidence 
and good-will of the citizens of their part of the 
county, and have a trade that is constantly in- 
creasing. 

Mr. Robb was born in Nova Scotia, April 3, 
1866, son of James F. and Amelia L. Robb, 
both natives of Nova Scotia. His paternal an- 
cestry originated in the north of Ireland and his 
mother's people were English. Mr. Robb is the 
only t,on in a family of six children. He was 
educated in his native place and there learned 
banking, which he followed six years. He carne 
to California to engage in the same, and arrived 



in Fresno in 1889. In December of that year, 
however, he came to Orosi and established him- 
self in the general merchandise business. He 
is a young man of energy and ability, and, ap- 
preciating the fact that this is a good place for 
investments, he has bought land and is interest- 
ing himself in the production of raisin grapes 
and other fruits. 



-<s*< 



»*£=- 



tARRISON WHITE was born in the State 
of New York, June 29, 1838. He comes 
of good old Puritan stock. His grand- 
father, Silas White, was a soldier in the Revolu- 
tionary war, held a Captain's commission and 
served till the close of the struggle. His father, 
Silas White, Jr., a native of New York, married 
Maria McClare, who was of Scotch descent and 
also a native of the Empire State. Of the ten 
children born to them, Harrison was next to the 
youngest. When he was a child the family 
moved to Illinois and settled on a Government 
claim, where the children were reared and edu- 
cated. 

Mr. White worked on the farm and also 
learned the carpenter's trade. When President 
Lincoln called for volunteers he was among the 
first to enter the service of his country and help 
put down the rebellion. He enlisted as a private, 
on April 22, 1861, in Company F, Eleventh 
Illinois Infantry, and after his three months' 
term of service had expired he joined Company 
B, Fourth Illinois Cavalry. His company went 
with General Grant to Fort Henry, Donelson, 
Corinth and Vicksburg, and was Grant's escort 
until he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant- 
General and placed at the head of all the armies 
of the United States, having his headquarters with 
the Army of the Potomac. Mr. White continued 
to serve in the department of Mississippi until 
the close of the war. At the battle of Shiloh 
he was slightly wounded by a piece of shell. 
He had been promoted as Captain, and as such 
was mustered out of the service on the 26th of 
January, 1866. 



626 



IIISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



After the war closed Mr. White conducted a 
cotton plantation in Mississippi one year. He 
then went to Sandwich, Illinois, and engaged in 
mercantile business. In the spring of 1868 he 
sold out and went to Montana, being in busi- 
ness there until the winter of 1869, again 
returning to Illinois. In the spring of 1870 
he came to California and located in Tulare 
Comity. That summer he took the census of 
the county. Then for two years he was engaged 
in the sheep business, after which he opened a 
store at Porterville, remaining there six years. 
At the end of that time he sold out, came to 
Visalia, and has since made this city his home. 
In 1880 he received the appointment of United 
States Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue, 
and tilled that office six years. He also served 
as Under Sheriff a year and a half. At this 
writing (1891) he is United States Gauger, and 
is also doing a claim agency business. 

In 1876 Captain White was married to Miss 
Hattie P. Anthony, a native of Watertown, New 
York. They reside in their pleasant home on 
Court street, Visalia, and he is the owner of a 
ranch in the country, which he has rented. 

The Captain is a member of the A. O. U. W., 
and a charter member and Post Commander of 
General George Wright Post, G. A. R., Visalia. 



, D. BEALL, a vineyardist and rancher 
east of Lemoore, was born in Ripley 
- County, Indiana, in 1852. His grand- 
father, Z. Beall, was a native of Pennsylvania, 
but settled in Ripley County in 1818, where the 
father of our subject was born in 1822. Z. D. 
Beall lived at home until twenty- three years of 
age, securing a common-school education and 
assisting his father upon the farm. In 1875 he 
came to California with four companions from 
his native town, and after landing at Visalia 
they found occupation upon Bacon's ranches as 
farm hands. In 1877 Mr. Beall went to Le- 
moore, and after four years passed in farm work 
he entered into partnership with Joel W. Will- 



iams, in working 240 acres of land. After 
securing one crop they dissolved partnership, 
and in the fall of 1882 Mr. Beall purchased his 
present ranch of eighty acres, two mile6 east of 
Lemoore. He also rented land and fanned 
annually about 200 acres until the spring of 
1889, when he set ten acres in vines and devoted 
his time to the improvement of his own ranch. 
He now has twenty-four acres in vines, ten acres 
in peaches and prunes, sixteen acres in alfalfa, 
and the remainder in farm land. He raises a 
few horses, and his fine piece of alfalfa and 
well-kept vineyard indicate watchful manage- 
ment in the line of agriculture which he is 



f RASMUS D. MAXON, a venerable citizen 
of Tulare County, California, was born 
in Brooktield, Madison County, New 
York, February 23, 1812. He comes of an old 
American family. His grandfather, Paul Maxon, 
a native of Rhode Island, went with a colony to 
New York, became a pioneer of that then 
wilderness, and was a soldier in the Revolu- 
tionary war. His son, Paul C. Maxon, was 
born in New York and married Lucy Pardee, a 
native of Connecticut. Of their seven children 
the subject of this sketch was the third born, 
and he and his sister are the only survivors of 
the family. 

Mr. Maxon was reared and educated in New 
York; removed to Wisconsin in 1849, and pur- 
chased a farm in the southern part of the State, 
which he improved; sold it and went to north- 
ern Wisconsin, where he bought another farm 
and also improved it. After spending twenty- 
eightyears of his life as a farmer in Wisconsin, 
he come to California in 1873. During the war 
he was a soldier of the Union army, having 
served from 1863 until the close of the war. in 
Company I, Fourth Wisconsin Volunteer Cav- 
alry. He received an honorable discharge in 
1865. 

Arrived in this State, Mr. Maxon took up a 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



627 



Government claim of 160 acres of land on the 
plains near where Exeter is now located, and 
became the pioneer wheat farmer of his section. 
He built a home, planted trees and surrounded 
himself with the comforts of life. In addition 
to this property he owns twenty acres of timber 
land. 

In 1834 Mr. Maxon married Miss Hannah 
Crouch, a native of Jefferson County, New 
York, of French and German ancestry. Their 
union was blessed with ten children, of whom 
eight are still living. Sarah Ann died at the 
age of forty years; Harrison is settled in "Wis- 
consin; Amanda M. is the wife of G. B. Catron, 
and resides near her father. (See Mr. Catron's 
history in this book.) Antonette is the wife of 
Mr. Carpenter, a resident of Michigan; Sophia, 
wife of Mr. F. H. Allen, died in 1888; Estella 
is the wife of Marion Lowery, a resident of 
Visalia; Ada is the wife of Henry Creason; 
Fred is settled near his father; Kate is the wife 
of William Morrell, a resident of Redwood 
City; and Martha married William E. Carder, 
and resides with her father. In 1875, after 
forty-one years of happy married life, Mrs. 
Maxon died. 

Mr. Maxon has been a Republican since the 
organization of that party. From exposure 
incurred while in the war, he has been a sufferer 
from rheumatism for many years. He has led 
a life of activity and usefulness, has passed his 
seventy-ninth mile-post, and in the natural 
course of events cannot expect many more 
years. All honor be to these war veterans and 
worthy pioneers. 

&&** 

fAPTAIN J. P. FERNALD, Oleander, 
Fresno County, California, is a native of 
the Fine Tree State, born in Kitterey, No- 
vember 7, 1841. He traces his ancestry back to 
Thomas and Reginald Fernald, of England, who 
emigrated to America in 1629. King Charles 
gave them a grant of laud at the mouth of the 
Piscataqua river, which extended fifteen miles 



up the river from its mouth and ten miles inland 
in either direction from its center. Reginald 
chose the southwest bank, the New Hampshire 
side, which was called " Strawberry Eanke," 
and there engaged in agricultural pursuits. He 
founded the town of New Castle, and was one 
of the incorporators of the town of Portsmouth 
in 1631. Before coining to America Reginald 
Fernald was a surgeon in the English navy. 

Thomas chose the northeast bank of the river, 
the Maine side, and founded the town of Kit- 
tery in 1631. He was what is termed an En- 
glish gentleman, and lived in Kittery as " Lord 
of the Manor," without engaging in any active 
business. He was the direct ancestor of Cap- 
tain J. P. Fernald, who represents the eighth 
generation. The Captain's father, Peletiah Fer- 
nald, was a ship-carpenter who spent his life in 
Kittery and died there in September, 1842. 

J. P. Fernald was educated in the common 
schools of Kittery, and at the age of thirteen 
years began his long and eventful life upon the 
sea, which he followed continuously for thirty- 
one years. Under Captain Jeremiah Trefrethen, 
of the ship Portsmouth, he began his career as 
cabin-boy. He also began the study of navi- 
gation, both in theory and practice, and in 1860, 
while at New Orleans, was appointed third 
mate of the full-rigged ship, Jacob Horton, 
under Captain Henry Cook. In January, 1861, 
he was transferred to the ship, Kate Prince, 
under Captain Edwin A. Gerrish. bound for 
Liverpool with a cargo of cottou, returning with 
a general cargo to Philadelphia, and continuing 
on this route until November, 1862, when he 
left the ship at Philadelphia to visit his family. 
On his return to Philadelphia, he was appointed 
second mate of the ship Rockingham, and with 
cargo of coal sailed for Panama thence to 
Chincha Island, Peru, and with guano to 
Queenstown. 

April 23, 1864, the Rockingham was cap- 
tured by the Confederate cruiser, Alabama, 
Captain Semmes. The ship was burned, and the 
officers saved nothing but the clothes they had 
on. Officers and crew were taken on board the 



628 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Alabama and placed in irons as prisoners of 
war, for fifty-two days being kept on deck, 
without shelter or blankets, and obliged to sleep 
in the rain or water, as the case might be. They 
were landed at Cherbourg, France, and were 
provided with accommodations by the Ameri- 
can consul. After their long exposure to rains 
and salt water, their clothes were so stiff that 
they stood up without support. While at Cher- 
bourg, Mr. Fernald witnessed that historic naval 
fight between the Kearsarge and Alabama, and 
his heart was gladdened when he saw the Ala- 
bama disabled and sunk. 

After recovering from his exposure, the sub- 
ject of our sketch went to Havre, and as second 
mate secured a position on the ship John Bry- 
ant, on the voyage to India and back to London, 
where he arrived in November, 1865. He was 
then promoted to the position of mate of the 
ship Crescent City, bound for Mobile and re- 
turn; then to Bath, Maine, where he was trans- 
ferred to the ship China, Captain Silas Weeks, 
bound for New Orleans; then ran between North 
America and Liverpool for several years, carry- 
ing both freight and passengers. 

In December, 1869, he was promoted to the 
position of captain of the same ship, which he 
thereafter managed for several years, visiting 
many of the leading ports of the world. 

Captain Fernald was married, at Manchester, 
England, in 1872, to Miss M. E. Greenbank, 
who then accompanied him on his cruises until 
his retirement from the sea, in 1885. Their 
only child, Edwin King Fernald, was born on 
board ship while in port at Rio de Janeiro. 

The captain was an able officer and always 
fortunate regarding severe storms, and only 
once was his crew disabled by sickness. When 
running between Formosa and New York with a 
cargo of sugar, the gases from the sugar spoiled 
the water, causing sickness on board the ship. 
He was left with only two or three men to 
manage the ship, and it was with difficulty that 
he succeeded in reaching the Island of St. 
Helena. With fresh water and fresh provisions 
his crew recovered, and lie reached New York. 



In May, 1885, Captain Fernald retired from 
the sea, being then in very poor health, and 
after a visit to his home in Kittery, he sought 
the more genial climate of California, anchor- 
ing on his forty-acre ranch in Oleander, which 
he had purchased in 1884. He has erected a 
house and outbuildings and completed the im- 
provements which had been begun at the time 
of purchase. He now has thirty-two acres in 
Muscat vines, and the rest in trees. 

The Captain has recovered his health, and is 
now happy in the enjoyment of his home, and 
thinks California, in people, climate and re- 
sources, ahead of any country he has ever vis- 
ited. 



tMBROSE CADWELL, one of the success- 
ful ranchers and sheep men of the San 
Joaquin valley, was born in Onondaga 
County, New York, in 1835. When but one 
year old he was left a half-orphan by the death 
of his father, after which he remained with his 
mother until sixteen years of age, and then 
worked out at farming. In 1860 he came to 
California, via the Panama route, and after 
arriving at San Francisco he went to Pacheco, 
Contra Costa County, where he engaged in 
farming, butchering and stock business. He 
purchased 600 acres of land, and raised a very 
tine class of horses, of the Sir John strain and 
Kentucky stock. In 1872 Mr. Cadwell moved 
to Elko County, Nevada, pre-empted land, and 
farmed and teamed until 1877. He then re- 
turned to California, settling in Fresno County, 
where he bought 4,620 acres of land four miles 
northwest of Madera. There he followed the 
sheep business about eight years, having a band 
ranging from 3,000 to 14,500 head, and met 
with marked success, as he was perfectly famil- 
iar with every branch of the business. In 
1885 he sold his ranch and part of his sheep, 
sending about 2,000 head to Texas to take ad- 
vantage of that market, and also purchae ed 
1,200 head, at $4 each, to swell the number, all 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



C.29 



of which were placed in the hands of a man- 
ager, who, through dishonest measures, sold the 
hand and defrauded Mr. Cadwell out of ahout 
$18,000. In 1885 our subject purchased the 
hotel property in Borden, at a cost of $7,000, 
and after running it three years he sold out for 
$20,000. He then came to Tulare County, 
purchased 160 acres two and a half miles south- 
east of Lemoore, seventeen acres of which is 
planted in fruit, seventy acres in alfalfa and the 
remainder is farm land. His alfalfa cuts six- 
teen tons to the acre, and he considers the crop 
worth $1,000 per year. He also owns 320 
acres three miles northwest of Lemoore, which 
is under cultivation. He has always been in 
the stock business: is still a breeder of fine 
horses, and is a watchful attendant of his ranch 
and business interests. 

He was married at Pacheco, in 1870, to Miss 
Mary Emma Eagan, a native of Massachusetts. 
They have five children, namely: Russell, Clara, 
Lucy, Alice and Emma. 



f ;gE8- » r=s». *4 



<-3-§C- 



fcLLI SKEENE WILSON.— To this gen- 
tleman belongs the distinction of being 
•^p 1, the pioneer settler of Dinuba, and by 
virtue of his early settlement here merits more 
than a passing notice on the pages of Tulare 
County's history. A resume of his life is as 
follows: 

Olli Skeene Wilson was born in Indiana, in 
the town of Salem, December 16, 1823. His 
father, Joel Wilson, was born in North Caro- 
lina, in 1802, and his grandfather, John Wil- 
son, a Baptist minister, was a native of South 
Carolina. His great-grandfather, John Wilson, 
came to America jnst previous to the Revolu- 
tionary war, and was killed in the army. Joel 
Wilson married Elizabeth Williams, a native of 
Stokes County, North Carolina. The ancestors 
on both sides of the family went from Virginia 
to North Carolina, and from that State their 
descendants have scattered all over the North 
and West. The subject of our sketch was the 



second born in a family of twelve children, of 
whom four sons and four daughters are still 
living. He was brought up on his father's 
farm in Indiana, and during the winter months 
attended school. After becoming a man, he 
was engaged in the cattle business for some 
time. 

He married Elizabeth Hamilton, a native of 
Indiana, and a daughter of James and Rebecca 
Hamilton, the former a native of Ireland and 
the latter of Virginia. Her people were pio- 
neers of the Hoosier State, her father being one 
of the commissioners who selected the site for 
the State capital. And in this connection it is 
worthy of record that Mr. Wilson's father's uncle, 
Win. Low, surveyed the site of Indianapolis. 
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson became the parents of 
five daughters and two sons, and of their family 
only three daughters are now living. Robert 
F. was accidentally killed by firing an anvil at a 
political celebration; Theresa Isidore is the wife 
of Ethelbert Wedwell; Willard P., Rebecca 
Fidelia and Dora Bell, deceased; Clara Annis 
is the wife of J. T. Arnold; and Sarah J. mar- 
ried E. E. Giddings. Mrs. Wilson's death 
occnrred in 1870, and Mr. Wilson has since 
remained single. 

He was a soldier in the Mexican war under 
General Taylor. When he enlisted in the serv- 
ice he was presented a small New Testament by 
one of his friends, Elizabeth Cutshaw, a beauti- 
ful young girl, long since dead; and that little 
book he carried in his breast pocket. At the 
battle of Buena Vista he was struck by a ball 
and knocked down. The ball had dented the 
book, but failed to go through it, and his life 
was preserved. 

After his return from the war, Mr. Wilson 
engaged in buying and feeding hogs; one win- 
ter fed 10,000, and every day, regardless of the 
weather, husked seventy bushels of corn. Sell- 
ing his hogs for $2.10 per hundred weight on 
foot, he made something at the business. He 
owned 520 acres of land in Washington County, 
Indiana, a portion of which had been given him 
by his father. The rest he purchased. It was 



630 



HISTORY OF UENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



all good land, and was well improved with 
buildings, etc. 

Mr. Wilson came to California in 1874, and 
first settled on King's river, Tulare County, 
where he became largely interested in sheep. 
He continued that business until the dry year 
of 1877, when he lost his sheep, and, as he 
expressed it, was " busted." He then turned 
his attention to work at the carpenter's trade. 
Having no money, he found that friends were 
scarce. To make another start in life, he came 
to the vicinity of Dinuba, where the country 
was wild and settlers few. Here he took up a 
half section of land and became "monarch of all 
he surveyed." Robert Kennedy and family 
were his only neighbors. Wild cattle ranged 
over the country, and occasionally the Mexican 
cow boys could be seen riding after their stock. 
He has improved his property by building and 
fencing, and only recently sold fifty-five acres of 
it for $100 per acre. He gave to each of his 
two daughters in Tulare County eighty acres of 
land, and the same amount in value to the 
daughter in the East. He is still engaged in 
farming on his broad acres, raising wheat and 
alfalfa. Of late he has been giving some atten- 
tion to grape culture. He makes his home 
with his daughter, Mrs. Arnold. Mr. Wilson 
is still hale and hearty, and looks as if he might 
be spared many years to see still greater devel- 
opment in the great State of California. 



fH. MELONE is one of the pioneer mer- 
chants of Hanford, Tulare County, Cali- 
a fornia. A resume of his life is as follows: 
J. H. Melone was born in Fulton, Callaway 
County, Missouri, in 1839. His ancestors were 
among the French Huguenots, who came to the 
United States abont 1710, and settled in Fred- 
ericksburg, Pennsylvania, subsequently emi- 
grating to Virginia. In the latter State his 
father, John Melone, was born. His mother, 
Nancy (Golden) Melone, was also a native of 
the Old Dominion, her family being amoiw the 



early and prominent settlers of the State. The 
subject of our sketch received the benefits of a 
common-school education, and at the age of 
eighteen years started out in life to earn his own 
support. Going to Centreville, Missouri, he 
secured a position as clerk in a country store, 
and there obtained a knowledge of mercantile 
life. When he was twenty he started a small 
grocery store, which he conducted until 1861. 
In that year he came to California, making the 
journey via the Isthmus of Panama. He fol- 
lowed clerking and farming in the vicinity of 
Stockton until 1865, when he returned to Mis- 
souri and engaged in the grocery business at 
Fulton. 

Mr. Melone was married, in 1866, to Miss 
Annie Gray, a lady of Irish descent. They 
continued their residence at Fulton until 1869, 
when Mr. Melone sold out and moved to Chilli- 
cothe, and afterward to St. Louis, where he was 
supervisor at the State Insane Asylum, and re- 
mained until 1875. That year he returned to 
California and settled in San Joaquin County, 
opening a general merchandise store and con- 
ducting it until 1878, when he sold out and 
came to Hanford. He purchased property on 
Sixth street, built a small frame store, stocked 
it with general merchandise and did a very suc- 
cessful business until the destructive tire of 
January 2, 1883, when he was burned out and 
sustained a loss of $8,000. In 1884 he rebuilt 
and restocked, and on July 11, 1887, was again 
burned out, this time losing about $6,500. Cast 
down but not disheartened, he purchased his 
present property on Sixth street, and in 1888 
erected his brick building, 50x80 feet, which is 
divided into two stores, one being occupied by 
himself and the other rented. He purchased a 
stock of gents' furnishing goods, clothing, boots 
and shoes, and now enjoys an extensive patron- 
age. N Mr. Melone also owns residence property 
on Seventh street and a twenty-acre ranch near 
town, which is largely p'anted to prune trees. 

Mr. and Mrs. Melone have one child, Miss 
Minnie G. Melone. In State and county poli- 
tics Mr. Melone takes an active part, but is not 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



631 



an office seeker. As a citizen his voice is to- 
ward progression, and he has great faith in 
the future prosperity of the Lucerne district. 
He is a member of the blue lodge, chapter and 
commandery, F. & A. M. 



fE. ASAY, D. D. S., of Visalia, was born 
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1, 
a 1853, the son of Dr. A. M. Asay, who 
practiced dentistry for forty years. Our sub- 
ject, the youngest of six children, received his 
literary education in the public schools of Phila- 
delphia, and February 28, 1874, graduated at 
the Pennsylvania Dental College. He began 
as office boy for his father, and hence had a 
practical knowledge of dentistry before attend- 
ing college. After his graduation he practiced 
his profession in the East nntil 1880, when he 
came to Visalia, where he formed a partnership 
with his brother, J. L. Asay, M. D., now of 
San Jose. Since coming to Yisalia, Dr. Asay 
has built up a large, lucrative and constantly 
increasing practice. His dental rooms are in 
the Holt Block, opposite the Palace Hotel, and 
his residence is located on North street. 

Dr. Asay was married in 1882, to Miss Ma- 
linda Newell, a native of California, and daugh- 
ter of Elza Newell, a wealthy farmer of Tulare 
County. They have one child, Wallace E. 



fACOB. V. HUFFAKER, a liveryman of 
Yisalia, was born in Morgan County, Illi- 
nois, February 23, 1845. and was the 
eleventh child in a family of thirteen children. 
His mother died when he was an infant, and he 
was thrown on his own resources at a very 
early period in life. He went to Texas with 
his father when a small boy, and raised and 
herded cattle until the spring of 1861, living 
most of the time in the saddle. In 1861 he 
started for California in Captain White's com- 
pany, consisting of 336 wagons at the outset. 



They went by way of the Platte and Snake riv- 
ers, through Washington and Oregon, and were 
seven months on the road, and experienced 
many hardships incident to travel by wagons in 
those days. They were three days and nights 
in crossing Snake river near its confluence with 
the Boise river; and the way they " did it" was 
to cork their wagon-beds and make skiffs of 
them, and thus ferry their stuff across. They 
had some trouble with the Indians, and Mr. 
HufFaker, being a sure shot, saved the life of 
an old man by the name of Wales, who was 
unable to defend himself against some Indians. 

After arriving in Visalia in 1862, Mr. Hnffa- 
ker started in business by breaking wild horses 
and herding and branding cattle. In 1871 he 
went into the livery business, at first renting an 
old stable for $25 a month. This rent was soon 
raised to $50, and in 1882 he bought the prop- 
erty on Court street of S. C. Brown for $1,600. 
The business has increased in his hands ever 
since, and he now owns as fine a stock of horses 
and as complete an outfit of carriages and bug- 
gies as is to be found in Tulare County. He 
owns valuable town property in Visalia, and a 
fine residence at No. 163 Court street. Mr. 
HufFaker has taken an interest in many of the 
public enterprises of this city, and is one of her 
representative citizens, an honest, energetic, en- 
terprising, business man. 

In 1871 he married Palestine Downing, a 
native of Missouri, and the daughter of Joseph 
Downing, now of Fresno County. Their chil- 
dren are: William II., Elsie, Frederick, Eddie 
and Arthur. Socially Mr. HufFaker is promi- 
nently connected with the Odd Fellows and the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. 



fDWIN DUDLEY is a native of Wisconsin, 
born January 23, 1850. His father, now 
deceased, was a farmer and reared his 
family of five children on a large and well con- 
ducted farm. In 1867 the family home was 
moved to Missouri. There Edwin availed him- 



632 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



self of the educational opportunities afforded 
him and afterward devoted himself to agricult- 
ural pursuits for eight years. 

In April, 1875, he came West to California 
to try his fortune in a new country. Mr. Dud- 
ley arrived in Fresno County with only $6 in 
his pocket, and January 26, 1876, settled on the 
ranch of 160 acres which he now owns and 
which is his present home. This is a choice 
piece of property and is located half a mile from 
Selma. His career in California has been a suc- 
cessful one. Starting out in this undeveloped 
country with nothing save what he earned by 
honest toil, he has, through persistent effort, 
accumulated considerable property, and is to-day 
numbered among the prosperous farmers of the 
community. Mr. Dudley has not, however, 
spent the whole of his California life in Fresno 
County. Shortly after coming to Selma, he 
went to Tulare County, where he engaged in 
farming for a period of six years. Since 1884 
he has made his home where we now find him. 
In addition to the property already referred to 
he is the owner of a ranch of 800 acres, located 
fourteen miles west of Selma, which he is de- 
voting to the production of wheat. 

Mr. Dudley was married March 6, 1881, to 
Miss Josephine Reed, a native of California. 
They have no children. The Dudley residence, 
completed in 1887, is one of the most attractive 
in this vicinity. The structure is a substantial 
frame one, handsome in design and complete in 
all its appointments. Both the interior and ex- 
terior surroundings of this beautiful home indi- 
cate at once the excellent taste of its occupants. 

#^4f^-^# 

E. CALHOUN, the son of Patrick Cal- 
houn, and a second cousin of John C. 
Calhoun, was born in Kentucky, at the 
junction of the Cumberland and Ohio rivers, in 
the year 1825. 

Patrick Calhoun settled in that State in the 
year 1785. He married a daughter of General 
Pickens of Revolutionary fame, and by her had 



a family of thirteen children, seven sons and six 
daughters. Mr. Calhoun was a contractor by 
occupation and carried on an enormous river 
business, being considered a rich man in his 
time. 

Ezekiel Ewing Calhoun, the subject of this 
sketch, passed his childhood and youth in the 
western part of Kentucky, lie was educated in 
Louisville, graduating in the law department of 
the university there in 1850. He also attended 
a full course of medical lectures in that institu- 
tion. Among his medical preceptors may be 
mentioned Doctors Gross, Caldwell, Miller, 
Drake and other distinguished physicians and 
surgeons of our day. 

After practicing law at his old home one 
year, he crossed the plains to California, arriving 
in San Bernardino County after a journey of six 
months. He soon leased of Governor Pico the 
famous Santa Margarita ranch, located in the 
northern part of San Diego County, and for 
three years successfully conducted that large 
estate. 

In 1854 Mr. Calhoun came to the San Joa- 
quin valley, camping in various parts of this 
then barren land. He is distinctly a pioneer in 
this locality, as subsequent events clearly show. 
Moving to Visalia in 1855, he had much to do 
with the shaping of events in the early history 
of that town. He was made County Clerk of 
Tulare County in 1855, and for three years held 
the office of County Judge. In 1866 Kern 
County was organized and the Judge was its 
first District Attorney. The offices of County 
Surveyor, County Auditor and School Superin- 
tendent, he also held at various times. 

For a short period prior to 1884 he resided 
with his family in Santa Clara County, and in 
that year he moved to Fresno, living there until 
1887, when he came to Selma, his present resi- 
dence. The Judge, though somewhat infirm, 
is still in the possession of his faculties and is 
regarded an excellent legal authority in the 
community. Well informed, thoroughly con- 
versant with every detail of the early settlement 
and occupation of this valley, a fluent speaker, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



633 



his society is most enjoyable, and those fortu- 
nate enouo-h to be included among his friends 
will not soon forget the many interesting anec- 
dotes and reminiscences he relates. 

Judge Calhoun was married October 17, 1861, 
to Miss Laura Davis, a native of the South, by 
whom he has had seven children, all living. 
Their family is an exceptionally bright and 
gifted one. The three elder daughters are 
graduates of the State Normal School at San 
Jose. Eleanor II., the oldest, is now a resident 
of Paris, where she has lived four years. Pos- 
sessing marked dramatic ability, she has at- 
tained a very high degree of success on the 
French stage, and also in London, where she 
first studied for a few years. Jessie, another 
gifted daughter, has for some time been Profes- 
sor of Elocution at the University of the Pacific, 
San Jose, recently resigning that position to fill 
a wider field of labor. 



«=$•*<< 



**> 



agRTHUR W. MATHEWSON has been a 
}!Wi resident of California since 1856, and is 
^P 1 well known as an early settler of Tulare 
County. 

Mr. Mathewson was born in Wheelock, Cale- 
donia County, Vermont, November 14, 1834. 
His father, Charles Mathewson, was a native of 
Rhode Island and the descendant of English 
ancestors who settled in that State at an early 
day. He married Sara Williams, also a native 
of Rhode Island and a descendant in direct line 
of Roger Williams. She was also a relative of 
Governor Sprague, of Rhode Island, and her 
family were largely interested in the manufacture 
of cotton in that State. Mr. Mathewson was 
the sixth of their ten children, of whom only 
four are now living. He was reared on his 
father's farm and received his education in the 
public schools and in the academy at Linden, 
Vermont. From the time he was sixteen years 
of age he has been self-supporting. He worked 
in a tannery two years, returned to the old farm 
and remained three years, and then came to 



California. He mined two years before coming 
to Tulare County, and one year after he came 
here, meeting with reasonable success. This 
sojourn in Tulare County was in 1858. He 
then went to San Jose, Santa Clara County, 
bought a farm and remained on it until 1864, 
and after he had it well improved discovered 
that it was a Spanish grant and lost it all. Re- 
turning to Tulare County in that year, he en- 
gaged in the sheep business, his herds increasing 
until he kept as high as 4,000 sheep. From 
time to time he purchased land in different 
places, has disposed of several pieces of prop- 
erty and is now the owner of 500 acres. He 
is doing a general farming business, raising 
grain, cattle, sheep and hogs, and is also inter- 
ested in fruit culture. 

Mr. Mathewson was married in 1866, to Miss 
Lucinda Tinkhatn, who was born in Iowa, the 
daughter of Nathaniel Tinkham, a native of 
Vermont. Eight children have been born to 
them, two of whom died in infancy. Six are 
living, three sons and three daughters — all in 
California, single and residing with their par- 
ents. Their names are as follows: Pearly, Levi, 
Edith May, Early, James A. and Maud. 

In politics Mr. Mathewson is a Republican. 
He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and of the 
Farmers' Alliance. For the past seven years he 
has been president of the People's Consolidated 
Ditch Company, and has done much to promote 
irrigation in this county. 



— --^^.-..oH>-Ht" 



|f ACOB H. TR AUGER, Recorder of the 
a|1 Mineral King Mining Distrtct, was born in 
^i Wayne County, Ohio, December 2, 1833, 
the son of John and Mary (Fisher) Trauger, 
natives of Pennsylvania. Jacob, their only 
child, received a common school education, 
and started to work for himself at the age of 
fifteen. At the age of twenty-one he inherited 
several thousand dollars, and went into the mer- 
cantile business and farming in Wayne County, 
Ohio. He continued there until 1857, when he 



0:J4 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



became interested in the Frazer river excite- 
ment in British Columbia. He went to San 
Francisco by steamer, but changed his original 
plans and went to El Dorado County, and fol- 
lowed mining then, and in Flacer County until 
1862, when he weni to Idaho. At Walla Walla 
he found that matters were overdrawn, and he 
went to Griffin's Gulch. His next move was to 
Burnt river, then to Mormon Basin, then to 
Willow creek, and then to Snake river. In 
1864 Mr. Trauger went to British Columbia, 
and from there to Idaho and Montana. 

In 1874 he returned to Ohio and married 
Miss Mary Holben, a native of Stark County, 
Ohio, June 21, 1874. After their marriage 
they came to California, where he bought twenty 
acres of land in San Jose for $375 per acre, but 
in a bhort time sold it for $500 per acre, and 
went to San Francisco, where he made some in- 
vestments which "broke him." He then went 
to Inyo County, and from there in 1876 to 
Tulare County. Since then he has mined some, 
and is now experimenting with all kinds of 
fruit on his ranch far up on the side of the 
rugged mountains. Here with the wife of his 
youth he lives, seven miles from the nearest 
neighbor. Deer and bear are plentiful, and Mr. 
Trauger could relate enough interesting remin- 
iscences, hair-breadth escapes, hardships endured 
and obstacles overcome to fill a volume the size 
of this work. 



"2* •£ * a) 1 *"" 



fRANK DUSY — A prominent pioneer of 
California, and one of the old-time sheep 
^^ owners in Fresno County, forms the sub- 
ject of this biography. 

Mr. Dnsy is the son of Anthony Dusy, a 
native of Canada, and was born December 17, 
1837, one in a family of eight children. At 
the age of eleven years he was thrown upon his 
own resources. He went to New Hampshire 
and started out to earn his own living as a 
farmers's boy, obtaining what little education 



he could while he worked on the farm. In 
1852 he went to Maine, and on Fox Island] 
opposite Rockland, he was employed in tli ■ 
stone-cutting business, learning the trade and 
doing well in that occupation for a period < . 
three or four years. 

In the fall of 1858 our subject started for t! e 
Pacific coast, making the trip via the Isttmi B 
of Pana:na. After landing in San Franciso be 
very soon started for the mines, and for three or 
four years was engaged in Tuolumne and Stan- 
islaus counties, hunting for gold. He met 
with very good success in this held, but subse- 
quently turned his attention to other pursuit, 
and at various times was in Mariposa and Mtr- 
ced counties engaged as a produce-dealer, pho- 
tographer, etc. In 1869 lie embarked in the 
sheep business in Fresno County, in which occu 
pation he was engaged for many years, ami in 
which he was eminently successful. Mr. Dusy s 
settlement in Fresno County as a sheep rancher, 
was not, however, his first experience in this local- 
ity. In 1863, during the war, he enlisU 
Company H., Third California Volunteer Regi- 
ment, and was sent at once on detached duty. 
The company was ordered to Fresno and Merced 
counties, and for a year and a half he was in the 
service, doing valiant work and passing through 
many exciting experience-. 

In his sheep operations Mr. Dusy first setrled 
between Big and Little Dry creeks, and later 
removed to the vicinity in which he now residis, 
three miles from the town of Seltna. This 
country was then a vast desolate plain. No 
inhabitants save Mr. Dusy and hi^ herders were 
to be found between the site of the now thriv- 
ing city of Fresno and the King's river, an ! it 
was many years before any system of irrigation 
was put in operation, and cultivation and devel- 
opment were begun. He moved to his preseul 
ranch, four miles north of Selma, six years ago. 
His land interests arc quite extensive. Besides 
the 100 acres where he lives, he owns a half Bee 
tion of land half a mile distant, 520 acres in the 
mountains, and various other holdings smaller 
in extent. A raisin vineyard of 100 acre.' on 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA, 



035 



his home ranch is a fine specimen of the indus- 
try in this County. 

Another important industry in which Mr. 
Dusy is extensively engaged is the manufacture 
of pressed brick, having yards in operation in 
Reedley and Kingsbury, from which he derives 
a good profit. He is one of the directors of the 
Fowler Switch Canal Company, and during the 
early history of the company, was its president 
and superintendent. 

Mr. Dusy was happily married in 1873, to 
Miss Catherine Ross, a native of Nova Scotia, 
by whom he has had five children. The family 
residence, just completed, is one of the largest 
and most elaborate in the County. It is built 
of brick, and in design is most attractive. The 
interior appointments are in excellent taste, and 
need only to be seen to be admired. Rising 
several feet above the roof, and at a height of 
seventy-five feet from the ground, is the tower. 
from which may be had a magnificent view of 
the surrounding country. This view is •well 
worth the trip from the adjoining towns, should 
the tourist be so fortunate as to enjoy the hos- 
pitality of Mr. Dusy. 



fAMES E. LOWREY is a veteran of the 
Mexican war, and an early settler of Cali- 
fornia. 
He was born in Tennessee, October 21, 1827. 
His father, Jacob Lowrey, was a native of Ten- 
nessee, and a soldier of the Black Hawk war, 
and his mother, nee Allie Murray, was born in 
Kentucky. The Lowreys originated in Ireland, 
and the Murrays in Scotland. James E. was 
the second born in their family, of thirteen 
children, and was reared in Tennessee till he 
reached his seventeenth year. At that age he 
started out to do for himself, and went to Mis- 
souri. In 1846 heenlisted in Company E, Twen- 
ty-third Battalion, Captain Armstrong, and 
was with the first troops that went to Mexico. 
He remained until the close of the struggle, and 
participated in all the battles of the war except 



that of Santa Cruz. During the latter part of 
the war he was under the command of General 
Price. 

Mr. Lowrey returned to Missouri and engaged 
in farming. In 1850 he was married to Miss 
Elizabeth Parsones, a native of that State, and 
in 1852 they crossed the plains to California 
He took up land in Sonoma County, farmed on 
it eight years, and then found that it was a 
grant, and had to give it up. In 1860 he came 
to Tulare County and purchased 160 acres of 
land near where he now lives. He has since 
been engaged in farming and stock-raising; now 
has 700 acres of land, and gives his attention 
chiefly to the stock business, raising horses, cat- 
tle and hoes. 

o 

Mr. and Mrs. Lowrey have had thirteen chil- 
dren. Their oldest daughter married J. B. 
Jordan, and their union was blessed with five 
children. Mrs. Jordan died in 1883. Their 
son Thomas Henry died in 1886. Marion mar- 
ried and resides near his father. James is mar- 
ried, has two children and resides in Arizona. 
The single children are Alice, William and 
Walter and Lee, the other five having died in 
infancy. All were born in California. 

All his life Mr. Lowrey has been a Democrat. 
He has witnessed the many wonderful changes 
that have taken place in the Golden State dur- 
ing the past thirty-nine years, and is to-day one 
of the solid ranchers of Tulare County. 



Tl WILLIAM VEX ABLE 



FLOURNOY. 



comes of an old Virginia family, de- 
i= ^H scendants of the French Huguenots. 
His great-grandfather, Thmoas Flournoy, served 
in the Revolutionary war, and his grandfather, 
Dr. David Flournoy, was a soldier of the war of 
1812, being a First Lieutenant in a company of 
cavalry from Prince Edward County, Virginia,. 
Pie married Mary Morton, daughter of Jacob 
Morton, of Charlotte County. Thomas Flour- 
noy, father of our subject, married Frances M. 
Venable, daughter of William L. Venable, of 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Prince Edward County. To them were born 
eleven children, "William being the youngest, 
and ten are still living. His father had a good 
estate, in Virginia, previous to the late war, and 
during the discussion of the questions which led 
up to that conflict, he was a strong Union man. 
"When the war broke out, however, and Virginia 
was invaded, he did all in his power to help the 
Southern Confederacy, and by the devastation 
and the results of the war, lost most of his 
property. 

All four of his sons were in the army of 
northern Virginia, and served to the end of the 
war. 

Mr. Flournoy entered the army in 1864 
before he was of military age; one of his 
brothers was a mere boy, also when he volun- 
teered; he was a member of Company E, 
Fifty-sixth Regiment Virginia Volunteers 
Hunton's Brigade, Pickett's Division He 
served to the end of the war, and was at the 
final surrender at Appomattox. 

After the war he pursued bis studies at 
Hampden Sydney College, Virginia, after which 
he engaged in teaching for a number of years; 
was principal of the male academy at Stanton, 
Tennessee, for some time previous to his com- 
ing to California in 1874. 

After his arrival here he located in Fresno 
County, where he engaged in teaching, and was 
also interested in the stock business. 

In 1877 Mr. Flournoy came to Tulare 
County, and is among the early settlers of his 
section of country. Here he is engaged in 
wheat-farming and fruit culture. 

In connection with his farming operations, he 
continued the profession of teaching for some 
time, teaching in the mountains during the 
summer, and in the valley through the winter. 
He still retains valuable property in Virginia. 
In 1874 Mr. Flournoy was made a Mason, and 
since 1868 he has been a member of the Pres- 
byterian church. He is an elder in the church 
at Traver. Politically he affiliates with the 
Democratic party. He is an intelligent and 
courteous gentleman, and is one of the worthy 



citizens of Tulare County, who is doing his best 
for the advancement of botli county and State. 



IPiENRY CHRISTOPHER ROES came to 

t California in 1855, and is now one of the 
well-to-do ranchers of Fresno County, re- 
siding near Dinnba, and three and one-half 
miles from Reedley in Fresno County. lie is 
one of the many Germans who have sought 
homes in this land of peace and plenty and 
honest efforts have been crowned with sncces6. 
A brief outline of his life is as follows. 

Mr. Roes was born in the State of Hanover, 
near Bremer-Hafen, Germany, October 15, 
1836, the son of German parents. The father 
died in his native land, and the mother is still 
living there. 

At the age of sixteen years he left home for 
New York city. At the age of nineteen Mr. 
Roes came to California, and for two years was 
employed as a clerk in Stockton, having learned 
the grocery business in New York City. In 
1857 he engaged in mining in Calaveras County, 
remaining there two years, without much suc- 
cess. Then he went to Washington Territory 
on a prospecting tour, returned to California in 
1859 and settled in Stanislaus County, where 
he was engaged in mining and merchandising 
till the winter of 1868. At that time he made 
a trip through the Eastern and Southern States 
and also visited his old home in Germany, re- 
turning to Stanislaus County after an absence 
of eighteen months, and again engaged in mer- 
chandising at La Grange. Two years later he 
sold out, went to Merced and engaged in the 
lumber business with Simon Jacobs & Co., and 
was with them till 1875, when they induced him 
to go to Fresno County and take charge of a 
township of land and 15,000 sheep, and this 
business he conducted for them for thirteen 
years. During this time he speculated some in 
lands. 

His home place consists of 320 acres of 
choice land suitable for fruit and grain. His 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



637 



residence was built in 1884, there being no 
town or houses near it at that time. Since then 
many have settled here, a prosperous village has 
sprung up, and the country is fast becoming a 
garden spot. Mr. Roes' home is beautifully lo- 
cated and commands a magnificent view. 

He was married in 1879 to Miss Louisa 
Snedeker, a native of Louisiana, and of Am- 
erican parentage. Two ciiildren were born 
to them, Gracie Laura and Edna Louisa, the 
former dying at the age of four years. Mrs. 
Roes' death occured in 1887. Edna L ura, a 
bright little girl, remains to gladden the declin- 
ing years of her indulgent father. A man and 
his wife reside with and keep house for them. 

Mr. Roes is a Royal Arch Mason, having 
united with that order in 1868, and in politics 
he is a Republican. He is an intelligent, relia- 
ble man, and ? worthy citizen of Fresno County. 



fHARLES DAVID SMITH, Secretary of 
the Board of Health for the city of Vis- 
alia, and one of the prominent young busi- 
ness men of the town, was born in Kansas, 
September 14, 1860. His father, Asa P. Smith, 
was born in New York and was a descendant 
of a family that came to America in the May- 
flower. He was an influential citizen of Potta- 
watomie County, Kansas, holding various 
positions of trust and serving as County Clerk 
and postmaster there for a number of years. 
He married Harriet A. Calkins, a native of 
Pennsylvania, and by her had two ciiildren, the 
subject of this sketch and a daughter. The 
father's death occurred in 1867, and the mother 
is still living. 

Charles D. was educated in the public schools 
of Kansas and in the State Agricultural College, 
and since leaving college has continued to give 
close attention to his studies. He came to Tu- 
lare County, California, in 1877 and soon after- 
ward to Visalia. He early developed a taste for 
surveying, and in 1887 opened a surveyor's 
office in Visalia. His business is that of a sur- 



veyor, hydraulic engineer and draughtsman, and 
he makes a specialty of irrigation and drainage- 
Mr. Smith received the nomination for County 
Surveyor by the Republican party in 1888, but 
failed to overcome the large Democratic major- 
ity in the county. 

As Secretary of the Board of Health he has 
made an exhaustive report on sanitary subjects 
to the Common Council of the city. Mr. Smith 
is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and is 
a man of good ability and character. He is un- 
married. 



JITS A AC T. BELL, one of the business men of 
H Visalia, Tulare County, California, was born 
*?*• in Sumner County, Tennessee, July 17. 
1844. His grandfather, Absalom Bell, emi- 
grated from Scotland to this country and settled 
in Maryland. To him and his wife three 
children were born, two sons and one daughter. 
One of these sons, Tyree H. Bell, born in Ten- 
nessee in 1815, is the father of Isaac T. He 
married Mary A. Walton, a native of Tennessee 
and a relative of the distiuo-urshed Sir Isaac 

o 

Walton of England. To them nine children 
were born, seven of whom are living — all in 
California. 

The subject of our sketch was educated in one 
of the primi tive log schoolhouses of old Tennessee, 
and remained on the farm until he was sixteen 
years old, when he became a soldier on the Con- 
federate side of the great civil war. He en- 
tered the service as a private in Company F. 
Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, under General W. 
H. Jackson, and afteward under General N. JB. 
Forest. He was promoted to aid-de-camp to 
General Tyree H. Bell, his father, and served in 
that capacity till the close of the war. At the 
battle of Guntown, Mississippi, he was twice 
wounded. 

After the war Mr. Bell became a traveling 
salesman for a St. Louis firm, and continued 
thus employed until 1868. About this time he 
was married to Miss Elizabeth Smith, a native 



638 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



of his own State. He then engaged in the 
mercantile business at Newbern and at Lexing- 
ton until 1874, when he was elected Circuit 
Clerk of the County of Henderson, and filled the 
office until 1878. From . that time until 1883 
e was again employed as a salesman. In the 
latter year he came to California, settled on the 
j lains in Fresno County and engaged in farm- 
ing. In 1886 he removed to Visalia and was 
clerk in the United States Land Office during 
the administration of President Cleveland, his 
father being receiver during that time. Mr. 
Bell is now a member of the firm of Jeffuds & 
Bell, and is doing an extensive real-estate and 
land office business, both members of the firm 
being experienced in their line of work and 
having extensive tracts of land for sale. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Bell five children have been 
born, one of whom is deceased. Those living 
are, James W., William J., John Tyree and An- 
nie May. 

Mr. Bell has been a member of the I. O. O. 
F. for twenty-four years, and has passed all the 
chairs in the different branches of that order. 
He represented his lodge four years in Tennes- 
see, and also represented the encampment in 
the Grand Lodge. He and his wife are mem- 
bers of the Methodist Church South. He is a 
steward in the church, and has been a superin- 
tendent of the Sunday-school for fourteen years. 
By all who know him he is regarded as a useful, 
influential and enterprising citizen. 

f FORGE A. PARKER was born in Arkan- 
sas, January 8, 1850. His ancestors emi- 
grated from England to this country before 
the Revolution, settled in the South, and there 
feveral generations of the family were born and 
reared. His father, Hiram Parker, was a native 
of Tennessee as was also his mother, nee Al- 
inira Cecil. Four sons were born to them. The 
father's death occured in 1856, and the follow- 
ing year mother and sons came to California 
and settled in Visalia. George A. was then a 



lad of seven years, and Visalia was a 
town of only a few houses; so, it may be said 
he lias grown up with the city. He received 
his education here with the exception of a 
course of study which he took at Heald's Basi- 
ness College, San Francisco. 

After leaving school Mr. Parker gave his at- 
tention to stock-raising and became an expert 
horseman. In 1876 he went East to the Cen- 
tennial to undertake a daring feat. He was to 
ride 305 miles in fifteen hours, using thirty 
mustangs alternately. He did not, however, 
accomplish tin's, but he did accomplish a ride 
never equaled before or since by any man. He 
rode 226 miles in eleven hours. Unfortunately for 
all concerned, it rained four hours of the time 
after the trial began. The mustangs were wild 
and had to be blindfolded in order for him to 
mount. Two assistants saddled them and had 
them in waiting, he dismounted and mounted in 
a second and a half, and made each mile in two 
minutes and fifty-seven seconds, riding each 
mustang from one to four miles. At the end 
of eleven hours he was inside of time, but his 
horses had given out and he had become so blind 
he could not see. This ride was performed on 
the Fleetwood track, New York. 

After remaining in the East six months. Mr. 
Parker returned to Visalia and engaged in 
farming. He met with some reverses at first, 
but afterward became successful am) purchased 
195 acres of land adjoining Visalia, a portion 
of it now being within the city limits. On it 
he farmed and also kept a dairy. He now has 
115 acres in afalfa, forty acres in vineyard and 
ten acres in French prunes. 

Mr. Parker served as Deputy Sheriff seven 
years, and under Mr. Seth Smith served two 
years as Deputy Assessor. In 1887 he was 
elected Sheriff of the County, and filled the of- 
fice two years. At the end of that time he 
purchased the Visalia meatmarket, refitted and 
improved it, and at once stepped into prosper- 
ous business. 

He was married November 26, 1S7S, to Miss 
Mary A. Markham. a native of California. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



639 



They have five children, all born in Visalia, 
namely: Elsie Lee, Ines Regena, Harry Ches- 
ter, Lora Noreta and Maud. They reside on 
the ranch. Mr. Parker has taken much inter- 
est in the Masonic order in Visalia; has held 
all the offices in the blue lodge, is Past Master 
and also belongs to the chapter. 



-=**« 



>+%>- 



F. BISHOP, who is prominently identi- 
fied with the stock iuterests of Tulare 
County, was born in Bridgeport, Con- 
necticut, November 6, 1853. His father, Pay- 
ton P. Bishop, settled in Bridgeport when that 
new famous city was a town of 1,500 inhab- 
itants, and, as a contractor and builder, was in- 
timately connected with the city's growth, 
erecting many of its business blocks and private 
residences. About Golden Hill stand many 
beautiful homes as monuments to his artistic 
skill and. masterful workmanship. 

The subject of this sketch was educated in 
the private institution of Mr. G-uy B. Day, a 
prominent and popular school; and at the age 
of sixteen he began mercantile life as a clerk, 
at nineteen starting a general grocery store on 
his own account and continuing it one year. 
He then gave up his business in order to ac- 
company his father to California and engage in 
i aising sheep. They arrived on California soil 
in the spring of 1874, came direct to Tulare 
County and purchased a band of 2,500 sheep, 
locating east of Tulare on the ranch our subject 
now occupies. They pre-empted 320 acres of 
Government land, with free grazing on all sides. 
Their band gradually increased to 7,500 and 
'hey continued the business until 1882, when 
they sold out and engaged in raising horses and 
mules. Father and son lived together until 
L886. At that time, owing to failing health of 
tne former, they went East, and he died October 
20, 1886, at the advanced age of seventy-six 
yaars. 

Mr. Bishop subsequently returned to his 
ranch, which they had increased by purchase to 



2,400 acres, with 640 acres of grazing land in 
the mountains and 343 acres elsewhere about 
the valley. He has about 225 head of horses 
and mules on the ranch, a large part of which 
he rents for farming purposes. He has 250 
acres in alfalfa and twenty-eight acres in vines, 
with fruit for home use. Four hundred acres 
of his land he has colonized under the name of 
the Oakdale Colony, to which he will add other 
lands as required. 

Mr. Bishop was married, in Brooklyn, New 
York, January 16, 1889. to Miss Anna Roberts, 
a native of Norwalk, Connecticut. 

He still owns important interests in the Eist. 
among which we refer to the Islands of Cbim- 
mous, Hay and Copp, his brother-in-law being 
a partner with hi in in their ownership. These 
islands comprise about seventy-five acres and 
lie just off the shore at South Norwalk, They 
are being improved and are likely to become a 
popular resort for pleasure seekers of New York 
City, who desire rest and quiet and still wish to 
live in the enjoyment, of the cooling breezes of 
Long Island Sound. 

fOHN COWING, proprietor of the Pioneer 
Hotel at Woodville, Tulare County, Cali- 
fornia, was born in the north of England, 
in 1854, and moved with his parents to Ontario, 
Canada, in 1865. His father followed farming 
there, and John left home when fourteen years 
old and hired out to a farmer. 

In 1876 he started for California via the 
Union Pacific Railroad, landed at Tipton and 
came direct to Woodville. He purchased 160 
acres of railroad land southeast of town and be- 
gan farming, and in 1877 entered into the sheep 
business; bought 270 head, and through em- 
ployment secured 150 more, all of which he sold 
in 1879. In 1880 he purchased 950 ewes, 
thereafter following the sheep business until 
1886, with a band averaging 1,800 head. Mr. 
Cowing has also followed grain farming and 
speculated somewhat in farm lands. He now 



640 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



owns 480 acres on Tule river, and has town 
property in Woodville. He has rented his 
ranch and devotes all hi.- time to the proper 
managemet of his hotel, which he built in the 
summer of 1890. It is a two-story frame 
structure, 48x48 feet, hard finish through 
out, and was erected at an expense of about 
$5,000. 

Mr. Cowing was married, at Woodville, in 
January, 1879, to Miss Sarah A. Bailey, a 
native of Georgia, and to them three children 
have been born: Thomas M., Cora and Josie. 
Mr. Cowing is a member of Woodville Lodge, 
No. 353, I. O. O. F. 

~^S©3^^ — 

fU. HENDERSON, a rancher two miles 
north of Grangeville, was born in the 
9 Fond du Lac country, Wisconsin, in 
1856. His father, George M. Henderson, a 
native of Scotland, was the eldest son and direct 
heir to the Lord Udney estate in Aberdeen- 
shire. He left home at an early age and through 
legal sources the property was divested. The 
mother of our subject, Jane (Merrill) Hender- 
son, was a native of Canton, Connecticut. 
Through religious influences she was led to be- 
lieve that her mission in life lay in converting 
the Indians upon the frontier, and to that end 
she left her luxurious home (then in New York 
City) and as a missionary settled in Minnesota. 
While there she met Mr. Henderson, whom she 
subsequently married, after which they settled 
in Wisconsin, where he followed a mercantile 
life. Selah Merrill, a brother of Mrs. Hender- 
son, fills the position of United States Minister 
at Jerusalem. He was first appointed under 
President Garfield, and later under President 
Harrison. He is an eminent archaeologist, and 
was assigned to that locality the better to pur- 
sue his scientific investigations. 

In the youth of C. U. Henderson his parents 
moved to Peru, Nebraska, where his father fol 
lowed a mercantile life, and where he improved 



the educational advantages offered by the State 
Normal School. In 1871 the father was called to 
his eternal home. After settling the estate 
Mrs. Henderson, with her three children, C. U., 
Minnie and Grace, came to California and set- 
tled at Oakland. The daughters were educated 
at Mills College in Alameda County, and our 
subject found employment in the office of the 
Central Pacific Railroad, now the Southern 
Pacific system. He remained with them for a 
period of fourteen years, occupying positions of 
trust along their routes, in the clerical depart- 
ment, where were required men of ability and 
practical knowledge of railroad work. He con- 
tinued in that work until 1886, when he re- 
signed his position, and with his wife settled 
upon her ranch of 640 acres, two miles north of 

Grangeville, which was a landed interest inher- 
es 

ited from her father's estate. Here they built 
their pleasant cottage home, and engaged in 
wheat farming. The land was then in a wild 
condition, and subject to cultivation only 
through great expense in breaking up, and an 
additional expense of canals and ditches for irri- 
gation. In the spring of 1888 Mr. Henderson 
set forty acres to vines, and has since increased 
his vineyard to 100 acres, and is also preparing 
to plant. 100 acres to stone fruits, for which pur- 
pose his land is especially adapted. In the fall 
of 1890 he sold 180 acres of the ranch to J. 
C. Kimble, of Oakland, who, having traveled 
through all the coast valleys looking for prune 
land, selected this locality as the most desir- 
able. 

Mr. Henderson was married in Stockton, in 
1881, to Miss Rose Sutherland, a daughter of 
John Sutherland, a California pioneer of ls5(). 
He was also a prominent stockman and pioneer 
of the Mussel Slough District, bordering the 
King's rivtr, where he secured 14,000 acre- of 
land, and owned 20,000 head of cattle, and 5,000 
horses, in addition to other large interests in 
this State and Texas. Mr. Henderson is a mem- 
ber of the lv. of P. of Turlock, Stanislaus 
County, and <>f Han ford Lodge, F. & A M. 
He is now devoting his life and energies to the 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



641 



development of his ranch and the improvement 
of his extensive fruit interests. 



-£&& 



*•&- 



S* 



fLBERT KEECE HENRY, deceased, was 
born in Erie County, Ohio, November 21, 
1842. In 1845 he went with his parents, 
Francis and Elizabeth Henry, to Lagrange 
County, Indiana, where his father followed 
farming. His father was quite prominent, 
having served two terms as member of the Leg- 
islature. His early life was passed on the home 
farm, and his education was obtained in the 
common schools. He was employed as a clerk 
in his youth, and at the age of twenty-one, 
accompanied by his brother Oliver, Mr. Henry 
went to Austin, Nevada, where they prospected 
for gold. In 1865. he left his brother and 
came to Santa Cruz, California, and the follow- 
ing year to Portersville, going soon after to 
White river, where he followed mining. In 
1867 he returned to Portersville and home- 
steaded 160 acres of land near town; but, 
farming here at that time being slightly under- 
stood, he followed the carpenter business about 
two years. He then engaged in mercantile life 
as clerk in the sfore of Mr. Ollivier until about 
1875, when he rented the old grist-mill, operat- 
ing it for two years with the substantial net 
profit of $6,000. Be then returned to his 
ranch with a view of improving it. Thinking 
it a desirable location for orange culture, lie 
sent to Riverside for one hundred choice budded 
trees, which he set with great care. The growth, 
being slow and farming unprofitable, he again 
returned to mercantile life as clerk in the store 
of R. P. Putnam, where he remained until 
September, 1882. At that time he was married 
to Miss Jennie Gilmer, daughter of Rufus 
Gilmer, a pioneer of 1849. After his marriage 
he and his wife went to Riverside, the home of 
orange culture, and remained one year, during 
which time he studied the process of orange 
cultivation. Returning to his ranch at Porters- 
ville, Mr. Henry renewed the care and cultiva- 



tion of his orchard, wbich now stands as the 
pioneer orchard of the valley and a monument 
to his enterprise. 

Mr. Henry occupied the home ranch until 
1890, when he sold out and commenced the 
improvement of lands adjoining it, which he 
had set to young orange trees in 1888. In the 
fall of 1890 he began the erection of a large 
and handsome residence east of Portersville, 
which he was not permitted to see completed. 
While occupying a portion of their new home, 
he was the victim of a fatal disease and was 
called to the home beyond, leaving a wife and 
little ones to mourn his loss. In their deep 
sorrow they had the sympathies of a wide 
circle of friends. Mr. Henry was one of the 
enterprising citizens of Portersville, thoroughly 
identified with her best interests, and out of re- 
spect to his memory the business houses closed 
on the afternoon of the funeral, affording all 
the opportunity of following his remains to 
their last resting place. 



J. ETTER, a merchant of Madera, was 
fjy.ii> born at McMinnville, Warren County, 
^® Tennessee, in 1855, the son of Henry 
Etter, a tanner by trade, who also attended to 
farming. Young Etter lived at home until 
twenty-one years of age, working upon the 
farm and in the tannery, and in 1876 he began 
his mercantile career in his native town, as 
clerk in the store cf J. F. Manford, and after 
six years of service was taken in as partner, 
and remained as such until 1885. Mr. Etter 
speaks of Mr. Manford with great kindness and 
gratitude, not only for instructing him in bus- 
iness, but also teaching the rudiments of an 
education, of which he had been deprived in his 
youth. In 1885 Mr. Etter came to Borden and 
bought 160 acres of land, which he improved 
and cultivated. At that time the grain was 
handled by the commission men, of San Fran- 
cisco, and after deducting freights and charges 
very little was left for the rancher. Through 



642 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the efforts of Mr. Etter a new era was estab- 
lished. Pie became purchasing agent for C. W. 
McNear, a commission man of San Francisco, 
a id purchased the grain direct from the rancher, 
which was of great benefit to the former. Of 
this pioneer work he feels justly proud. In 
1S85, 8,360 acres were cultivated in a radius 
bounded by the San Joaquin river, foothills 
and the Merced line, and in 1890, 160,000 
aces were under cultivation. In 1887, Mr. 
Etter started a small gents' furnishing store in 
Madera, with stock valued at $2,000, and in 
February, 1888, moved into his present spacious 
quarters on Yo Semite avenue. He then en- 
larged his stock to general merchandise, and 
now has about $11,000 invested in his business. 
He was married in Coffee County, Tennessee, 
in 1885, to Miss Susie Ramsey, who has been 
a worthy confident and adviser. Mr. Etter is a 
member of the United Foresters. He was one 
of the incorporators of the Bank of Madera, 
has interests in city property, is an esteemed 
citizen of Madera, and rejoices in the posses- 
sion of many warm personal friends and the 
confidence of the community. 



T-*T ILLIAM O. CLOUGH, a fruit-raiser 
\j\\ "ear Visalia, was born in Erie County, 
1-#H New York, November 23, 1851. He 
attended the common schools in his boyhood 
days, and subsequently took a course at Porter's 
College. His father moved to Illinois in 1856, 
where he engaged in farming. William started 
out in life for himself at the age of eighteen. 
In 1875 he came to California, and for two 
years was engaged as clerk and driver for a 
grocery store in Visalia. In 1878 he took up 
a claim of 160 acres of land in the foothills 
east of Visalia, on the south fork of the Kaweah 
river, which he has put under a good state of 
cnltivation, and at present is engaged exten- 
sively in fruit Rising. Mr. Clough has mined 
considerably, and at Mineral King he sunk a 
shaft fifty foot deep, where he found gold, silver 



and lead. At Lady Emma he sunk a shaft 
twenty-two feet deep, and found porphyry and 
lime. On the south fork of the Kaweah river 
he discovered a cave, which has already attracted 
the attention of geologists. The cave was dis- 
covered by him in July, 1887, and very prop- 
erly bears his name. It is 1,000 feet deep, 
under Baldy mountain, a peak in the Sierra 
Nevadas. The width varies from five to seventy- 
five feet, and the height from ten to twenty- 
five feet. The formation is lime, six varieties 
of marble, gypsum, slate, gold, tin, square iron 
pyrites and some quartz. The sparkling stal- 
actites and stalagmites are numbered by the 
millions, and are in size from an inch to twenty- 
five feet in diameter. All colors are represented: 
some are transparent, some translucent, and 
some opaque. A person who is musically in- 
clined may enter the cave with a small hammer, 
and by striking the stalactites and stalagmites 
of different lengths and sizes, can play any 
tune he pleases, and the perfection and harmony 
of the sounds is equal to the best tuned piano. 
The cave has already been visited by hundreds 
of people, and when a good road is made to it, 
will surely be visited by many more. 

Mr. Clough is yet a single man. He is a 
Republican in politics, and although not a 
member of any church denomination, he holds 
religious services for the scattered families re- 
siding in the foothills. 



^•--1 



<-.-- 



^~ 



f^WCIIAEL JULIUS L1NDROSE, pro- 
/-,■)/ .X prietor of the Bloomtield vineyard at 
^^^ Washington Colony in Fresno Count v, 
was born December 27, 1845. at CoDgsberg, 
Norway, where his father, Ole Miohaelson 
Lindrose, now eighty-two years old, is still resid- 
ing, on the family homestead, a farm called 
" Stensffith." Besides being a farmer Mr. Lind- 
rose, Sr., was also a good mechanic, and he was 
for about fifty years in the government service, 
most of the time holding the position of division 
superintendent of machinery at its silver mines 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



043 



near Kongsberg, and for the last sixteen years 
he has been enjoying bis government pension; 
he is still hale and hearty, and is managing his 
farm. 

The subject of this sketch, Mr. M. J. Lind- 
rose, received a liberal education at the excel- 
lent schools of Norway, and he is also a graduate 
of the Bryant & Stratton Business College of 
San Francisco. He was also, along with his 
business education, brougbt up to farm labor 
t»nd carpenter-work on his father's farm. After 
graduating, with honor, in his native country, 
he was first for a short time in the employ of 
the government, assisting in the survey and 
mapping of the timber lands belonging to its 
silver mine at Kongsberg; but, desiring to follow 
mercantile pursuits, he first entered the house 
of Michael Bastianson (who also kept a bakery 
and confectionery, wherein Mr. Lindrose also 
obtained some knowledge of that trade) in the 
neighboring city of Drammen ; and subsequently 
he entered the mercantile house of Mr. William 
Paus of the same city, where he was engaged 
until about the time when, by the laws of Nor- 
way, he was to be drafted into the army. Being 
a man of peace, opposed to the art of war, 
and also desiring to see foreign countries, 
he first made a trip to England, and then, after 
returning to take final leave of his parents, 
relatives and friends, in the middle of April, 
1866, he took passage on an emigrant sailing 
vessel bound for Quebec, Canada, and he arrived 
in that city after a voyage of forty days, and in 
Chicago the firstday of June, same year. After 
remaining in the latter city a few months, 
assisting in the building of the Chicago & Rock 
Island Railroad depot, — then the largest struc- 
ture of its kind in the world, — he spent a little 
over a year in Omaha; then a few months on a 
Missouri river flat-boat; the next winter in the 
baking business, and the summer following in 
brickmaking in that city. Then he entered the 
service of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, 
assisting in the building of its round-houses at 
North Platte and Sidney, and in other work, 
being in their employ about a year. 



Leaving the company, he opened the Star 
Bakery and Lunch House at Wasatch, at that 
time a lively town on the above road. Here 
for a few months he did a good business, until 
the tunneling through the adjoining mountain 
was finished, when he removed his business to 
Corinne, a town further west on the same road. 
Not meeting with the same success as at 
Wasatch, he left his business in charge of a 
friend and traveled through Utah for sometime, 
partly to see the country and partly to buy rp 
produce, which he either disposed of at Corinne 
or shipped further west; and then he once more 
" pulled up stakes " and came on to California, 
in the summer of 1869, settling in Marysville, 
Yuba County. He was a baker there two years. 
Meanwhile his brother Christian arrived from 
Norway and joined him; in less than a 
year's time he died, and was greatly 
mourned by Mr. Lindrose. Owing to 
tbis grief, and to the fact that Marysville at 
that time had a malarial climate, Mr. Lindrose 
was greatly discouraged. Next he spent about 
a year in the Bryant & Stratton Business Col- 
lege in San Francisco, and he also studied 
architecture at the Lincoln School. At the 
time of his graduation, and upon the recom- 
mendation of the college authorities, he was 
offered a responsible position in a Montgomery 
street business house; but as he thought the 
salary insufficient, and obtaining on the same 
day a well-paying job in carpentry, he chose 
the latter; and he subsequently followed that 
trade in San Francisco, Oakland and vicinity 
for years. Sometimes, when the building trade 
was dull, he improved the opportunity to see 
the country and put in his time as traveling 
agent for publishing houses, or assisted in 
straightening up cash accounts in San Francisco. 

One time, in company with his friend, Cap- 
tain Wang, he opened a stationery, cigar and 
tobacco store in San Francisco: but he soon 
afterward sold his share to his partner and 
returned to house-bnilding, and also followed 
the baker's trade for a while in the city. 

Here, also, at the house of a friend, he made 



644 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the acquaintance of Miss Hannah Charlotte 
Moline, second daughter of Lanrentius Moline, 
superintendent of the carpenter and blacksmith 
shops of Baron Manjett, on his estate, " Stenby," 
near Upsala, Sweden. The acquaintance soon 
ripened into friendship and love, and October 
7, 1876, the parties were united in marriage. 
They have now had seven children, four of 
whom are deceased. The three living are: 
Arthur Edwin, born August 27, 1880; Mabel 
Charlotte Lilly, August 29, 1885; and Chester 
Julius, April 18, 1887. 

About three years after his marriage Mr. 
Lindrose lost nearly all his property, which at 
that time consisted in money, part of which he 
had invested in the "California mine" and the 
balance on deposit in bank. The bank failed, 
and the mine ceased to yield any dividends but 
levying assessments, — its shares sinking from 
$27 (price paid) to $1 per share, Mr. Lindrose 
was financially ruined. 

Now, becoming weary and disgusted with 
city life, he purchased, on time payments, a 
twenty-acre lot in the Washington Irrigation 
Colony tract, from Wendell Easton, for $700; 
and with his wife and babe, eight weeks old, he 
arrived upon his purchase February 7, 1879, 
and still resides there. His three children now 
living were all born on this colony tract. The 
babe brought from San Francisco was drowned 
in a ditch, when she was two years and four 
months old. 

From the Fresno Republican of June 27, 
1890, we learn some of the particulars of his 
success in horticulture and raisin-growing at his 
new place on Cherry avenue, a few miles from 
Fresno, but we have not space for them here. 
Suffice it to say here that he proceeds independ- 
ently and scientifically, and therefore success- 
fully. He has nineteen acres of orchard, twenty 
of vineyard, and five of alfalfa. He has recently 
purchased forty acres more of unimproved land, 
at $4,000, near Kingsburg, on the Southern 
Pacific Railroad, sixteen miles from where he 
now resides, and this tract he is now improving. 
Half of it he has already planted in raisin vines, 



and the balance will be in orchard. In memory 
of Charlotte, his departed little daughter above 
referred to, and also in kind regard to his living 
one of the same name, — a bright and beautiful 
little girl of five summers and six winters, with 
sky-blue eyes and golden tresses, — he has 
christened this farm Charlotte Vale, which is 
also in honor of his wife who is a lady univer- 
sally esteemed because of her prudence, industry, 
splendid housewifery and other accomplish- 
ments; admired for her wit and excellent quali- 
ties of head and heart; and much beloved because 
of her sunny temper, kind disposition and 
generous nature, by a large circle of friends. 

Mr. Lindrose is himself a remarkable man in 
some respects. He is noted for his pleasant 
and unassuming manners. While there are 
few men in the colonies better informed in all 
that pertains to fruit and raisins than he, it can 
not be said of him that he intrudes his presence 
or his opinions upon any one. At the same 
time no man can be found more ready and will- 
ing to assist and advise a neighbor or new- 
comer than he. He is eminently a practical 
man and a public-spirited citizen who takes a 
lively interest in everything coming to his 
notice pertaining to the State or national wel- 
fare, as well as to the more local interests of 
the county and his community. He is fre- 
quently appointed as juror and as an official 
upon election boards. lie is a man of original, 
radical and liberal ideas, his views upon the 
industrial, political and social questions of the 
day are abreast with the opinions of the most 
advanced thinkers and reformers. For years 
he has been a frequent contributor to several 
public journals upon these and other questions, 
and also upon miscellaneous topics, including 
poetry. Sometimes he writes over the nom de 
plume of" Snorri the Scribe,"" RoseberryJune," 
" Social Julio," etc. He is a forcible and witty 
writer, fertile in remedies for many of the public 
evils of our times. 

As a practical man Mr. Lindrose, after two 
failures by others, succeeded in organizing a 
"Farmers' Sub- Alliance" in Washington Colony: 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



645 




was unanimously elected its president, and the 
membership is steadily increasing under his 
leadership. He has succeeded by the free use 
of his pen in the Fresno papers, and other- 
wise, in arousing public sentiment in favor of 
establishing co-operative raisin and iruit com- 
panies in Fresno County, composed exclusively 
of producers, which have their branches 
throughout the county, packing under one name 
and general management. 

In conclusion we may state that Mr. Lind- 
rose cherishes Christian sentiments, but not of 
a sectarian or dogmatic kind, his religion being 
uprightness and benevolence, connected with a 
belief in the fatherhood of God and the brother- 
hood of man. 



F. HANKE, a member of the Board 
of Supervisors of the County of 
Fresno, was born in Dixon, Solano 
County, California, 1861, son of H. H. Hanke, 
an extensive grain and stock farmer, who died 
in 1878. He was educated in the common 
schools and at the age of seventeen years at- 
tended the Sacramento Business College, where 
he graduated in 1879. 

In early life Mr. Hanke was a close observer 
of cattle, and evinced good judgment in their 
purchase. At the age of ten years he was the 
owner of thirty-five cattle that he acquired 
through his own speculation. When he was 
eighteen he traveled through Washington, "Ne- 
vada and Oregon, buying cattle for the San 
Erancisco markets. After the death of his 
father, he managed the ranch of 800 acres at 
Dixon and 3,600 acres in Fresno County, and 
also began a market business in Dixon which he 
continued until 1883. In that year he moved 
to the Fresno County ranch, near Sanger, and 
has since resided here. Formerly his stock in- 
terests in this county consisted chiefly of sheep, 
but for the past five years he has given his at- 
tention to the raising of cattle, keeping about 
1,200 head. He also has about eighty head of 



horses. He pastures all his stock on his own 
ranch, which is enclosed and subdivided. King's 
river passes through the land, and the soil being 
moist, furnishes green feed the year round. 
Mr. Hanke cultivates aboiit 700 acres each year 
to grain. He is an advocate of deep cultivation, 
which is contrary to the adopted custom of the 
valley. 

In Lake County, in 1882, Mr. Hanke wedded 
Miss Clara B. Sweikert, a native of California. 
They have one child, Pearl Edna, born February 
22, 1884. 

Mr. Hanke is a stockholder in the Sanger 
Bank. In J une, 1890, hew as elected a member 
of the Board of Supervisors from the fifth dis- 
trict. He is much interested in the growth and 
development of the County, and is a most wor- 
thy citizen, highly respected by all who know 
him. 

III ALTER WHITNEY, one of the early 
Mm settlers in Washington Colony, Fresno 
County, was born in San Francisco, 
California, in 1851. His father, William J. 
Whitney, was a wholesale grocer of that city; 
also a furniture manufacturer and an extensive 
shipper of lumber to Australia, exchanging 
lumber for the products of that island. In 
1862 he moved his family to Nevada, where he 
engaged in mining speculations and where his 
death occurred in 1864. The family then re- 
turned to San Francisco. 

Young Whitney was educated iu the public 
schools, and after finishing his studies became 
interested in business, continuing the same line 
of industry in his own name until 1878, when 
he came to Fresno County and purchased twenty 
acres of land in the Washington Colony, soon 
after that colony was placed on the market. 
Banch life there in those days was all experi- 
mental and very laborious, owing to high winds 
and drifting sand, which filled ditches and cov- 
ered plants. Mr. Whitney improved his ranch, 
sold it, and then purchased another twenty 



646 



EISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



acres in the same locality, corner of Cherry and 
Jefferson avenues, where lie now resides in his 
comfortahle cottage home, whicli was erected in 
1889. In 1885 he was superintendent of the 
colony, in the interest of the absent owners. 

Mr. Whitney was married in San Francisco, 
in 1873, to Miss Jennie E. Barr, a native of 
New York City. They have one child, William 
J., born February 1, 1875. 

When the Easton post office was established, 
under the administration of President Garfield, 
Mrs. Whitney was appointed the first post- 
mistress, and Mr. Whitney was mail-carrier for 
Easton and Oleander from Fresno. After the 
office was fairly established, Mrs. Whitney re- 
signed. 

In speaking of his prosperity in this valley, 
Mr. Whitney says he feels amply rewarded for 
his years of labor. His ranch is now well im- 
proved in vines and fruits, and is paying a 
handsome return. He is a man of sterling- 

o 

worth, and has the good will of the community 
in which he resides. 



fECCLESTON, Bakersfield, is a pioneer 
of California, and a quiet and unpre- 
tentious citizen. A native of New York 
City, he commence i business life as a package 
boy for an extensive mercantile firm. By de- 
grees he advanced to the position of confiden- 
tial clerk for the same firm. He crossed the 
plains to this State in 1849, as a member of 
the Fremont Association of New York, and in 
that connection had many of the experiences 
with which very few of the original American 
settlers are familiar. 

Upon his arrival in California he turned his 
attention to mining and afterwards to stock 
farming, devoting most of his time to sheep 
raising. He lived several years in Tulare 
County. In January, 1880, he purchased a por- 
tion of the Chester ranch, near Bakersfield, 
where he now resides. 

July 19, 1879, he married Mrs. L. M. Jack- 



son, a lady of many feminine graces, broad in- 
tellectual culture and Christian fortitude. Sne 
is a native of Cayuga County, New York. 

fOHN R. REED, a prominent rancher of 
Reedley, Fresno County, California, vas 
born in England. At the age of six mon hs 
he was brought by his parents to the United 
States and settled first in Pennsylvania, tliei. at 
Chicago; afterward removed to Ohio. 

When the civil war broke out Mr. Reed ten- 
dered his services to the Union, and acted :he 
part of a brave soldier all through the struggle; 
was with Sherman on his famous march to the 
sea, and was at the grand review at Washington. 

The war over, he returned to his home an . 
engaged in blacksmithiug and farming in Ohio. 
In 1887 he came to California and to his pre- 
sent location, since which time he has been ex- 
tensively engaged in wheat raising. At this 
writing. 1891, he and his sons are engaged in 
harvesting 2,500 acres of wheat, and ex] ect 
the coining season to sow 5,000 acres. 
They are cutting the wheat with a com- 
bined harvester and thresher, drawn by twenty - 
six mules, one man driving and four men attend- 
ing to the machine. The wheat is sacked on 
the machine, and one man with five pairs of 
mules draws the wheat to the warehouse, haul- 
ing 125 sacks, with 150 pounds each, at a load. 
This machine, which cost §1,600, threshes 
thirty-five acres per day, and is under the diiect 
management of Mr. Reed's son George V . 
Another son, Daniel Lyle, manages a similar 
ranch. In their farming operations they use 
sixty head of horses and mules — principally 
mules. Mr. Reed's home place, consists of 
ninety acres, forty of which are devoted to 
raisin grapes. He also owns a residence in t In- 
to wn of Reedley. 

He was married in 1863, to Miss Adelade 
Gilmore, a native of Ohio, by whom he has t 70 
sons, George Victor and Daniel Lyle. The 
mother of these children died in 1S75, and in 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



647 



1878 Mr. Reed married Miss Mary Ann Post. 
By this union four children, JBernice, Mamie, 
Rayson and Adelade, have been born. Mr. 
Reed is a Master Mason, and in politics a Re- 
publican. 

George V. Reed was married in September, 
1890, to Miss Jennie T. Mitchell, a native of 
Ohio. Like his father, he is a Republican and 
an enterprising and capable rancher. Daniel 
Lyle was married in October 1891, to Miss 
Lelah Baudee, of Fresno County, California. 
He is an enterprising and respected young man, 
an enthusiastic Republican, and believes in the 
perpetuity of its war record. 

. J. R. Reed is aged fifty years (November, 
1891); is the eldest of six children born to 
George and Sarali Reed, three of whom, J. R , 
D. G. and T. L., served though the late war. 
Daniel G. was killed at Bentonville, and T. L. 
was severely wounded near the same place. 



J. REDFIELD, the able manager of the 
Pioneer Hotel, Porterville, Tulare Coun- 
ty, California, was born in Rodman, Jef- 
ferson County, New York, April 24, 1840. 
His early life was passed on the farm, and his 
education was obtained in the common schools, 
finishing with a two years' course at the Belle- 
ville Academy. He then began teaching in the 
public schools at Ellisburg, which occupation 
he followed very successfully until the breaking 
out of the war in 1861. 

Mr. Redfield enlisted at Belleville, in Com- 
pany K, Twenty-fourth New York Infantry, 
Colonel Sullivan, and his regiment was assigned 
to the Army of the Potomac. He came out of 
the second battle of Bull Run with seven bullet 
holes through his clothing. Had it not been 
for the intervention of a "house-wife" filled 
with needles, etc., which turned a ball, he 
would have received a serious wound, but for- 
tunately was only slightly hurt. Of his com- 
pany of 100 men, only thirty came out alive. 
He was also in the battles of Fredricksburg, 



Cedar Mountain and others, besides passing 
through many skirmishes. After two years of 
service, Mr. Redfield was mustered out at Ei- 
mira, in 1863. 

He then returned home, and after a visit of 
three months started for California, making the 
journey via the Isthmus of Panama, and land- 
ing at San Francisco. He first visited an uncle 
at San Jose, and early in 1864 came to Poiter- 
ville. The town was then only an Indian 
trading post and a station of the overland stage 
route, and the post office was called Tule River. 
The store and hotel were kept by Porter Put- 
nam, in honor of whom the town was named. 
On his arrival here Mr. Redfield found himself 
financially embarrassed. He at once found em- 
ployment as a vaquero, and for four months 
attended to cattle in the mountains. After that 
he mined and prospected on Kern river, in 
his mining operations, however, he was not suc- 
cessful, so he returned to Porterville and as- 
sisted Mr. Putnam about the store and hotel 
until 1866, when he took charge of the Intel 
and ran it one year. 

In 1867 Mr. Redfield visited his old home at 
Ellisburg, and was there married to Miss Jen- 
nie Hughson. Returning to California, accom- 
panied by his bride, he took up eighty acres ot 
government land and gave his attention to aori- 
cultural pursuits. He afterward bought other 
lands, making a total of 600 acres, and there- 
after followed farming until 1888. Mr. Red- 
field was also interested in stock-raising, and 
made a specialty of a fine grade of horses. 
Besides his individual land interests, he had 
charge of 4,000 acres of the Murray tract, por- 
tions of which he leased, having the rest 
stocked. 

In 1877 Mr. Redfield was elected a member 
of the Board of Supervisors, and served one 
term. He was one of the first to develop the 
fruit and vine industry in this part of the val- 
ley. In 1888 he sold his ranch and purchased 
the Lewis tract of 160 acres, subdivided it and 
is selling for orange culture, this land being in 
the thermal belt and especially adapted for that 



G48 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



purpose. Besides his tine two-story residence 
which he built on Gum street, he also owns 
other improved towD properties, and is now 
engaged in buying and selling lands. In the 
summer of 1890 he bought the half interest of 
Robert Allen in the drug business, and the firm 
of Montgomery & Redtield was established. In 
November, 1890, Mr. Redtield took charge of 
the Pioneer Hotel for the company, the house 
having been closed for some time previous. 
Under his efficient management a good trade 
has already been established. 

Mr. and Mrs. Redtield have one daughter by 
adoption, Miss Grace Harriet Redtield. Socially 
Mr. Redtield is connected with the A. O. U. "W. 
He is a member and financier of Porterville 
Lodge, No. 199, and was a delegate to the 
Grand Lodge in the spring of 1891. 

- *^~1 '. ^(^""^p^' , <*-^ 

Ws A. VAUGHN is a resident of Porter- 
t ffl villa, Tulare County, California, and one 
"IP? * of the oldest and most prominent sheep- 
men of that locality. 

He was born at East Greenwich, Rhode 
Island, in 1846, and at that place passed the 
years of his childhood and youth, improving 
the privileges offered by the common schools. 
At the age of twenty-one years he started for 
California, taking the steamer from New York, 
via the Lthtnus of Panama and the Pacific, and 
landing safe at San Francisco. From there he 
proceeded at once to Stockton and to the ranch 
of L. U. Shippe, an extensive grain fanner and 
stock-raiser, and remained with him three years 
and a half, receiving practical experience in 
California farming. 

In 1872 Mr. Vaughn came to Tipton, Tulare 
County, and engaged in the sheep business. 
He bought a small band and took care of others 
on the shares, and thus secured a start. By 
careful attention to every detail of the business 
he succeeded even when others failed. His 
flocks increased, averaging from 5,000 to 10,000 
sheep, and his success was assured in the busi- 



ness. He ranged about Tipton for several 
years, and in 1877 was attracted to the vicinity 
of Porterville, where he passed his winters, and 
during the summer months took his sheep to 
the mountain ranges, often reaching into Ne- 
vada. Since the country has been settled and 
lands taken up, Mr. Vaughn rented portions of 
the Indian reservation. 

In 1880 he returned to East Greenwich and 
was married to Miss Amanda Shippe, a niece of 
L. U. Shippe, of Stockton, an 1 upon their re- 
turn to California their home was established at 
Porterville, from which point Mr. Vaughn con- 
ducted his business interests. In 1884 he be- 
gan buying land around Porterville, and now 
owns 3,340 acres. He continued the sheep 
business with great success up to 1890, and 
then entered the stock business; but after his 
long experience with sheep, he is likely to re- 
sume that industry. Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn 
have two children, Minnie F. and Bessie L. 

Mr. Vaughn has carried out the principles 
inculcated in his youth while in New England, 
upon the basis of the old maxim that -a thing 
worth doing at all is worth doing well;" thus 
prosperity has followed him in every pursuit. 



fLAUD J. GIDDINGS, cashier of the 
Bank of Visalia. was born in Ashtabula 
County, Ohio, December 31. 1844. John 
Giddings, the remote ancestor of the family, 
came to this country from England in 1600, 
and settled in Massachusetts, and in that state 
grandfather Elisha Giddings was born. He 
emigrated to Ohio, and his son, Sidney Gid- 
dings, was born there. Sidney Giddings was 
married in that state to Miss Polly Sacket, a 
native of Ohio, by whom he had two children, — 
Claud J. and a daughter, now Mrs. F. E. Welsh, 
the latter a resident of San Luis Obispo County, 
( 'alifornia. 

Claud J. received his education in his native 
state, and in 1862, at the age of eighteen years, 
enlisted for three months service in Company 



RI8T0RT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



649 



C, Eighty-fourth Ohio regiment. After his 
discharge he attended school at Kiugsville, 
Ohio, and then, in company with a friend, he 
drove a bind of sheep to Iowa, remaining there 
two years. Next, he was employed as book- 
keeper three or four years. In 1869 he came 
to California, and for four years was Deputy 
County Clerk of Yolo County. In 1873 he came 
to Tulare County, took up government land, 
and in 1876 located in Visalia, where he was in 
the employ of Mr. Lumwalt one year. He 
then started an abstract office and conducted 
that business until 1880, when he accepted the 
position of cashier of the bank of Visalia, 
which he has since filled, devoting himself en- 
tirely to banking. 

Mr. Giddings was married in 1869 to Miss 
Minnie R. Holcomb, a native of Ohio, and a de- 
scendant of a Massachusetts family. They have 
one child, Blanch, born in Yolo County, Cali- 
fornia. In his political views Mr. Giddings 
affiliates with the Republican party, and has 
served as City Treasurer several terms. He is a 
member of the G. A. R., the I. O. O. F., the 
A. O. U. W. and the K. of P. He takes a deep 
interest in the growth and development of his 
county, and is truly one of the representative 
citizens. Mr. Giddings built the line home on 
Goshen avenue, Visalia, where he resides with 
his family. 

^^^^^-^^^ 

fR. LEWIS LEACH, Fresno, California— 
Perhaps no more striking illustration of 
the newness of American history of the 
great State of California can be given to Fresno 
County people, than the recital of the fact, that 
one of the foremost citizens of to-day, a man 
who stands at the head of some of her most 
important institutions, was one of the first of 
her permanent white settlers. The gentleman 
whose name heads this article bears that rela- 
tion to Fresno County, and as he has been from 
the first one of the principal figures in profes- 
sional, business and social circles, an outline of 



his career, giving a few of the salient points, 
becomes valuable, and indeed essential, in a 
volume of this nature. 

Dr. Leach was born in Susquehanna County, 
Pennsylvania, in 1823, and there resided until 
1836, when he went to Binghampton, New 
York. In those two localities his early boyhood 
days were spent, and his education commenced. 
For a time he attended the Manington Academy, 
Pennsylvania, an excellent institution. In 1840 
he went West, and located in St. Louis, where 
he afterward entered upon the study of medi- 
cine. The Medical Department of the State 
University (Jefferson City), being located at St. 
Louis, he attended the regular courses of lectures 
at that well-known institution, and was gradu- 
ated at the conclusion of the term of 1847-48. 
He then began the active practice of his profes- 
sion at St. Louis, and so continued for two years. 
For some time, however, he had been intending 
to go to California, and so it came about that 
when a party having in charge a stock of mer- 
chandise bound for Salt Lake, started on their 
trip overland, Dr. Leach accompanied them. 
The journey to the Mormon centre was accom- 
plished in much the usual manner of similar 
undertakings, and without especially note-worthy 
incident. The Doctor had no intention of re- 
maining at Salt Lake, however, and he set about 
organizing a party to continue the trip to Cali- 
fornia. He got together eleven men, and in the 
month of October, 1850, they started on their 
way. Fifty miles west of Salt Lake City thev 
fell in with a party of thirteen families, who, as 
they learned, were lost, and if the figure of 
speech may be allowed, were literally " at sea" 
upon the plains. The two companies united, 
and Dr. Leach was offered the leadership, but 
declined to accept the position unless his word 
should be recognized as law. This condition 
was acceptable to all, and with the Doctor's 
command, the consolidated party proceeded by 
the Southern route, which they were the first 
to travel, and for that reason their progress was 
attended with more than the usual degree of 
care and caution. The Mojave river was reached 



650 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



without anything having occurred out of the 
ordinary course of events, but there the party 
divided, the families taking the direction of Los 
Angeles, while the others, under Dr. Leach, 
proceeded across the desert to Tejon Pass, 
through which they crossed the mountains and 
went towards Kern river. Near that stream 
they found a party of white people, who proved 
to be refugees from the massacre at Woodville, 
five miles from the present site of Visalia. They 
were in a condition of absolute distress, having 
barely escaped with their lives, and Dr. Leach's 
party, though their own supplies had reached a 
low ebb, generously divided what little they had 
left with their suffering fellow-mortals. The 
particulars of the massacre and the alarming 
condition of the country were impressed upon 
the new arrivals, and all realized that even then 
they were in imminent danger. 

Dr. Leach decided that before starting again 
on their forward movement, he would resort to 
a ruse in order to assure the safety of the party 
under his charge, as their entire offensive and 
defensive equipment consisted of one rifle, one 
shot-gun and seven pistols, an armament, it may 
be remarked, that would have offered practi- 
cally no protection whatever against an assault 
of the Indians in any considerable number. So 
he caused a number of sham guns to he fashioned 
in wood, having the shape only of the genuine 
article, and with these he armed all those of the 
command having no guns to show. By this 
means they were enabled to make quite a for- 
midable display, and so successful was the sub- 
terfuge that the Indians, though they hovered 
about in large numbers, as thejourney proceeded, 
and in a threatening manner, made no actual 
attack upon them. Their course took them di- 
rectly to Woodville, and there a horrible sight 
met their gaze. Everywhere about were re- 
minders of the savage brutality exercised by the 
Indians, not the least ghastly ieature of the 
scene being sixteen corpses lying where death 
had overtaken them. The emigrants and their 
refugee companions performed the sad office of 
burial for the victims of the massacre, and then 



resumed their way. They had gone but a very 
short distance, however, when they found a bar- 
rier to progress in fheshape of a destroyed bridge, 
another reminder of the Indian raid. It there- 
fore became necessary for them to camp for the 
night in that vicinity, and as the only space 
available thereabouts was the scene of the late 
massacre, they spent that night on the very spot 
which had such a short time before been the 
scene of carnage. When the morning dawned 
they commenced preparations to cross the 
stream, which was accomplished through con- 
structing araft with the helpof their wagon- beds. 
Their trip from this time on was attended 
with much hardship. They had to exercise 
constant vigilance to prevent surprise by the 
Indians, and on account of having divided their 
supplies with the fugitives from Woodville, 
they were on very short allowance of provisions. 
When at last they reached the San Joaquin 
river, they had been twenty-five days without 
flour, while for coffee they had been boiling 
acorns as a substitute. They had a little rice, 
and a limited quantity of salt pork, but the only 
fresh meat which fell to their lot during that 
time was the flesh of a bullock, which was shot 
by one of the party, a young man named Barnes. 
While charging on him, with head down, alter 
receiving the wound, the horns of the bullock 
became entangled, and over he tumbled, break- 
ing his neck. It may readily be surmised that 
not much of this meat was allowed to go to 
waste. On reaching the San Joaquin river, 
they found at a point on the south bank of that 
stream, about twelve miles in a northerly direc- 
tion from Fresno, a store kept by a man named 
Casserly and Major Lane. They were over- 
joyed when they found that here they could 
supply themselves with such luxuries as flour 
and tobacco. They sold their live-stock to the 
store people, taking in trade for a large part, 
flour at the rate of $1 per pound. Having been 
so long without bread, it was decided to make 
some at once for their next meal, and this was 
done; it consisted of asimple compound of flour 
and water cooked in skillets. When sufficiently 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



651 



done, a St. Louis boy, named Herman Masters, 
mapped it out while yet in the skillet, in as many 
pieces as there were men, and then cut it out 
according to his diagram, giving to each man 
his allotted share, which in all cases was eaten 
with great relish. This store was located at 
what is known as Gravelly Ford, and at a point 
eight miles above there, and two miles above 
what afterwards became known as Fort Miller, 
the proprietors were engaged in mining, and 
they were in the habit of engaging as workmen, 
if possible, all the men who came along. They 
offered this opportunity to the party of Dr. 
Leach, and all excepting him accepted it; hut 
he, not being favorably impressd with the con- 
dition of the country, had decided to go back 
East with the first party who came along headed 
that way. It was only two or three days after 
his arrival at the store, that the Doctor, with 
horse saddled and all preparations made, was 
awaiting the arrival of an eastward-bound train 
which could be seen coming. Then Major Lane 
came to him and said, " Doctor, if you go away 
there is a young man here who is going to die." 
The person referred to had been wounded at 
Woodville, and had been under the care of two 
physicians from Arkansas, who were brothers; 
instead of tying the arteries of the injured mem- 
ber they had resorted a number of times to the 
temporary expedient of compression, so that 
the arm had reached a terrible condition, and 
the sufferer was in imminent danger of death. 
In the cause of humanity the Doctor decided at 
least to postpone his journey eastward, and to 
remain by the side of the wounded boy. He 
was placed in the unpleasant predicament of 
making an amputation without anaesthetics or 
surgical instruments, all the contents of his sur- 
gical cases having been either lost or stolen on 
the plains. However, he performed the opera- 
tion, using a common wood-saw and jack-knife, 
while the young man was a conscious witness of 
the work of the surgeon. In all respects the 
handling and treatment of the case was success- 
ful, and in a remarkably short space of time the 
patient was about. 



On the second night after the arrival at the 
store, the Indians descended upon the place, and 
stole the live-stock which the emigrants had 
traded for goods. Dr. Leach, recognizincr the 
exigencies of the occasion, kept a constant night 
watch during the time while he was attending 
to the yonng man, to guard against a surprise 
by the Indians, there being five persons in the 
camp. After he had been performing this duty 
for eight or ten days, Casserly came down from 
the mines with a pack train, and the mules were 
put in the same enclosure in which was the 
canvas house occupied by the store and its in- 
habitants. Dr. Leach said to the latest arrival, 
" Mr. Casserly, you will have to stand guard to- 
night;" but that gentleman professed to feel no 
fear, and refused to take his turn on guard. 
'' Very well," said the Doctor, " we will all tro to 
bed to-night." Duringthenighthe was awakened 
by a noise, and as he looked about, he saw above 
his head, an arrow sticking through the canvas 
roof. He awakened Mr. Casserly, and called 
his attention to the arrow, but was assured that 
it had been sticking there for some time. But 
the Doctor was by no means satisfied with an ex- 
planation which he felt was incorrect, and get- 
ting up he looked out into the corral. There 
he saw all the mules laid out, pierced with many 
arrows. He told Casserly that the Indians had 
been inside, and had killed all the stock. The 
merchant, though necessarily recognizing the 
evident fact of the killing of the mules, con- 
tended that they had done their shootino - from 
outside the enclosure. An examination of the 
ground showed, however, that they had been 
even up to the structure in which the men were 
asleep. But seeing that they were well supplied 
with arms, had withdrawn without making' an 
attack. Dr. Leach had hardly finished his at- 
tentions to the young man whose arm he was 
treating; when news came that Governor Mc- 
Dougall had called out three companies of vol- 
unteers to fight the Indians. Dr. Leach joined 
the company as a high private. These compa- 
nies were of seveuty-five men each, and were 
placed in command of Major James D. Savage. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



The Doctor participated in two or three fights 
with the Indians, but he was not long with the 
expedition in the capacity of a private soldier. 
He had been with his company only about two 
weeks when it was discovered that the surgeon 
of the command was incompetent, and he was 
discharged from the position, Dr. Leach being 
appointed in his place. Soon the two assistants 
were also dispensed with, and the Doctor was 
given entire charge of the medical department. 
The headquarters of the Commissary Depart- 
ment were located on the Fresno river, at a 
point which may be described as between fifty 
and sixty miles nearly due north of Fresno, and 
there Dr. Leach established a hospital for his 
department. Stakes were driven into the ground, 
poles cut and laid on crotches, and the sides and 
roof were constructed from willow matting 
principally, the roof being covered with green 
brush. In this improvised building were the 
headquarters of the surgical and hospital de- 
partment of the little army which put down the 
Indian war in this valley. About four months 
after this hrush hospital was built, peace was 
declared, and affairs once more assumed their 
wonted aspect. 

Major Savage resumed business in partnership 
with Captain Vincent Hay lor. During the ex- 
istence of hostilities a strong friendship had 
sprung up between Major Savage and Dr. Leach, 
they having been associated much together on 
account of their official relations. Thus it hap- 
pened that on the 15th of April, 1852, the 
Doctor entered into partnership with Savage 
and Haylor, and the firm did a prosperous busi- 
ness without change of membership until Oc- 
tober, 1852, when an incident occurred which 
threw a gloom over the community, and caused 
a great sensation, namely, the murder of Major 
Savage. A brief digression from the main text 
will be allowed here in order to mention this 
remarkable man, and the closing scene of his 
career. Savage, then a bright, active youno- 
man, had come to California in 1847. and being 
of a disposition to adapt himself readily to cir- 
cumstances, he was soon on good terms with the 



Indians who inhabited this region. He is de- 
scribed by Dr. Leach as a man of great intelli- 
gence and strong magnetic temperament, yet, 
having had no educational advantages whatever 
in his boyhood, he could neither read nor write 
the language of his birth. This did not deter 
him from readily familiarizing himself with the 
language of the Indians, and in the course of 
his relations with them he acquired a thorough 
knowledge of their various dialects. He estab- 
lished trading-posts at different points through- 
out the central San Joaquin valley, and had 
amassed considerable wealth when the troubles 
with the Indians came on. AVhen the outbreak 
of hostilities took place, he was in San Fran- 
cisco on business, and on his return he found 
everything in a state of chaos. His squaws had 
run away, while the Indians had destroyed his 
stores, murdered his clerks, and were engaged 
in killing white people all down the valley. 

The part played by Savage in the suppression 
of hostilities has already been alluded to, and 
was fully recognized by the commissioners who 
came as representatives of the Government to 
arrange the terms of peace. Messrs. Rosen- 
craft, Roderick McKee and Colonel Johnson, 
members of the commission, formed a very high 
opinion of Major Savage on account of his bra- 
very, as well as on account of his agreeable, 
companionable ways and manly bearing. On 
account of this fact, Major Harvey became 
jealous of Major Savage, who, by the way, had 
befriended him, and even provided clothes and 
food for him, and he determined to do some- 
thing that would draw to himself the popularity 
with the Commissioners which was enjoyed by 
his benefactor, Major Savage. Accordingly, he 
went out with a party, and after killing a num- 
ber of squaws and old men, returned, boasting 
of his prowess. Major Savage learned the facts 
in the case, however, including the unprotected 
and helpless condition of Harvey's victims, and 
thereupon made the remark that Harvey was no 
man and no gentleman. Harvey heard of this, 
and determined to get even with Savage. No 
unpleasantness resulted from the matter, how- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



6S3 



ever, for several months. An official notice was 
given out for a grand mass meeting to be held 
at Woodville on the 16th of August, 1852, for 
the purpose of dividing Mariposa County, and 
establishing local government. Savage was one 
of the many who decided to attend this meet- 
ing, and Harvey, who had not forgotten his 
grudge, said that he should never cross King's 
river alive. Savage left his place on Fresno 
river in company with a lawyer named Major 
Marvin, and after traveling all night, brought 
up at King's river on the morning of the 16th 
of August. Harvey being there also, they 
finally came together, and Harvey commenced 
talking very loudly and insolently. Thereupon, 
Major Savage slapped him in the face with his 
open hand; Harvey did not at once resent this 
insult, but bided his time. Some time later, 
Savage, in stooping over, let his pistol drop 
from his belt. It was picked up by Marvin, 
and Harvey, seeing it in his hands, and par- 
tially grasping the situation at once, decided to 
test his suspicion that it was Savage's weapon, 
and said, " Marvin, you have my pistol." Mar- 
vin replied, " No, this is Savage's pistol." This 
was Harvey's opportunity, and drawing his own 
pistol, he sent live bullets into the body of 
Major Savage, killing him in his tracks. Thus 
passed away one of the note-worthy characters 
in the early history of California, a man who 
stood out in relief as something different from 
his fellow-men, the victim of a coward's deed. 
A monument erected to his memory now stands 
upon the bank of Fresno river— a splendid trib- 
ute to a worthy man. This monument, costing 
$850, was purchased in Connecticut by Dr. 
Leach, and put up on its present site by him, 
at his own expense, as a token of his regard for 
the old friend and associate of pioneer days. 

After the death of their partner, Dr. Leach 
and Captain Haylor still remained associated in 
business, and soon took into partnership Samuel 
A. Bishop, now of San Jose. Several Indian 
agents were appointed by the Government, and 
the firm furnished the reservations with all their 
supplies, their business expanding so that they 



established a branch at Fort Miller on the San 
Joaquin river. The duties of the members of 
this early firm were varied. Captain Haylor 
was a gentleman of leisure, who was content to 
let his partners look after his affairs; Bishop, a 
great worker, had charge of their ranch, and Dr. 
Leach looked after the store in person. He had 
not the slightest mercantile training, but followed 
the custom of the day, marking up the price of 
goods 100 per cent, from the cost rate, selling on 
credit to all who asked, and taking the money of 
those who paid their bills, while those who did 
not were never bothered for the money. He had 
no trouble in managing even thing satisfactorily 
and in a manner profitable to the firm. At 
length a reservation was established at Fort 
Tejon, and Lieutenant, now General Beall, was 
placed there as Indian Agent. That officer be- 
gan making overtures to Bishop, and induced 
him to leave the firm and join him in business. 
Some years afterward Haylor died, but in the 
meantime the partnership existing between him 
and Dr. Leach was dissolved, the latter taking 
the store and Haylor the ranch. When Bishop 
left the firm he neither paid over a dollar nor 
asked anything from his partners, and in all the 
transactions mentioned, not a scratch of a pen 
was made by any of the parties to the transac- 
tions. 

In 1858 the Doctor closed out the store at 
Fort Miller, but conducted the one on the Fresno 
river until the winter of 1860-61. All this 
time he had been conducting at the latter place 
a private hospital, as after the Indian war, pa- 
tients kept coming to him for treatment, in 
numbers, and from points as far away as^Visalia, 
so that he found it necessary to establish the 
hospital, and it was constantly patronized to the 
extent of fifteen or twenty patients. 

In December, 1860, Dr. Leach went to Mil- 
lerton to attend a patient, and while he was 
there it rained so hard that travel was suspended 
as a result, and all communications cut off, and 
for six weeks it was impossible for him to go 
home. By that time, however, he had decided 
not to go back, but to close out his business on 



654 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the Fresno river, and for that purpose he sent 
teams over to haul away his effects. He dis- 
poser! of the goods in the store at private sale. 

When the County Hospital was established at 
Millerton, he was placed in charge of that in- 
stitution, and in fact he was the only physician 
in the County. He came to Fresno in 1874, on 
the removal of the county seat, and rented 
moms for the hospital. He arrived here on the 
4th of October, 1874, and four days later the 
corner-stone of the County courthouse was laid. 
It was desired to put a Bible in the receptacle 
of the corner-stone, and as the Doctor was the 
only one in Fresno who had a copy, his was 
used. From that time on the town grew steadily, 
though it is probable that anyone who would 
have predicted the prestnt importance of this 
world-known inland city would have been con- 
sidered visionary, to say the least. There is no 
doubt that this great progress would never have 
been made, had it not been that there have al- 
ways been here a few moving spirits of enter- 
prise sufficient to look beyond the prospect of 
immediate return on each financial investment, 
and to look ahead and build for the future. Dr. 
Leach must certainly be classed among the men 
referred to in this connection, as he has been 
identified, and in an active manner, with every 
enterprise that has been carried out for the 
benefit of Fresno, and is to-day a conspicuous 
figure in all vigorous circles, though perhaps 
not taking so active a part as formerly. When 
he came to Fresno there was no water system to 
supply the people with that article of prime 
necessity, and his first move was in the direction 
of supplying this defect. The system was es- 
tablished the same year, and Dr. Leach, who was 
president of the Company, continued in that 
executive capacity until 1890, when the water- 
works were sold for $140,000. He was presi- 
dent of the first bank ever started in Fresno, a 
private concern, of which one of the principal 
owners, Otto Froelich, was cashier. Later he 
was one of the originators of the Bank of Fresno, 
and served as its president until the adoption of 
the new constitution, when, the effect of its 



provisions in regard to banking being magnified 
in importance, the directors decided to go out 
of business, which was done. Then the strong 
Farmers' Bank of Fresno was organized, and of 
this splendid concern Dr. Leach has been presi- 
dent since its organization. 

He fathered the Gas Company at its organi- 
zation, and later identified himself closely with 
the Electric Light Company, and the Street and 
Fair Grounds Kailway Company, of all of which 
concerns he has served as president since or- 
ganization. One of the enterprises in which lie 
takes as great pride and interest as any, how- 
ever, is in the direct line of his profession, the 
Fresno County Hospital. This charitable in- 
stitution, from the character of its grounds and 
buildings, as well as from the unusuallv able 
management it has received, ranks in the first 
class of similar hospitals, and certainly has no 
superior in California. It is conceded by all that 
great credit is due Dr. Leach in his capacity of 
County physician, for this condition of affairs. 
He is the father of the institution, having been 
at its head when organized at Millerton; later, 
when it occupied rented quarters on its removal 
to Fresno; again, in the old building erected by 
him in 1876, on the block bounded by Mari- 
posa, Tulare, P and Q streets, and finally, in the 
present unsurpassed home of the hospital it) 
which he takes a pardonable pride. 

To close this brief sketch without a reference 
to another institution with which the Doctor 
has had much to do, would be to slight some- 
thing in which all Fresno County takes great, 
pride, namely; the grounds of the Fresno Fair 
Association. All California, with its many well 
equipped grounds, does not afford others to 
compare with these, though several other cities 
have nothing to be ashamed of in their efforts 
in that direction. Dr. Leach headed the move- 
ment which resulted in the Fresno Fair Grounds 
of to-day, and personally interested the other 
gentlemen who are members of the association. 
These are but specimens of the many works the 
Doctor has moved in that have redounded to the 
benefit of the city and County. His active, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



655 



useful life, coupled with the reputation that he 
has borne for strict integrity and uprightness of 
character, in and out of his profession, have had 
much to do in shaping toward him the existing 
sentiment of the community, which regards him 
for these reasons, and on account of his long as- 
sociation in its midst, with greater admiration 
and respect than are entertained for any other 
single individual. 

Dr. Leach is married, but has no children. 
His wife, to whom he was united in 1865, was 
Miss Matilda Converse, a native of the State of 
Maine. 



fOHN HENRY ROUTT is one of the 
representative business men of Lemoore, 
Tulare County, California, and as an enter- 
prising man and public-spirited citizen, stands 
high in the estimation of the community. 

M-. Routt dates his birth in the State of Mis- 
souri. His father, Henry Lewis Routt, was 
born in Kentucky, and when a young man moved 
to Missouri and there reared his family. His 
ancestors were of Scotch- Irish origin and were 
early settlers in the South. Henry Lewis Routt 
married Mary Cathrine Butler, a native of Ken- 
tucky, who was reared in Missouri. To them 
eight children were born, of whom seven are 
living, four in California. The subject of our 
sketch was the fifth born and was reared and 
educated in hiu native State. He first clerked 
in a grocery store, afterward learned the tinner's 
trade and worked at it one year. He then en- 
gaged in the lumber business, first in Missouri 
and afterwards in Iowa, remaining in the latter 
State three years. He next moved to Kansas 
and followed the same business a year, returned 
to Missouri, and about a year later, in 1886, 
came to California. For a year and a half he 
was with the Moore & Smith Lumber Company, 
at Merced. In September, 1887, he came to 
Lemoore to take charge of the San Joaquin 
Lumber Company's business, and has since re- 
mained at this place, having full charge of their 



interests here. He was special partner in a 
drug business in the town for a year, after 
which he sold out, but still owns the building 
in which the store is conducted. He owns a 
forty-acre fruit ranch, eight acres in raisin 
grapes and twelve in deciduous fruit trees. He 
also has a ten-acre colony tract, which he is im- 
proving with trees and vines, and on which he 
is planting ornamental trees, flowers and shrubs. 
In 1879 Mr. Routt was married to Miss 
Sarah D. Landram, a native of Missouri, and 
their union has been blessed with two children. 
The elder, Lida Ethel, died at the age cf seven- 
teen months. Their son, Forrest Vincil, is a 
bright boy of eight years and sings remarkably 
well for one of his age. Mr. and Mrs. Routt 
are members of the Presbyterian Church, and 
both are promin ±nt in musical circles. Mr. 
Routt is an elder in the church and has been 
superintendent of the Sabbath-school in Le- 
moore since its organization. Indeed, he has 
been engaged in this work from his youth up, 
having been a Sabbath-school superintendent 
since he was nineteen years old. He was one 
of the organizers of the Presbyterian church 
here. Politically he is a Democrat. In both 
religious and secular matters he takes a promi- 
nent and active part, and is classed among the 
most worthy and reliable citizens of Lemoore. 



-=**< 



»-i~£=- 



M. ALFORD, M. D., is a native of Wil- 
son County, Tennessee. His father, 
Weilie Alford, was a farmer in Tennes- 
see, and there young Alford was reared and 
received such an education as the State af- 
forded, taking his medical course at the Uni- 
versity at Nashville, where he graduated in 
1856. 

Dr. Alford began the practice of his profes- 
sion at Boston, eastern Texas, where he purchased 
40U acres of land and also carried on general 
farming. In 1862 he volunteered for the Con- 
federate service, in the First Mounted Battalion 
from Texas, Major Crump, and as surgeon of 



650 



DISTORT OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



his battalion was in active duty until the close 
of the war, with the exception of one leave of 
absence. He was in many sharp battles but 
was never wounded, and received his discharge 
at Meridian, Mississippi, May 8, 1865. 

He then returned to Texas, found everything 
disorganized, became disgusted with the country 
and in 1868 went to New York and took steamer 
for California, coming via the Isthmus route. 
The Doctor was married at Boston, Texas, in 
1860, to Miss Josephine M. Poer. Landing at 
San Francisco, they came to Tulare County and 
located at White river to look after the inter- 
ests of a toll road across the Green Horn moun- 
tains to Kernville, which had been built by Dr. 
Alford's father-in-law, W. B. Poer. Besides 
attending to this business the Doctor also em 
gaged in the practice of his profession. After 
remaining there five years he sold his two-thirds 
interests in the road to Kern County, and re- 
turned to Texas, located at Fort Worth and 
followed his profession two years. Again de- 
ciding to visit California, he came to Porter- 
ville, Tulare County, subsequently locating in 
Tulare. This was about 1878, soon after the 
town of Tulare was started. He bought prop- 
erty on the corner of Tulare and K streets, and 
there established his office. After passing 
through two fires, the Doctor erected a brick 
store and office building in 1890. He also owns 
other city property and a ranch of 920 acres, 
devoted chiefly to grain farming. 

In 1889 Dr. Alford retired from practice and 
bought property at Santa Cruz, where, with his 
family, he passed sixteen months in rest and 
idle recreation. Since then he has returned to 
Tulare and engaged in the practice of medicine. 

Dr. and Mrs. Alford have four children, — 
William H., Josephine Pearl, Forrest L. and 
Daisy. He is a member of Olive Branch Lodge, 
F. & A. M., and of Tulare Lodge, No. 76, A. 
O. U. W. William H. Alford, the older son, 
is engaged in the practice of law in Tulare 
County. Pearl, the older daughter, is a teacher 
in the public schools of Santa Cruz. Forrest is 
attending the University of the Pacific, and 



Daisy, the youngest of the family, is attending 
the high school in Tulare City. 

fETER WILLIAM FINK is a well-known 
and highly respected pioneer of this coast 
— one of the men who came to California 
in 1849, and made possible the grand results 
that have followed in the growth and develop- 
ment of this great State. 

Mr. Fink was born in Montgomery County, 
New York, March 7, 1829, son ol Benjamin ami 
Nancy (Reas) Fink, both natives of the Empire 
State. His great grandparents on his father's 
side emigrated from Germany and settled in 
Montgomery County, New York, and both his 
paternal and maternal ancestors were partici- 
pants in the Revolutionary war, fighting on the 
side of the colonies. Mr. Fink was the second 
born in a family of four children, all of whom 
are now living in California. His parents and 
family removed to Michigan in 1832, and three 
years later to Racine, Wisconsin. 

In 1849 Mr. Fink started with an emigrant 
party for the far West. There were twenty- 
four wagonB in the train when they crossed the 
Missouri river at Council Bluffs, and after 
traveling up the Platte river some distance the 
company divided, there being seven wagons in 
the company with which our friend journeyed 
on to California. He started March 11, and 
arrived here August 15. He followed the throng 
to the mines at Coloma, and soon afterward en- 
gaged in freighting with oxen from Sacramento 
to Georgetown and Kelsey's diggings. At one 
time when the roads were very bad, he received 
r pound for li 



per po 



aiding 2,500 pounds of 
freight, but ordinarily the price was one bit per 
pound. He used four yoke of oxen and camped 
out every night, making a trip in from five to 
ten days, according to the condition of the roads. 
After this he started a mining camp at Kelsey's 
diggings, and bought and sold cattle and also 
ran a meat market. In the spring of 1850 he 
hauled and delivered fifty tons of hay to the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



657 



Ten-Mile House on the stage road. Next we 
find him mining on the Middle Fork of the 
American river, where he invested in mining, 
kept a store and ran a boarding-honse. He 
afterward had a store and hotel at Eagle Bar, 
and had mining claims at various places. He 
made a deal of money in most of his claims, but 
like many other miners met with heavy losses. 
He went to the Horseshoe Bend claim, owning 
considerable stock and having $12,000 in coin, 
and when he left that place he had nothing. 
After that he engaged in prospecting on the 
Yuba river, mined at Dry Creek diggings and 
made some money; he went to Fresno river and 
with others was at much expense in turning the 
course of the river, and a second time found 
himself financially ruined; for a time he was en- 
gaged in teaming at Stockton. In 1852 Mr. 
Fink had a siege of the chills, and after his re- 
covery was taken with the small pox. In July, 
1853, he went to Millerton, where he worked 
at the carpenter's trade two years, being em- 
ployed by the government and having charge of 
the Government post. In 1856 he went to Los 
Angeles and purchased a band of cattle, drove 
them to King's river and the following year 
sold them. In 1858 he bought a second band 
of cattle and engaged in stock-raising and 
farming, remaining at Millerton until 1862, 
when he located on lands near his present home. 
He purchased 160 acres of land from the Gov- 
ernment, built a good adobe house and lived 
there till 1862. The floods of that year wash- 
ing his house away, he came to his present lo- 
cation, five miles north of Reedley. Here, in 
one body, he owns 800 acres of land. He is 
engaged in general farming and stock-raising; 
and his comfortable home, large barns, and 
modern machinery with which he cultivates his 
broad acres and harvests his immense crops, all 
indicate the prosperity that is attending him. 

In 1861 Mr. Fink was married to Miss Eliza 
Deakin, a native of England, who came to Fresno 
County at the age of nine years. All of their 
eight children, except two (twins), a son and 
daughter, who died in infancy, are still living. 



Their names are as follows: Alice N., wife of J. 
F. Hill; Julia A., wife of A. T. March; Gussie 
E., wife of Thomas Street; Rosie M., Mary 
E. and Peter Elliott — all born in Fresno 
County. 

Mr. Fink has been an Odd Fellow, and is in 
politics a Democrat. 



-=£+« 



**=- 



PN. DOW is a native of New England, 
born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 
° 1864. He secured a practical education 
at the high school of Lawrence, with a finish- 
ing course at Cannon's Commercial College. 
Owing to impaired health and the rigors of the 
eastern climate, he was obliged to give up 
business, and in 1885 came to California, seek- 
ing relief from his ailments in the softer 
breezes and perpetual sunshine of this coast. 

After his arrival in California Mr. Dow 
traveled over the southern part of the State in 
search of a desirable location, finally deciding 
upon Tulare as a place for wise investment. 
He purchased a ranch of 540 acres on Tule 
river, six miles south of Tulare, which was par- 
tially improved, and which he is converting 
into a garden spot with beautiful grounds and 
broad avenues. He takes great pride in the 
improvement of his property, and is making 
this place one of the most attractive in the 
country; is setting it to vines and fruits, with 
the idea of ultimately getting it all in fruit. He 
is also greatly interested in horses, keeping 
about sixty fine grade mares and a thorough- 
bred Norman stallion, and breeding for draft 
purposes. He purchased 250 acres of land on 
Elk Bayou, which is well studded with oak tim- 
ber, and which he uses for pasture. 

In the fall of 1890 Mr. Dow purchased a 
choice residence on the corner of Tulare and E 
streets, the house having been built by Fred 
Woodward. It is complete in all its appoint- 
ments, and is surrounded by well-kept grounds. 
Here Mr. Dow will henceforth make his home, 
with daily trips to his ranch in looking after his 



658 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



interests there. He has other well-improved 
town property, does a loaning business, and is 
ever on the lookout for investments. 

Mr. Dow is a member of Subordinate Lodge, 
Encampment and Patriarch Militant of I. O. 
O. F. 

It is appropriate to add, in conclusion, that 
he has been restored to robust health by the 
•'glorious climate of California." 



fLIJAH WIMMER,a rancher near Grange- 
ville, is a native of Indiana, born on Tur- 
key creek, near Fort Wayne, in 1832) 
His father, P. L. Wi miner, was born in Ohio in 
1812, and was a pioneer of the unsettled country 
of Indiana. In 1846 George Harlan, an uncle 
of our subject and a philanthropist of his day, 
made up a train of ten wagons, with ox-teams, 
and then gathering together his relatives and 
immediate friends, P. L. Wimnier and family 
being among the number, crossed the plains to 
California. After rendezvousing at Independ- 
ence, Missouri, they followed the old Truckee 
route, and for the first 1,000 miles were ac- 
companied by the historic Donner party, from 
whom they separated at Weber Canon. The 
Donner party turned back, and, crossing by a 
longer route, were snowed in upon the moun- 
tains, and thus died from cold and starvation. 
The Harlan party pushed on, safely crossed the 
mountains, and landed at Sutter's Fort just six 
months from the date of embarkation. 

On arrival Elijah Wimmer, though then but 
fourteen years of age, joined the troops of Gen- 
eral Fremont, and under Captain Erram was 
stationed at Santa Clara until treaty was made 
with the Mexicans. He then joined his uncle 
in farming near San Jose, and in the lumber in- 
terests near San Antonio, until the discovery of 
gold in 1848. P. L. Wimmer, his father, was 
employed by Sutter in 1848, in the digging of 
the mill race at Coloma, in which the first gold 
was discovered, while Marshall was employed in 
putting up the mill. Wimnier and Marshall 



were together when the gold whs discovered, 
and for picking up the article Marshall became 
famous throughout the land, while Wimmer, 
equally deserving, has lived in oblivion, though 
still in possession of the gold nugget which 
electrified the world. Mining was then followed 
for a time, but with the rapidly-increasing im- 
migration Mr. Wimmer entered mercantile life 
at Coloma, while Elijah did the teaming from 
Sacramento. In 1850 our subject helped to 
pack the donation train made up in San Fran- 
cisco and Sacramento to the starving emigrants 
of Carson valley, taking 3,000 pounds of sup- 
plies on mules, and was absent about four 
months. The next te i years were passed in 
mining, ranching and drifting about until 1861, 
when he settled on King's river, in Fresno 
County, and engaged in the stock business. 
After first taking cattle on shares he gradually 
built up his band until he had about 1,200 head, 
from which he made a great deal of money. 
With the increasing ranches and sheep business 
Mr. Wimmer moved his cattle to Nevada, where 
he remained until 1875, when he sold out and 
settled in Fresno City. 

He was married in Stockton in 1874 to Miss 
Ellen Sutherland, a daughter of John Suther- 
land, an early pioneer and stockman of the 
Lower King's river. Mr. Wimmer resided in 
Fresno until 1885, when he sold out at a largely 
increased price and settled upon the ranch of 
his wife in Fresno County, three miles north- 
west of Grangeville. The ranch contains 584 
acres, where he carries on grain farming and 
stock-raising. Mr. and Mrs. Wimmer have five 
children, — Mary E., John A., Earl M., Eugene 
D. and Elizabeth. 



fOHN WILLIAM RHOADS is the son of 
Daniel Rhoads, one of California's noblest 
pioneers, and is a native of the Golden 
West. He was born in Santa Clara County, 
November 2, 1857. In November, 1880, he was 
united in marriage with Miss Rosa A. Sanborn, 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



659 



daughter of John L. Sanborn, a native of New 
Hampshire and a pioneer of California. She 
was born in San Jose, California, and reared in 
Watsonville. They have one child, Ethel. Mr. 
Rhoads owns a fine farm of two hundred and 
forty acres of land, four miles north of Lemoore, 
on which he has built and is making a beautiful 
home. 

He is a Master Mason, a member of Welcome 
Lodge, No. 255, Lemoore, and is also a member 
of the A. O. U. W. In politics he is a liberal 
Democrat. He is a great lover of his native 
State and takes a just pride in her growth and 
prosperity. 

fOHN L. SPEAR has been a resident of 
California since 1853. He was born in 
Page County, Virginia, July 1, 1811, son 
of Jacob and Polly (Hardberger) Spear, natives 
of Pennsylvania who removed to Virginia soon 
after their marriage. There were nine children 
in the family, but as Mr. Spear lost trace of them 
during the civil war he does not know how many 
are living. 

He was reared in his native State and was 
there married to his first wife. She bore him a 
daughter, Sarah Ann, who is now the wife of 
Edwin Davis. Mr. Spear removed to Missouri, 
and there his wife died in 1836. In 1844 he 
wedded Mary R. Garvin, a native of Missouri, 
who is his present companion. To them six 
children were born, one dying in infancy. Those 
living are as follows: Jacob, who is now with 
his father; Margret, wife of John Fox. a resi- 
dent of Los Angeles County; Frances Eliza, wife 
of R. C. Glass, of Bakersfield, Kern County; and 
Agnes, wife ot John Woolley, who resides at 
Exeter, this county. (See history of Mr. Wool- 
ley in this work.) Henry E. has a ranch adjoin- 
ing his father's. The family crossed the plains 
with ox teams to this State in 1853, coming on 
account of Mrs. Spear's ill health. She began 
tc recover as soon as they were well 
started on the journey. Arrived in California, 



they first settled in Stanislaus County, where 
they spent two years. Mr. Spear then went to 
the mines and followed the various fortunes of 
the miner from 1855 till 1861, losing all he had, 
and from there coming to Tulare County. At 
first he settled on eighty acres of timber land, 
and afterward came to his present locality near 
Farmersville. He and his sons have four hun- 
dred acres of land, the oldest son being single 
and residing with his father. Both sons are 
intelligent, industrious and respected citizens. 

Mr. Spear is now eighty years of age, and he 
and his wife have lived together forty-five years. 
He was made a Master Mason in 1852. In 
politics he was first a Whig, later a Democrat, 
and is now an earnest temperance worker and 
votes with the Prohibitionists. 



W. MUSGRAVE, Ph. B., M. D., was 
ffifc born in Grass Valley, Nevada County, 
California, in 1857. His father, Richard 
M. Musgrave, was a native of the north of Ire- 
land, and of Scotch descent. He was a sea-far- 
ing man, a captain of an English merchantman, 
that brought a cargo of merchandise to San 
Francisco in the early days of the gold excite- 
ment, and he with his mates left the vessel and 
went to the mines in Nevada County, where he 
was prominently connected with mining inter- 
ests during the remainder of his life. He was 
married in Grass Valley in 1856, to Miss Mar- 
garet Wilson, a native of Scotland, and they re- 
sided there until the death of Mr. Musgrave, 
in 1878. 

R. W Musgrave was educated in the public 
schools of Grass Valley, graduating in the high 
school in 1873. He then entered the University 
of California, taking a scientific course and 
graduating in 1879. He obtained his medical 
education in the California Medical College of 
San Francisco, and graduated in 1884. Dr. 
Musgrave began the practice of his profession 
in Hanford, Tulare County, and is now the sec- 
ond oldest physician in the town. He does a 



660 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



general practice, and has a large and extended 
patronage. 

The doctor was married in San Francisco in 
January, 1890, to Miss Sue A. Barrett, a native 
of Michigan. This union has been blessed with 
one child, — Marjorie. 

In fraternal circles Dr. Musgrave occupies a 
prominent position. He has been Master of 
Hanford Lodge, No. 279, F. & A. M., for three 
years, and is a charter member of Hanford Par- 
lor, No. 37, N. S. G. W., having filled the chair 
of President for several years. He was one of 
the incorporators of the Hanford Improvement 
Association, and is still secretary and a member 
of the board of directors. This company pur 
chased 400 acres near Hanford, subdivided it 
into tracts of ten acres and organized the Lu- 
cerne Colony, which is now one of the prosper- 
ous colonies of the valley. 



fENJAMIN DORE, rancher and pioneer of 
the West Park Colony, Fresno County, 
California, is a native of Athens, Maine 
born in 1825. At the age of three years his 
mother died and he was sent to the town of 
Solon, Maine, where he lived three years with 
an uncle and aunt. When about six years of age 
Benjamin's father married a second wife and 
moved to Harmony, Maine, where he settled on 
a small farm. Thither Benjamin was taken and 
he remained with his father working on the 
farm until about nineteen years old. At this 
time his father's second wife died, and he left 
home to learn the carpenter's trade. After serv- 
ing an apprenticeship of a year he went to Ban- 
gor, Maine, where he worked at his trade for 
four years. 

When the news of the discovery of gold in 
California reached the East, Mr. Dore became 
one of a party of fifty-six men who purchased 
the bark Cantero, loaded it with lumber and a 
general cargo, and in command of Captain Saun- 
ders, sailed for the golden shores of California. 
They embarked in October, 1849, made the voy- 



age around Cape Horn and landed at San Fran- 
cisco, April 29, 1850. 

Mr. Dore was occupied at his trade during the 
summer and in the fall went to Vancouver, on 
the Columbia river, to build barracks for the 
United States Government. Thence he went to 
Portland, Oregon, where he assisted in building 
the steamer Williamette, the first river steamer 
that ran on the river between Portland and As- 
toria. He was on board the first steamer. Sea 
Gull, Captain Cressy, which entered the Hum- 
boldt Bay in 1850. He returned to San Fran- 
cisco the following year, worked at his trade 
until 1853, when he gave his attention to the 
lumber business, in which he was extensively 
engaged for eleven years. In 1856 Mr. Dore 
was a member of the Vigilance Committee, 
which produced such a salutary effect in the 
suppression of crime and from which was organ- 
ized the People's Party, the party that con- 
trolled the affairs of San Francisco for many 
years. In 1861 and 1862 Mr. Dore was a mem- 
ber of the State Legislature, and in 1865 was 
Sergeant-at-Arms. 

In 1864, disposing of his lumber interests, 
Mr. Dore engaged in mining speculations, and 
in locating, working and incorporating mining 
companies, giving his attention to that work for 
sixteen years. He now shows securities which 
represent thousands of dollars in mining inter- 
ests, but are really of no more value than the 
paper upon which they are printed. In 1873 he 
also bought a printing business, which he and 
his sons managed very successfully for many 
years. 

Appreciating the danger of mining securities, 
Mr. Dore gave up the business in 1880, though 
with a heavy loss, and continued his printing 
business until 1883. At that time he sold out, 
came to Fresno, purchased 160 acres of land for 
himself and friends in West Park, and there, 
living the life of a hermit, in a small cabin, be- 
gan to build up his shattered fortunes. Hie tine 
residence, out buildings and highly improved 
ranch speak volumes for the intelligence with 
which he has labored. In 1883 there were no 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



661 



roads or irrigating ditches in the colony, and 
Mr. Dore struck the first plow in improving; in 
1890 the appearance of the country is vastly 
changed. During that year his trees paid $300 
per acre, and vines, $100 per acre. 

Mr. Dore was married in San Francisco in 
1854, to Jane A., daughter of the late E. D. 
Waters, the founder of the Mercantile Gazette 
of San Francisco. She passed to the other world 
in 1889, leaving two sons, one daughter and a 
bereaved husband to mourn her loss. 

Mr. Dore is a charter member of Excelsior 
Lodge, F. & A. M. of San Francisco, a member 
of San Francisco Chapter of Royal Arch Ma- 
sons, and is also a 32d degree Scottish Eite 
Mason. 



— =£*■ 



f£s- 



|||ROF. JAMES M. MARTIN, who made 
flfr ^ or himself, i n times past, a record as one 
^C of the foremost educators of California) 
but who, as a resident of Fresno County, is now 
an active factor in her development, was born in 
a log cabin in DeWitt County, Illinois, in 1837. 
His father, John E. Martin, a native of Vir- 
ginia, emigrated to Illinois in 1834, when that 
country was wild and unsettled, and located 
near the town of Clinton, where he carried on 
general farming. Being a minister of the Chris- 
tian Church, he performed much pioneer work 
in the chnrch, often riding many miles, and 
returning the same day, to deliver a sermon or 
perform a Christian duty. He came to Cali- 
fornia in 1869, and is now living at Pomona, 
having reached the ripe old age of eighty-four 
years, hale and hearty and in the enjoyment of 
all his faculties. 

James M. Martin, the subject of this sketch, 
was educated at Abingdon College, Abingdon, 
Illinois, and graduated in the classical course in 
1859, receiving immediately the honorary de- 
gree of Master of Arts in 1864. After gradu- 
ation he took charge of the High School De- 
partment of the public schools at La Harpe, Illi- 
nois, where he taught for two years. In 1860 



he was married at Abingdon to Miss Angelina 
Bennett, a native of New York State. The 
following year he moved to Carthage, Hancock 
County, Illinois, and there took charge of the 
high school. He remained at the latter place 
until May, 1862, when accompanied by his wife 
and their worldly goods, he started with a mule 
team across the great plains to California. The 
company in which they traveled numbered 
forty-five men, and all were well armed. Being 
very cautious, they proceeded without difficulty; 
and crossing by the overland mail route, ar- 
rived at Virginia City, Nevada, in August. 
After tarrying at that place thirty days to re- 
cuperate, they came on to California and located 
at Woodland, Yolo Cou.ty. Soon after his 
arrival in this State, Mr. Martin was elected 
vice president of Hesperian College, and the 
following year, 1864, was elected its president. 
The college was at that time financially embar- 
rassed, and opened with a list of but twenty- 
nine pupils, which included those in the pri- 
mary and preparatory departments. Mr. Martin 
was given entire charge of the finances and 
management, and, as the result of his untiring 
zeal and perseverance, his second year showed a 
catalogue of 231 pupils, 175 being in the higher 
grades, the institution having so rapidly grown 
in popularity. When he resigned his office in 
1875, the college led all like establishments in 
the State, and was second only to the University 
of California. As president and financier, his 
management was eminently successful, and in 
place of being in debt, as he found it, he left 
the college out of debt and with a handsome 
endowment fund. 

In 1875 Professor Martin was called to the 
presidency of the Christian College at Santa 
Rosa, and his career as an educator there was 
also distinguished by marked success. Two 
years later, however, delicate health compelled 
him to resign, and through active exercise in 
the open air he sought a restoration of his im- 
paired health. He made a trip on a mule 
through Arizona for the purpose of examining 
the mining interests of that section of the 



662 



HI8T0RT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



country. While there he made investments in 
the Globe District, purchasing the Stonewall 
Jackson, which at one time was the most noted 
silver mine in Arizona, and which produced 
fabulous returns; but, being a pocket mine, 
the solid silver deposits were soon exhausted, 
and dividends discontinued. 

In 1882 the subject of our sketch located in 
Fresno, being attracted to this valley by an im- 
pression he had gained in 1869, when, on a 
holiday journey, he rode through the valley. 
He was then so favorably impressed with the 
locality between the King and San Joaquin 
rivers that he prophesied it would become rich 
in resources and population if irrigation should 
ever be successfully established. In 1882 the 
Iowa & California Fruit Company, with which 
Professor Martin was connected, purchased 320 
acres of land, kuown as the Iowa Vineyard, and 
he was elected manager. He at once went to 
work to improve the property, setting eighty 
acres in stone fruits and the rest in vines. He 
gave his attention to the place and resided 
there until 1889, when the tract was sub-divided 
into twenty-acre lots and sold, Professor Martin 
retaining sixty acres of raisin grape-vines as 
his interest. 

Since coming here he has also been connected 
with other enterprises of a like nature. In 
1887, when the Fresno Investment Company was 
organized, he was elected president, the object 
of the company being to buy, sell and deal in 
real estate, and also to loan money. In the 
spring of 1888 the I Street Improvement Com- 
pany was organized, our subject being a leading 
spirit in that enterprise and becoming vice 
president and a director. The company built 
the Pleasanton Hotel, and owns large interests 
in that locality. Professor Martin, aside from 
the companies with which he has been con- 
nected, has individually dealt extensively in 
real estate, and has met with marked success. 
He recently purchased 24-0 acres of land east of 
Fresno, which he planted to raisin grape-vines 
in the spring of 1891. 

He and his wife are the parents of live chil- 



dren, all of whom have received a liberal edu- 
cation, the youngest being a member of the 
Senior class of the Oakland High School for 
1891-'92. 

The Professor has passed an eventful life, 
tilled with activity and enterprise, but always 
characterized with the closest application to the 
duties in hand, aad this trait has bdeii an 
essential element in his successful career. 



HfHOMAS LAVERS, one of the substantial 
citizens of Lynn's valley, came to Cali- 

W fornia in 1852 and to Kern County in 
1859. His native home is Nova Scotia, and his 
father's name was James Lavers, who was a 
farmer by occupation. Upon arriving in Cali- 
fornia Mr. Lavers first spent one month in San 
Francisco, and then engaged in farming in the 
Santa Clara valley. He remained there, howev- 
er, but a short time, and took up his residence 
in Lynn's valley in the early part of 1860, where 
he has since resided and successfully pursued 
farming and stock-raisiug. 

He married in Visalia, in 1875, Miss Mary 
Gurnette, and they have four bright children, — 
Etta, Lewis, Winifred and Lawrence. Mr. Lav- 
ers owns 160 acres of good land in Lynn's val- 
ley, where he ranges 150 head of cattle and 
about thirty horses. He is a man of unpreten- 
tious and quiet manners, strictly reliable, and 
highly esteemed. 

- : > ^Hl»' : : '- 

PC. MICKLE was born in Dixon County ^ 
Tennessee, in 1859, the descendant of 
° Scotch ancestry, who came from the 
vicinity of Edinburgh to this country. His 
father, John G. Mickle, a prominent physician 
of Tennessee and a practitioner for forty years, 
retired in 1884, came to California, and is now 
a resident of llanford. 

B. C. Mickle received his literary education 
at Bethel College, McKenzie, Tennessee, aud 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



663 



graduated with the degree of Ph. B. He then 
attended the law school at Cumberland Univer- 
sity, Lebanon, Tennessee, and received the 
degree of LL.D. in June, 1884. He entered 
upon a professional career in Fulton, Kentucky, 
but in the fall of 1885 came to California and 
settled at Hanford, Tulare County, where his 
brother, Porter Mickle, then resided. He at 
once engaged in the practice of law, in which 
he has met with eminent success. February 12, 
1891, he was appointed Deputy District Attorney 
under Maurice E. Power ,which throws him into 
criminal law, although his specialty is civil law 
and probate business. 

October 11, 1890, Mr. Mickle was united in 
marriage, at Centreville, to Miss Mary E. Low- 
rie, a native of California and of Scotch de- 
scent. They reside in their comfortable resi- 
dence on Eighth street. In connection with 
S. J. White, Mr. Mickle owns a valuable eighty- 
acre ranch near Armona, which is devoted to 
fruit and vines. 



fRANCIS MARION COOK was born in 
Iowa, November 10, 1852, son of James 
Montgomery and Elizabeth (Killebrew) 
Cook, the former a native of Ohio and the latter 
of Illinois, both being the descendants of early 
American settlers. Francis M. is the second 
eldest of their six children, five of whom are 
living. He was reared in Illinois and attended 
the public schools until he was sixteen years of 
age, when, in 1868, the family came to Cali- 
fornia and settled in Solano Couuty. 

Mr. Cook first began business for himself in 
Colusa County. He established a meat market, 
which he conducted one year, and after that 
went to Tehama County and purchased 640 
acres of land on Cottonwood creek, twenty-two 
miles above Red Bluff, where he was engaged 
in the farming and stock business six years. In 
1885 he disposed of his property there and 
located in Fresno County. He bought sixty 
acres of land, at a cost of $60 per acre, and on 



it planted a vineyard, built a residence and 
otherwise improved the property, and, after 
living on it six years, sold it for $200 per acre. 
He then came to Orosi, purchased sixty acres, 
built a good house, planted the most of his land 
to raisin grapes, and every thing about the 
premises indicates thrift and prosperity. 

Mr. Cook was married, in 1874, to Elizabeth 
Cartwright, and by her has two sons, Francis 
Elmer and James Earnest, both natives of 
Colusa County. They lost one child, Edward, 
at the age of ten years. 

Mr. Cook is a Good Templar and a member 
of the Farmers' Alliance. "While in Tehama 
County he held the office of Justice of the 
Peace. 



|||ARRY ALBERT BURKE was born in 
«§} Nova Scotia, July 9, 1849. His father, 
^sllf Philip Burke, a native of Ireland, emi- 
grated to Nova Scotia when a young man, and 
was there married to Miss Elizabeth Simpson, 
a native of Nova Scotia and a daughter of 
Charles Simpson, a Canadian Frenchman. To 
them were born eleven children, six sons and 
five daughters, the subject of our sketch being 
the fourth child. At the age of twenty-two he 
left the home of his nativity and came to Cali- 
fornia. He first stopped in the redwood lum- 
ber country of Mendocino County, and from 
there came to the San Joaquin valley, becoming 
one of the pioneer settlers of the town of 
Goshen in 1876. He built the Goshen House, 
the first hotel in the place, and also put up the 
first business house there. After being engaged 
in business there five years, he removed to Min- 
eral King, saine county, and embarked in min- 
ing and merchandising, meeting with reverses 
there. 

October 8, 1876, he was married at San Fran- 
cisco to Miss Alice Jane Fall, a native of New 
Orleans, who was reared in Sacramento, Cali- 
fornia. In June of the following year he 
located in Hanford and opened the saloon busi- 



664 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ness. That town was then just starting, and 
he erected several buildings in it. On April 8, 
1884, he took up his abode in Traver. He pur- 
chased a lot and built his present business 
house, and with his usual energy and enterprise 
helped to develop the new town. He built four 
residences, a blacksmith shop and two other 
buildings. In addition to his other business, 
he has conducted a blacksmith's establishment 
since 1886. In 1891 Mr. Burke and Mr. Simp- 
son formed a partnership for the manufacture 
of a new improved patent cultivator, an inven- 
tion of Mr. Simpson's, in which they are en- 
gaged in connection with their blacksmith busi- 
ness. 

Mr. Burke has purchased a tract of land near 
Traver and is devoting it to fruit culture. 



fEORGE WRIGHT STERLING dates his 
birth in East Bloomfield, New York, 
August 20, 1834. Grandfather Sterling 
was a prominent citizen of the Empire State 
and had large real-estate interests there. Justin 
J. Sterling, father of George W., was born in 
New York and married Miss Caroline Wright, 
a native of Connecticut, and the daughter of a 
Revolutionary soldier. Their family comprised 
four sons and one daughter, George being next 
to the youngest. He attended the public schools 
until he was seventeen years old, when he went 
to Illinois and for a time worked in a machine 
shop. After that he went to Minnesota and 
purchased 160 acres of land, which he improved 
and farmed for twelve years. 

Selling his farm in Minnesota in 1874, he 
came to California and purchased his present 
ranch, 240 acres, located two miles north of 
Lemoore. It had been used as a stock ranch, 
and he bought it for $12.50 per acre. Mr. Ster- 
ling has platted six ten-acre colony tracts on one 
side of it, for which he is now receiving $120 
per acre. He has built his residence, planted 
trees and a raisin vineyard, and otherwise im- 



proved his property, thereby increasing its 
value. 

In 1864 Mr. Sterling was united in marriage 
with Miss Emily J. Webb, a native of Canada, 
and there have been born to them four children. 
The oldest died at the age of six months. Those 
living are George, Cora and Belle. 

Mr. Sterling is a charter member of the Far- 
mers' Alliance. In politics he is liberal and in- 
dependent. 

^-€i^ 

fOHN L. KUKTZ, a prosperous rancher of 
Tulare County, has from a poor boy made 
his own way in the world and risen to a po- 
sition of prominence and wealth. 

He was born in Germany, of German parents, 
November 15, 1837. In his native land he 
learned the shoe-maker's trade. In 1855 he 
came to the United States, landed at Philadel- 
phia, and there began work at his trade. After- 
ward, for six months he was employed on a 
farm. In 1858, learning that land in Illinois 
could be purchased cheap, he went there and 
worked for wages until the spring of 1861. At 
that time he crossed the plains to California, 
driving a mule team for Mr. Eli Walker. The 
long and tedious overland journey was a memor- 
able one. At the Thousand Springs valley the 
Indians stole their horses. When the theft was 
discovered Mr. Kurtz and Mr. AValker started 
in pursuit, and by showering bullets on the red 
men succeeded in capturing the horses, although 
they shot three of them. They arrived in the 
Sacramento valley November 10, 1861. Mr. 
Kurtz at once found employment on a fruit 
farm, and worked for a Mr. Rich off and on the 
most of the time for six years. 

In 1867 he was married to Miss Mary Wy- 
man, a native of Indiana and a daughter of Jo- 
siah Wyman. On the first of October, about a 
year after his marriage, he came to his present 
location and pre-empted 160 acres of land. 
With his wife and baby he moved on to it, his 
worldly goods at that time consisting of a horse 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



665 



and wagon and $45 in cash. He built a small 
house and, as they had no stove, cooked at an 
open fire. 

He fenced ten acre; and planted it to corn 
and then worked out to get money to live on. 
He went thirty miles to Visalia to get his seed 
wheat, and from it raised a good crop. About 
that time he had to build a levee in front of his 
place to keep the water from overflowing his 
land in the spring. He continued whe^t farm- 
ing till 1886 with good success, in the mean- 
time purchasing 320 acres of land joining him 
on the North, making a ranch of 480 acres of 
choice land. On it in 1878 he built a eood 
home, and from year to year continued to make 
other improvements, bringing the place up to 
its present high standard of development. Since 
1886 he has been giving considerable attention 
to the fruit business; now has thirty acres in 
bearing orchard — pears, peaches, nectarines, 
apricots and French prunes; has a vineyard of 
raisin grapes, seventy acres, sixty of which are 
bearing. He still sows wheat on a half section 
of his land. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz eleven children have 
been born. Their oldest son, John E., a na- 
tive of Sacramento, is married and settled in 
life. Their other children were born at their 
present home and are named as follows: Frank, 
Maggie, Andrew, William, Mene, Otto, Lester, 
Eddie, Olive and Raymond. 

Mr. Kurtz is a Master Mason, an Odd Fel- 
low, and a member of the Farmers' Alliance. 
He is president of the Lemoore Fruit Packing 
Co. His political views have always been Dem- 
ocratic bnt he has not given much attention to 
politics. 

fMERY BARRIS is one of the prominent 
business men of the village of Traver, Tu- 
lare County, California, and as such he is 
entitled to more than a passing mention on the 
pages of this work. 

Mr. Barris is a native of Silver Creek, New 

42 



York, born May 11, 1847. His parents, Mi- 
chael and Lucinda S. (Bushee) Barris, both na- 
tives of the Empire State, were the parents of 
six children, three sons and three dauo-hters, of 
whom he was the fourth born. He' was reared 
and educated in his native place. In 1869 he 
removed to Kansas and remained there three 
years, working at the carpenter's trade. 

In 1873 Mr. Barris came to California, set- 
tled in San Jose and resided in that city six 
years. Two years of this time he spent at the 
University of the Pacific, and while there, in 
addition to his studies, taught penmanship. He 
subsequently engaged in contracting and build- 
ing; was the builder of the University Board- 
ing Hall, the Baptist Church and a number of 
the tine residences of San Jose. From that 
place he went to Plumas County, where he built 
a large quartz mill for a San Francisco compa 
ny. He was then engaged as foreman for a 
Boston company in the building of a large flume 
to be used in hydraulic mining, an undertaking 
which required three years to complete. After 
having spent five years in the mines he next 
brought up in Los Angeles County, worked at 
his trade there one year and then returned East 
for a visit. Coming back to California in 1885, 
he settled at Traver, which was then just start- 
ing. He engaged in his business and built the 
Seventy-six warehouse, a building 60 x 250 feet. 
Two years later he added 250 more to its length. 
He built the Christian Church and also put up 
several school houses in the country around the 
town — all of them being the first school build- 
ings erected in their respective districts. 

in 1887 Mr. Barris accepted an agency with 
the San Joaquin Lumber Co., in which capacity 
he still acts, having charge of the disposal of all 
the lumber in the wide section of country tribu- 
tary to Traver. Aside from his business for 
this company, he is also engaged in finishing 
drafts and plans for several buildings, and is su- 
perintending the construction of the Reedley 
school house, a building costing $15,000. The 
brick store building at that place he constructed 
at a cost of $18,000. 



6G6 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Mr. Barn's was married in 1875 to Miss Em- 
ma Gunn, a native of Wisconsin. In social 
circles he occupies a prominent position. He 
has passed all the chairs in the subordinate 
Lodge of the I. O. O. F., and also of the A. O. 
U. W., and is the Junior Warden of the Blue 
Lodge of Master Masons of Traver. A chief 
characteristic of the man in his versatility. Be- 
sides his enterprises and business relations al- 
ready referred to, he is interested in ranching 
and fruit growing.' [ He purchased twenty-two 
acres of choice fruit land at the edge of the 
town, built a house on it and planted the land 
to fruit and vines. He owns 160 acres of land 
two miles East of Traver. and one-half interest 
in 120 acres in Fresno County, both of which 
he is having farmed to grain. His comfortable 
residence is located in Traver. 






IPsENRY LEWIS HATCH was born in Ver- 
llEfl mont > March 22, 1814. His father, James 
~5iS(f Hatch, was born in Connecticut, his grand- 
father, Asa Hatch, having removed from that 
State to Vermont at an early day. Many gen- 
erations of the Hatch family belonged to the 
Episcopal Church. James Hatch married Miss 
Betsey Lewis, a native of New Hampshire, and 
to them were born thirteen children, some of 
whom died in infancy. At this writing only two 
are living. Mr. Hatch was next to the oldest in 
the family. He was reared in Vermont and edu- 
cated at Newbury Seminary. At the age of 
nineteen he began teaching, and the most of the 
time for twenty years followed that profession. 
In 1844 he removed to Illinois and built an 
academy at Waukegan, where he remained until 
1850. 

Mr. Hatch dates his arrival in California July 
15, 1850, having made the journey across the 
plains, with no serious mishap. At one time 
they were short of provisions and exchanged a 
two-horse wagon for a peck of corn. ALer 
reaching the Golden State he was engaged in 
the mercantile business for one year at George- 



town, El Dorado County, and with average 
success mined two years in Nevada County. 
He then turned his attention to farming, pur- 
chasing a possessory right to 1,000 acres, began 
the stock business and also built a hotel. He 
occupied the hotel for twenty years, and a por- 
tion of that time was postmaster and Justice of 
the Peace. In 1865-'6G he was elected to the 
State Legislature by the Republican party, and 
was in the Legislature when the 14th and 15th 
amendments to the United States constitution 
were passed. In later years Mr. Hatch engaged 
in horticultural pursuits, but since 1883 be has 
been retired from active business. In 1889 he 
came to his present home, adjoining that of his 
son, M. P. Hatch, near Lemoore. 

Mr. Hatch was married, in 1S38, to Miss 
Elizabeth W. Jetferds, and after a happy wedded 
life of over fifty years the companion of his 
youth is still by his side. Lie has never been 
sick a day in his life, and his wife is blessed with 
unusually good health. They have never had a 
death in their family and all their children are 
strong and healthy. Their daughter, Lucy E., 
is the wife of A. B. Driesvock and resides iu 
Nevada County. James J. is a dentist of San 
Francisco. M. P. and M. D. are twins, the 
former a horticulturist near Lemoore, and the 
latter a railroad employe residing in San Fran- 
cisco. 

Now, in the declining years of their live,-, 
Mr. and Mrs. Hatch are happy in their com- 
fortable home and in the enjoyment of each 
other's society. 

jARTIN PAINE HATCH, a prominent 
horticulturist of Fresno County, resides 
■^i^* two miles north of Lemoore. He came 
to his present locality in 1881, purchased 160 
acres of choice land, and turned his attention to 
fruit culture. He has ten acres in bearing or- 
chard and thirty-five acres in raisin grapes. He 
is now planting twenty acres to peaches. He 
keeps some stock and devotes the rest of his 
land to <!eneral farming. 




BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



667 



Mr. Hatch was born in Vermont, August 19, 
1841, and at twelve years of age came to Cali- 
fornia with his parents. His education was ob- 
tained in the public schools of Nevada County 
and in his father's academy. P'or a time he 
worked on the ranch at home, and afterward 
owned a toll road in the foothills, which was 
built by the Dry Creek Turnpike Co. After 
six years' connection with this he sold his in- 
terest and bought 170 acres of land from his 
father. He subsequently added to it 160 acres, 
the whole comprising a line stock and hay 
ranch, which he conducted ten years. Disposing 
of this farm in 1881, he came to his present 
location as above stated. 

Mr. Hatch was married, in 1866, to Miss 
Julia Noland, a native of Virginia, and their 
union has been blessed with four children. One 
died in infancy. The others are Stella, Hattie 
E. and Mamie E. Stella is the wife of Mr. A. 
Brownstone, and Hattie is the wife of J. T. 
Esrey, and both live near their parents. 

Mr. Hatch, like his father, Henry Lewis 
Hatch (see his history in this book"), has never 
had any sickness in his family. He is a mem- 
ber of the Farmers' Alliance, the A. O. U. W., 
and the Royal Arch Masons. In politics he is 
a Republican. He was one of the organizers of 
the Farmers' Alliance Fruit Packing Company, 
an organization for the purpose of marketing 
their fruit, and is secretary of the company. 




— "**<5*Hr" — 

K. HARRIS, Superior Judge of 
Fresno County, California, was born 
in Sumner County, Tennessee, March 
31, 1853. His father. I. W. Harris, was an 
extensive farmer of the blue grass country, own- 
ing and cultivating 500 acres. After the war 
he engaged in mercantile business at Gallatin. 
Judge Harris received his early education in 
the country schools, then took a three years 
course at the Academy of Gallatin, and from 
1871 to 1873 he attended the University of Ken- 
tucky at Lexington. For one year he was en- 



gaged in teaching in Sumner County, near his 
old home, after which he taught a private school 
in Christian County, Kentucky, until 1877. 
Being studiously inclined and expecting to make 
law his profession, he improved every oppor- 
tunity during these four years in pursuing his 
chosen study. In September, 1877, he entered 
the law department of the Vanderbilt Univer- 
sity at Nashville, Tennessee, and, being so well 
grounded in his studies, he was enabled to take 
the two years course in one year, graduating in 
1878, second in a class ot thirty-two members. 
August 15, 1878, is the date of his arrival in 
Fresno. He at once entered upon a profes- 
sional career here, in which he has been re- 
markably successful. In February, 1880, lie 
formed a partnership with Judge Sayle (a biog- 
raphy of whom appears elsewhere in this 
work). This connection was continued with 
mutual success and profit until March, 1887, 
when Mr. Harris was called to a higher seat in 
his profession. From a number of applicants 
he was appointed by Governor Washington 
Bartlett as Judge of the Superior Court of 
Fresno County, the new office having been 
created by the Legislature in the spring of 
1887. In the election of 1888 Judge Harris 
received the nomination for re-election upon the 
Democratic ticket, and was so universally popu- 
lar that he was endorsed upon the Republican 
ticket, receiving almost a unanimous vote of 
both parties, and within fifty of the combined 
vote cast in the county for Harrison and Cleve- 
land. 

Before going on the bench Judge Harris had 
been prominent in politics, both as speaker and 
chairman of the Democratic County Central 
Committee. He is a member of Fresno Lodge, 
No. 247, F. & A. M., and a charter member of 
Vineland Lodge, No. 67, K. of P. 

The Judge was married, in Sumner County, 
Tennessee, December 13, 1884, to Miss Julia 
Tyree, daughter of Edward P. Tyree, and niece 
of Hon. William B. Bate. While owning some 
property in Fresno, our subject did not engage 
in the real estate boom, as it interfered too 



668 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



much with his judicial duties. He resides at 
his cottage home, No. 929 O street. 

Judge Harris' judicial position is generally 
approved by the bar association, and a learned 
lawyer of Fresno says: "Judge Harris has an 
exceedingly judicial temperament, which leads 
him to carefully investigate his cases, and his 
decisions are rarely reversed, but are in accord- 
ance with law and the evidence, and he aims to 
be fair and just to all." 

^€B-^- — 



W. BROWN, a rancher living near 
Porterville, Tulare County, Califor- 
l^^feSS ° nia, was born in Jefferson County, 
New Fork, November 13, 1852. His father, 
William A. Brown, was a school teacher by 
profession and a very bright and clever man. 
He came to California in 1855 and opened one 
of the first schools in Tulare County, at Camel 
Crossing on King's river. In 1857 he brought 
his family to this State and settled in Visalia, 
where he continued teaching. 

W. W. Brown gained his education in early 
life. At the age of fourteen he left school and 
began his own support, taking up the light work 
on sheep and cattle ranches and the more active 
duties of vaquero as experience and strength 
increased. He was also foreman of the large 
sheep ranch of L. M. Bond. 

Mr. Brown was married, at Visalia, in 1876, 
to Miss Rosalia Ford, daughter of J. P. Ford, a 
pioneer of 1856, and after his marriage settled 
in Porterville, where he remained until 1879. 
He then removed to Frazier valley and home- 
steaded 160 acres of land and followed farming, 
and teamed to Han ford and Visalia. He rented 
additional land and cultivated annually about 
250 acres. In 1888 he bought twenty acres in 
the Pioneer Land Company's first subdivision, 
but resided upon his ranch until 1890, when he 
sold out and moved to Porterville. He is now 
devoting his time to the improvement of this 
place, cultivating vines, fruit and alfalfa. He 
was elected road overseer in 1888, but his life 



has chiefly been spent in ranch industries. Mr. 
and Mrs. Brown have three children: Ralph 
W., Roy Ford and Lahalla Arlett. 

fELANO £. GILBERT.— Among the prom- 
inent and well-to-do citizens of Dinuba, 
Tulare County, California, we find this 
gentleman. He comes of French ancestry, his 
progenitors having settled in North Carolina at 
an early period in the history of that State, and 
there two generations of the family were born — ■ 
his grandfather, John Gilbert, and his father, 
Joseph Gilbert. His maternal ancestors were 
Virginians from the time of the Revolution. 
His grandfather, James House, was one of the 
red-coats who came to America in the service of 
King George, and at the battle of Bunker Hill 
was taken prisoner by the Continental forces; 
and that ended his fighting against the colonies. 
His daughter, Jemima House, became the wife 
of Joseph Gilbert, and of their twelve children, 
Delano E. is the youngest. He was born in 
Bloomington, Illinois, April 14, 1830, and when 
seven years of age, went with his parents to 
Iowa, where he received his schooling and grew 
to manhood. 

In 1850 he came overland to California, 
arriving in the month of September, about the 
time this State was admitted into the Union. 
For nearly a year he was engaged in mining on 
the Solano river, and met with good success. 
On August 2, 1851, from forty buckets of dirt 
taken from the bed of the river (the river hav- 
ing been wing-dammed,) he washed out with a 
rocker, $1,600 — some fine gold and some in 
larger pieces, one piece worth $52 and another 
$62. He afterward sold his claim for $1,750. 
thinking that it had become nearly exhausted; 
but the parties who bought it took out large 
quantities of gold. That claim went by the 
name of Gilbert's Point. In 1852 Mr. Gilbert 
returned East, purchased 110 cows at an aver- 
age of $12 each, drove them across the plains to 
California and sold them to James Whitcomb 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



for from $75 to $115 apiece. In 1854 he again 
weut East, this time returning with forty-seven 
head of horses, which also proved a success; but 
he met with a severe loss in the failure of 
Adams & Co. and Page & Bacon, as he had 
deposited money with both companies. The 
latter soon afterward resumed payment, but the 
former never paid, and he sustained a loss of 
$7,000. In 1855 he made another trip East, 
returned with a large drove of cattle, pastured 
them for a time in the Sacramento valley, and 
sold them at a handsome profit. He then 
bought the store of Dr. McClintock, and 
engaged in the mercantile business in Coon 
Hollow, which he conducted there two years, 
and at the expiration of that time, removed to 
Pleasant Valley with his stock of goods. At 
the latter place he built the Genoa Hotel. After 
being in business there a year and a half, he sold 
out and located in Sacramento, where he bought 
and sold stock. We next find him engaged in 
selling goods at Hollister, San Benito County. 
In 1875 he disposed of his interests at that place 
and made a trip to Europe and visited London 
and Norwich, looking up the estate of his 
great-grandfather. After spending consider- 
ble money in trying to recover the property, 
without success, he returned to California. In 
1880 he settled on 160 acres of government 
land in Tulare County, near where he now 
resides, improved the property, obtained a clear 
title to it and made a nice home. He also took 
up another quarter section of land, besides pur- 
chasing eighty acres from the railroad com- 
pany. This property grew in value, and he sold 
one ranch of eighty acres for $6,400, the eighty 
on which his home was located for $10,500, and 
another eighty further away for $2,000. At 
this writing (1891) he is building a residence 
on eighty acres that adjoin Dinuba, intending 
soon to plant this land to vines and fruit trees. 
Mr. Gilbert was married in 1853, to Miss 
Ella Ross, a native of Indiana. They have one 
daughter, Lela, wife of T. H. Swain, and seven 
sons. Mr. Gilbert has been a member of the 
I. O. O. F. since 1854, has passed all its chairs in 



all its branches, and has served as Deputy Grand 
Master. He is one of the oldest Odd Fellows in 
the County. In politics he is a Democrat. 



SUSSELL HOLMAN SLOVER was borr 
in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, 
in 1859. His father, James A. Slover, 
was a native of Missouri. He was a fanner by 
occupation, and a Baptist minister, not, how- 
ever, being settled as pastor, but preaching as 
opportunity offered. In 1864he moved to Rich- 
mond, Arkansas, and there engaged in general 
farming until 1869, when he started for Califor- 
nia. He was one of a large company who made 
the overland journey that year, and they fre- 
quently stopped for rest or pleasure. The 
Indians were then quite aggressive, and although 
spies were frequently seen following the train, 
they dared not make an attack on so large a 
party. Entering California by the Southern 
route, they encamped at San Diego about three 
months. In 1870 Mr. Slover came to Visalia, 
and two years later bought a ranch of 160 acres 
on Tule river, where he made h.s home until 
1881. At that time he and his wife and family 
went to Oregon, where they are still living. 

R. H. Slover, the subject of this sketch, 
received his early education in Richmond, 
Arkansas, and after coming to this State, at- 
tended school at Visalia. Since twenty years of 
age he has earned his own support. He began 
in 1879 as mail carrier from Woodville via 
Hunsecker, to Tipton, and ten months later the 
line was abandoned, the mail being transferred 
at Tulare. He then commenced sowing grain, 
and in the fall of 1881 bought his present ranch 
of eighty acres, located east of Woodville, and 
has since followed farming, and in a small way 
a general stock business. 

Mr. Slover was married near Porterville, in 
1884, to Miss Lucy A. Dennis, a native of Cali- 
fornia. They have three children, Vernon R., 
Hugh M. and Iva Leona. Since his marriage, 
Mr. Slover has made his home on the ranch. 



670 



HT8T0RT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



He lias a small family orchard and eight acres in 
alfalfa, the rest of his land being used for grain 
purposes. He also rents other lands, and annu- 
ally sows from 200 to 800 acres in grain. 



fONATHAN ESREY was born in Clark 
County, Illinois, April 30, 1831. His 
grandfather Esrey was of English parents. 
He emigrated to this country and settled in 
Philadelphia, where he became a large property 
owner and was prominent as an importer of 
blooded cattle; was also extensively engaged in 
farming. His son, Jesse Esrey, father of the 
subject of our sketch, was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, and was raised as a farmer. When he 
hecame a man he was united in marriage to 
Hannah Foster, a native of Kentucky. Her 
ancestors were participants in the Revolution- 
ary war. They reared nine children, and of 
that number, five are still living, the youngest 
being fifty-four years of age. Jonathan was the 
seventh born, and was nine years old when the 
family moved to Missouri. There he remained 
until he was nineteen, when with two of his 
brothers, he crossed the plains to California, 
being 108 days in making the journey from 
St. Joseph, Missouri, to the Sacramento valley. 
The brothers who accompanied him were Justin 
and James. The latter returned East the fol- 
lowing year, and the former is still living in 
California. They engaged in mining in El 
Dorado County, but never made more than good 
wages. At times they were a few thousand dol- 
lars ahead, and for a time kept a miners' supply 
store. In 1856 they sold out and went to Santa 
Clara County, where they engaged in the stock 
business. 

In 1857 Mr. Esrey came to his present local- 
ity near King's river, three miles and a half 
northwest of Lemoore, and was among the first 
settlers here. David Burris, a prominent early 
settler, lived sixteen miles away, and Visalia at 
that time was a town of only two or three years 
growth. He and his brother purchased a sec- 



tion of land, and since then have bought and sold 
land quite extensively. Mr. Esrey*s home ranch 
consists of 400 acres. For many years he was 
chiefly engaged in stock raising, but more 
recently has given his attention to grain-farm- 
ing. He owns three quarter sections of land in 
different places. 

In April, 1871, Mr. Esrey wedded Mrs. Sarah 
Winset, a native of Missouri. Their union has 
been blessed with four children, namely: George, 
Kate L., Robert J., and Justin Earnest, all born 
at their home near Lemoore. By her former 
husband, Mrs. Esrey also has five children. 

In politics Mr. Esrey is a Democrat, but gives 
little attention to political matters, and has 
declined to hold office. He is an official mem- 
ber of the M. E. Church South, having been 
steward for the past twenty years. 

— & :-:-; 




||I L L I A M FUGITT, a farmer near 
Glennville, was born in Missouri, Sep- 
tember 3, 1826, and came with his 
father to California in 1850. His father, 
Scharschal C. Fngitt, a farmer and natural 
mechanic, was brought up in Madison County, 
Kentucky, connected with some of the first 
families of that State, who were contemporary 
with Daniel Boone. He married Miss Mary, 
daughter of Josiah Thorp, born in Kentucky- 
She died in 1868, at about the age of seven- 
ty years. He - came to California in 1850. 
settling on the Calaveras river, three miles 
northeast of Stockton, and finally died in that 
county, near Gait, in 1870. He had three sons 
and two daughters, of whom only two are now 
living — the subject of this brief sketch and 
L. L., who resides near Bakerstield. 

August 1, 1846, Mr. William Fngitt entered 
the Mexican war, from Missouri, and served 
thirteen months, under Captain Thomas M. 
Horine and Colonel Sterling Price; was dis- 
charged in September, 1847; was at the in- 
vasion. He now draws a pension of $8 a month. 
His farm consists of sixty acres. 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



671 



He was married, February 28, 1848, to Miss 
Sarah M,., daughter of Jesse Cole, of Atchison 
County, Missouri, born February 28, 1830. 
They have three sons and three daughters, 
namely: Francis S. ; Eliza J., now Mrs. Calvin. 
Dunlap; Mary, now Mrs. Henry Slinkord; 
William P., Thomas S. and Laura, now Mrs. 
George Doherty. 

Mr. Fugitt is an elder in the G-lennville 
Christian Church, and his wife belongs to the 
same church. 



-=3H« 



} • * 1 



-H£~ 



\&X FRANKEISTAU, senior member of 
the mercantile firm of Frankenau Bros., 
^Shs^ of Sanger, was born in Bavaria, in 
1850. His father, S. A. Frankenau, was an 
early pioneer of California, and settled at San 
Francisco, with a store at Gilroy, and for many 
years was engaged in a general mercantile busi- 
ness. Our subject was educated in Europe, both 
in the classics and mercantile pursuits, and came 
to America in 1867, and after a few months in 
New York City he came to San Francisco, where 
for about three years he was engaged as book- 
keeper in the large mercantile establishment of 
Buckingham & Hecht. In 1871 Mr. Frank- 
enau, with his father, opened a general mercan- 
tile store on King's river, at Centerville, under 
the firm name of S. A. Frankenau & Son, which 
is still in operation, and is the oldest mercantile 
house in the County. Modesto was at that 
time the nearest point on the railroad, and from 
thence they staged to Centreville, which was the 
only settlement on the upper King's river. The 
store contained a general assortment of mer- 
chandize pertaining to the ranch or household, 
and during their business career they acquired 
thousand of- acres of ranch property, and were 
also quite extensively engaged in the stock 
business. In the spring of 1889 the firm of 
Frankenau Bros, was established at Sanger, 
which is composed of the three brothers, Max, 
Sigmund and Albert. They constructed their 
brick store, with spacious basement, 40 x 100 



feet, at Sanger, in February, 1889, and opened 
the store for business on July 1, 1889, keeping 
a general assortment of household goods and 
all ranch requirements, and carrying a stock of 
about $35,000, The store at Centreville is still 
continued, which, however, they are about clos- 
ing, as with their satisfactory business connec- 
tion the trade will follow them to Sanger. 

Mr. Max Frankenau is a charter member of the 
Farmers' Bank of Fresno, and of the bank of 
Central California, of which he is a director. 
The firm are also charter members of the Bank 
of Sanger, of which Sigmund Frankenau is 
Vice-President. Mr. Frankenau was married in 
San Francisco in 1886, and now resides at Cen- 
treville, but is about to build a spacious resi- 
dence in Sanger. 

fAMES O'MARA, of Madera, was born in 
Ireland, in September, 1847. When he was 
seven years old his father departed this life 
and he lived with his mother until he was 
sixteen years old, when he started out in life, 
first going to Australia, and there connecting 
himself with the sheep industry, working upon 
email and large ranches, one company having 
owned 500,000 sheep. After six years in Aus- 
tralia he came to California, arriving in San 
Francisco in January, 1870. He then followed 
ranching in Stanislaus County until 1876, and 
having accumulated a little money by economi- 
cal living, he purchased 700 sheep in the fall of 
1876, which were the nucleus of his later suc- 
cess. In 1878 he moved his sheep to Fresno 
County, near Madera, purchased 700 more 
sheep, and remained in that part of the County. 
With his knowledge of the business his sheep 
prospered and the band increased to 6,000 head, 
though at the present time he is keeping but 
3,000. He thinks sheep raising for wool and 
mutton the best stock industry in the State, 
provided one has a practical knowledge of the 
business. In 1887 he bought a block of land 
in Madera, including his neat cottage home. 



672 



IIJS10RT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Since then he has built four cottages upon this 
block for rentiDg, and made other important 
improvements, including the ground about his 
house, which is being laid out in a lawn, with a 
variety of shrubbery and trees. 

Mr. O'Mara was married in San Francisco 
October 29, 1882, to Miss Sarah Conley, and 
they have three children. Maggie, James and 
Sarah. Mr. O'Mara is greatly pleased with 
California, both as to climate, soil and resources, 
and though he has been a hard working man he 
is now in the enjoyment of home and family. 

fWELSO H. SIM, a rancher near Hanfbrd, 
V was born in Devonshire. England, in 
1862. His father, W. C. Sim, was for 
twenty years a member of the India Civil Ser- 
vice, as Presiding Magistrate over one State of 
the Madras Presidency. He retired in 1861, 
and is now living in Devonshire. 

Kelso H. Sim was educated at the private 
school of Miss Hill, Cheltenham, with a three- 
ytars course at Winchester college. In 1871 
he entered the college for infantry service, then 
conducted by Professor Wolffram,at Blackheath, 
London, and during the course of three years 
Mr. Sim was in the Fourth Battalion, Devon- 
shire Regiment of Militia, stationed at Exeter, 
Devonshire. Through the influence of the late 
Sir William Robinson, he was induced to come 
to California in 1882, and after passing one year 
at the house of Mr. J. S. Robinson, he purchased 
his present ranch of eighty-two and one-half 
acres, one mile south of town. This he has 
improved by planting seventeen acres in raisin 
vines, fifteen acres in fruit, and the remainder 
in alfalfa. He also has about thirty head of 
horses, with three stallions ~f the Norman, 
Hambletonian and trotting strains. The ranch 
is slightly elevated, and his fine house, built in 
1886, commands a pleasing view of the fertile 
plain, backed by the coast range on the west, 
and Sierra Nevada in the east. 

He was married in Fresno in 1884, to Miss 



Alma E. Perry, a native daughter of the golden 
West. This union has been blessed with two 
children, Alexander Earl Clulow, and Douglas 
Abercrombie Hamilton. 



~~~~~H— 

fD. GREENE, a venerable citizen, is in- 
separably connected with the history of 
* Kern County, and particularly that por- 
tion of the county known as the Tehachapi. 
The story of his life, if recited in detail, would 
demand the space of several chapters in this 
volume, and would assume a deep hue of ••owl- 
nest"' romance. 

He was born in Herkimer County, New 
York, in the town of Wiufield, November 21. 
1827. His father, Samuel A. GreeDe, was born 
in Concord, New Hampshire, and devoted the 
larger portion of his life to merchandising. He 
was a descendant, through generations of old 
New England families, from Puritan stock, 
flourished some years as an influential merchant 
on Long Wharf in Boston, and when during 
the war of 1812 an embargo was laid upon the 
shipping of that port, he abandoned the busi- 
ness and settled in Herkimer County, New 
York. In 1833 lie removed from that place 
with his family to Ohio, locating in the town of 
Elyria. in the "Western Reserve." and engaged 
in farming, brought up his children and lived 
there until his death in 1843, at an advanced 
age. He was a graduate of Dartmouth Col- 
lege, and possessed unusual enterprise and en- 
ergy. He reared five sons and two daughters. 
Four of the sons were graduated at his alma 
mater, and the two daughters were thoroughly 
educated at the Ashfield (Massachusetts^ Female 
Seminary. Judge Greene's mother, by maiden 
name Fannie Harwood, was a native of Ash- 
field, educated in the same institution, and was 
a lady of culture and intelltctual accomplish- 
ments. She died in Elyria, Ohio, in 1836, when 
the subject of this sketch was about nine yean 
of age. 

Judge Greene spent his early boyhood and 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



673 



youth on his father's farm in Elyria, receiving 
a good education; studied law at Elyria, and 
was admitted to the har of the Supreme Court 
of the State at Painesville, the county seat of 
Lake County, at twenty-one years of age. 
During his youth and early manhood he was 
Drought into intimate relations with many of 
the leading public men of his State. He was 
selected as First Assistant Clerk of the Ohio 
Senate for the session of 1848, during which 
term the late Hon. Salmon P. Chase was elected 
to the United States Senate; was tendered an 
appointment to West Point from his Congress- 
ional district at sixteen years of age, but the 
family demurring, he resigned his appointment 
in favor of Quincy A. Gil more, who afterward 
became a General and served in the Union 
cause with distinction. 

In 1850 he came with others to California 
overland, witli ox teams, having some trouble 
with Indians. He crossed the summit of the 
Sierra .Nevada mountains in about sixteen 
inches of snow, with no covering for his feet 
excepting gunny sacks, which he tied around 
them. Arriving at Hangtown (now Placer- 
ville) he engaged in mining for a time with 
average success. In 1853 he made a trip to 
Los Angeles County, taking with him from San 
Francisco the first modern threshing-machine 
into Southern California, which was regarded 
by the people there as a great curiosity; and 
under the management of the native-born Yan- 
kee this stroke of business enterprise proved a 
financial success, as he received 15 cents a 
bushel of forty-seven pounds of barley, and 20 
cents a bushel of sixty pounds of wheat, for 
threshing. 

After spendiug about eighteen months in 
Los Angeles County, he came, in the fall of 
1854, to the "Kern river country," and engaged 
somewhat extensively in mining. He explored 
Greenhorn Gulch, and in 1856 he, associated 
with the late Colonel J. W. Freeman, "Washing- 
ton Cameron and E. T. Holt, erected a two- 
stainp quartz mill on Kern river, which was 
doubtless the first stamp mill erected on that 



stream. It was propelled with a two-horse- 
power engine. This mill was carried away by 
a freshet ir the fall of 1857. 

From Greenhorn Gulch Judge Greene went 
to Keysville, and there, associated with the 
aforesaid gentlemen, built a stamp mill and 
operated it until 1856. Christmas night of 
that year he struck camp in Mormon Gulch, 
near Tehachapi, and here he prospected for a 
time and then opened rich placer pockets three 
miles south of Tehachapi. At length he sold 
out these prospects and opened the first mines 
on what is still known as China Hill, so called 
because he employed Chinamen to operate the 
works. These mines proved profitable, and he 
operated them for several years, taking out 
$150,000. He also engaged in stock, and 
brought the first hundred head of cattle to this 
country from Los Angeles County in 1858. 

In 1861 Judge Greene stood firmly by the 
"flag of our Union" and the Republican party. 
He was the only man in what is now Kern 
County who dared to stand out openly by his 
political convictions and vote for General John 
C. Fremont for President of the United States 
in 1856. Those were days when it cost almost 
a man's entire reputation to be a Republican, 
and it required heroism to stand by the Union 
cause during the war. When Lincoln was 
elected President he was tendered the United 
States Land Office at Visalia, but declined. He 
contributed the major portion of the money to 
start the first Republican newspaper this side, 
or south, of San Francisco. This was the Vi- 
salia Delta, which is still running and is an in- 
fluential sheet. In 1862 Judge Greene received 
the appointment of United States Internal 
Revenue Assessor for the district comprising 
Los Angeles County, and was at the same time 
chosen as Collector for the National Sanitary 
Commission, the arduous duties of which offices 
he performed with ability and his characteristic 
promptness and business dispatch. 

He resigned the office there and returned to 
Tehachapi in 1864, and continued his mining 
and stock enterprises until 1875. His business 



074 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



headquarters and base of supplies were for some 
years at Oak creek, about eight miles southeast 
of Tehachapi. Here was established the first 
post office in the valley, which was given the 
name of Tehachapi, and Judge Greene was ap- 
pointed its postmaster. This office was at 
length removed to the old town of Tehachapi, 
and presided over by W. C. Wiggins as deputy. 
Upon the commencement of the construction of 
the Southern Pacific Railway in 1876, through 
Kern County, a new post office was established, 
to which was given the name of Greenwich, 
and around this has sprung up the thrifty ham- 
let and station of Tehachapi, while the post 
office still retains its original name, and is still 
presided over by Judge Greene, with Charles 
A. Lee as his able and popular deputy, in 
1875 Judge Greene was elected Justice of the 
Peace, and he has held that office ever since. 
In 1864 he was one of the commissioners who 
settled terms with Los Angeles County after 
Kern County was set off. 

Thus from the foregoing facts it will be seen, 
in part only however, that Judge Greene has 
been a useful and popular citizen. 



tLPHA A. WEBBER.— As the higher 
peaks of a mountain range cast longer 
shadows than their companions of lesser 
altitude, so the men who have reached the sum- 
mit of success are better known and have a 
greater influence than those who attain only a 
mediocre position in life. In every community 
there are men who have outstripped their fel- 
lows on the road to success, and the secret of 
their prosperity may usually be traced to per- 
severing, indefatigable effort in whatever 
they undertake to accomplish. Among those 
who occupy prominent positions in the vicinity 
of Selma, Fresno County, California, may be 
cited the name of Alpha A. Webber. It is our 
pleasure, in this brief review of his life, to state 
the following facts: 

o 

Mr. Webber was born in Greensboro, Ver- 



mont, in the year 1835. His father owned a 
farm, and on it young Webber spent his child- 
hood and youth, attending the neighboring 
schools at convenient opportunities, always ap- 
plying himself closely to his studies. At the 
age of nineteen he began teaching, and for two 
winters was engaged in that occupation in the 
Green Mountain State. Then lie went to Illi- 
nois, seeking business opportunities, and after 
making considerable money in speculation, he 
determined to return to Vermont, pursue his 
studies and prepare himself for college, which 
he did. He subsequently entered the Univer- 
sity at Burlington and took a partial course in 
that excellent institution. 

In June, 1866, Mr. Webber came to Califor- 
nia, located in San Francisco, and there success- 
fully conducted the life insurance business for 
six years. At a later period he was extensively 
engaged in loaning money. He then moved to 
Oakland, where for several years he was in the 
dairy business. In 1882 he sold out his inter- 
ests there and came to Fresno County, locating 
five miles from Selma, where we find him to- 
day. His estate here is a line one, consisting 
of 3,200 acres, a portion of which he purchased 
in 1869 and which he had rented out for sheep 
purposes. He is now engaged in raising alfalfa, 
grain, hogs, cattle and horses, and the prosper- 
ity which has attended his other enterprises has 
not failed him here. He also owns prop- 
erty in other parts of Fresno County, and is 
prominently identified with many important 
movements that have been of vital interest to 
this section of California. He was one of the 
builders of the Fowler Switch Canal, and is now 
President of that company. He is also Presi- 
dent of the Farmers' Alliance in Selma. 

Mr. Webber is unquestionably a self-made 
man. In early life he was thrown entirely 
upon his own resources, and the positiou he 
occupies to-day is due to his own energy and 
sound judgment. Back in the Eastern States 
he laid the foundation for a useful life, and his 
career in California has been an eminently suc- 
cessful one. Carefully selecting a home in this 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



675 



fertile valley, with great faith in its future de- 
velopment, he is already rich in worldly goods. 
As a citizen he stands high in the community, 
having the respect of all who know him. 

Mr. Webber was married in 1868, to Miss 
Amelia G. Swain, daughter of William B. 
Swain, of San Francisco. They have had seven 
children, five of whom are now living. He is 
a firm believer in the divinity of the Bible and 
in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and 
has been for years an active and prominent 
member of the Church of the. New Jerusalem, 
the foundation plank of which is Love to God 
and good will to men. He has great faith in 
the future of the church and the world. 

~» 'g * 3 "i- |" "~ 



T. MILLER, of Caliente, Kern County, 
came to California in the fall of 1853. 
He was born in the foot-hills of the 
Cumberland Mountains, in Madison County, 
Alabama, and is a son of R. G. Miller, a cotton 
planter, who late in life became a resident of 
Western Tennessee. 

Mr. Miller left home at the age of twenty- 
two years, went to Lamar County, Texas, and 
engaged in farming, He was married there in 
1848 to Miss Sarah Jane Brown, of Tennessee; 
of their four children, three lived to maturity. 

Upon his arrival in California, Mr. Miller 
located in Los Angeles County, where he was 
engaged in farming until 1856. Then he spent 
two years in Merced County; removed to Mari- 
posa County, and in 1865 to Caliente, which 
has since been his home. He was appointed 
postmaster of Caliente in 1890, and still holds 
the position. 

James E. Miller, only living son of H. T. 
Miller, was born in Lamar County, Texas, March 
1, 1851, and is now a prominent business man 
of Caliente. He was married in 1878, to Miss 
Mollie E. Grubbs, a native of Tulare, California, 
a daughter of William Grubbs. They have two 
sons and one daughter, Amy, James, jr., and 
Edna. He has a ranch of 160 acres near Cali- 



ente, and ranges about 250 head "of cattle and 
fifteen head of horses. 



SFENCER, is an old time California 
pioneer, and one of the historic charac- 
ters of Tehachapi. He is an native of 
North Carolina, born in the old town of Charlotte, 
January 3, 1842. His father, Harvey Spencer, 
also a native of that State, owned a large cotton 
plantation. Of his seven children our subject 
is the youngest, and is the only one who has 
ever located in California. 

From the opening of the late war, Mr. Spen- 
cer fought as a private for the honor of his 
country and State, until the close of the conflict. 
He subsequently came to the far west, and in 
1869 took rip his residence in Tehachapi. In 
his business engagements he has been financially 
and socially prospered, being now one of the 
heaviest property holders in the town. He has 
remained single, but is one of the most social 
and genial citizens of the valley, and is ever pre- 
sent on the streets of the thriving hamlet, to 
join in, or listen co a good joke and pass a 
pleasant hour. He displays a rare judgment in 
not allowing the cares and pressure of money 
making at his time of life to weigh heavily on 
his mind. 



TaOUIS FICKERT, one of the original set- 
tlers of Bear valley, Kern County, Cali- 
fornia, is a native of Prussia, born February 
12, 1823. He learned the cooper's trade and 
followed the same in Hamburg until he was 
about twenty- three years of age. At that time 
he sailed as ship's cooper on a merchant vessel 
for the coasts of Africa, made a voyage of 
thirty-eight months, returned to Hamburg and 
re-sailed for South American ports. He spent 
thirteen weeks in Valparaiso, South America, 
and from there sailed to San Francisco, arriving 
January 5, 1850. At once he sought the mines 



C7C 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



of Ynba County, afterward mined in Washing- 
ton Territory a few months, and in 1852 re- 
turned to California, spending some time in 
Nevada County. In 1853 he visited Germany, 
remaining until March 15, 1854, when he re- 
turned to his old " stamping grounds " in the 
Golden State, coming via New York City, As- 
pinwall and San Francisco. He mined in 
Auburn, California, winding up in Sierra 
County, and in 1870, locating in Bear valley, 
Kern County, where he has since been success- 
fully engaged in stock raising and agricultural 
pursuits. He owns about 3,000 acres of good 
farming and grazing land, ranges 150 head of 
cattle, a small band of sheep, and keeps about 
twelve saddle and work horses. 

Mr. Fickert is well known to be a pronounced 
but conservative Democrat in politics, and is 
regarded as a representative California!!. 



-—* Z ' l > < • & ■*- 

tATTIE S. TOLER, the pioneer post- 
mistress of Dinuba, was born in Iowa, in 
1862. Her grandfather, Stephen Golden, 
came to America from England, before the 
Revolution. Her father, John Wesley Golden, 
was born in Pennsylvania, August 5, 1810, 
learned the blacksmith trade in his youth, and 
worked at that and farming in Ohio, Indiana, 
and Iowa, until 1873, when he came to Cali- 
fornia. After spending some time in Santa 
Clara and San Benito Counties, he came to his 
present location, in the vicinity of Dinuba. He 
was twice married, first to Miss Mary Reaves, 
in Ohio, in 1832, and they had six children. A 
year after the death of his first wife he was 
married, in 1850, to Mrs. Mary Hildreth, a 
widow with five children. The oldest son, Rev. 
Wm. Hildreth, D. D., proved to be a very ex- 
cellent Baptist minister, who preached for years 
in California's largest cities. Mr. Golden's last 
union also resulted in six children. All the 
children of botli families grew up to be honora- 
ble and reliable citizens. Two of the sons 
served in the civil war; one lost, his life in that 



struggle, the other returned home a veteran and 
a victor. Mr. Golden has seen many of the 
reverses of life, but his later days have been 
crowned with success; he has lived to a good 
old age. He and his wife are enjoying the 
comforts of a prosperous California farm, and a 
comfortable home. 

Mrs. Toler is her father's youngest child. 
She had splendid school privileges, and attended 
the State Normal School for several years. From 
a young girl she has been industrious and self- 
supporting. Mr. Homer Hall was first ap- 
pointed postmaster, she being his assistant and 
having full charge of the office from its estab- 
lishment. Mr. Hall resigned, and on the first 
day of August, 1889, she was appointed to her 
present position. In this, she is ably assisted by 
her husband, Mr. Toler. 

December 18, 1881, the subject of our sketcli 
was united in marriage . to Kenton Smith, and 
to them a sou, Fred B. Smith, was boru. When 
her son was four years old she became a widow, 
and after two years from that time she married 
again, this time John E. Toler, June 16, 1889. 
Mr. Toler was a widower with one son, Marvin. 
His former wife was a daughter of N. B. Ed- 
miston. Mr. Toler is a well-known citizen of 
this part of Tulare County, having resided here 
for sixteen years, during which time he has held 
many responsible positions. 

For several years he was a member of the 
board of directors of the Alta irrigation dis- 
trict. He built and conducted the pioneer 
livery business at Dinuba, but is now engaged 
in the vineyard business, for himself and east- 
ern parties. Mr. Toler and wife own considera- 
ble valuable property around Dinuba, including 
the postoffice building. While they are botli 
yet comparatively young, they are well-to-do, 
respected citizens. Mr. Toler is a native of 
California, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. C. 
Toler, reside at Orosi. 

Before entering the post-office, Mrs. Toler re- 
sided at Fresno, where she was engaged in the 
millinery business, and while there sustained a 
heavy loss by fire, but by her elastic spirit and 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



677 



indomitable energy, soon entered a new field of 
business, and regained what was lost. 



*: 



3* 



]■;;:•' i M. WHITE. — After many years of pio- 
neer work in both Illinois and California, 
H. M. White now resides in his beautiful 
home in Frazier valley, Tulare County. Situa- 
ted at the foot of " Rocky Hill," and overlook- 
ing his broad acres of waving grain, this is 
indeed a charming abode in which to pass the 
evening of an active and useful life. 

Mr. White was born in Tioga County, New 
York, in 1825, and with his parents moved to 
La Salle County, Illinois, in 1838, where his 
father followed agricultural life. Young White 
assisted with the farm duties and, as opportunity 
offered, attended the common schools. Upon 
the death of his father in 1845, he took charge 
of the farm and also purchased a saw- mill on 
the Illinois river, operating it until 1850. 

Attacked with the gold fever which swept the 
country at that time, he started for the El Dorado 
of the West, crossed the plains with a horse 
team, and after a pleasant journey of one hun- 
dred and one days, arrived at Sacramento. He 
then went to the mines in El Dorado County, 
but after three months of hard work, with aver- 
age results, felt that a more congenial bnsiness 
could be found which would pay as well. And 
he left the mines, never to return, going to 
Sacramento, where he started a provision store, 
keeping grain, vegetables and miners' supplies. 
This proved profitable until the supply of vege- 
tables gave out in the spring of 1851, and he 
was compelled to close his business. He then 
went to Santa Cruz, rented sixty acres of land 
and planted it all to potatoes, his first year's 
profit being $20,000. The following year he 
planted 100 acres, which netted him $15,000: 
but in 1853, with 500 acres, he lost $15,000. 
Still he persisted until the tide again turned in 
his favor, and he netted large results. Mr. 
White was also operating a line of schooners 
from Monterey and Santa Cruz to San Francis- 



co, and for several years did the shipping of 
that locality. With a view of extending his 
operations, he loaded the clipper-built schooner 
Young America, at Monterey, with a cargo of 
barley and potatoes, and in command of Captain 
Henry Charles, with a young brother of Mr. 
White as super-cargo, they set sail for Mel- 
bourne, Australia. The experiment, however, 
proved disastrous, as neither the schooner nor 
its occupants have since been heard from, and 
Mr. White lost about $40,000. 

In 1856 our subject returned to Sacramento 
and entered the grocery business under the firm 
name of Owens & White; the partnership eon- 
tinned one year, after which they sold out to 
Mr. Stanford. Mr. White then purchased a 
stock of general merchandise which he moved 
to Visalia, opening business there, June 13, 
1857. At that time the town numbered about 
one hundred inhabitants. After remaining in 
business there one year, he went to San Fran- 
cisco and decided to engage in the sheep busi- 
ness, which was then in its infancy. With a 
knowledge of the foothills as grazing land, 
which were then only occupied by stockmen, 
Mr. White purchased a band of 800 sheep, and 
in 1859 crossed the Coast Range on the west side 
of Tulare County. His trip across the valley 
was fraught with great suffering for want of 
water, no springs being known. The heat was 
intense, and even Lake Tulare was so impreg- 
nated with tilth and alkali that neither man nor 
beast could touch the water. For three days 
this suffering continued, and when they reached 
Tule river the sheep made a dash for the water 
and plunged in, piling on top of each other, so 
eager were they for water. He then drove them 
to Frazier valley, where he located 160 acres of 
land. His sheep wore the first band brought to 
that locality. As the cattlemen were then kings 
of the sod, they felt sheep- men were interlopers 
and tried in every way possible to run Mr. 
White from the country, destroying his crops, 
driving bands of horses through his sheep, and 
using every measure except violence to discour- 
age him; even his friends combined against 



678 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



him. The opposition became so strong that 
Mr. White was one of the first to advocate the 
" No Fence " law, the passage of which brought 
such disaster to the stock interests. Mr. White 
gradually acquired laud until he owned about 
8,000 acres, and continued the sheep business 
until 1881, when he entered the cattle business, 
in which he is still engaged. He now owns 
about 1.400 acres, well fenced, with substantial 
improvements and beautifully located. He also 
raises some horses and cultivates each year about 
500 acres of his land. 

Mr. White was married in Visalia in 1859, to 
Mrs. J. A. Brown, a widow with two children 
— Clinton T. and William W. Brown. Mrs. 
White was the first to plant oranges in the foot- 
hills, bringing the seed from Yisalia. Years 
aiterward she sold her first oranges at a church 
fair at Vandalia for $1 each. Oranges were 
then a novelty in this country. Mr. White has 
never sought political emolument, although for 
thirty years he has been a representative Repub- 
lican and prominent in county and State conven- 
tions. He is of a kind and genial disposition, 
and without being aggressive, possesses very 
decided characteristics. 



ATT FLYNN was born in Ireland in 
^ 1848, and at the age of sixteen years 



m 

left his native land and sought a home 
in the United States. He first visited the 
farming country of New England, and in Berk- 
shire County, Massachusetts, found employment 
as a light farm hand, receiving $10 per month. 
He subsequently went to Hartford, Connecti- 
cut, and later, to Chapinville, that State, where 
he worked in the furnace of Horace Landon, 
manufacturing pig iron — the leading industry 
of that locality. 

In 1874 Mr. Flynn came to California and 
direct to Tulare County. Here, in the employ 
of Mr. Hedges, he engaged in the sheep indus- 
try. He followed this occupation in several 
capacities until 1883, when he launched out in 



business for himself, purchasing 1,360 ewes, and 
locating on White river. His honest industry 
has been rewarded with success, and he is now 
the owner of 3,000 acres of land, on which he 
has a herd of sheep averaging about 3,800 
head. 

Mr. Flynn was married at Yisalia in 1890 to 
Miss Winifred Norton, a native of Ireland. 
He is a member of the Portersville Lodges. A. 
O. U. W., and I. O. O. F. 



m B. ZUMWALT.— Among the most sue- 
"Mii cessful ranchers of Tulare County, and 
^C® one whose handsome home nestles among 
the cottouwood trees northeast of Tulare, is the 
subject of this sketch. i 

Mr. Znmwalt was born in St. Charles, Mis 
souri, in 1832. Death deprived him in early 
youth of the guidance of a father, and he was 
then taken by an uncle, John Randall, with 
whom he lived until the age of fourteen years. 
He then began to learn the trade of blacksmith, 
at which he worked until 1850, when he crossed 
tbe plains to California, landing in Sacramento 
in September of that year. From there he 
went to the mines at Murderer's Bar, on the 
Middle Fork of the American river, and there- 
after followed mining and his trade in El Do- 
rado County until 1859, when he settled at a 
place near Red Bluff, Tehama County, and 
opened a blacksmith shop. He was married in 
1860, to Miss Lydia A. DeWitt, a native of 
Kentucky. Mr. Zumwalt continued his busi- 
ness near Red Bluff until 1864, when he moved 
to Grand Island, Colusa County, and there took 
up 160 acres of land, and farmed and carried on 
the blacksmith business, remaining till August. 
1878. His next move was to his present loca- 
tion in Tulare County. Here he bought 900 
acres of land at $5 per acre, and he also pur- 
chased 320 acres on Mussel Slough. As lands 
advanced in value he disposed of a portion of 
his holdings, and at this writing has about 420 
acres sui rounding his elegant home, which was 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



(179 



built in 1883. The cottonwood trees already 
referred to were planted in that year, have made 
a -wonderful growth and afford a delightful 
shade during the hot summer months. Mr. Zurn- 
walt has 200 acres in alfalfa and fifty acres in 
lruit, principally raisin grapes. He keeps about 
350 head of horses, cattle and hogs, and has a 
dairy of eighty cows, supplying milk to the city 
of Tulare. Prosperity has attended him from 
his first entrance into California. He has never 
engaged in the wildcat schemes of speculation; 
but, by following legitimate lines of industry, 
with wise foresight and prudent management, 
he has met with success, and is now in the 
enjoyment of every comfort, surrounded l>y his 
family. 

Mr. and Mrs. Zumwalt have had eleven chil- 
dren, and as death has never entered their home, 
seven still gather at the family board, while four 
have taken up the responsibilities of life, and are 
engaged in their various occupations. 

Mr. Zumwalt is President of the Sunset Oil 
Company, with fine prospects in the foothills of 
the Coast Range, and is also prominently con- 
nected with several irrigating companies. He 
has never entered the vortex of political life, 
but has devoted his energies to his private in- 
terests and to the proper training of his family. 
For his many estimable traits of character he 
is highly respected by all who know him. 



;f T. CHISM was born in Monroe County, 
Kentucky, in 1848. He lived at home 
until twenty years of age, assisting in 
farm work and attending the common schools. 

In 1869 he came to California, making the 
journey by rail soon after the railroad was com- 
pleted. Arriving at Woodland, he engaged in 
farming for two seasons, after which he turned 
his attention to the sheep business in Stanislaus 
County. He had only limited means and at 
first took 1,000 sheep on shares. Then he pur- 
chased 500, and by the natural increase lie soon 
secured a flock of about 6,000. In 18S1 Mr. 



Chism settled near Stockton, engaged in farm- 
ing and sheep business, and remained there until 
1884. In that year he came to Tulare and set- 
tled upon his ranch of 185 acres west of town, 
which he had purchased in 1883. In addition 
to cultivating his own ranch and raising horses 
and cattle, he also rents a sheep range for his 
band of 2,000 sheep, and 700 acres for grain 
farming. 

Mr. Chism was married in Stockton, in 1883, 
to Miss Annie Cahill, a native of California. 
They have three children, — James T., Yeda and 
Pearl. He is a member of Olive Branch Lodge, 
No. 269, F. & A. M. 



♦E 



3* 



hP^ 



fOHN H. MITCHELL, a Tulare County 
rancher, was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 
1833. His father was a farmer and also 
held a government position as lock-master on 
the Rida Canal. 

Mr. Mitchell was educated in Canada, and 
remained at home until 1854. At that time he 
came to California and for one year was en- 
gaged in mining in Tuolumne County, after 
which he settled at Colterville, in the same 
county, and gave his attention to farming and 
stock-raising, utilizing 800 acres, and dealing 
extensively in cattle. He sold out in 1871 and 
with his brother, William T. Mitchell, pur- 
chased 3,000 acres in Merced County, near 
Planesbnrg, and carried on grain farming until 
1881. In that year the subject of our sketch 
came to Tulare County to superintend the Page 
ranch of 8,000 acres west of Tulare, and with 
Mr. Page he is interested in the ranch produce 
and the raising of stock. They sow annually 
4,000 acres in wheat, have 350 acres in alfalfa, 
and raise horses and mules, keeping about 200 
head. The ranch is well watered and ditched 
for irrigating purposes, as they own one-half 
the water of the Packwood creek. They carry 
on their agricultural pursuits in the latest and 
moat approved manner, using gang plows, head- 
ers and combined harvesters, and the line con- 



G80 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



dition of the ranch and crops is the best evidence 
of its ahle management. Mr. Mitchell owns 
improved town property, but devotes all his time 
to ranch interests. 

He was married in Tulare, January 10, 1883, 
to Miss Carrie Ross, a native of San Francisco. 
He has one son, Willie, by an earlier marriage, 
and an adopted daughter, Pearl, having no issue 
by his present wife. 

Mr. Mitchell is a member of the I. O. O. F., 
having united with that fraternity in 1857. He 
is now associated with Lake Lodge, No. 333; 
Visalia Encampment, No. 44; and Rebecca 
Lodge, 1. O. O. F. He is also a member of the 
Grangers of Tulare. 



A. DURNAL. — No one is better known 
in the Tehachapi valley as a stock man 
than the subject of this brief sketch. He 
came to California in 1872, and to Tehachapi 
the following year. He is a native of Conway 
County, Arkansas, born May 2, 1850, and thus 
far his life has been devoted to raising cattle, in 
which business he has been most successful. 
He and his partner, H. Spencer, Esq., of Teha- 
chapi, own a mountain range of about 12,000 
acres, upon which they graze an average of 
1,200 head of cattle. 

In 1876 Mr. Durnal was married to Miss 
Lucinda, daughter of the venerable "W. C. Wio-- 
gins, of Old Tehachapi, and their union has been 
blessed with six children. 



J||OBERT GLENN, of Old Tehachapi, has 
fKf been a resident of California since 1859, 
-M and of Kern County since 1868. 
He was born in Lamar County, Texas, Octo- 
ber 9, 1848, son of Silas and Mary (Burnham) 
Glenn, natives of Kentucky aud Tennessee re- 
spectively. They came to this State in 1859 
and located at El Monte, Los Angeles County, 
where the father engaged in farming. About 



six years later they removed to San Bernardino 
County, and settled at Lytle Creek. There the 
widowed mother still resides. Robert is the 
fourth of their 6even children. He was rear- 
ed as a stock ranger, and has made this the 
business of his life, now owning about fifty head 
of cattle. 

He chose for his life companion and wedded, 
in 1876, Miss Letha Dosier, daughter of John 
Dosier, of Old Tehachapi. They have four 
children. 



J1|S S. BACHMAN was born in Harrison, 
M\ Maine, in 1854. His father, a native of 
"5fS<(f Germany, settled at Harrison in early 
life and there conducted a mercantile business. 
In 1861 they moved to Chicago, where young 
Bachman attended school for a short time. At 
the age of eleven years he entered the mercan- 
tile house of Price, Rosenblatt tfc Oo., as office 
buy and clerk, remaining with them three years 
and becoming well grounded in business prin- 
ciples. He then entered his father's store and 
continued with him until 1870, when lie started 
out in life fur himself, going South and obtain- 
ing employment on steamboats, wharfs, etc. 
He returned to Crown Point in 1871, and was 
married at that place to Miss Ada Myrick. He 
then followed farming one year. 

In 1872 Mr. Bachman came to California, en- 
gaged in mining at the quicksilver mines in 
Lake County, and subsequently in San Bernar- 
dino County and Arizona. About 1876 he 
began grain and fruit farming at Riverside, 
which he continued until 1885, when he came 
to Tulare. He was married a second time, at 
Riverside, in 1883, to Miss Cynthia Smith. 
Arriving in Tulare, he farmed for two years, 
alter which, in 1887, he bought out the White 
& Hayes livery stable, and has since continued 
its management, keeping about twenty head of 
horses, and wagons suitable for a general busi- 
ness. Mr. Bachman owns a ranch of 160 acres 
on Deer creek, and is also interested in town 




^? *,.. "fflacf. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



681 



property. He is a leading stockholder in the 
Tulare Oil & Mining Company, with asphalt 
mines in Kern County, where they own 1,600 
acres of land in the Sierra foothills. The as- 
phalt is of fine quality and will be refined and 
shipped to the eastern markets. 

Mr. Baehman is a member of Tulare Lodge, 
No. 306, 1. O. O. F. He is thoroughly identified 
with the best interests of Tulare, and is one of 
her enterprising citizens. 



"3wJ- 



fA. TRACY, Esq., is one of the honored 
pioneers of Kern County. He was born 
v ® in Wilkes Barre, Luzerne County, Penn- 
sylvania, October 21, 1829. In 1850 he came 
to California, arriving at Placerville on the 6th 
of August, and until 1854 was successfully en- 
gaged in mining. That year he turned his at- 
tention to raising stock and grain in the San 
Joaquin valley, and with Worthington Canfield, 
continued the business there for several years. 
1863 is the date of his location in Kern 'County. 
He is still associated with Mr. Canfield in ranch- 
ing and stock-raising, conducting their opera- 
tions in this County; he has mining interests 
in the Tehachaphi district, owns stock in the 
Hank of Bakerfields, and is the owner of some 
line pieces of city property. 

Mr. Tracy married Mrs. Baker, widow of the 
lamented Colonel Thomas Baker, of Bakersfield, 
January 18, 1875. He is a Republican in poli- 
tics, has held the officer of Surveyor of Kern 
County, and has ever been an active and influ- 
ential citizen. He is a gentleman of unassuming 
manners, always cool and collected, takes a phi- 
losophical view of life, has a happy tempera- 
ment, and is highly esteemed by all who know 
him. 



-<§•*« 



»*>!=- 



f LOUIS BUHN is one of the stirring citi- 
zens of Old Tehachapi. He came to Cal- 
~jf ® ifornia in 1863, and after working two 
rears in San Francisco as a gardener, went to 



he mines of Butte County. In 1870 he came 
to Tehachapi, from which point he prospected 
and mined for about eight years, making some 
promising mineral discoveries, and now oper- 
ating several claims. He has also interested 
himself in agricultural pursuits. He owns 400 
acres of farming, grazing and timber lands at 
Old Tehachapi, a portion of which is in a high 
state of cultivation, and on which he has about 
sixty bearing apple trees, two hundred and fifty 
cherry trees, twenty-seven pear trees, and an 
an assortment of other fruits. 

Mr. Buhn was born in 1843, in Baden, Ger- 
many, and his wife is a native of the same place. 
They were married on January 17, 1875, and 
have seven children, namely; George L., Fred- 
erick W., Annie L., Frank H., Rosie E., Lena 
M. and Gustave \V. Like the majority of his 
countrymen, Mr. Buhn is a man of thrift and 
eneregy. He is public-spirited and highly 
respected. 

ffOHN COLLINS was born in Glasgow, 
Scotland, July 12, 1845. He emigrated 
from his native land to Yalparaiso, South 
America, on a man-of-war in 1865; he spent 
one year in that country, and came to San Fran- 
cisco in March, 1866. After his arrival in this 
State, he worked in ship-building yards at 
Benicia as a mechanical blacksmith, which busi- 
ness he had learned in Scotland. In 1869 he 
went to Oregon and worked in the railway shops 
at Portland, and also served as a general detect 
ive for the company; in 1873 came overland by 
wagon to Visalia, and in 1875 took up his abode 
in Bakersfield. At this place he learned the art 
of sheep-shearing, and has since been identified 
with the sheep and wool growing interests of 
Kern County, owning extensive shearing corrals 
at Cameron Station. 

This gentleman's name has not infrequently 
been confounded with that of John Clarence 
Collins, who also resides in Kern County. He 
has, however, no middle name. He was in 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Bakersfield when the town was founded, and still 
has Ins residence at this place, making his home 
at the City Bakery, owned by George TV. 
Smith. 



tUGUSTE SAUDOZ is one of the enter- 
prising and public-spirited citizens of 
Cuminings \alh-y. Be was horn in 
Switzerland, April 5, 1847, and was there edu- 
cated and reared as a tanner and stock-raiser. 
In 1868 he came to America; he lived lirst in 
Illinois, later in Kansas, and in 1875 came to 
California. After residing two years in Los 
Angeles, he came to Kern County, in 1877, and 
took np his abode in Cuminings valley. Here 
he own.- I s " acres of fine farming land, on which 
lie produces excellent crops of grain. 

While iii Kansas, he married an American 
lady, and they have a family of nine children. 
M r. Saudoz has a good education, and keeps him- 
self well posted on the topic- of the day. lie 
has the ability to .-peak the French language in 
a most accurate and fluent manner, occasionally 
becoming quite eloquent, lie is one of the 
most prosperous farmers in this beautiful val- 
ley, and is highly esteemed by his fellow citi- 
zen-. 



n 



.1 . HENDRICKSON, one of the pioneers 

of Kern County, California, is a native of 

' Germany, horn September 6, 1841. He 

wa- reared on a farm, receiving meager educa- 
tional advantages, and at the age of fifteen years 
came to America. He inherited from his par- 
ents a desire and ambition to gain an honest 
livelihood and attain success in the business 
world. 

Upon his arrival in New York City in 1856, 
he adopted the life of a sailor, and followed the 
sea until 1862, during which year he landed in 
San Francisco, having sailed around Cape Horn 
as second niateof the ship Minnehaha. He mined 



in Inyo County, California, up to 1863, and after- 
ward, Irom 1867 to 1878, at Tehachapi, Kern 
County. He was a partner with Judge Greene 
of Tehachapi in the opening and developing of 
the China Hill mines. During the year 1864 
to 1866 he kept hotel in Havilah, same county, in 
company with A. H. Denker, of Los Angeles. 
Mr. Hendrickson is now engaged in the lime bUS- 
inesson China Hill, and ships his product to all 
the leading southern and central California 
cities. 

He was married June 1, 1880, to Mrs. Mc 
Wicker, a native of Missouri, and located on his 
present home of 240 acres of first class farming 
land in the Tehachapi. 

Mr. Hendrickson is a man of unusual energy, 
yet a careful and conservative business man. He 
is a good citizen, and is esteemed a6 such by 
all who know him. 



,ICIIAEL COUGIILIN.— The name of 
this venerable pioneer will always be 
5^* associated with the first settlement of 
the Antelope canon, one of the most pictur- 
esque of the many which jut into the moun- 
tains from the Tehachapi valley. 

Mr. Coughlin is a native of Ireland, born in 
County Clare in 1816. In 1859 he came to 
America, a hoy of thirteen years; worked on the 
grade of the Michigan Central Railroad in Mich 
igan ; came to California in 1875, and for about 
two years did similar work for the Southern 
Pacific Company. In 1877 he abandoned rail- 
roading tor the more agreeable work of a quiet 
farmer, and located on 160 acres of land in Ante- 
lope canon. A portion of tliis lies on the moun- 
tain sides and is covered with heavy timber. 
Other portions are level and very fertile, and 
under his care and tillage produce fine alfalfa 
and an immense yield of potatoes and other veg- 
etables. 

Michael Coughlin is a thrifty, honest and 
temperate citizen. He revels in the luxuries of 
a careless bachelorhood, lives in a unique pio- 




HI8T0BT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



683 



neer log cabin, has the companionship of his 
domesticated canine, and is protected from the 
intrusions incident to the outside world by the 
grand towering mountain and the grateful 
shades of the lofty pines. The babbling moun- 
tain brook that passes his door furnishes him 
ever refreshing music and drink. He enjoys 
great physical vigor, and is possessed of a spirit 
of contentment. 



fH. BELCHER was born in Worcester 
County, Massachusetts, April 20, 1858. 
, 9 His father, Gilbert J. Belcher, a black- 
smith and carriage maker by trade, was born 
near Boston. His mother is also a native of 
Massachusetts. She now resides in Monrovia, 
California. Of their three children, Charles H., 
the subject of this sketch, was the second born. 
Another son, Fred G., is a manufacturer in San 
Francisco. 

Mr. Belcher commenced his business life as 
a traveling salesman for a furniture house of 
Worcester, Massachusetts; came west in 1885 
and clerked for the well known furniture house 
of Chad bourne & Co., San Francisco, and was 
subsequently a clerk in the Golden Rule Bazar. 
In 1886 he came to Tehachapi and purchased 
and located on eighty acres of land, the east half 
of the northeast quarter of section 14, town- 
ship 32, south range, 31 east, located in Bear 
valley. 



#~Hf 



PAN S. LIGHTNER.— There is probably 
not a citizen of Kern County who has dis- 
played more energy and thus far spent a 
more active life than Dan S. Lightner. He is a 
member of one of the oldest and most popular 
families of the Kern river valley, and son of the 
late Abiah Lightner, Esq. He was born in La 
Fayette County, Missouri, July 17, 1839. and 
came to California in 1856 with his parents, 



under circumstances as recited in a sketch of the 
family, which appears elsewhere in this work. 

Mr. Lightner spent several years in mining, 
stock-raising, hotel-keeping and contracting in 
the mining and timber regions of the Kern 
river valley. He married Miss Jennie Dunlap, 
in 1867, by whom he has two accomplished 
daughters living, Mary and Carrie. They are 
among the most popular and successful public 
school teachers of Kern county. A son and 
daughter, Frank and Belle., are deceased. Mr. 
Lightner is engaged in the lumber and milling 
business at Tehachapi, the Lightner mill — a 
double circular steam mill — being one of the 
hest of its kind in Central California. He is a 
useful citizen, a man of correct habits, and en- 
joys the respect and esteem of all who know him. 

-2«Hf-~ — 

PONALD MONROE, of Cameron, Kern 
County, California, was born in St. Law- 
rence County, New York, March 12, 1839. 
He first came to California in 1859, and to the 
Tehachapi valley in 1865. His father, John 
Monroe, was a native of Scotland, born in Glas- 
gow. He was a lumberman by occupation, 
emigrated to America and, for many years fol- 
lowed his calling in the valley of the St. Law- 
rence river. He had five children, and of his 
three sons and two daughters Donald Monroe 
is the youngest. 

The subject of our sketch al-o became an ex- 
perienced lumberman, and while in the lumber 
camps of his native county, acquired the art of 
cooking. His route to California was via the 
Isthmus of Panama, landing in San Francisco. 
Until 1865 he spent his time in the mining re- 
gions of Sierra County, with average success. 
Since locating in the Tehachapi valley he has 
devoted most of his time to stock raiting and 
diversified farming, being very successful in his 
business ventures. The fact must not be over- 
looked that he was one of the old-time stacre 
coachmen, driving between Havilah and Los 
Angeles as far back as 1871, and later, in 1873-4, 



684 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



performing the duties of the same honorable 
calling from Havilah to Santa Barbara. His 
social qnaliti s and business habits contributed 
to his general popularity as a stage driver and 
still serves to draw around him a large circle 
of friends. His well-improved farm of 640 
acres at Cameron is one of the best ranches in 
Kern County. Besides the tilling of his land 
he ranges about 300 head of cattle and a small 
band of horses and hogs. 

Mr. Monroe was married in December, 1879, 
to Miss Eliza Teriot, a French lady, by whom 
he has five children liviug and two deceased. 
He is a man of correct habits of living and is a 
most estimable citizen. 



^Ml 



S^ 



fOHN W. HOOPER figures as an early set- 
tler of Tulare County and a prominent 
stockman of the Tule River District. He 
was born in Cornwall County, England, in 1819, 
and lived on the farm with his parents until he 
was nineteen years of age. At that time he em- 
barked in a sailing vessel, crossed the ocean and 
landed on American soil. From the Atlantic 
shore he journeyed west by rail, canal and stage 
to Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois, where he 
found occupation as a fireman in a steam-power 
flour-mill, and five years later became foreman 
of the mill. This mill was an extensive one for 
that day, containing three sets of stones and hav- 
ing a capacity of 150 barrels of flour per day. 

While at Belleville, in 1846, Mr. Hooper 
wedded Miss Nancy L. Smith, of North Caro- 
lina. The year following his marriage he moved 
to Marion, the county seat of Williams County, 
and bought a small saw-mill, to which he added 
a small Hour-mill. A year later he built a new 
flour-mill, with two sets of French burr stones, 
more complete in its appointments than 
the other, and operated this until 1852, when 
he sold out. 

That year he set up the second circular saw 
used in Illinois, and as the town increased he 
added a grist mill with two sets of stones, re- 



maining there and operating the mill until 
1858. Disposing of his milling interests in 
that year, he purchased about 1,000 head of cat- 
tle which he started across the plains to Califor- 
nia, while he and his family came to this 
State by the Isthmus route, making the voyage 
from Panama to the city of San Francisco in 
the old steamer Sonora. This vessel carried 
2,500 passengers, was much overloaded and had 
a poor supply of provisions, but they landed 
safe at San Francisco. Mr. Hooper settled his 
family in Petalnma, and in the spring of 1859 
went out to look for his stock, rinding them at 
Grass valley, they having been detained on the 
overland journey on account of the Mormon 
war. Many of the cattle had died and on reach- 
ing California the herd numbered only about 
400. In the spring of 1860 Mr. Hooper started 
with his cattle from Sonoma County to Tulare 
County, driving about 300 head down the 
Coast Range, his daughters acting as vaqneros 
and accomplishing their work in a most grace- 
ful and successful manner. Crossing the mount- 
ains into Tulare County, they settled on the 
west end of Tule river, near Tulare lake, beino- 
about the first to locate in that vicinity. 

After the freshet of 1862 he moved his fam- 
ily to the old log cabin of George Garrison, 
west of Tulare, and in the fall of that year 
moved his cabin from Tule river to its present 
location, two miles and a half west of Tulare, 
on the old Indian trail between Visalia and 
Lake Tulare. The Indians were quite friendly 
except when under the influence of liquor. To 
this cabin he built a lojj addition, both of which 
are stiil standing and occupied by his son, Al- 
bert o. 

In 18(33 Mr. Hooper bought forty acres of 
land at $1.25 per acre, which afforded headquar- 
ters for his stock interests and was the nucleus 
of his present landed possessions. With free 
grazing, his stock interests became very exten- 
sive, and until 1871 lie gave much attention to 
the breeding of fine horses. At that time the 
herd law made it uecessary for him to seek 
other range for his stock, and he drove 1,000 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



cattle and 232 horses to Nevada, where he con- 
tinued the business many years. In 1872 he 
turned his attention to the raising of sheep, in 
which he was interested five years, keeping a 
band of 2,500. In 1877, a memorable, dry year, 
he traded for property in Tulare and retired 
from the business. A. 8 the years passed by he 
added to his landed estate, and at this writing 
is the owner of 680 acres. In 1880 he brought 
horses from Nevada and stocked his ranch, 
keeping about 200 head and breeding both 
horses and mules. 

Mr. Hooper has continued to reside in his 
original log house, a landmark in that locality, 
and from beneath its friendly shelter he has 
witnessed the wonderfu 1 developments which 
have taken place on all sides. Of the eleven 
children born to him and his wife, only four 
survive, namely: Elizabeth Jaue, now Mrs. J. 
Hodges, who lives on an adjoining ranch; Al- 
bert O., who married Miss Maria Riley and 
lives on the old homestead, taking charge of the 
stock and ranch interests; William J., and Em- 
ma F., now Mrs. B. Whyers. 

The subject of our sketch has never united 
with any order nor has he ever aspired to pub- 
lic office; but, having closely attended to his 
business affairs, he has surmounted many obsta- 
cles and through all retained the honor and re- 
spect of his associates. 



--&w 



t^ 



|||AMUEL EDWARDS first came to Cali- 
YBIil California i n 1874 from Arizona. He was 

^jp born in Devonshire, England, August 18, 
1839, and came to America in 1855, as cabin 
boy on board a sailing vessel, landing at New 
York City. From New York he followed the 
sea as a sailor and in that capacity visited the 
South American ports. In 1858-9 he made a 
voyage around the world on a full rigged Amer- 
ican ship, starting from Liverpool, England, and 
in 1862 he sailed the great lakes from Oswego, 
New York, to Chicago, continuing his voyages 

until 1866. That year he started west, via the 



Union Pacific Railway, coming as far as Lari- 
more, North Dakota. The time up to 1874 he 
spent in New Mexico and Arizona, working 
pack trains from the Colorado river to various 
government posts in the interior; then came to 
California and freighted with heavy teams in the 
southern part of the State, from Sparta to the 
mining districts. He also worked teams on the 
Southern Pacific railway grade; and later, ran a 
freight line from Mojave to Inyo County. For 
three years past he has lived in Tehachapi. An 
extensive traveler aud a close observer, Mr. Ed- 
wards is a well informed man. He has com- 
mendable habits and is generally esteemed. 



"- - rt te^ M t*s***" — 

fOSEPH KISER, Esq., is a pioneer and one 
of the energetic agriculturists of Tehachapi 
valley, Kern County, California. 

He is a native of Lancaster County, Pennsyl- 
vania, born April 30, 1829. His father, Jacob 
Kiser, a native of New York and a farmer by 
occupation, was a son of Jacob Kiser, Sr., who 
was born in Germany and who fought in the 
Revolutionary war. Jacob Kiser, Jr., was also 
a soldier in the Revolution and in the war of 
1812. He married Elizabeth Graves, of Ger- 
man ancestry, and reared a family of eleven 
children, of whom the subject of this sketch is 
the youngest. Joseph learned the carpenter's 
trade in Fostoria, Ohio, where his father located 
in 1816. At that time there were only two 
families living in Seneca County. The eleven 
children in the Kiser family grew and multi- 
plied and ere long constituted a fair sized pio- 
neer community. " Charlie" Foster, Secretary 
of the United States Treasury, at one time had 
occasion to say that the vote of Seneca County 
might be regarded as safe if the Kiser family 
could be counted on "our" side. Mr. Kiser re- 
lates many rough and tumble ''scrapes " he has 
had with the athletic and wiry Secretary. 

Since his arrival in California, in 1852, Mr. 
Kiser has been engaged in minino- and stock 
raising in various sections of the State. He 



686 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



came to Tehachapi in 1863 and opened and 
worked the Antelope mines. Later, he mined 
on China Hill. He located in Brite's valley in 
1867. and since then has devoted his time and 
energies chiefly to stock raising and ranching. 
With Frank and John Wiggins, he is joint 
owner of about 300 head of stock, which they 
are grazing on the Mojave Desert. His ranch 
comprises 600 acres of good farming and graz- 
ing land, upon which he has a fine apple orchard 
of 1,200 trees. 

He married, in 1873, the widow of Marion 
Wiggins. Mr. Kiser is one of the solid men of 
Tehachapi. He is a man of modest demeanor, 
makes little show, but holds conservative views 
on matters of general issue. No man in the 
community is more highly esteemed than he. 

T. MANTER is a native of New England. 
His ancestors were sea-faring men and 
natives of Martha's Vineyard, from which 
island his father emigrated in early life to 
Franklin County, Maine, aifd was one of several 
to found the town of New Vineyard, where our 
subject was born in 1833. His father was a 
farmer and was also engaged in the lumber bus- 
iness, owning and operating his own saw-mill. 
Young Manter received his education in the 
public schoo's at New Vineyard and at the 
Maine Wesleyan Seminary, Readfield, and at 
the age of seventeen began teaching winter 
schools, which he continued for several years, 
passin? his summers on the home farm or in 
the mill. He began the study of civil engineer- 
ing, but in 1856 was imbued with the Califor- 
nia fever and set out for the western border of 
the continent, making the voyage via the Isth- 
mus of Panama. In crossing the Isthmus he 
was in that terrible railroad accident, where 
eight cars crushed through a weakened bridge, 
and the loss of life was very great. Fortunate- 
ly, Mr. Manter escaped with only slight bruises. 
He arrived in San Francisco in May, 1856, the 
day on which those noted criminals and outlaws. 



Casey and Corey, were executed by the vigilance 
committee. 

Mr. Manter went direct to the mining dis- 
tricts in Placer County, where he engaged in 
farming, and as engineer, followed the milling 
business in quartz and saw-mills for many years. 
In 1865 he was married in Placer County, to 
Miss Sarah J. Armstead, a native of Ohio. In 
1871 he came to Tulare County and engaged in 
the sheep business, which he continued until 
1883. with a band ranging from 2,000 to 10,000 
head. In 1883 he bought a small stock range 
on Deer creek, where he followed the stock bus- 
iness and speculated in land up to 1889. At 
that time he located in Portersville. and. in 
partnership with his brother. H. L. Manter, he 
rented the old mill, operating it in connection 
with a flour and feed bnsinesB in town. A year 
later this partnership was dissolved, and in Oc- 
tober, 1890, Mr. A. Leslie became a partner, and 
the business is being continued. The mill was 
first erected in 1865. In 1885 the old grinding 
stones were taken out and the roller process 
was substituted, with a capacity of forty barrels 
per day. The mill is run by wafer power, the 
water being diverted from the river six miles 
above the mill in order to train elevation. 

Mr. and Mrs. Manter have three children — 
Hiram W., Maud F., and JohnO. Mr. Manter 
is a prominent member of the Portersville Lodges 
F. & A. M. and of the A. O. U. W. 



fAPTAIN JACOB HAYES, proprietor of 
the "Rocky Ford Breeding Farm." Poplar, 
Tulare County, California, was born in 
Decatur County, Indiana, forty miles southeast 
of Indianapolis, in 1833. His father. Jacob 
Haves, was a farmer and stock-raiser, and upon 
the farm our subject passed his boyhood days, 
receiving only a limited education in the sub- 
scription schools of that period. 

In 1853 Mr. Hayes married Miss Mary .1. 
Colwell, a native of Kentucky. He took his 
bride to the old home and there they resided 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



687 



until 1856, when they mcved to Knox County, 
Missouri, and on 320 acres of land they engaged 
in farming and stock-raising. In 1859 he 
moved to Clay County, Illinois, where he pur- 
sued the same occupation, doing an extensive 
farming and stock business, and being thus 
actively employed when the war came on. 

Mr. Hayes enlisted, in 18b'4, in Company D, 
One Hundred and Forty-third Illinois 'Regi- 
ment, and was commissioned Captain of his 
company. They w r ere mustered in at Mattoon, 
March 1, 1864, with Dudley C. Smith, of 
Shelbyville, Illinois, as Colonel of the regiment, 
and their service was guard duty on the Mis- 
sissippi river between Cairo and Helena, Ar- 
kansas. Although they enlisted for only 100 
days, they served seven months, being mustered 
out at Mattoon in the fall. Captain Hayes had 
two brothers in the war under General Wilder. 
One, James L., was flag-bearer in the Ninety- 
eighth Illinois, and had five hor B es shot under 
him, but he never received a scratch, though he 
saw much hard work and skirmish duty. The 
other brother, B. F., and three nephews, were 
privates in Company F., of the same brigade, 
and all were in service for three years. 

At the close of the war Captain Hayes 
returned to his home in Clay County and con- 
tinued the stock business until the spring of 
1870, when he sold out and came to California. 
He first settled at Modesto, Stanislaus County, 
where, in partnership with J. W. Torrance, he 
rented land and sowed 3,000 acres to grain. 
This process of farming they continued with 
fair results until 1875, when Captain Hayes 
located four miles west of Poplar on 320 acres 
of land, 160 acres of which he homesteaded. 
He then began grain farming, aud, as opportun- 
ity offered, he extended his landed interests 
until he now owns about 1,300 acres in different 
localities. In the fall of 1877 he rented Skull 
Island in Lake Tulare, which he stocked with 
1,000 hogs, and followed the business two years. 
Skull Island then contained an area of about 
640 acres, but the waters have since receded 
and the island is now a part of the main-land. 



In 1878 the Captain went to Kern County and 
farmed 1,500 acres in addition to his present 
ranch, which he continued until 1885, when he 
returned to his fine ranch at Poplar and estab- 
lished himself in the stock business. He still 
sows about 1,800 acres to grain, and has 400 
acres in alfalfa. He has a fine band of Here- 
ford cattle, but the raising of horses is now his 
principal business. He has twelve standard 
bred mares and fillies, all from noted horses; 
and about ninety brood mares — all graded stock. 
At the head of his stud stands the stallion 
Strathaway, a Hambletonian, with a record of 
2:20^ at three years of age. Next comes Judge 
Kyle, a Hambletonian by Red Wilkes; and Pilot 
Wilkes by Judge Kyle. Captain Hayes also 
has a fine jack, fifteen hands high, of the cele- 
brated Maltese breed, and which he calls Brig- 
ham Young. His ranch is well adapted to its 
purpose, with convenient buildings, plenty of 
water and fine grazing. He also has a track for 
training and exercise. 

Captain and Mrs. Hayes have five children, 
viz.: Winfield Scott, Charlotte B., wife of Will- 
iam Sack, Frank, Katie May and Jay. He 
belongs to the following lodges in Portersville: 
F. & A. M., I. O. O. F. and K. of P. Is also a 
member of the George Wright Post, G. A. R., 
Visalia. 



•*"•£• 



3|?p|ji N. CLACK, a rancher, living near Pop- 
VS$t lar, Tulare County, California, was born 
^=^\° in Rhea County, Tennessee, in 1825. 
His father was an extensive farmer, cultivated 
500 acres, and was largely interested in stock- 
raising. The subject of this sketch being the 
only son, he remained at home to look after the 
interests of the farm. His father died in 1844 
and his mother in 1858, leaving him and his 
two sisters, who have continued his especial 
charge through life. 

Mr. Clack was married, in 1859, to Miss 
Mary J. Chatten. All resided at the old home- 
stead until 1874, when they came to California. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



They first settled at Red Bluff, where they 
remained live months, after which Mr. Clack and 
T.J. Ilornsbycaine toTnlare County and bought 
1(10 acres of land on Tule river, near Poplar; 
they settled here in 1875 and farmed together, 
but, with a poor team and very little courage or 
money; the dry season and the stock men offer- 
ing every discouragement, their progress was 
extremely slow. In 1875 the farmers started 
the South Side Tule River Ditch, and after 
water was secimd they began sowing alfalfa, 
which, being of rapid growth, enabled them to 
keep more stock, and with this encouragement, 
they persevered. Subsequently the ranch was 
divided, and to his portion, seventy five acres, 
Mr. Clack has added 160 acres more, which he 
acquired by purchase. He rents annually and 
sows about 850 acres in grain; he has twenty- 
three head of cattle and twenty-two horses. 
Prosperity has attended his labors, and his vine- 
clad cottage now shelters a contented and happy 
man. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Clack seven children have 
been born, viz.: James S., Missouri R., Mattie, 
John T., Molly M., Asel B. and Hattie. Mr. 
Clack has frequently been approached on the 
subject of accepting public office, but has 
declined all such honors, preferring to attend to 
the duties of hie ranch. 

miM$L T. WIGGINS is one of the prosperous 
tVm an( ^ thrifty farmers of Bear valley. 

I<= =££n a He is a native son of the Golden State, 
born at El Monte, Los Angeles County, March 
9, 1855. His father, Francis M. "Wiggins, a 
native of Missouri, and a farmer by occupation, 
located in Los Angeles County in 1854. He 
married Miss Elizabeth Dnrks, who was born in 
Texas, and of their family of five daughters and 
three sons the subject of this sketch is the old- 
est. They moved to old town Tehachapi in 
1870, and there the father died in 1874. Save 
one <>f the family. Miss Eliza, all are married 
and settled in life. Julia is the wife of R. R. 



Taylor, of Tehachapi valley; Hattie married W. 
A. ("Bud") Taylor, and lives near Old Town; 
Callie married James Bright, of Bright's val- 
ley; Mary is now Mrs. John Swarget, Fresno 
Frank M. and John are residents of Blight's 
valley. 

W. T. Wiggins was married September 4. 
1878, to Miss Eliza L., daughter of John M. 
Bright, Esq. They have four sons, viz.: Will- 
iam T., born June 18, 1879; James C, July 
31, 1881; Thomas L., June 14, 1886; and Eli- 
jah C, July 14, 1888. 

Mr. Wiggins has 320 acres of land adjoin- 
ing the Bright homestead, Bright's valley, and 
ranges about 300 head of cattle. 



4-*— +- 



M. HOTCHKISS is a native of New Eng- 
land, born in New Haven County, Con- 
necticut, in 1831. He left home at the 
early age of thirteen years, and went to Buffalo, 
New York, where his brothers, Wheeler and 
Frederick A., resided, the former encaged in 
the lumber business, and the latter a merchant. 
He remained there and clerked for his brothers 
until 1850, when, without a friend to accom- 
pany him, he started for New York, and there 
took the steamer for California, coming via the 
Isthmus of Panama. 

On his arrival at San Francisco he proceeded 
to the mines at Chinese Camp. Tuolumne 
County, anil with average success continued 
mining for about fifteen years, visiting all the 
mining sections of that locality. In 1866 he 
went to Yolo County, rented 400 acres of land, 
and engaged in grain farming. He continued 
to reside in Yolo County until ls~3. when he 
came to Frazier valley and bought 320 acre- ■<[' 
railroad land, to which he has added by more 
recent purchases, now owning 970 acres. He 
also owns 160 acres near Pixley. He annually 
sows about 800 acres in grain. 

Mi-. Hotchkiss was married in Yolo County, 
in 1858, to Miss Anna M. Blowers, a native of 
Ohio, and their union has been blessed with five 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



689 



children, — Lemuel Lane, Abby O., wife of E. 
J. Elster; Millie 0., Clarence A. and Elmer G. 
Mr. Hotchkiss is a member of Portersville 
Lodge, No. i99, A. O. TJ. W. He is a quiet, 
unassuming gentleman, strictly honorable in all 
business transactions, and is highly respected by 
his neighbors and town's people. 



fAMES A. KINCAID, of Erazier valley, 
Tulare County, California, was born in the 
town of Jay, Clearfield County, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1836. His father, Eusebius Kincaid, 
was an extensive lumberman, owning large saw 
mills on the Susquehanna river, and rafting 
lumber from these mills down to Harrisburg 
and the river cities. In 1850 he moved his 
family to Portage City, Wisconsin, continuing 
his lumber business and engaging in farming in 
a small way. 

James A. lived with his parents until he 
reached his twenty-first year, securing a limited 
education, but acquiring a thorough knowledge 
of the milling business. In 1857 he started out 
in life for himself; emigrated to Chatfield, Fil- 
more County, Minnesota, where he engaged in 
farming and operating a saw mill. He was 
married at that place in 1861, to Miss Mary A. 
Dibbius, and settled on his farm. In addition 
to his farming and milling, he was also extens- 
ively engaged in well-boring or drilling in 
Southern Minnesota. In 1866 he moved to 
Winnebago City and bought out a small livery 
stable, which he operated until 1869, when he 
sold his interests and came to California, cross- 
ing soon after the completion of the transconti- 
nental railroad. 

Mr. Kincaid first located on the present site 
of Tulare, which, he says, was then occupied by 
"wild animals and one or two old bachelors." 
He took up a government claim and made some 
improvements on it, remaining there until a fire 
destroyed his property. He then moved to the 
north fork of Tnle river, where he took up 
eighty acres of land, built a small saw-mill and 



engaged in the stock business. In 1872 he was 
appointed Deputy Assessor, under T. G. Jef- 
fords, the first Republican assessor of Tulare 
County, and served during a term of four years, 
at the same time continuing his mill, farm and 
stock interests. In 1878 he bought 160 acres 
of land in Frazier valley, where he now resides. 
He has since made other purchases, and is now 
the owner of 1,050 acres, sowing annually about 
500 acres in grain, and dealing in horses, cattle 
and mules. His present fine residence was 
built in 1889. The substantial farm buildings 
and the general appearance of the place indi- 
cate the thrift and prosperity of the owner and 
proprietor. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid have eight children, 
viz.: Emma V., now Mrs. L. L. Hotchkiss; 
Mattie S., wife of E. C. Clements; and Roland 
L., Orin E., Melviu R., Laura B., Bertha O. 
and Lnra A. 



« LINTON T. BROWN was born in Water- 
town, New York, February 7, 1850. His 
father, William A. Brown, made school- 
teaching the occupation of his life, first follow- 
ing the profession in Watertown ; and upon his 
arrival in California, in 1855, he started one of 
the first schools of the country at Campbell Cross- 
ing, on the King's river. In 1857 he brought 
his family to this State, settled at Visalia, and 
there remained until 1861, when he enlisted in 
the Federal army as a musician. They were 
stationed at Fort Yuma, and later moved on to 
Texas. 

Clinton T. received a limited education at 
Piano, and at the age of fourteen years began 
to do for himself, working for his hoard with 
the privilege of attending school. He thus 
managed to secure a finishing course at the 
University of the Pacific, San Jose. In 1865 
he was engaged by A. P. Wilcox as vaquero, 
and although only fiiteen years of age was a 
bold and fearless rider, taking wild horses and 
bringing them into perfect subjection, and mak- 



600 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ing long rides over mountains and plains, fre- 
quently covering seventy-five miles per day. 
In 1869 he engaged in the sheep business, tak- 
ing a band of 5,000 on shares, and thus secur- 
ing a start in the business, which lie continued 
very successfully up to the dry year of 1877. 
At that time he had 4.500 sheep and 1,200 
acres of land, upon which he owed some money, 
The dry year was a great disaster to the coun- 
try, and Mr. Brown had the misfortune to lose 
hs sheep, lands, and all his possessions except 
two horses and a heavy wagon. He still per- 
severed, however, meeting with many discourage- 
ments up to 1880. when he again entered the 
sheep business, and prosperity has attended his 
efforts. He has again acquired land, and at this 
writing he owns 2,300 acres in Frazier valley, 
mainly grazing land. On this ranch he con- 
tinues his sheep business, and also raises some 
horses and cattle. 

Mr. Brown was married in Piano, Tulare 
County, California, in 1874, to Miss Ruby A. 
Gibbons, daughter of Demining Gibbons, who 
settled in Piano in 1861. Their union has been 
blessed with three children, — Ruby Anthony, 
Vida Bertha and Jay Gibbons. 

Mr. Brown lived on his ranch until 1890, 
when he moved to Piano in order that his chil- 
dren might have the benefit of good school fa- 
cilities. He has built a nice cottage for his 

o 

family to occupy, while he continues his ranch 
interests in the mountains. lie is a member of 
Portersville Lodge, No. 199, A. O. U. W. 



fOHN JORDAN, senior member of the 
firm of Jordan & Hammond, engaged in 
real estate, abstract and insurance business, 
is a native of the " Lone Star" State. He was 
born December 11, 1850, and is a son of Frank 
and Alabama (McMicken) Jordan, natives of 
Illinois and Alabama respectively. They had a 
family of seven children. The father owned 
several slaves and dealt largely in stock. Losing 
heavily by the war, he started, in 1850, for Cal- 



ifornia via Salt Lake. He was captain of a 
company of seventy-four families. The trip 
across the plains consumed seven months, dur 
ing which they had several encounters with the 
Indians. Their objective point on the coast was 
near Gilroy, where Mr. Jordan engaged in the 
stock business from 1854 to 1857. He then 
came to Tulare County and engaged in the 
same business. He also engaged in the iiht- 
cantile trade in Visalia for several years. He 
lost his wife in 1858 in Santa Clara County, 
and in 1860 moved his family to Tulare County, 
where he died in 1878. The subject of this 
sketch was educated in the public schools of 
Visalia, and in 1874 was graduated from Heald's 
Business College in San Francisco. Imme- 
diately after his graduation he served three 
years as deputy sheriff under C. R. Wino-field. 
He next engaged in the butcher's trade one 
year, after which he served as County Auditor 
five years. He was then deputy postmaster 
for sixteen months under J. A. Keys, a Repub- 
lican. 

In 1889 he was a member of the Common 
Council of Visalia. In 1884 he went into tin- 
real estate and abstract business. In 1886 the 
firm of Jordan & Hammond was established. 
They have perfect titles and abstracts of all 
lands in Tulare County, and deal in lands in the 
counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern. Mr. 
Jordan has taken a lively interest in all the 
public enterprises affecting the growth and 
development of Visalia and Tulare counties, and 
to such the material prosperity of the com- 
monwealth is owing. 

Politically, he affiliates with the Democratic 
party. He was a delegate to the county con- 
vention in 1890, and an earnest and enthusiastic 
worker for its interests. He owns valuable 
town property and a beautiful residence on 
Acquenia street. The two storv brick on Center 
street, in which is the office of Jordan & Ham- 
mond, is a model structure, erected at a cost of 
nearly $4,000. 

Of his private life, it may be said that .Mr. 
Jordan was married in October. 1.SS1, to Miss 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



691 



Alice Neill, daughter of Judge A. C. Weill, of 
Yisalia. Their children are Ethel V., James 
Ray and Neill. 

Socially, he is a prominent member of the 
Masonic Fraternity, of Visalia Lodge, No. 128. 









R. DICE was born in Adair County, Ken- 
tucky, in 1852, but his earliest recollec- 
tions are of Benton County, Missouri, to 
which place his parents moved during his in- 
fancy, and there engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits. At the age of seventeen years young 
Dice started out in life for himself. He went 
to Minnesota, where he was employed on sheep 
ranches and in the lumber business until 1870. 
That year he came to California, and at Visalia 
worked on ranches till 1875, when he rented a 
farm two mile* from the town and engaged in 
farming and the stock business. 

Mr. Dice was married, in Visalia, in 1877, 
to Miss Rose Kesner, a native of Illinois, and 
they resided on the ranch near Visalia until 
1887, when they sold out and came to Tipton. 
Here Mr. Dice homesteaded 160 acres of land, 
and is now engaged in grain -farming and stock- 
raising. He and his wife have five children — 
Elizabeth, Earnest, Charles, Mamie and Abner 
Hugh. 

fW. BAGBY was born in Lane County, 
Oregon, in 1856. His father, E. W. 
a Bagby, Sr., a farmer and stock-raiser, 
moved to '-California in 1862 and settled in 
Pajaro valley, where he purchased 320 acres of 
land. He lived there, engaged in agricultural 
pursuits and the stock business, until 1872, 
when he moved to Gilroy. Three years later he 
came to Tulare County and settled on 160 acres 
of government land on Tule river, where he 
died in 1879. 

E. W. Bagby remained with his father through 
his varied fortunes until his death, after which 



he managed the estate and looked after the in- 
terests of his mother and two sisters. He was 
married at Tipton, Tulare County, in 1885, to 
Miss Helen M. Hatch, a native of Sacramento. 
For several years they made a home for the 
mother and sisters of Mr. Bagby. He now has 
a ranch of 240 acres north of Tipton, twenty- 
five acres of which are in alfalfa. He rents 
other lands and sows annually about 500 acres 
in grain, dealing also in mixed stock on a small 
scale. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bagby have one child, Veda 
Adelle. He is a member of the K. of P. Lodge, 
No. 131, Tipton, and of the Farmers' Alliance 
of Tulare. 



Jc^i F. TURNER has been prominently con- 
1 Hi nected with the educational institutions 
■fjl <i of Tulare County for many years, and 
his fine ranch four miles east of Woodville, in 
the Pleasant Grove district, shows that mind as 
well as muscle is employed in his agricultural 
pursuits. 

Mr. Turner was born in Fairfield, Iowa, 
March 12, 1846. His father, John Turner, a 
native of eastern Maryland, was born October 
20, 1800, was reared as a farmer and emigrated 
to Iowa about 1844. In 1850 he closed out his 
business interests there, packed his possessions 
and family into a '-prairie schooner," and started 
across the plains for California, arriving at 
Stockton in the fall after a quiet passage. For 
a brief season he was engaged in farming in the 
San Ramon valley; subsequently moved to 
Calaveras County and followed mining until the 
spring of 1852. Then he bought a ranch of 
320 acres, eight miles southeast of Stockton, 
and engaged in farming and stock-raising, re- 
maining there until 1866. That year he took a 
trip through Oregon, returned to California, 
and settled on 960 acres of land near Modesto 
where he continued his farming operations until 
1876. His next and last move was to Tulare 
County. Here he purchased 320 acres near 



6U2 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Woodville, and on this place he is now living, 
aged ninety years. 

H. F. Turner was educated in the public 
schools of San Joaquin County and at the State 
Normal School, then located at San Francisco. 
As his means were limited he did not complete 
the course of study, but made such progress in 
his studies that he was enabled to secure a first 
grade county certificate, and, in February, 1868, 
began teaching in San Joaquin County. He 
was married, in Stanislaus County, in October, 
1869, to Miss Rosa Hardin, a native of Cali- 
fornia. Mr. Turner continued to teach in San 
Joaquin and Stanislaus counties until 1876. 
Then, coming to Tulare County, he began teach- 
ing at Visalia. In 1879, after completing his 
tenth year, he was granted a life diploma by 
the State. With the exception of two years in 
the city schools of Stockton, he has since taught 
continuously in Tulare County, and for eight 
years in the Pleasant Grove district. 

In 1882 Mr. Turner bought his present fine 
ranch of 160 acres, of which sixty are in alfalfa 
and ten in vines. He rents other lands and an- 
nually sows about 260 acres in grain. In 1884 
he built an attractive cottage, which, on Feb- 
ruary 22, 1891, was destroyed by fire, together 
with all his furniture, books and mementos. 

Mr. and Mrs. Turner have four children: 
Frederick F., Gracie A., James W. and Garri- 
son. He is a member of Summit Lodge, No. 
112, F. & A. M., Knight's Ferry, and of the 
Farmers' Alliance of Woodville, of which he 
is president. 

- — ~-&4isfr'£& 

mON. BENJAMIN BRUNDAGE, a pio- 
[^f\ neer, able lawyer and jurist of Kern Coun- 
"slf ty and a citizen of Bakersfield, forms the 
subject of this sketch. 

Judge Brundage was born in Seneca County, 
Ohio, September 16, 1834. His father, Thomas 
Brundage, was born and reared in Hopewell 
Township, Ontario County, New York, and was 
a farmer by occupation. In 1828 he emigrated 



with his family (wife and one daughter) to Ohio. 

The mother of Judge Brundage, whose maiden 

name was Osie Depue, was of Huguenot descent 

and, like her husband, was born in Hopewell, 

New Fork. Of their eight children seven were 

born in Ohio, and of this number the Judge was 

the fifth. His early education was received in 

the pioneer schools of Ohio. Later, he attended 

the Baldwin Institute in Cuyahoga County, that 

State, and finally took a course in law at the 

Union Law School, Cleveland, where he grad- 
es 

uated July 2, 1861. July 5th of the same year 
he was admitted to the bar of the State. He 
very soon located at Tiffin, Ohio, and subse- 
quently practiced his profession at Fremont. 

His health having become impaired, he 
turned his course westward, made the journey 
to this coast via the Nicaragua route, and on 
March 6, 1865, arrived in California. During 
the same month of the following year he located 
at Havilah, Kern County, which was at that 
time in its zenith as the business center of a 
most prosperous mining district, and the county 
seat of Kern County. Prior to the removal of 
the seat of government to Bakersfield, Mr. 
Brundage transferred his office and home to the 
latter place, where he has since lived. His 
abilities as a counsellor and jurist were prompt- 
ly recognized. He soon grew into an extensive 
general law practice, and from that time has 
stood at the head of the local profession. In 
1880 he was elected the first Superior Judge of 
Kern County under the new constitution, and 
served in that capacity until January 1, 1885, 
when he resumed his law practice. In politics 
he is a stanch Democrat, and his influence in 
shaping the affairs of his party is not infre- 
quently felt. He is not simply a student of the 
law, but has always been an extensive reader. 
He is a lover of good literature and owns one of 
the largest and most valuable private libraries 
in Central California. 

March 27, 1870, Judge Brundage was married 
to Miss Mary 1!., daughter of Dr. Joseph 
Lively. She is a lady of culture, refinement, is 
active in the social circles of Bakersfield, and is 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



693 



especially interested in benevolent work, 
are the parents of two sons. 



They 



A. STEWART, who resides west of 
Poplar, on the line of the South Side 
* Tule River Ditch, dates his birth in 
Warren County, Missouri, in 1847. His parents 
having only a limited amount of this world's 
riches, as soon as age and strength would per- 
mit, young Stewart began working out for wages 
and gave his earnings to assist in the support 
of the family until he was twenty years of age, 
receiving only meager educational advantages. 

At the age of twenty he was married, in his 
native County, to Miss Ellen L. Garrett, who 
was also born in Missouri. On their arrival in 
California, Mr. Stewart worked for wages in 
San Joaquin County until October, 1874, when 
he came to his present location and took up 160 
acres of government land. Although he came 
to the valley with little money, he had an 
abundance of pluck and energy, and these 
formed important factors in laying the founda- 
tion for his present prosperity. In the spring 
of 1875 he began farming amidst many dis- 
couragements from the stock men, who were 
then in possession of the country, and who did 
everything they could to retard the progress of 
the farmer. It finally became necessary to 
keep night watches to protect their grain from 
the cattle. 

Mr. Stewart was one of the organizers of the 
irrigating ditch. After water was brought to 
the land and the "No Fence" law passed, the 
farmer began to prosper. By frugality and 
hard work Mr. Stewart succeeded in his agri- 
cultural pursuits, and as the years glided by 
purchased other lands. At this writing he 
owns 735 acres, seventy-five of which are in 
alfalfa, eleven in vines, and two devoted to a 
family orchard, the rest of his ranch being 
used for grain. He keeps a general herd of 
stock, horses being his specialty, and his aver- 
age number about fifty head. 



In 1882 Mr. Stewart built his fine residence, 
which is one of the landmarks of the valley. 
He and his wife have fourteen children living 
and one deceased. He is a member of Porter- 
ville Lodge, A. 0. U. W., and of Eockford 
Lodge, Farmers' Alliance. Mr. Stewart has 
always been an industrious man, and as a result 
of his earnest efforts he sees the dawn of a 
brighter day and cessation from the laborious 
duties of ranch life. 

|§Bfij C. CLICK was born in Stark County, 
™Mtf¥ Ohio, in June, 1845. His father 
*^5&- ° being a farmer, he was brought up on 
the farm, and his education was received in the 
common school. 

At the age of eighteen years Mr. Click came 
to California, making the voyage via Panama, 
and landing safe at San Francisco. Having a 
cousin in Placer County, he directed his course 
toward that place, and found employment on a 
grain ranch, where he worked until 1869. In 
that year he purchased 800 sheep and devoted 
his -time to their care. In three years his 
original number increased to 3,100 head, and 
he sold out. With Ben. Trefry as partner, he 
engaged in the same business in 1872 in Merced 
County; purchased 5,000 head of sheep and re- 
mained in that county until 1875, when they 
sold their flock, then numbering 12,000. They 
came to Tulare County and purchased 2,500, 
and although losing heavily during the dry year 
of 1877, they held their increase until the band 
reached 14,000. In the spring of 1887 they 
sold (mt and Mr. Click retired from the busi- 
ness. In 1886 he bought his present ranch of 
320 acres on Tule river, and engaged in the 
stock business, keeping about thirty-five horses 
aud 115 cattle. His ranch is well adapted for 
grazing, as he has 160 acres of low marsh land 
on the river, and sixty acres in alfalfa. 

Mr. Click was married near Poplar, Tulare 
County, in 1883, to Miss Hope Broughton, a 
native of Pennsylvania. Their union has been 



694 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



blessed with one child, Roy, the light and joy 
of the household. 



fUDGE J. S. CLACK, of the Visalia bar, 
was born in Rhea County, Tennessee, Feb- 
ruary 23, 1859. His father, Robert M. 
Clack, was one of the pioneers of California, 
and is now living near Porterville. The sub- 
ject of this sketch attended the public schools 
of Tulare County. He then taught school in 
this County three years, and subsequently went 
back to Lebanon, Tennessee, and was graduated 
from the law school there in 1884. Since then 
he has given his whole attention to the practice 
of his profession. 

In 1888 he was elected Justice of the Peace 
on the Democratic ticket, having served out, by 
appointment of the Supervisors, an unexpired 
term previous to his election. Judge Clack 
began life for himself at the age of fourteen 
years, and since that time has constantly worked 
his way to the front. He is yet a young man, 
but has made a host of friends, and his ability 
as a practitioner is recognized by the profession 
and all who know him. Politically he affiliates 
with the Democratic party, and is prominently 
connected with the I. O. O. F., Visalia Lodge, 
JNo. 94. 

He was married January 1, 1888, in Visalia, 
where he has since lived. 



"^r- 



^ 



fHARLES L. OETTLE was born in Ger- 
many in 1854, and up to the age of thir- 
teen years his boyhood days were spent in 
assisting his father on the farm, receiving 
limited educational advantages. In 1867 he 
hegan his own support, doing farm work and 
driving sheep. In Germany it was then the 
custom to drive bands of sheep through the 
towns and sell to the butchers. 

At the age of sixteen Mr. Oettle came to the 
United States. He re-embarked at New York, 



for California, and landed at Sacramento in the 
fall of 1870. He there followed ranch life as a 
common laborer until 1878, becoming familiar 
with the way iti which farming and sheep- 
raising are carried on in this State. Then he 
came to Tulare County and took up 120 acres 
of government land and purchased 500 acres 
from the railroad company, all lying east of 
Woodville. He has since made other purchases 
and now owns 840 acres, a part of which is on 
Tule river, and 160 acres of fine redwood, cedar 
and «ugar-pine timber located in the mountains. 
Mr. Oettle also rents land and sows about 1,500 
acres in grain. He has given much attention 
to raising horses, keeping about eighty head. 
His Percheron stallion, " Rempart," is a fine 
coal-black horse, seventeen hands high, and 
weighs 1,785 pounds. Mr. Oettle has a large 
amount of money invested in farm machinery, 
one of the most valuable pieces being the com- 
bined harvester. 

He was married at Visalia, in November, 
1890, to Miss Matilda Kibler, a lady of Califor- 
nia birth, but German descent Mr. Oettle is 
a member of Woodville Lodge, I. O. O. F., and 
of the Tulare Grangers. 






tOBERT BARTON. —There are few men 
indeed who can show such an enviable rec- 
ord in life as the subject of this sketch. 
He was educated as a mining expert with a 
man who had a practical experience in all sorts 
of mining. 

Robert Barton worked his way up to where 
his reputation as an authority on mines became 
known the world over. He is able to calculate 
ahead and see further into a quartz mine than 
most any person of similar experience. This, 
most all the great and successful mining men 
on this coast have been known to concede. He 
went through the great speculative era of the 
Comstock, and, as is well-known, came out 
ahead with a fortune large enough for most any 
one to retire upon. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



695 



Just then the viticultural interests of Califor- 
nia were beginning to show a bright future. In 
company with a learned French gentlemen, he 
searched the State over to see where would he 
the greatest future for the development of this 
industry. Fresno County, and more particularly 
that section lying between the Sierra Nevada 
range on the east, San Joaquin river on the 
north, King's river on the south, and down to 
within twenty miles of the coast range, was de- 
cided to be more especially suited for this in- 
dustry. 

The purchase of school section thirty-six now 
close to the growing city of Fresno, was the re- 
sult, and everybody in California knows what 
has been accomplished since 1879, the time of 
the purchase. The people of the State of Cal- 
ifornia, and more particularly those of the city 
and County of Fresno, and last, but not least, 
the owners of the Southern Pacific Railway, are 
indebted to the indomitable will and energy of 
Robert Barton, in developing an estate which 
stands to-day as the foremost landmark for others 
to profit by. 

Besides this splendid vineyard which is de- 
scribed at length elsewhere, Mr. Barton is 
closely identified with the interests of Fresno 
City. Having great confidence in its future, 
he erected during the year 1890 the famous 
Opera House which bears his name. The build- 
ing is a magnificent one, and contains a theatre 
which, at the present time, has no rival on the 
coast. The structure was completed in Septem- 
ber, 1890, and on the evening of the 29th of 
that month, the first theatrical performance was 
given, preceded by fitting ceremonies attending 
the opening of the edifice. It was a gala night 
for Fresno, the vast assemblage appreciating to 
the full the splendid opportunities now afforded 
to the people of Fresno for public entertain- 
ments. 

THE BAETON VINEYARD. 

One of the largest vineyards and the most 
thoroughly equipped one in Fresno County, is 
that, up to a recent date, owned by Robert 



Barton — now owned by The Barton Estate 
Company (limited) — of London, England. The 
estate is situated about three miles east of 
Fresno Courthouse, but the city limits extend 
close to the west side of the estate. The tract 
contains 960 acres, all of which is now a sub- 
irrigated, fine, rich sandy loam if great depth 
and fertility, originally chosen for the vine by 
a French expert on this subject. Robert 
Barton, a brief sketch of whose life ap- 
pears elsewhere inthis volume, was the father of 
this now famous vineyard, and it was through 
his indomitable will and energy that this vine- 
yard has become what it is to-day. 

Fully $450,000 had been expended on the 
estate when sold to the powerful English syndi- 
cate now controlling it — Mr. Barton still re- 
taining the managing directorship. 

The view from the roof of the elegant mansion 
and the cupola of the large wine cellar, is ex- 
tremely beautiful — giving a bird's-eye view of 
all the premises and country about. This, with 
the high snow-clad Sierras within close distance, 
completes a picture never to be forgotten. It is 
a princelydomain, and this great vineyard, with 
its magnificent improvements, completely sur- 
rounded with stately poplars, was sold about 
three years ago to a foreign company for $1,- 
000,000. The State and country at large owe 
much to. the father of this place, now regarded 
as the handsomest and most complete of the 
kind in California. It is a living monument of 
what wealth and energy can do when applied in 
a country blessed with everything desirable in 
nature. The nature of the soil insures immu- 
nity from phylloxera; so does the facility of 
flooding the level fields of vines whenever nec- 
essary. The entire vineyard is fenced by a 
rabbit- proof fence, and immediately inside of 
this, is a fine drive-way lined with Lombardy 
poplars averaging four feet in girth and 100 feet 
in height. Fully one-half of this vast estate is 
in vines of the very choicest variety, embracing 
a good part of the best varieties for raisins, and 
fully 400 acres of the best-known foreign wine 
varieties. Nearly all the vines for wine are 



696 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



staked to redwood posts, thus insuring a finer 
quality of grapes, free from earthy flavor. 

A very imposing sight is the long, broad ave- 
nue, leading from the south side of the estate to 
the stately chateau standing on an eminence 
and surrounded by evergreens, deciduous trees, 
and almost every choice shrub and plant of this 
clime. 

A twenty-acre orchard surrounds these 
grounds. The great groups of buildings stand- 
ing in the centre of the estate, and right where 
the east, west, north and south avenues cross 
each other, is what is known as the winery build- 
ings. The largest of these is about 100 feet 
wide and 320 feet in length, and the storage 
capacity is fully 1,000,000 gallons. Here we 
also find one of the finest distilleries in the 
State. 

The entire vineyard is now in full bearino-, 
and the product for 1889, like that of 1888, was 
about 3,000 tons of grapes. Reckoning about 
one-third product for raisins, there will be made 
tliis vintage about 238,000 gallons of dry wine, 
some of which will be converted into sherry 
and other sweet wine varieties. The wines from 
this estate have now almost a world-wide repu- 
tation for their excellence. The chief varieties 
made are as follows: Port, Sherry, Muscat, An- 
gelica, Claret, Hock and Brandy. 

fL. WALTER.— The subject of this bio 
graphy, one of Fresno's prominent citi- 
° zens, was born in Mercer County, Illinois, 
July 16, 1850. Being left an orphan at the 
age of nine, he was thus early thrown upon his 
own resources, and worked upon a farm during 
eight months of the year, that lie might be able 
to attend school during the winter. 

When the civil war began he was only eleven 
years of age, and two years later he joined an 
Illinois regiment, being one of the youngest 
soldiers regularly enlisted in the Union army. 
After he was discharged he re-enlisted in the 
Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, commanded by Col- 



onel Robert Gr. Ingersoll, and Berved with that 
regiment throughout the war. 

He then came West, arriving in Solano 
County, California, March 12, 1867, where he 
went to ranching for the modest sum of §1 a 
day. 

Later he engaged in mining in Placer and 
Nevada counties, and also in White Pine Coun- 
ty, Nevada. After mining for four years in 
Nevada, he became foreman of the Red Cloud 
Mine in Arizona, but resigning that position, 
he came to Fresno County in 1881, and bought 
a tract of land near Fowler. This tract was 
colonized under the name of the Walter Colony, 
and sold in twenty-acre lots, realizing a hand- 
some profit to its owner. 

In 1886 Mr. Walter was elected to the Board 
of Supervisors, and is to-day a member of that 
body. In 1882 he aided in organizing the 
Fowler Switch Canal Company, and still remains 
one of its directors. He is also a director of 
the First National Bank of Fresno. 

In 1890 he was the Republican candidate for 
State Senator for this district, but unable to over- 
come the usual Democratic majority, he was 
defeated. 

Mr. Walter, since locating in Fresno County, 
has been interested in many ventures which 
have redounded both to his interest and that of 
the community. Few men are more far-sighted 
or public-spirited, and there are none who are 
more interested in the future of this thriving 
city. 



fOHN W. LOWRY, one of the business 
men of Visalia, is a native of the State of 
Indiana, born September 8, 1828. His 
father, Abraham Lowrv. was a native of Vir- 
ginia and a descendant of Scotch-Irish people, 
who were among the early settlers of the Old 
Dominion. Abraham Lowry was a soldier in 
the war of 1812 and a pioneer of the State of 
Indiana. He married Rachel Hicks, a native of 
Ohio and a daughter of one of the early settlers 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



697 



of that State. They had eight children, of whom 
five are living. The father died in Indiana in. 
1836. 

John W. was reared in the new- State of Illi- 
nois. He has spent more than twenty-five 
years of his life in the lumber business. In 
1875 he came to California, settled in San Jose, 
and continued in the lumber business until 
1882, when he came to Visalia. Then he spent 
three years in the mountains, engaged in saw- 
milling. Returning to Visalia, he was em- 
ployed to take charge of the business of the San 
Joaquin Lumber Company, which position he 
still occupies. This company is one of the 
largest in the State, and does an immense busi- 
ness. 

Mr. Lowry has been a Republican ever since 
the organization of that party. Socially he is 
connected with the A. O. U. W., and has held 
all its offices. 

.g-f. £g^.A-% 



ffOHN W. ELROD, a rancher and stock- 
raiser, residing four miles northwest of 
Woodville, Tulare County, is a native of 
Washington County, Indiana, born in 1854. 
His early life was passed -a.c home in securing a 
common-school education and in acquiring prac- 
tical ideas regarding agricultural pursuits. 

In 1877 he was united in marriage at Mar 
tinsburg, Indiana, to Miss Emma Wyman, and 
together they settled on a farm in that locality. 
Mr. Elrod was successfully engaged in farming 
in his native County until 1883, the year in 
which he came to California. He purchased 
160 acres on Tule river, Tulare County, which 
he is improving as rapidly as circumstances will 
permit, and on which he makes his home. He 
has a considerable acreage in alfalfa and also 
rents land, sowing annually about 300 acres to 
grain. He has given much attention to the 
breeding of fine horses, and, with private track 
— one mile in extent — on his own ranch, and 
witli convenient out-buildings and corrals, is 
well equipped for his business. 

44 



Mr. and Mrs. Elrod have two children, Ru- 
therford B. and Evert Antonio. Mr. Elrod is 
a member of Woodville Lodge, No. 353, I. O. 
O. F. For three years he has been closely 
identified with the interests of Woodville, being- 
road master of that district. 



€ 



°& 



gmORERT C. ROGERS is a native of Crit- 
| tenden County, Arkansas, born near the 
banks of the Mississippi river, forty miles 
ve Memphis, in 1844. He is a son of James 
M. Rogers, who was a Methodist minister, an 
extensive planter, and the owner of forty slaves. 
He sold his interests in Arkansas in 1849, on 
account of his daughter's health, and, in search 
of a mild and genial climate, started with his 
family across the plains for California. As their 
journey progressed the daughter continued to 
fail in health, and at Fort Laramie she died. 
The body was embalmed, taken to California 
and buried at Stockton. Their company num- 
bered thirty families and was in charge of Cap- 
tain Thomas Hughes (now of Fresno.) They 
took the old emigrant trail by Sublet's cut-off, 
and, after six months travel, landed at Murphy's 
camp, near the big trees in Calaveras County, 
the progress of their journey having been some- 
what retarded owing to the fact that Mr. Rogers 
took with him a band of 800 cattle. After his 
arrival in California he settled his family in 
Stockton in order that the children 'might have 
school facilities, and put his cattle on a ranch 
nine miles west of Knight's Ferry, on the So- 
nora road. Mr. Rogers continued in the stock 
business until 1864, the dry year, when he lost 
his cattle, amounting to about $15,000. He 
then lived at Stockton until the time of his 
death, 1867. 

Robert C Rogers was educated in the private 
schools of Arkansas, at Dr. Hunt's Seminary, 
Stockton, and at the Pacific Methodist College, 
Vacaville, Solano County, graduating at the 
latter institution in 1864. He was married 
that same year in Stockton, to Miss Sarah J. 



698 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Harp, a native of Arkansas. Soon after their 
marriage thej settled on a ranch of 554 acres, 
on the Sacramento river, where they resided 
until the fall of 1866, when they sold out and 
moved to San Francisco, Mr. Rogers engaging 
in a produce commission in that city. In 1868 
he went to Modesto, took up 320 acres of Gov- 
ernment land by pre-emption and homestead, 
and engaged in grain farming. At this place, 
in 1873 death entered their home and took away 
Mrs. Eoo-ers, leaving a bereaved husband and 
two children— William M. and Mary L.— to 
mourn her loss. 

In 1875 Mr. Rogers sold his ranch, and after 
making a trip through Texas, bought his present 
farm of 560 acres on Tule river, where he is 
engaged in the stock business, and sows about 
300 acres each year to giain. A part of his 
ranch is bottom land and is well adapted for 
grazing purposes. He usually keeps 125 head 
of cattle and thirty-five horses. 

Mr. Rogers was again married, in Tulare, 
May 10, 1876, to Miss Frances Anna Neal, a 
native of California, by whom he has seven 
children, viz.: James Avery, Gilbert Taylor, 
Robert Chesterfield, Henry Clay, Herbert Mil- 
ton, Edgar Everett and Frances Maria. His 
present fine house was erected in 1890, and its 
surroundings at once indicate the taste and 
culture of the owner and his family. Mr. Rogers 
is a Mason and a member of the Farmers' Al- 
liance. 

«C. PIFFARD is one of the most active 
agriculturists and stock ranchers of Kern 
9 County. His property at Oak creek is 
one of the finest in Central California. It con- 
sists of 2,800 acres of well watered and timbered 
land, being adapted for grazing and the cultiva- 
tion of grain and fruit. An attractive feature 
of the place is a number of sulphur and fresh 
water springs. This property is located eleven 
miles from Tehachaphi, five miles from Cameron 
Station and fourteen miles from Mojave, which 



is the most accessible business point. Mr. 
Piffard grazes about 110 head of cattle and 
twenty six horses. 

He was born in Livingston County, New 
York, December 25, 1829; is a mechanic by 
trade, and followed that business for several 
years. He came to California about 1885, and 
after a short stay in the southern part of the 
State, came to his present property. He is a 
thorough-going business man, and wide awake 
to the interests of his chosen locality. 



tOBERT EUGENE MONTAGUE is a 
descendant of the Huguenots, who came 
to America at an early period in the his- 
tory of this country, and settled in the South. 
His father, John S. Montague, was born in 
Virginia, and his mother, whose maiden name 
was Sarah E. La Rue, in Kentucky. Of their 
fourteen children, he was the second born, liis 
birth having occurred in Illinois, November 1, 
1847. He received his education in his native 
State, and at the age of fourteen began to learn 
the trade of saddler and harness-maker, at which 
business he worked sixteen years. He came to 
California in 1873, and settled near Davisville, 
in Yolo County, working for wages there until 
1875. That year he located in Fresno and pur- 
chased twenty acres of fruit land. He improved 
the property, built on it, and lived there for 
eight years, after which he sold it for a hand- 
some profit, and purchased forty acres a mile 
and a half south of the city. This he also im- 
proved and sold. Still another twenty acres he 
bought and improved, by planting to fruit, 
brought it into bearing and sold it in 1891, be- 
ing eqally successful in this transaction. Learn- 
ing the excellent advantages offered at Orosi. he 
came to the town and bought twenty acres of 
land, built a nice house and barn, and is getting 
the land in shape for planting to fruit. 

Mr. Montacue was married June 30. 1873. 

D 

to Miss Matilda Jane Ford, a native of Lewis 
County, Missouri, and five children have been 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



699 



born to them, namely: Robert. Eugene William, 
Addison, Helen Pearl and Walter H. In poli- 
tics, Mr. Montao-ue is a Democrat. During his 
residence in Fresno, he was a member of the 
School Board. 



-<&+< 



>«>£=- 



fOHN SMITH COLE, Traver,Tulare County, 
California, is one of the substantial busi- 
ness men of his town and merits represen- 
tation in the history of his County. 

Mr. Cole comes of English and German an- 
ts 

cestors, who settled in the State of Pennsylvania 
at an early date. His grandfather, David Cole, 
was born in England, and when quite young 
came to America and located in the "Keystone" 
State, where his son, James R. Cole, was born 
and reared. The latter married Miss Cassie 
Strayer, a native of Pennsylvania, of German 
ancestry, and a Quakeress. Her parents were 
David and Anna Strayer, and three of her bro- 
thers were Union soldiers in the late war, and 
sacrificed their lives for their country. Mr. 
Cole also had two other uncles who were Union 
soldiers, so that the family was not wanting in 
patriotism. James R. Cole and his wife became 
the parents of eight children, all of whom are 
still living. He died at their ranch near Traver, 
in 1889. The subject of our sketch was born 
in Pennsylvania, November 3, 1849; received 
a limited education in the public schools of his 
native State, and learned the trade of a gun- 
smith in Pittsburg. Being a natural mechanic, 
lie has also taken up the blacksmith and car- 
riage-making trades, and has learned engi- 
neering. 

In 1879 he came to California, and for sev- 
eral years was variously employed; he worked 
at Kernville, assisted in building a tramway 
for mining purposes, helped to construct two 
large overshot water-wheels in the Piute moun- 
tains, for the purpose of furnishing power to 
crush quartz, and worked at lumbering in the 
mountains of Tulare County, also doing some 
work at the carpenter's trade. 



In the spring of 1883, when the first sale of 
lots was made in Traver, he purchased lots 
17 and 18, on block 88 soon afterward build- 
ing a house and shop, the first buildings com- 
pleted in the town, which he has continued to 
occupy, and where he is carying on his black- 
smith and carriage-making business. Mr. Cole 
has located a homestead of 160 acres of land 
a mile and a half south-west of town, on which 
he has built a house and barn; has been farm- 
ing it to grain, but more recently is giving it 
over to the culture of raisin grapes and other 
fruits, among which are oranges. One two 
year-old tree bore 300 well-formed oranges. 

Mr. Cole was united in marriage, in 1874, to 
Miss Mary E. Baer, a native of New York City. 
Her parents, Peter and Martha Baer, were born 
in Germaay, but reared in the United States. 
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Cole are 
Martha, Mamie and Frank. 

In politics he is an enthusiastic Repulican, 
but in County affairs he does not adhere strictly 
to party lines. He is a member of the A. O. 
U. W., the K. of P., the Foresters and the 
Farmers' Alliance, and has also been a Granger 
and a Good Templar, having been an officer in 
all these societies. 

In connection with his ancestry, it should be 
further stated that among his German fore- 
fathers were physicians of eminence, and their 
history has been handed down through several 
generations. They were also men who enjoyed 
the sport of deer-hunting in the Alleghany 
mountains, his grandfather, David Cole, having 
died at the age of ninety-six years, from a hurt 
received from a wounded deer. 



fEORGE F. KEIFFER was born in Vir- 
ginia, June 11, 1836, son of Joseph and 
Phebe (Campbell) Keiffer, the former of 
German extraction and a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, and the latter a native of Virginia. In 
the family were seven children, he being the 
second born. Until he was six years old they 



700 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



lived in Virginia, and at tbat time moved to 
Missouri, where he was reared and educated, 
and where he remained until 1853, when he 
came to California. 

After his arrival in this State, Mr. Keiffer 
worked for wages at Half Moon Day and other 
places, until 1863. In 1867 he was united in 
marriage with Miss Mary Rhoads, a native of 
Santa Clara County, California, their nuptuals 
lieing celebrated at the home of her father, Mr. 
Daniel Khoads (see his hist..ry in this book). 
They settled in San Mateo County, and their 
union was blessed with nine children, all of 
whom are living, namely: Sarah J., wife of 
Jesse Esrey, Ruth A., wife of F. March; Mar- 
tin D., Mary A., wife of John Kurtz. Dora E., 
Hugh II., Alice C, George M. and Bertha I 

From her father, Mrs. Keiffer received a 
ranch ot 240 acres, near Lemoore, to which they 
moved in 1884, and on which they built a com- 
fortable residence, where they now reside. Mr. 
Keiffer is chiefly engaged in wheat raising. On 
une occasion he harvested from forty acres of 
land, twenty-three sacks of wheat to the acre, 
each sack weighing 145 pounds. 

He is an industrious and reliable citizen, and 
in politics a Democrat. 



-=$•+< 



><-3=- 



T-STINFIELD SCOTT McCARTNEY was 
| Mr born in Perry County, Illinois, iu 1848. 

i~^H His father, while attempting the trip 
across the plains to California in 1849, was at- 
tacked with the fatal " black tongue" disease 
and died, leaving his wife and infant son. 

The home was then moved to Chester Illinois, 
where our subject was raised aud received his 
schooling. 

In 1867 he moved to Salem, Missouri, where 
he entered a drug store, after a brief experience 
in ranch life, and studied medicine for two 
years; during this period he received the ap- 
pointment of Deputy Circuit Clerk and Recorder, 
holding the office for four years. Later, when 
he moved to Steelville, Missouri, he held the 



came office for a similar period. He also car- 
ried on a drug business with considerable 
success. 

In 1878, Mr. McCartney came to California, 
and located near Selma, buying a ranch one and 
a quarter miles below the town. Two years 
later he disposed of this property at a good pro- 
fit, and immediately made an investment in 
land north of Selma, subsequently selling this 
and locating himself in the drug business. 

He purchased February 8, 1884, the interest 
of Dr. McClannan, the pioneer druggist, and 
has continued ever since in the drug business. 
The store property, in which he owns a half in- 
terest, is situated on the most conspicuous 
corner in Selma. 

Mr. McCartney was married March 24, 1874, 
to Miss Mathews, a native of Missouri, and has 
one child, a boy thirteen years of age. 



• ** } * 3> t i * en — * 



^ON. WALTER SCOTT CUNNINGHAM 
f lW) was k° rn i' 1 New Jersey, April 16, 1837. 
~nM His father, William Cunningham, a native 
of the island of Guernsey, was married and came 
to the United States in 1830. Helivedfor a time 
in New Jersey, and subsequently moved to 
Cleveland, Ohio, where his son Walter S. was 
reared and educated. 

Young Cunningham learned fhe trade of iron 
worker, was industrious, saved his money, and 
afterward engaged in coal mining in Trumbull 
County, Ohio; later removed to Buffalo and was 
superintendent of the coal mines for several 
years. In 1862 he married Miss Martha Hoff- 
man, a native of Ohio, and a sister of Judge 
Hoffman, formerly of that State, and now of 
Pasadena, California. 

The failing of his own and his wife's health 
caused him to sell out his interests in the East 
and come to California, which he did in 1879. 
A. mile north of the village of Lemoore, he 
purchased twenty-seven acres of unimproved 
land, and at once began the work of building 
and planting. At this writing he has an attract- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



701 



ive home and a productive fruit ranch, keeps a 
few Jersey cows, and does enough work to give 
him ac appetite. Out-door exercise in this 
genial, sunny clime has greatly improved his 
health, and he feels fully satisfied with the results 
of his labor. 

Mr. Cunningham is a man of marked ability, 
possesses a well-poised brain, and has the power 
of expressing his ideas clearly and rapidly. He 
formerly affiliated with the Republican party, 
but left it on the tariff question. He now votes 
with the Democrats, holding liberal and inde- 
pendent views. In 1890 he was run on the 
Democratic ticket for the State Legislature, made 
a strong campaign for economy and reform, and 
was elected by a handsome majority. In the 
Legislature he did his duty in an able and con- 
scientious manner, carrying out the ideas urged 
in his campaign; was a strong advocate of the 
Australian Ballot Bill, was on the committee of 
Ways and Means, and also the committee on 
Claims. 

fEORGE A. BALLOU has been a resident 
of California since 1850, is one of the rep- 
resentative citizens of Visalia, and as such 
is entitled to mention in the history of Tulare 
County. 

Mr. Ballou was born in Rhode Island, Sep- 
tember 26, 1831. His ancestors came from 
France to this country in the early colonial 
times. They were a family of weavers and 
manufacturers, and in the Revolutionary war 
fought bravely for independence. Mr. Ballou's 
father, Harvey Ballou, was born in Rhode 
Island, and was one of the first cotton manu- 
facturers of the East. The Ballou cottons are 
known in all the markets of the world. Har- 
vey Ballou married Miss Ruth Gould, a native 
of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who bore him 
seven children, of whom three daughters and 
the subject of this sketch are the only ones liv- 
ing. George A. is next to the youngest of the 
family. He was reared and educated in his 



native State, and there learned the trade of 
plasterer and bricklayer. While quietly work- 
ing away at his trade, the California gold fever 
swept over the country, and he was among its 
victims. 

Upon his arrival in this State, Mr. Ballou 
engaged in mining in Mariposa County, and 
continued in the mines five years, meeting with 
average success, and saving $5,000. In 1860 
he came to Visalia, and again turned his atten- 
tion to work at his trade. Many of the buildings 
in this city have been erected by him. He also 
manufactured brick. He was prosperous in his 
business ventures, and has now retired, preferring 
to give his whole attention to his ranch interests. 
During his residence here he has accumulated con- 
siderable property, owning 160 acres of land on 
Tule river, and 160 acres on Lewis creek, all 
devoted to wheat raising. He has forty acres of 
land three miles east of Visalia, on which he 
raises wheat and hay, but which he intends 
planting to fruit. He has twenty acres in fruit 
and vines near the city, and also owns valuable 
property in Visalia. 

Politically, Mr. Ballou is a Republican, broad 
and liberal in his views. 

fOCTOR J. F. BURNS, the subject of this 
brief biography, is a native of Washington 
County, Illinois, born in the year 1857. 
His father is a prominent physician, and is 
now practising medicine in the State of Illinois, 
where he has lived for many years. Our subject, 
very early in life, indicated his preference for 
the medical profession, and while engaged in his 
studies at school, made preparations to enter it. 
in the year 1878 be came to Los Angeles, Cali- 
fornia, where he remained six mouths. He then 
taught school in Tulare County for two years, 
in the meantime studying medicine as best he 
could with the opportunities there afforded him. 
In 1881 he went to San Francisco and there en- 
tered the Cooper Medical College, graduating 
from that well-known institution in the year 



702 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




1883. The Doctor now came to Fresno County 
and took up the practice of medicine in Kings- 
burg, where he lived for five years, coming to 
Selnia in 1888. He is now settled in Selma and 
enjoying a large practice in medicine and surg- 
ery, and is highly esteemed in this community, 
where he is so well known. 

Dr. Burns was married in 1885 to Miss Har- 
grave, a native of Australia, but for some years 
before her marriage, a resident of San Jose. 
There are no children. 

#HSIM# — — 

B. CULLOM. the present Justice of the 
Peace of the town of Selma, was born 
I Q) February 3d, 1836, in Overton Coun- 
ty, Tennessee. He was educated at Irving Col- 
lege. Warren County, and after his graduation 
at that institution, studied law at the Lebanon 
Law School, finishing his studies there in 1857. 

He entered at once into the practice of law at 
Lebanon, and remained there three years, after- 
wards moving to Benton County, Arkansas; 
this proved to be the home of our subject for a 
period of twenty years, except during the war of 
the Rebellion, when he was in the ranks. 

His career in Arkansas was an eminently suc- 
cessful one. He did well at his profession, and 
as a citizen he was greatly respected. 

Mr. Cullom came to California in the year 
1876, and settled in the town of Visalia. Here 
he lived until 1884, when he moved to Selma 
somewhat broken down in health, where he has 
ever since resided. 

The superior climate here has proved benefi- 
cial to him, and his general condition is greatly 
improved. Since his residence in Selma, Mr. 
Cullom has been actively engaged in the practice 
of law. He was elected to the office of Justice 
of the Peace, and entered upon his duties Janu- 
ary 1, 1890. 

The Judge was married October 13, 1857, 
directly after his graduation from the Lebanon 
Law School in Tennessee, to Miss Pyron, a native 
of Tennessee, by whom he has had seven chil- 



dren, six of whom are now living: Ella, now 
Mrs. Paine, residing near Selma, William, 
Maud, now Mrs. Biddle, residing near Selma, 
Blanche, now Mrs. Dr. Brown of Selma, Myr- 
tie, Mattie and Buela. 



fEORGE REEVE is another one of the 
honored " Forty-niners." These venerable 
pioneers are fast passing away, and the 
native sons and daughters are taking their 
places. Here aud there we find them, some- 
times reticent, but usually communicative, and 
\vith increasing interest we listen to their expe- 
riences in the mines and on the ranch. The sub- 
ject of this sketch has done his part in develop- 
ing the vast resources of California. Now, sur- 
rounded by all the comforts of life, he is spend- 
ing his declining years on a fine ranch near 
Grangeville. 

Mr. Reeve was born at Matlock, Derbyshire, 
England, May 12, 1826, son of Thomas and 
Martha (Buckley) Reeve. His father was an 
iron worker, -and with George Stephenson, bnilt 
the first locomotive in England. His maternal 
grandfather, Thomas Buckley, was an English 
excise officer. His parents are now resting in 
the old church-yards at Chesterfield and Mat- 
lock. Of their five children, only Mr. Reeve and 
a sister survive. 

In 1847 he left his native land, came to Amer- 
ica, and on March 17 landed at New Orleans. 
He had been trained as a butcher, and being pos- 
sessed of ample means, went to Burlington, 
Iowa, and engaged extensively in pork-packing, 
the capacity of his establishment there being 
1,000 hous per day. Two years later, like many 
other ambitious young men, lie was attacked 
with the California gold fever. On March 8, 
1849, he started on the overland journey with a 
bull team, and arrived at " Hangtown*' in July 
of that year. He hired men at $8 per day, and 
mined on Weaver creek; took out a deal of 
gold, but afterward sunk about $3,000. He 
then turned his attention to farming, first at 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



703 



Sulphur Spring valley, and afterward at Napa. 
At the latter place he purchased 500 acres of 
land, and for thirty years lived on it, success- 
fully engaged in fruit-raising. He was the pio- 
neer fruit man there. Selling that property, he 
came to Grangeville, Tulare County, bought 
land, built a nice home, and at once began the 
work of planting fruit trees. He also purchased 
another place of 320 acres, and of this, planted 
160 acres to a variety of fruits. His prune 
orchard, which consists of twenty- five acres, is 
one of the finest in the world. The fruit from 
it he sold the present year for $9,000. 

Mr. Reeve was married in 1848 to Miss 
Annie Kirk, a native of England, and a daughter 
of Edward Kirk. Their son James died at the 
age of twenty-four years; Annie is the wife of 
Edward Jerome, Grangeville; Elizabeth, wife of 
Joseph Tilton, also resides at Grangeville; and 
Mary is the wife of William Mushmire. 

Mr. Reeve was made a Master Maoon in 1862, 
and is a member of the I. O. O. F. in all its 
branches. His political affiliations are with the 
Republican party. 






¥-£§? 




iglLLlAM SMITH is classed among the 
m California pioneers. His ancestors were 
among the early settlers of Pennsylva- 
nia. His grandfather, Robert Smith, came from 
Scotland many years ago and settled in that 
State, where his father, Daniel Smith, was 
born. The latter was among the early residents 
of Pittsburg. He married Lovina Hartford, a 
daughter of Pennsylvania pioneers. Her ances- 
tors received a government grant of 640 acres 
of land for settling on it, and while improving 
the same had to work with their guns near by 
in order to protect themselves from the Indians. 
It is related that Daniel Smith and his wife 
made their start in life with a sack of corn 
meal, two cows and a horse, and the meal and 
milk furnished their chief sustenance until their 
crops grew. To them six children were born, 



William, the fifth child, being born February 
21, 1829. When he was quite young the fam- 
ily removed to Ohio, and he was reared there, 
working on the farm in summer and attending 
the district school three months during the win- 
ter. 

In 1854, at the age of twenty-five years, Mr. 
Smith had an attack of the gold fever. The on- 
ly remedy known for that disease then was a 
journey to this coast, which he made. Arriv- 
ing in California, he entered the diggings 
at Park's Bar, on the Yuba river, where he 
found plenty of hardships and hard work and 
little gold. He, however, made enough to pay 
his expenses. After remaining th^re three 
months he went to Trinity Couuty, mined in 
the Trinity river at Arkansas Bar and made fair 
wages, occasionally taking out $100 in a single 
day; he remained there two years. By this time 
his gold fever had become somewhat abated, and 
the desire to see home and friends caused him to 
return East. That year, 1856, he was married 
in Ohio to Miss Jane Moreland, a native of that 
state and a descendant of Virginia ancestry. In 
partnership with his brother, he purchased the 
old homestead, consisting of 260 acres, and en- 
gaged in farming there until 1861. when he re- 
moved to Nebraska and bought 160 acres of 
land, and lived there and cultivated it until 1865. 
That year he sold out, and the following year 
brought his family to California. He at first 
located in Solano County, then in Napa, and af- 
terward in Stanislaus. In the last county he 
took up 160 acres of land, but on account of the 
excessive drouth was compelled to abandon it. 
From there he removed to Fresno County, and 
a short time afterward, in 1871, came to Tulare 
County. Two years he lived on rented laud 
near Visalia, then went to the foot-hills and en- 
gaged in packing freight to the mines; during 
the mining excitement at Mineral King he 
turned his attention to hotel-keeping, in which 
he was engaged eight years, and made some 
money. In 1883 he came to his present ranch, 
three miles northeast of Traver, and on the 160 
acres he then purchased he has since been en- 



704 



HISTORY OF CBHTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



gao-ed in farming, raising wheat, alfalfa, cattle, 
horses and hogs. 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had six children, 
four «t" whom are living, — Albert K., Emma A., 
Mary F. and Roan M. Emma A. married Ma- 
rion Hillyard, and Mary F. is the wife of George 
Manly. The two sons live near the home place. 
William and Ella are the names of the two chil- 
dren who are deceased. Mr. Smith is blessed 
in having the wife of his youth and the mother 
of his children still by his side. She shared his 
trials and is now enjoying with him the fruits 
of their labors. 

Mr. Smith is an officer of the Farmers' Alli- 
ance. In politics he is a Republican, having 
been a Whig before the organization of the 
Republican party. 

In conclusion we give a little incident con- 
nected with Mr. Smith's second arrival in Cal- 
ifornia. Having stopped near the Wolf skill 
ranch, he went to the house to buy a piece of 
beef they had just killed. He paid them four 
bits for it. They sent a basket of fruit down 
with the children, and in the bottom of the 
basket was found the four bits. Mr. Smith 
is now advancing in years, has a tine ranch 
worth a hundred dollars an acre, and prosper- 
ity is attending him on every side, but he 

still remembers with gratitude this act of kind- 
er 

ness to a stranger. 



^TTLLIAM WATSON STONSLAND, 
\V'/' ,; V|| V"isalia, California, was born in Maine; 

rpH J u ly 21, 1852. His father, Captain 
Thomas Stonsland, who was born in Norway, 
left his native land at the age of fourteen years 
and spent his life on the sea. William W. was 
educated in Maine, and when only ten years of 
age made voyages with his father. He soon 
learned to be an expert seaman, became an offi- 
cer on deep-water ships and a commander of 
Atlantic coasters, and sailed to most of the conn- 
trie- of the world, including North and South 



America, Africa, Australia, the West Indies and 
the Windward Islands. Three times he was 
shipwrecked; first, on Gray head, where the vessel 
was destroyed; they gained the shore in a 
small boat, were three days without food, crossed 
the island on foot, and after much suffering 
reached a place where they obtained something 
to eat; his second shipwreck was on the banks 
of the George; the ship foundered in a gale, and 
they were fortunately picked up by a passing 
vessel; the last wreck was in a gale on the At- 
lantic coast; before the ship sank, however, all 
on board were taken ofl. Thus, after narrowly 
escaping death three times, Mr. Stonsland de- 
termined to seek a home on terra firma. 

In 1879 he set foot on California soil at San 
Francisco, went from there to Lake Tahoe, and 
for two years was steward in a hotel at that 
place. He then came to Visalia and took charge 
of the livery business of Mr. Canty, remaining 
in his employ six years and a half. At the end 
of that time he purchased the business, conduct- 
ed it a year, then sold out and began the stage 
business, in which he is still interested. In 1889 
he also started the Visalia and Camp Badger and 
Sequoia line, and the line from Sanger to the 
Mills. On these routes he has the contract to 
carry the mails. At the Mills Mr. Stonsland 
has built a hotel and twenty-one cottages for a 
summer resort. Located two miles from Gov- 
ernment Park ai.d 1000 feet above the sea, it is a 
most delightful place, where tourists can enjoy 
the purest of air and water. Among other at- 
tractions here i re a beautiful lake and the giant 
trees of the world. This resort is becoming 
more popular every year. Mr. Stonsland owns a 
ranch of 100 acres, nine miles east of Visalia, on 
which he raises grain and hay for his stock. 

In 1872 he married Miss Annie Atwood, a 
native of Maine, and to them was born a son, 
Frank W. After ten years of happy married 
life, Mrs. Stonsland was called to her last home. 
Mr. Stonsland and his son now live with Judge 
Neill and his estimable wife, who have proven 
themselves the kindest of friends. Politically. 
Mr. Stonsland affiliates with the Democratic 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



705 



party. He is regarded as one ot'Visalia's relia- 
ble business men. 



§ANIEL R. SHA.FER.— Scattered on the 
hillsides and in the fertile valleys of Cali- 
W fornia, living in beautiful homes of their 
own, we find men who, only a few years ago, 
landed in this State with little or no capital save 
willing hands, perseverance and good judgment, 
and who, through their own efforts, have won 
their way to success. Such a man is Daniel R. 
Shafer, founder of the little town of Orosi, 
where he is engaged in nursery, vineyard and 
horticultural pursuits. 

He was born in Clinton County, Ohio, March 
27, 1850, oldest of a family of two sons and two 
daughters of Stephen and Rebecca (Cohagan) 
Shafer, the former born in Virginia, July 4, 
1821, and the latter a native of Kentucky. The 
Shafers originated in Holland. His grandfa- 
ther Shafer, however, was born in Pennsylva- 
nia, ds was also his grandfather Cohagan. Daniel 
R. was reared on a farm and educated in the 
public schools of his native state. After he 
grew up he was engaged in farming with his 
father for three years, then clerked in a country 
store, and afterward engaged in business on his 
own account. He married Miss Susan M. 
French, a native of Missouri, and their only 
child, Claud, was born in that state. 

Mr. Shafer came to California and located in 
Fresno in 1881. When he arrived here he was 
without means; as he expresses it, "had fifty 
cents left." He engaged to work on a fruit 
ranch for one year, and the yea' - following he 
purchased forty acres of land on Elm avenue in 
that city. He improved his property by plant- 
ing it to fruit trees, and with the increased val- 
ue of laud there, he soon sold it for a good price; 
bought and improved other lands, succeeding in 
his business ventures beyond his most sanguine 
expectations. For five years he was actively 
engaged in the real-estate business in the rap- 
idly growing city of Fresno, being one of the 



first to engage in that business there. He 
helped to organize the company that purchased 
the section of land on which Orosi was founded. 
Mr. Shafer bought a lot, built a store, filled it 
with goods, and thus gave the town a start. At 
the same time he began to build on his fruit 
ranch. The following May he sold his store and 
gave his attention wholly to the improvement 
of his ranch; now he has twenty acres in nurs- 
ery, thirty-' our acres in Muscat grape-vines and 
eleven acres in a variety of fruits. He has built a 
fine home, the beautiful surroundings of which 
indicate not only the thrift of the owner but his 
taste and refinement as well. Indeed, the won- 
derful development he has made on this place 
in the past two years is truly marvelous. 

Mr. Shafer is a member of the I. O. O. F., 
and in politics is a Republican. The School 
Board, of which he is a member, has recently 
completed a school house at a cost of $6,000. 

«~mJShhs*3h-«— - 

§EWIS VAN TASSEL was born in New 
York, August 1, 1827. His parents were 
Cornelius and Beulah (Hudson) Van Tas- 
sel, natives of New York and Vermont, respect- 
ively. By trade he was a carpenter, and built 
the first frame house ever erected in Syracuse. 

In 1835 he moved to LaPorte County, Indi- 
ana, where he farmed till his death, which oc- 
curred in 1859. They had in all, twelve chil- 
dren. The subject of this sketch attended 
school only six weeks. In 1849 he crossed the 
plains to California with oxen, by the northern 
route. He arrived in Placerville after a tedious 
and tiresome journey. At Cold Springs, El- 
doradoCounty, he mined and traded for two years. 
He it was that made the first "rocker" in this 
country. 

In 1853 he came to Tulare County; the first 
year he labored by day's work. In the fall of 
1853 he was elected Constable. After this he 
served out the unexpired term of O. K. Smith, 
as Sheriff of the County. In 1857 he went to 
Tehama County and was married to America 



706 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Ann Forsee, a native of Indiana. In 1863 lie 
came back to Visalia, and was elected Justice of 
the Peace, in which capacity he served eight 
years. He was on the first Grand Jury in Tu- 
lare County. Mr. Van Tassel is one of the pi- 
oneers of this County. He took up 160 acres 
of government land fourteen miles north of Vi- 
salia, the deed to which was made by General 
Grant. He has been an extensive stock man, 
and owns valuable town property in the city of 
Visalia. His farm which has been devoted to 
grazing will henceforth be devoted to vineyard. 

Mr. Van Tassel lost his first wife in 1862, 
and in 1872 he married Mrs. Elizabeth Fraus. 
They have two daughters — Martha E., wife of 
A. J. Archer, and Jessie Jane. 

Politically he is an enthusiastic and intelli- 
gent supporter of the Democratic party. He 
has been a hard worker and a good citizen, and 
in his old days is enjoying the fruits of his la- 
bors. 

- "g - l ' T - 3 — 




^ATTHEW J. BYRNES was born in 
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, Oc- 
tober 30, 1850. son of Thomas and Ann 
(Carter) Byrnes, and the oldest of their tive 
children, all of whom are living. His mother 
died when he was a child. He received his 
education in his native State, and learned the 
grocery business in Philadelphia, being engaged 
in that line of trade from 1871 till 1877. 

Mr. Byrnes came to California in 1877, 
worked four years in the Grangers' Union, and 
spent two years in the employ of Hawly Bros, 
before coming to Visalia. In this city he was 
in the employ of the Grangers' Union three 
years, after which he opened his present busi- 
ness. He keeps a full line of hardware and 
stoves, and does a tinning and plumbing busi- 
ness. Being a man of energy and ability he 
has won the confidence and esteem of his patrons 
in this city, and has a thriving trade which ex- 
tends for miles into the country surrounding 
Visalia. He has associated himself with a num- 



ber of organizations in this city; is Captain of 
Company E, Sixth Infantry, N. G. C. ; and is a 
member of the K. of P. and of the 1. O. < >. F. 
Politically he is a Democrat, and is now acting 
as a member of the Common Council of Visalia. 
Mr. Byrnes was married in 1880 to Miss 
Ella Magee, a native of Maine. They are the 
parents of two children, — Ines and Roscoe. 



♦. t . ;m; . 



IRjENJAMIN FRANKLIN MOORE was 
|flv| born in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, \<>- 
^W veinber 4, 1831. The town was settled 
by and named for the Moore family, seven 
brothers having emigrated to that place from 
New Jersey about 1826. Abner Moore, the 
father of our subject, was a cabinet-maker by 
trade, an active business man and Justice of the 
Peace of Mooresburg. Six of the brothers 
emigrated to Mendon, Michigan, in 1834, and 
there Abuer Moore died, in 1868, at the age of 
eighty-eight years. 

The educational advantages of Benjamin F. 
were very limited. His parents being poor, his 
early life was mainly passed with an uncle, and 
at the age of twelve vears he began earning his 
own support by working in a tan yard at $3.50 
per mouth, often working sixteen hours per 
day. At the age of sixteen years he started for 
Niles, Michigan, and the parting injunction of 
his aunt was '-to be honest and truthful and 
avoid bad company," which has been his watch- 
word through life. At Niles he found employ- 
ment in a general merchandise store as office- 
boy and general "roustabout." His duties 
were often very hard; but, being of a cheerful 
disposition and not a shirk, he made himself 
popular with all hands, and the second year was 
promoted above four older clerks to the bank- 
ing department, where he secured a good busi- 
ness education, and remained until 1852, when 
he started across the plains for California. 
During that year the cholera swept the plains, 
and the daily death- were numerous. Among 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



707 



other incidents of the journey Mr. Moore re- 
lates the following. 

A man had committed murder and confessed 
his crime. He was fairly tried by a jury and 
sentenced to be hanged, Mr. Moore being wit- 
ness, juryman and executioner. The gibbet was 
improvised by drawing two wagons together 
and elevating the poles; the scaffolding was a 
wooden pail set upon a chair. In this crude 
way was justice carried out and crime punished. 

Mr. Moore arrived at Volcano, California, 
September 10, 1852. He traveled over the 
State, visited the different mining sections, and 
began mining operations at Cox's Bar, where he 
passed the winter and endured much suffering, 
for ten days living on raw corn-meal and snow- 
birds, or any other game he could get. The 
mining was poor, and in January, 1853, he 
went to Colfax, Placer County, where he clerked 
in a hotel. From there he went to Mountain 
Springs, and in the spring of 1855 was appoint- 
ed Under-sheriff of Placer County by William 
T. llenson, tilling the office with great honor 
and credit. In 1857 Mr. Moore went to Dutch 
Flats, as the representative of Hall & Allen, of 
Auburn, and opened a bank for the purchase of 
gold dust, and for doing a general banking 
business, also as agent for Wells, Fargo & Co. 
In 1862 lie went to Ottawa, Illinois, and was 
married to Miss Henrietta Moore, whom he took 
to his western home. In 1865 our subject pur- 
chased the bank of which he had charge, and in 
partnership with Mr. Hall and John Miner, in- 
creased the capital and established branches in 
other mining districts. 

Owing to illness Mr. Moore had to give up 
business for several years, and in 1870 sold out 
all interests except at Gold Run, where he man- 
aged his bank until 1874. In that year he sold 
out and went to Coriune, Utah, as book-keeper 
and manager for Sisson, Wallace &Co., in their 
general merchandise establishment. In 1875 
he went to Eureka, Nevada, as superintendent 
of railroad construction. In April, 1877, he 
located in Tulare. As a partner with Sisson, 
Wallace & Co., then the leading mercantile 



establishment of Tulare County, and as man- 
ager of their interests at Tulare, he did an im- 
mense business, supplying ranchers with 
everything necessary for ranch and family use. 
On the death of Mr. Wallace, in 1881, the firm 
dissolved and closed up business. Mr. Moore 
then went to the southwestern part of Missouri 
and engaged in coal mining. The mining ex- 
citement died out there and he lost heavily; he 
returned to his ranch south of Tulare, where he 
has since led an agricultural life. He has 345 
acres, which are devoted largely to the produc- 
tion of grain, althongh his fruit developments 
in 1881 were among the first in that section. 
He is also interested in 1,700 acres of land, 
principally in grain. 

Mr. and Mrs. Moore have two children liv- 
ing, —Elizabeth Alice and Martha Catharine. 

Mr. Moore is a charter member of the Olive 
Lodge, No. 81, 1. O. O. F., and a member of 
Clay Lodge, No. 101, F. & A. M., both of 
Dutch Flats. He considers that the volunteer 
work of his life has paid him better than sala- 
ried labor. A practical -man of the type we 
term self-made, Mr. Moore is a most worthy 
and highly-respected citizen. 

ig||EORGE BIRKENHAUEB is the pro- 
fwnf prietor of the only cigar manufactory in 
w^ Visalia. He was born in the State of 
New York, January 24, 1861, son of Henry 
Birkenhauer, a native of German} 7 . He was 
educated in Pennsylvania, learned the drug 
business in Philadelphia, and holds a certificate 
from a school of pharmacy. He afterward em- 
barked in the cigar business, removed to Dcn- 
ver, Colorado, and a year later came to Cali- 
fornia. 

July 8, 1888, Mr. Birkenhauer opened his 
cigar business in Visalia, and from the begin- 
ning it has been a success, his cigars being now 
u ed quite generally throughout Tulare County. 
He is an active and energetic young man, and 
has thoroughly identified himself with the in- 



708 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



terests of Visalia: he is a member of the I. O. 
O. F. in all its branches, of the Foresters, and 
also of the Militia Company of Visalia, N. (r. 
C. Politically he is a Democrat, and is now 
serving his second term as a member of the 
Common Council of the city. In addition to 
his other interests he has given some attention 
to fruit-culture, owning thirty acres of land, ad- 
joining the city, planted to peaches, prunes and 
vines. 

Mr. Birkenhauer was married December 4, 
1882, to Miss Jessie Slinker, a native of Penn- 
sylvania. They were reared within two miles 
of each other. 



~~ "| * 3"i , |" ~«» 

fOSEPH P. VINCENT is a native of Wis- 
consin, born November 16, 1845, and one 
of a family of four children. 

His parents, both Wisconsin people, deter- 
mined to come to California to try their for- 
tune, and in 1849, with their family, crossed 
the plains with an ox-team. 

They arrived at Sacramento September 18, 
1849, and without delay proceeded to San Fran- 
cisco, where they spent the winter of 1849. 

In 1853 Mr. J. P. Vincent, the subject of 
this brief sketch, returned to the East, where he 
visited his old home, returning to California in 
1863. This period of ten jears was spent in 
traveling through various parts of our own 
country and Europe, --a privilege which the 
average Californian does not enjoy. 

In 1863 Mr. Vincent went to Nevada terri- 
lory, and lived there one year, being a resident 
of the place when the State was voted into the 
Union. He was a resident of California at the 
time that State was voted into the Union, and 
also of Wisconsin when she was admitted. 

In San Francisco he received his schooling, 
attending the common schools, and subse- 
quently the City College, under the charge of 
Dr. Burroughs, whicn is now the University. 
He finished his studies in 1865, and then taught 
school in Nevada County and other places for 



ten years; farming also received some of his at- 
tention. 

In 1869 Mr. Vincent came to the San Joa- 
quin valley, and engaged in ranching in Stanis- 
laus County. Here he combined the school 
work, also teaching in various institutions. 

In 1880 he invested largely in property in 
Fresno County, and, like all real-estate owners 
in this vicinity in the past few years, has realized 
a handsome profit. Lately he has disposed of 
much of his property, and is now engaged in 
the real-estate business in Fresno City, residing 
in the city's suburbs. In politics he has been a 
prominent figure. In 1887 he was the As- 
semblyman-elect on the Republican ticket; has 
also been Deputy Assessor in the County of 
Stanislaus. Is now President of the Board of 
Trustees of the Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ation; also school trustee of Fresno City 
school district. He is a director of the Enter- 
prise Canal & Irrigation Company; president 
of the I. St. Improvement Company. 

Mr. Vincent was married in 1870 to Miss 
Vivian, and has a family of two children, — one 
boy and one girl. 



§ENRY P. PERKINS.— Another one of 
Visalia's prosperous and prominent citi- 
zens is the gentleman whose name heads 
this sketch. 

Mr. Perkins was born in Missouri, Novem- 
ber 15, 1838. His ancestors were early settlers 
of New York. His father, Enoch Perkins, was 
born in the Empire State, and when quite 
young removed with his parents to the new 
State of Missouri, where he was reared and 
married to Huldah A. Pringle, a native of Con- 
necticut, Henry P. was the oldest of their 
three children, and is now (1891) the only sur- 
vivor of the family. He was reared and edu- 
cated in Missouri, and in 1860, after reaching 
hi6 majority, came to California. Locating in 
Tulare County, he was for several years en- 
gaged in the cattle business. Then he returned 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



709 



East, and two years later came back to Califor- 
nia, this time giving his attention to sheep- 
raising. In 1877 he lost 10,000 head of sheep, 
but so extensively was he engaged in the busi- 
ness that he continued it. Subsequently he in- 
vested in lands and also began to raise horses 
and cattle. He now owns 3,000 acres of land 
in Tulare County, on which he is engaged in 
stock farming. Among his horses are "Elec- 
tioneer" and other fine breeds. To this busi- 
ness he is giving considerable attention, and 
will no doubt soon be at the front in this line 
of farming. 

In Visalia he has done his part toward pro- 
moting the growth of the town. He has built 
a nice business block and a fine residence, and 
is a stockholder in the Visalia Railroad. 

Mr. Perkins was married, in 1867, to Miss 
Virginia T Moore, a native of Missouri. Their 
union has been blessed with seven children, the 
first born in Missouri and the others in Califor- 
nia, viz.: Darius E., John Alexander, Mark 
McGowan, Ruby Harriet, Paul P., Virginia T. 
and Gerda L. 

Mr. Perkins is a man who has paid strict 
attention to business, and is one of Tulare 
County's most successful and respected citizens. 



fHOMAS CROJSTLN, of Cummings val- 
if ley, Kern County, is one of a class of 
W men whose individual labors have con- 
tributed materially to the growth and advance- 
ment of Central California. He commenced 
life in the Golden State as a rancher at Live- 
more, Alameda County, where he lived five 
years. He then turned his attention to rail- 
roading, and as section foreman served the 
Southern Pacific Company three years, after 
which, in 1884, he took up his residence at Mo- 
iave. There he continued in the service of the 
company until 1890, holding a responsible 
position and drawing a large salary. Ill-health, 
however, compelled him to abandon railroad 
work, and at that time he took uo his abode in 



Cummings valley, where he is improving and 
cultivating his ranch of 487 acres. At this 
writing (1891) he is erecting a new dwelling. 
He ranges forty head of cattle and about twenty 
horses. 

Mr. Cronin was born in County Cork, Ire- 
land, May 10, 1861. That same year his father, 
Cornelius Cronin, a native of Ireland and a 
farmer by occupation, came to this country and 
brought with him his family. They first located 
at Baltimore, Maryland, and subsequently came 
to California. The father has returned to his 
native land. In 1890 Mr. Cronin was united 
in marriage with Lulu Morena, a widow, of 
Spanish- Mexican birth. 




~-»§~2~f~^~ 

W. CAUGHRAN was born in Sevier 
County, Arkansas, March 24, 1836. 
His parents were James and Levina 
(Pierce) Caughran, natives of Illinois. They 
had a family of twelve children, the subject of 
this sketch being the eighth child. He was 
educated in a log schoolhouse, one of his teach- 
ers being A. H. Garland. In his young man- 
hood Mr. Caughran clerked in a store. When 
the war broke out he entered the Confederate 
army, Second Arkansas Mounted Riflemen, 
under Captain Brown, and served through the 
war. Under General Johnston he surrendered 
at Greenville, North Carolina, in 1865. After 
the war he engaged in the cotton trade and 
general merchandising in Arkansas till 1870, 
when he started across the plains to California, 
via the Southern route. His first stop was 
made at San Diego, where he remained ten 
months, and then came to Visalia. At hrst he 
leased land and farmed for a year. The next 
two years he fenced land and took care of stock 
for his brother, Robert E. He then traded for 
property in Visalia, and for several years 
carried on the livery business. He has since 
purchased a fine stock ranch two miles south of 
Visalia. He also owns fine residence property 
on Bridge and Willow streets. Mr. Caughran 



710 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



came to California a poor man, but by bis in- 
dustry, economy and pusb, he has been emi- 
nently successful as a business man. 

He was elected by the Democratic party as 
County Treasurer, which office he held four 
jears. He served two years as Councilman, 
and two years as Mayor of the city. He is 
prominently connected with the A. O. U. W., 
in which order he has held various offices. 

Mr. Caughran was married in Arkansas, 
March 9, 1870, to Emily Pettigrew, a daughter 
of Charles and Catharine (Gross) Pettigrew. 
Of this union the following children were born: 
Charles E., Guy, Maud, Grace, James, who 
died at ten years of age, and May, who died at 
the age of seven years. 

fEORGE FRANCIS LANGRICK, Visalia, 
California, was born in Yorkshire, Eng- 
land, December 22. 1834. His parents, 
both English people, died when he was quite 
young, and he came to America and made bis 
home with an uncle in Sturgis, St. Joseph 
County, Michigan. He was brought np to the 
butcher's business, attended school at Sturgis 
and remained there until 1860, when he came 
to California. 

Arrived in this State, Mr. Langrick settled 
in Placer County and followed his trade, 
subsequently he went to Austin, Nevada, and 
was in a meat m,arket there nine years. He 
then came to Visalia, and for eight years worked 
for wages, first for John Christie, then for Fin- 
land & Evans, and later for W. H. Blair. In 
1878 he started a shop on Main street, opposite 
the Visalia Bank, where he has since continued 
to do business. In 1890 he opened a second 
simp on the same street, two blocks further 
west, and in the two establishments he employs 
seven men. During his residence here pros- 
perity has attended him. He is the owner of 
420 acres of land, which is devoted to the 
raising of grain and cattle, and he also has a 
pleasant home which he built on Garden street. 



Mr. Langrick was married in 1 S 1 » , to Maggie 
Wilson, who was born in Tennessee and reared 
in California. Four children have been born to 
them, but they have had the misfortune to lose 
them all. One, an unusually bright boy. lived 
to be twelve years of age, and weighed 103 
pounds. His death was a severe blow to his 
parents. They had the best medical attendance 
that could be procured, but were unable to de- 
termine the cause of his death or nature of his 
disease. Mrs. Langrick is an Episcopalian. 

As a business man Mr. Langrick is affable 
and obliging, and be is particularly kind to 
children who are sent to his shop, always 
making it a point to give them a better bargain 
than he would older persons. He has made his 
way in the world by his own honest endeavor; 
the early stock in trade he had was industry 
and moral integrity, and it has served him well. 
Politically he is a Democrat. Several times he 
has been elected a member of the Visalia School 
Board, and he has also served as a member of 
the Common Council. He is associated with 
the A. O. U. W. 



fHARLES E. JOYNER— Twelve miles 
east of Vissalia, on the extreme east side 
of the plains, surrounded by wide spread- 
ing fields of ajolden grain, are the commodious 
residence and farm buildings of Cliales E. Joy- 
ner. Here he took up 160 acres of government 
land and made a home for himself and family. 
Mr. Joyner was born in Arkansas, in 1854, 
the sixth in a family of eight children of A. B. 
and Catherine (Perry) Joyner, both natives of 
Tennessee. He was reared in his native State, 
and in 1873, at the age of nineteen years, came 
to California. After his arrival in Hub State 
he worked for wages £o r twelve years, and in 
1884 was married to Miss Kate Maberry, a 
native of Arkansas and a daughter of C. D. 
Mayberry. Three sons have been born to them 
— Joda, Alva and Bertie. Mr. Joyner settled 
on his place in 1886. He is now annually 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



711 



farming to wheat, 800 acres, has been success- 
ful in his farming operations, and is destined to 
become one of the most prosperous ranchers in 
his part of Tulare County. 

His political views are in harmony with Dem- 
ocratic principles. 

»~» i|»3i t ;»°<ji » ■" — 

fRAVIS WITT PENDERGRASS, one of 
the practicing physicians of Visalia, 

ffS Tulare County, California, is a native of 
Tennessee, born in 1827. His father, Jesse 
Pendergrass, also a native of that State, was a 
son of Nimrod Pendergrass, who was born in 
South Carolina. The ancestors of the family 
came to America from Scotland before the Rev- 
olution, and settled in the South, becoming 
prominent planters, physicians and Methodist 
ministers in that section of the country. Jesse 
Pendergrass married Miss Annie "Witt, a native 
of Virginia, and to them were born eleven chil- 
dren, of whom the subject of this sketch is the 
oldest. 

Dr. Pendergrass was educated in Lebanon, 
Tennessee, and was ordained a minister of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church He subse- 
quently read medicine under Dr. James Fane, 
and during the great civil war, tendered his 
services to his country as a surgeon in the Con- 
federate army. After serving for a time in that 
capacity, he resigned and entered the Ohio Med- 
ical College, graduating there in 1865. He 
returned to Tennessee and practiced his profes- 
sion a year, after which he went to Illinois, and 
practiced in Yirginia, Cass County, eight years. 
From there he went to Springfield, Missouri, 
where he practiced seven years. In 1868, while 
in Illinois, he was a charter member and first 
President of the Cass City Medical Society, and 
afterwards, while in Missouri, a member of the 
Medical Society of Missouri. 

In 1879 the doctor came to California, and 
soon after settled in Visalia, where he has since 
been engaged in a successful and lucrative prac- 
tice. He was married in 1854 to Miss Nancy 



Scanland, who was born in Tennessee, of English 
ancestry. To them nine children have been 
born, the oldest dying at the age of three years. 
The others are as follows: Alice S., wife of W. 
W. Townsend, Molly, wife of E. W. Fulkerth, 
William C, Rush, Homer, Travis S. and 
Mattie. 

The doctor and his wife are both worthy 
members of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
Church. He is a Forester and a member of the 
American Legion of Honor. In politics he is a 
Democrat, and for six years held the office of 
public administrator and coroner. He has been 
a member of the Board of Public Instruction in 
Visalia for two terms, and has the nomination 
for a third term. 

With Dr. Pendergrass time has dealt gently. 
Notwithstanding his long professional career, he 
still looks young and bids fair to pass many 
more years of active and useful life. He is 
devoted to his profession, and has met with emi- 
nent success in its practice. 

fANIEL HENRY CURTIN was born in 
Franklin County, New York, May 15, 
1853, son of John and Mary.(Spillins) Cur- 
tin, natives of Ireland. They emigrated to the 
United States and settled in Franklin County, 
New York, where three of their eight chil- 
dren were born, the others being natives of 
the Emerald Isle. By industry and economy 
the father was enabled to purchase a farm, make 
a nice home and rear an intelligent and 
respected family. He died in 1887, and his 
wife is still living at the old home in New 
York. Daniel H. was the first of their chil- 
dren born in Franklin County. He was reared 
on his father's farm and educated in the public 
schools. 

In 1883 Mr. Curtin came to California. He 
was at first employed for $30 per month, but as he 
became acquainted and his services were appre- 
ciated, his wages were raised to $75. With the 
earnings he saved he purchased a half section of 



712 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 



land at $2.50 per acre, and not long afterward 
sold it for twice that amount. He then pur- 
chased the choice eighty acres on which lie now 
resides. Since he bought this property he has 
been offered double its cost, and has refused to 
sell. Its being located four miles northeast of 
Traver in a section of country that is rapidly 
being developed, Mr. Curtin displayed good 
judgment in its purchase. 

In 1886 he was happily wedded, the lady of 
his choice being Miss Lizzie McMahn, a talented 
and accomplished musician, and also a native of 
Franklin County, New York. She is a talented 
pianist and organist, having played in New 
York for eight years, and for several years acted 
as church organist. Their union has been 
blessed with one son, John Francis Curtin. 

Politically Mr. Curtin is a Democrat. He is 
a member of the Farmers' Alliance, and holds 
the office of steward. He reveres the name and 
character of his father, and like him, is a pru- 
dent, industrious and reliable man. 



-fen , f~J> 



fj. HARLOW is one of the prominent real- 
estate men of Hanford, Tulare County, 
3 California, and it was through his agency 
that the vineyard system was so rapidly and 
successfully developed. 

Mr. Harlow is a native of Waterloo, Monroe 
County, Illinois, born in 1850. His father, 
U. R. Harlow, was a native of Maine, and a 
miller by trade. He emigrated to Illinois in 
1826, and for many years operated a flour-mill 
at Monroe City. In 1864 he moved his family 
to California, a single ticket from New York to 
San Francisco at that time costing him $360. 
They embarked on the steamer Illinois for 
Aspinwall, had 1,460 passengers on board, and 
made slow progress. They missed connection 
with the Pacific steamer at Panama, and, owing 
to yellow fever in that city, the passengers re- 
mained on the steamer at Aspinwall about two 
weeks, then crossed the isthmus. Without en- 
tering the city of Panama, they re-embarked on 



the steamer Moses Taylor for San Francisco, 
arriving in May. 1864. Mr. Harlow then set- 
tled at Santa Clara aud commenced farming. 
His money, being all in green backs, was worth 
in California but forty cents on the dollar; thus 
his seed wheat in 1864 cost him in greenbacks 
$6.60 per bushel. He farmed successfully until 
1866, then came to Visalia and bought 160 
acres near town, where he died in 1873, aged 
sixty years. 

The early education ot J. J. Harlow was ob- 
tained in the public schools at Waterloo, Illi- 
nois, and he completed his studies at Santa 
Clara. In 1871, he engaged in raising sheep 
with his father, and continued thus until 1875, 
with an average band of 6,000 head. He then 
sold out and began wheat farming, sowing an- 
nually from 500 to 1,000 acres. He was mar- 
ried, at Visalia, in 1878, to Miss Margaret 
Buckman, a native of Kentucky. In 1884 Mr. 
Harlow moved to Hanford and purchased an 
interest in the hardware and agricultural im- 
plement business of E. E. Bush, which they 
continued very successfully until 1886. In that 
year they sold out and entered the real estate 
business, in which they were eminently success- 
ful, dealing largely in acreage property. At the 
commencement of the vineyard boom around 
Hanford, Messrs. Bush & Harlow gained great 
prominence through their honorable dealings 
and extensive transactions. Commencing in 
February, 1890, they incorporated the Del 
Monte Vineyard and Facking Company, 170 
acres, capital, $60,000; the Banner Vineyard 
Company, 320 acres, capital, $120,000; the 
Crangeville Vineyard Company, 160 acres, cap- 
ital, $60,000; the South Fresno Improvement 
Company, 1,280 acres, capital, $125,000, and 
the Fruit and Vineland Company, 320 acres, 
capital, $80,000. They laid off the Hanford 
colony of 680 acres, which was subdivided and 
sold in twenty-acre tracts. All this work was 
completed during the year, and on January 1, 
1891, the firm dissolved. Mr. Harlow con- 
tinues in the real estate business, although he 
gives much of his time to individual interests 



HISTORY OF GENT UAL CALIFORNIA. 



713 



On his ranch of 360 acres he planted a vine- 
yard of 140 acres in the spring of 1891, and is 
now arranging to plant the rest to fruit. 

Great credit is due Mr. Harlow and his as- 
sociates for the rapid development of fruit and 
vineyard interests in the Lucerne district. 

— -Hr ! " r • %' •"- — 



fHOMAS CASTRO, one of the old-time, 
venerable Californians, was born at So- 
*v nora, Mexico, in 1830, but has spent 
the larger portion of his life in the Golden 
State. He has led an active and useful life as a 
stock-raiser. He is a near relative of the late 
General Jose Castro, one of the most prominent 
historical figures of California. He married in 
Sonora, a lady of Mexican birth, by whom he 
has a large family. He has for many years 
resided near Bakersfield, where he owns a 
ranch; and lie also has a home near Sumner. 
His oldest son, Leonidas, lives on the ranch. 
He was born May 18, 1856, and is one of the 
respected and thrifty citizens of his town. 



fASPER, VAN LOAN was born in Athens, 
Greene County, New York, August 19, 
1827. It is believed that the remote an- 
cestors of his family came to this country at an 
early day, from Holland. His parents, Jere- 
miah and Hannah (Spoor) -Van Loan, both 
natives of Athens, Greene County, New York, 
were married in 1824, and to them were born 
six children, of whom five are still living. 

Casper Van Loan was educated at his native 
place, there learned the carpenter's trade, and 
was working quietly at it when marvelous tales 
of the gold discovery in California reached his 
eastern home and filled him with a desire for 
adventure and fortune. Bidding adieu to home 
and friends, he set out for the far "West. Ar- 
riving in the Golden State, he began mining 
operations on the Yuba river, continued there 
for three years with steady success, saved what 

4 5 



he earned, and returned East with no thought 
that California was ever to become one of the 
best States in the Union. After remaining six 
months in New York he removed to Wisconsin, 
purchased a farm in Washington County, built 
upon it and improved it, and farmed there fif- 
teen years. In 1866, in consequence of ill- 
health, he sold out and removed to the village 
of Hartford, Wisconsin, where he resided seven 
years. His health, however, did not improve, 
and he came back to California, remained a 
year, and supposed he was fully recovered; but, 
on goino- East, he grew worse, and found that 
his only chance for life was to make California 
his permanent home, which he has done. He 
located in Tulare County, purchased eighty 
acres of rich land located one mile west of 
Earmersville and six miles east of Visalia, and 
in his pleasant home here he is surrounded by 
all the comforts of life. His dwelling is shel- 
tered by vines and fruit-trees, and one of the 
most immense white oak trees stands as sentinel 
at his front gate, its trunk measuring no less 
than twenty four feet in circumference and its 
giant limbs reaching heavenward. Mr. Van 
Loan has been raising hay and grain, cattle, 
horses and hogs on his ranch, but is now turn- 
ing his attention to the cultivation of fruit, 
prunes, peaches, apricots, strawberries, black- 
berries, etc. 

He was married, in 1853, to Miss Rachel 
Ann Clow, a native of his own town and a 
daughter of Richard Clow, and their union was 
blessed with five children, all born in Wisconsin 
and all now living, namely: Isabella, wife of L. 
V. Nanscowen, of Visalia, Louisa, wife of 
Lester Martin, of San Jose, Annie, wife of D. 
N. Overall, Visalia, Elmer, settled in Lassen 
Couuty, and Mary, wife of M. T. Mills, of 
Earmersville. After living happily with his 
wife for fifteeen years, she was called home 
and he was subsequently married to Miss Rachel 
Ann Miller, who bore him five children, Fred, 
Addi", Ray, Carl and Leonard, all natives of 
California. 

Mr. Van Loan has been a Republican since 



;u 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



the organization of that party; and while in the 
East he belonged to the Grangers and Odd 
Fellows. He is now past three-score years of 
age, enjoys tine health, and has the good-will 
and best wishes of a large circle of acquaint- 
ances and friends. 



- — ~*^^-i M ^^*" c 

F. HOBART of Delano, is one of the 
stirring business men of the town. He 
is a native of Schuyler County, Illinois 
where he was born November 26, 1851. His 
lather, Truman Hobart was a farmer by occupa- 
tion, and removed from Illinois to Faribault 
County, Minnesota, in 1861, where he died in 
1870. The widowed mother came to California 
and is now living with her son, Charles, at 
Redlands. The subject of this sketch came to 
California in July, 1886, and located at Tulare. 
That same year he took up a homestead near 
Delano, in Kern County, being 160 acres, 
south-east quarter, on section 24, township 24, 
south range, 25 east. He is also engaged in 
the livery business in Delano. He married in 
Brewer County, Minnesota, Miss Anneta Lat- 
tin. She is the daughter of Phineas Lattin, a 
farmer of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Hobart 
have two sons and two daughters, Ralph Renah, 
Rachel and Roy. 

tARRISON ROSS PEACOCK, an enter- 
prising business man of Traver, dates his 
birth in Solano County, California, April 
14, 1865. His father, Joseph Peacock, came 
to California in 1852, mined in Humboldt 
County for five years, and afterward located in 
Solano County, where he was married to Miss 
Hannah Barnum, a native of Indiana. To 
him and his wife, ten children have been born, 
all of whom are living, Harrison R. being the 
eldest. The family resided on a farm in Solano 
County till 1S75, when they came to Tulare 
County, and settled on a ranch in Mussel Slough 



district. The father purchased 160 acres of 
land from the railroad company, and has since 
made that place his home. He has been in- 
terested in the different irrigation companies, 
and has been superintendent of the Lake Side 
Ditch, the People's Ditch and the "76'' Ditch, 
for the last fourteen years. 

Harrison R. was nine years old when they 
came to Tulare County, and has been reared and 
educated here. He came to Traver in 1885, 
was present at the sale of the town lots two 
years previous to that time, and his father had 
the first house built in the place. The subject 
of our sketch opened a feed stable, and after- 
ward purchased the livery stock of Messrs. Lit- 
tlefield & Armstrong, and built his present 
livery stable between Seventh and Eighth streets, 
where he is doing a successful business, being 
the only liveryman in Traver. 

Mr. Peacock is a member of the I. O. O. F., 
and in politics is a Republican. For two years 
he served as Deputy Sheriff of Tulare County, 
and made a prompt and efficient officer. 



fASIIER is one of the most successful mer- 
chants of Kern County. His career in 
^• a Tehachapi is one that illustrates what per- 
severance and unceasing diligence in business 
matters will accomplish in California. 

Mr. Asher is of Prussian birth, born March 
26, 1861. He came alone to America in 1876; 
clerked for E. Laventhal, Los Angeles, about 
four years, and came to Kern County in 1880, 
and until 1885 held a similar position with 
Hirshfeld Bros. & Co., Old Tehachapi. Then 
he bought and opened his present business at 
Tehachapi. Six months later Mr. M. Hirshfeld 
became partner in his business, and after being 
together three years, Mr. Asher purchased the 
business and carried same on alone. His rap- 
idly growing trade soon demanded more room, 
and he accordingly erected one of the finest 
stores in central California. I f is 50x100 feet 
in size and is constructed of brick, the iuterior 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



715 



fittings and furnishings being of the most mod- 
ern and approved style. A wide gallery runs 
along three sides of the spacious salesroom, is 
shelved and holds immense quantities of gen- 
eral stock. The officers and cashier's desks are 
in the rear of the establishment, being con- 
nected with the various sales departments by 
means of cash cars, propelled on wire by the 
"push" system. A basement underlies the 
entire store, and in it surplus stock and heavy 
wares are stored. The basement is reached by 
a freight elevator. 

Mr. Asher was married, November 4, 1889, 
to Miss Ida Harris, of San Bernardino, a 
native of Germany. They have one daughter, 
Gertrude, born December 24, 1890. 

^-6s^# 



fAMUEL J. CRALN E is a native of Spring- 
field, Illinois, born in 1844, October 15. 
His father, Samuel L. Craine, was a far- 
mer by occupation, and a native of South Caro- 
lina. He had a family of six children, and the 
subject of this sketch is the third son. He left 
home with his family in the spring of 1856, 
came across the plains with oxen and wagons 
to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and thence with a train 
of about sixty other similar outfits, come across 
the plains to Salt Lake, thence by the Southern 
route to California, landing in San Bernardino 
County, in 1857. He has been engaged in 
farming and stock raising, and resides in Po- 
mona. He is advanced in years, having been 
born October 4, 1812, in the vicinity of Charles- 
town, South Carolina. 

Samuel J. Craine has been engaged mostly in 
farming, freighting and stock raising in South- 
ern California, until he engaged in running the 
James Hotel in Bakersfield, which stood prior 
to the great fire of July, 1889, on the corner of 
L and 19th streets After that her an the Kim- 
berlen& Hotel, near Bakersfield, and in 1891, 
January 19, he took the Arlington. He has been 
twice married; first, to Miss Sarah McKenzie, 
bv whom he has four children living. She 



died in 1888, April 25, in Bakersfield. He was 
married a second time to Mrs. Watkins, of 
Kansas City. She has three children. 



fH. RAMSEY is a leading business man 
of Delano, where he is engaged in the 
9 drug business. He is a native of the 
■historic old town of Ticonderoga, New York, 
and was born May 23, 1867. His father, Onin 
Ramsey, is a native of the same town, and a 
carriage painter by trade. Mr. Ramsey learned 
the drug business in Ticonderoga. He came to 
California in 1887, and with the exception of 
about five months spent in Fresno, has been 
continuously a resident of Delano, where he is 
building up a lucrative trade, and has an excel- 
lent reputation as a business man. His stock 
comprises every thing found in a well regulated 
and equipped modern drug store. He was 
married in 1890, March 31, to Miss Helen 
Waitzold, a Danish lady, a native of Copen- 
hagen. Mr. Ramsey is progressive in his ideas 
and business methods, a citizen whose worth is 
appreciated. 



»ENJAMIN FRANKLIN STOKES was 
fly) b° rn in Tulare County, near the ranch on 
tp which he now resides, six miles west of 
Visalia. His father, Yancy Baley Stokes, a na- 
tive of Missouri, came to California in 1850, 
and was a prosperous rancher and stock-raiser 
of Tulai'e County. (See his history in this 
work). Benjamin F. is the youngest of a fam- 
ily of nine children, and was born in 1850 and 
reared and educated in Tulare County. His 
father having been a stock-raiser, the son had 
much experience in the care of cattle and horses, 
and became an expert in throwing the lasso. 
Few men could excel him in riding a wild mus- 
tang or in rounding up cattle; and on horseback 
he has traveled the country in every direction. 
In 1887, the year after his father died, Mr. 



7!6 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Stokes came to his present ranch of 120 acres. 
Here he has huilt a pleasant home and large 
barn, and is engaged in grain and hay farming. 
He was married in 1874, to his cousin, Mar- 
tha Stokes, a native of Missouri, who came to 
California when she was fourteen years old. 
They have four children, all born in Tulare 
County — Lillie A., Leland C, Rachel .1. and 
Oscher M. 

In politics Mr. Stokes is a Republican. He 
is a worthy citizen and a representative of the 
native sons of California. 



-=**« 



»*#=- 



tLFRED BALAAM has been a resident of 
California since 1853, and is well-known 
to the citizens of Tulare County. 
Mr. Balaam was born in Louisville, Kentucky, 
September 5, 1839, son of George and Sara 
(Swan) Balaam, both natives of England. His 
parents had three children born to them in Eng- 
land, three in Kentucky and three in Arkansas; 
and in 1853 the whole family came to Califor- 
nia, the subject of this sketch being fourteen 
years old at that time. They settled in Los 
Angeles County, where they remained until 
1857, when they came to Tulare County to 
their present location near Farmersville. The 
father took up 160 acres of Government land, 
improved it and lived on it for many years. He 
is now a resident of San Luis Obispo County' 
his wife having died in 1868. Alfred pnrchased 
the old home and has continued on it all his 
life. He was married in 1862, to Miss Ann 
Whit-lock, a native of Ohio, who bore him two 
children, a son and daughter, Charles Wesley 
and Nellie. The latter became the wife of 
Charles Fitzsends, and died in 1886. After 
five years of married life Mrs. Balaam died 
and two years later, in 1869, Mr. Balaam mar- 
ried Miss Marian Bequette, a native of Califor- 
nia, and the daughter of C. L. Bequette, one of 
the prominent and earl}' settlers of the State. 
To them three children have been born, namely: 
Ida May, Carl and Edward. 



Mr. Balaam affiliates with the I. O. O. F., 
the A. O. U. W. and the Chosen Friends. He 
belongs to the Farmers' Alliance and in politics 
is a Democrat. In 1886 he was elected Sheriff 
of the County, and held the office one term of 
two years, performing the duties of the same 
in a most creditable manner. 



fOHN KETT is one of the prosperous agri- 
culturiots and a lumber merchant of Teha- 
chapi. The experiences of his boyhood 
and youth have been somewhat unusual. An 
outline of his life is as follows: 

Mr. Kett was born at Sidney, Australia, .June 
20, 1844. His father, Rodgers Kett, a native 
of Ireland, was a stone-cutter by trade. He 
met his death in a railway accident when John 
was a small hoy, leaving a family of thirteen 
children. At the age of fourteen the subject of 
our sketch went to sea as a sailor before the 
mast; he became a soldier of the Peruvian 
Navy of South America, in this capacity coast- 
ing extensively and subsequently navigating the 
open seas. He finally abandoned life on the 
deep and joined a party of surveyors ou the 
then projected line of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad in Washirgton Territory. About 
1878 he came to Tehachapi and engaged in the 
stone-quarry business in Brite's valley, and also 
did some mining. For several years he was 
foreman of the Columbian Marble Quarry in 
Tuolumne County, California. 

Mr. Kett was married in Tuolumne County, 
in 1876, to Miss Amanda Watson, a native of 
Indiana. Her parents with their five children 
started across the plains to California in 1851. 
Before reaching the Missouri river, however, her 
father was taken suddenly ill and died. Under 
these distressing circumstances the mother 
proved herself a most heroic woman. She con- 
tinued the journey with her children, drove a 
mule team, and finally lauded safe in Tuolumne 
County, where she located on a ranch and reared 
and educated her family. Mr. and Mrs. Kett 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



717 



have one daughter. Hattie. They had the mis- 
fortune, in 1890, to lose four children by diph- 
theria. Mr. Kett owns 160 acres of fine grain 
land at Tehachapi, all under cultivation; he is 
in charge of Brite & Sons' lumber yard. 

jH^ L. TODD has heen a resident of Cum- 
§M\ ming's valley, Kern County, since 1869. 
"wlS® He first came to California in 1858, and 
in December of that year located in Los An- 
geles. From there he went to the mining re- 
gions and spent several years, after which for 
four years he lived in the flavilah district in 
Kern County. Then he took up his abode on 
his present location, and has since been eno-ao'ed 
in farming and stock-raising. 

September 29. 1873, Mr. Todd married Miss 
Jesus Martinees, a native of Los Angeles Coun- 
ty. They are the parents of five children, 
Martha, James, George W., Frank and an infant 
son. In Mr. Todd we find one of the typical 
old-timers of California — a man of pronounced 
ideas and social nature, a most worthy citizen. 

fAMUEL FREDERICK EDWARDS is a 
native of Yuba County, California, born 
March 4, 1853, son of James Edward and 
Mariam (Williams) Edwards, natives of Tennes- 
see and Missouri respectively. The father came 
to California in 1850, accompanied by his wife 
and two children. He engaged in the sheep and 
cattle business, spent some time in Calaveras 
County, and at this writing (1891) is a resident 
of Kingsburg. Fresno County. 

Samuel F. was reared and educated in his na- 
tive County. He first settled on a ranch of 225 
acres in Tehama County, which he purchased 
from the railroad company, and after farming 
there two years came to Tulare County, the date 
of his location here being 1884. Three miles 
northwest of Traver he took a homestead claim 



of 160 acres, proved up on it, and now has a nice 
home and a government title to the land. 

Mr. Edwards chose for his life companion and 
wedded Miss May Burney, who was born in 
Michigan and reared in California. He is a 
member of the K. of P. In national politics he 
votes with the Democratic p*arty, but in local 
affairs votes for men I'ather than party. Like all 
native sons of the Golden West, he is justly 
proud of his State and her vast resources, and 
can be depended upon to do all in his power to 
advance her interests. 



fRANK L. DODGE, member of the firm of 
Dodge Brothers, proprietors of the Han- 
ford Sentinel, was born in Dunham, Mc- 
Henry County, Illinois, in 1846. He was the 
sixth born in a family of eleven children, and 
made his home with his parents, Elisha and 
Susan (Smith) Dodge, until his twenty-third 
year. His education was obtained in the dis- 
trictandhigh schools, and at the age of eighteen 
he began teaching in the winter, passing his 
summers at home on the farm. 

Mr. Dodge was married, in 1868, to Miss 
Anna A. Hills, of Dunham, Illinois. He con- 
tinued teaching in his native County until 1871, 
when he moved to Parkersburg, Iowa, accepted 
the principalship of the Parkersburg schools, and 
in that capacity taught till 1874. In that year 
he purchased the Parkersburg Eclipse, which 
he edited and managed until 1881; he sold it to 
his brother, Fred A. Dodge, and removed to Al- 
lison, the new county seat, and there established 
the Allison Tribune. During the long tem- 
perance fight in Iowa, Mr. Dodge conducted his 
paper on radical prohibition principles, and thus 
exerted a powerful influence through the com- 
munity. In 1885 he leased his paper while 
making a trip throngh California. Becoming 
infatuated with the soil and climate of this State, 
he was induced to settle in Hanford; and in Jan- 
uary, 1886, he established the Hanford Senti- 
nel, which he managed with great success until 



718 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



November, 1889, when he was appointed post- 
master of Hanford. He then sold a half inter- 
est in the Sentinel to his brother, Fred A. 
Dodge, who i6 now editor and manager. The 
firm then purchased on Doughty street a brick 
building, 25x80 feet, the front of which is occu- 
pied as postoffice, stationery and jewelry store, 
the rear portion being used for the printing of 
the paper. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dodge have had four children, 
two of whom are living, Susie F. and Eva E. 
Mr. Dodtje is interested in farm lands in Fresno 
and Tulare Counties and resident property in 
Hanford. As a newspaper man his experiences 
have been without very marked incident. In 
politics he is independent, though leaning to- 
ward Republicanism, and in his paper he makes 
a specialty of local news. 



fRANK SHARPLES, contractor and 
builder, Hanford, Tulare County, Califor- 
nia, is a native of England, born near 
Liverpool, May 30, 1861. His father, Peter 
Sharpies, a carpenter by trade, conducted promi- 
nent building interests in the suburbs of Liver- 
pool. The family consisted of six sons, Frank 
being the third in order of birth, and all of 
them engaged in mechanical pursuits. 

At the age of sixteen years Mr. Sharpies 
began the trade of brick-making and ornamental 
masonry at Liverpool, which he followed for five 
years and then visited the United States. How- 
ever, preferring the life of his own country, he 
soon returned to Liverpool, engaged in contract 
business and erected some of the prominent 
buildings in that city. He was married, in 
Liverpool, in 1886, to Miss Marian Dicks, a 
native of Cheshire, and in September of the 
following year he again came to the United 
States, and w T ent directly to California. His 
first work in this State was on the Grand 
Opera House at Pasadena, where he completed 
the fancy masonry and brick work, and thus 
established his repntation here as a scientific 



workman. He then entered into a partnership 
with Charles J. Lindgren, of Los Angeles, and 
the firm of Sharpies & Lindgren erected many 
of the finest buildings in that beautiful city. 
After the fire in Lakersfiekl, in 1889, they 
moved to that city and were prominent con- 
tractors in rebuilding the town. They erected 
the Southern Hotel, the Masonic Temple, Post 
Office, and many other leading buildings of the 
place, their business there amounting to $150,- 
000. 

In August, 1890, the firm dissolved and Mr. 
Sharpies came to Hanford to construct the 
Artesia Hotel, also the buildings of Kntner, 
Goldstein & Co., Simon, Manasse & Co., and 
the buildings of Sarment and Porter Mickle. 
During the spring of 1891 he built for himself 
on Sixth street a two-story brick building, 50 x 
100 feet, with iron and plate glass front. He 
is also building a three-story residence north- 
west of town, at an expense of about $6,000. 
It is finished with hard wood, has electric bells, 
and is built on scientific principles of ventila- 
tion. Mr. Sharpies has come to Hanford to 
stay, and with his arrangements for lawns, family 
orchard and irrigation, his home will be attrac- 
tive and complete. He owns other town prop- 
erty unimproved and an eighty-acre ranch south 
of Armona, which he is setting in vines. He is 
preparing to manufacture his own brick, and 
with his facilities for handling large contracts 
he ranks among the foremost builders in the 
Lucerne District. 

Mr. and Mrs. Sharpies have two children: 
Marian Kent and Frank Dicks. 



•- **< 



s>»3^ 



fj. DARNELL, one of the old settlers of 
California and a pioneer of the State, is 
° one of the enterprising agriculturists and 
breeders of fine horses in Kern County. He 
was born in Pope County, Arkansas, October 2, 
1836. 

His father. Coke B. Darnell, was a fanner by 
occupation, a native of the State of Illinois, and 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



719 



located in Arkansas prior to its admission into 
the Union of States. The subject of this sketch 
is the oldest of a family of eight children. He 
lived at home on the farm nntil nineteen years 
of age, when he came to California with his 
parents who located at Volcano, El Dorado Coun- 
ty, where the father pursued mining, but soon 
resumed his former occupation of farming in 
Calaveras County. Our subject engaged also 
in mining until 1858, when he removed to 
Sonoma County for a brief time, after which he 
lived in Ventura until 1873 when he located in 
Kern County. He partially developed a portion 
of the beautiful ranch of E. M. Roberts near 
JBakersfield, which he sold to •' Tom " Flippen, 
now of Lynn's valley. He has since located 
eighty acres of land near Bakersfield, on which 
he is developing some very good horse-flesh. 
He is a member of the horse breeding fraternity 
of Kern County, he is well up in the science of 
the business, and is an excellent citizen and a 
man of personal honor. 



fB. METZGER is one of the leading pio- 
neers of California and a most highly 
• Q ' esteemed citizen of Delano. He crossed 
the plains to the coast in 1859 as a member of 
what is known in history as the Traver Expedi- 
tion, which brought over a band of about 200 
hesid of horses from South Bend, Indiana. Mr. 
Metzger was born at South Bend January 5, 
1837, and was therefore about twenty-one years 
of age when he came to this State. His father, 
Joseph Metzger, was a thrifty farmer and trader, 
a German by birth. He emigrated from " The 
Fatherland " at about fourteen years of age 
with his parents; he was a watch and clock- 
maker by trade, came to California in 1849, 
and died in Sacramento in 1856. He raised six 
sons, and E. B., the subject of this sketch, is the 
oldest. He entered the Union army from 
California in 1862 under Captain E. D. Shir- 
land, served three years in Arizona, New Mexico 
andTexas, and was honorably discharged in 1864. 



After his retirement from the army he returned 
to South Bend, Indiana, an 1 there followed his 
trade until he returned to California in 1874. 
He lived at Napa two years, nine years in 
Mendocino County, and at Ukiah, where he was 
Postmaster three years, having been appointed 
by President Arthur. He came to Delano in 
1888. He is a tinner by trade, and is doing an 
extensive business in the manufacture of well 
casings, tanks, pumps and irrigating outfits. 
He married, in 1867, Miss Anna M. Tutt, of 
South Bend, Indiana. 

-* : =H iH ,i ir : ' ^= :: '"- 



THOMAS J. McQUIDDY is a pioneer 
m\]& settler of the Mussel Slough District, 
sp 1 Tulare County, California. His biog- 
raphy, briefly given, is as follows : 

He was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, 
in 1828. His grandfather, a native of Virginia, 
was a pioneer of Woodford County, and for 
many years did all the gunsmithing and black- 
smithing of that locality. His parents, John 
and Achsah (Dale) McQuiddy, were natives of 
Kentucky, and in 1840 emigrated to Bedford 
County, Tennessee, where they followed an 
agricultural life. Thomas J. received a com- 
mon English education, attending private schools 
and living at home nntil he was twenty-one 
years of age. 

In 1847 he was married to Miss Jane M. 
Ruth, a native of Tennessee, and in 1849 they 
emigrated to Nodaway County, Missouri, be- 
coming pioneers of that locality. Their nearest 
neighbor lived three miles away, and it was 
twelve miles from their home to Maryville, the 
county seat. Here he followed farming for 
many years. In 1859 he was elected sheriff of 
the County. When the war broke out he en- 
listed, in 1861, in Company B, Missouri State 
Guard, and was elected Ccaptain'of his company. 
Six months later the company re-enlisted as 
Company G, Third Battalion, Confederate Cav- 
alry, under Colonel A. W. Slayback, remaining 



720 



HIM ORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 



in the department of the Missouri, under Gen- 
eral Sterling Prince. In April, 1862, the bat- 
talion was transferred to the eastern department 
of the Mississippi, and Captain McQuiddy was 
promoted to Major and placed in command of 
the battalion. In 1803 he was assigned to the 
Secret Service, where he remained until the close 
of the war. 

In 1803 Mrs. McQuiddy and her children 
returned to Bedford County, Tennessee, and the 
following year she was called to the other world, 
leaving a husband and seven little ones to mourn 
her departure. At the close of the war Major 
McQuiddy joined his children in Tennessee, 
and in 1866 wedded Miss Mary J. Huffman. 
He continued in agricultural pursuits in the 
East until 1873, when he emigrated to Cali- 
fornia and settled in Tulare County. He pre- 
empted 160 acres of government land in the 
Mussel Slough District, and the following year 
brought his family to this place. He then pur- 
chased 320 acres of land from the Southern 
Pacific Railroad Co. Title to that company 
being incomplete, they made promises in pam- 
phlet form that upon securing title the land 
should be graded at from $2.50 to $10 per acre, 
improvements made by settlers not to be in- 
cluded. Acting in good faith, about 250 fam- 
ilies setthd on the railroad lands, then an arid 
sand plain, and through their stupendous efforts, 
having little with which to work and midst 
many deprivations, they organized the Settlers' 
Ditch Co. and divetted water from the Kaweah 
river, a distance of twenty miles, thus convert- 
ing the sand plain into a garden spot. In 1877 
the railroad was built through, and in 1878 the 
company graded the values of lands, ranging 
from $5 to $45 per acre, unmindful of all former 
promises. A land league was formed by the 
settlers to centralize their interests in the de- 
fense of their homes. The railroad company 
secured indictments and began evictions, sell- 
ing under the indictment to other settlers, which 
cnlminated. May 11, 1880, by the shooting of 
seven men, and the litigation continued through 
the courts until 1887, when the settlers wort- 



obliged to pay for their lands according to the 
company's assessed value. 

The Major began setting out fruit trees in 
1875, and ij the pioneer orange grower of this 
section. Realizing the value of alfalfa for feed, 
he early began to raise it and to engage in the 
6tock business, with which he has been prom- 
inently identified. His ranch now comprises 
380 acres, 240 of which he has in alfalfa. 
Forty-five acres are in vines, and he also lias a 
small family orchard. He keeps about 100 head 
of horses, mules and cattle. 

Until October, 1889, Major McQuiddy lived 
on his ranch. At that time lie bought property 
on Eighth street, Hanford, and moved his 
family to it, although he still carries on his 
farming operations. After passing through a 
life of varied experiences and many hardships, 
the Major is in the enjoyment of good health, 
happy in his well-earned possessions, and occu- 
pies a prominent position in the advance line 
of agriculturists. 

fULIUS LAiNGDON GILBERT is a repre- 
sentative citizen and a rancher of Reedley, 
Fresno Coutity, California. He came to 
this State in the winter of 1874-75, and since 
that time has been identified with the best in- 
terests of this section of the country. 

Mr. Gilbert was born in New York, April 1, 
1844. His father, Samuel Albert Gilbert, a 
native of Connecticut, was descended from Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, one of the Mayflower pas- 
sengers who landed on Plymouth rock. They 
have a direct trace of the family back to that 
origin. Bis mother, Charlotte Maria Clark Gil- 
bert is a native of New York. She and all their 
children — four daughters and three sons —are 
still living, the father having died in Wiscon- 
in in 1887. The subject of our sketch was 
reared and educated in Dane County, Wiscon- 
sin. Fur twelve years he was engaged in teach- 
ing. He was elected County Superintendent of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



721 



schools and served for four consecutive years, 
or two terms, in Woodson County, Kansas. 

Coming to California, he settled in Fresno 
County, three miles west of where Reedley is 
now located. At that time there was little in 
this portion of the County except lizards and 
grasshoppers. Two-thirds of the early settlers 
got discouraged and left, and not one of them 
could now return and buy a fourth of the places 
they then abandoned. Mr. Gilbert took up a 
quarter section of Go eminent land and pur- 
chased a quarter section more which, with the 
improvements, is now worth $100 per acre. He 
also owns a half section of land in Kern County. 
He has been engaged in grain, stock and fruit 
farming, and has been successful in his opera- 
tions, his comfortable home and attractive sur- 
roundings all indicating thrift and prosperity. 

On December 24, 1868, Mr. Gilbert wedded 
Miss Delilah Ives, a native of Fort Atkins, 
Wisconsin, a daughter of Gideon Ives, who was 
the head of a prominent family in Wisconsin. 
She was a school mate of Mr. Gilbert, and pre- 
vious to her marriage was engaged in teaching. 
Their family consists of three boys and three 
girls, namely: Fred Ives, Mary Etta, Carrie 
Lulu, Frank Earl, Bertha and Julius L. 

Mr. Gilbert is Master of the Masonic Lodge 
at Reedley, and is a charter member of the 
Chapter at Fresno, and is also a member of the 
Fresno Commandery. He is prominently as- 
sociated with the Farmers' Alliance in Califor- 
nia, having been elected to the office of State 
lecturer of that body in November, 1890. In 
politics he has ordinarily been a Republican. 
He is a man of marked business ability and is a 
success in whatever he undertakes. 



♦s 



3* 



R. HARDEN may justly be classed with 
the pioneers of California, having crossed 
the plains from Missouri in 1847 and 
made his advent on this coast before the gold 
discovery. 

Mr. Harden was born in Indiana, May 7, 



1834. His father, A. B. Harden, a Ken- 
tuckian by birth, a minister of the Gospel and 
an educated physician, came to California and 
practiced medicine in Sonoma, Colusa and other 
northern counties. He married Miss Delilah 
Ashcraft, a native of Kentucky, who bore him 
eight children, J. R. being the second. 

The subject of our sketch learned the car- 
penter's trade in California, and followed the 
same in Sonoma and other northern counties for 
several years. He was married in Sonoma to 
Miss Lucretia, daughter of A. T. Cartwright, a 
farmer of that County. They have four children 
living, of whom two are married: Alice, wife of 
J. W. Lowry, of Visalia, and Ida B., wife of 
John Richardson, Los Angeles. 

Mr. Harden has located in Tehachapi, where 
he is landlord of the Mountain House, and is 
also doing a contracting carpenter business. 
He was formerly a resident of Selma, Fresno 
County, where he did a large amount of con- 
tract work, and owns some fine residence lots. 

S. MITCHELL, M. D.— There is at the 
present time in California, and particu- 
larly the southern and central Counties of 
California, a class of aggressive and enterprising 
professional and business men who have located 
in the State and identified themselves with her 
material growth and advancement. Dr. Mitchell 
is one of this class. 

He came to California in 1884, remained for 
a short time, and, after a brief visit to the States, 
came to Delano, purchased property, engaged in 
the drug business and commenced the practice 
of medicine. Professionally and otherwise he 
has received a gratifying welcome to Delano, and 
has become a fixture of the town and com- 
munity. 

Dr. Mitchell was born in West Liberty, Logan 
County, Ohio, September 5, 1842. He studied 
medicine at Chillicothe, Missouri, and at the 
Missouri Medical College, graduating in the 
class of 1875. In 1884 he graduated in the 



722 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



San Francisco College Hospital of Medicine, 
and the following year attended medical lectures 
at London, England. He practiced his profes- 
sion successfully in Missouri and Ohio before 
coming to California. 

While in Europe, in 1884, the Doctor mar- 
ried Miss Pedoria Strong, a lady of social ac- 
complishments and domestic tastes. They live 
in a new residence, which is an ornament to 
the growing town of Delano. 



~~V* M *~3**~'" 

tE. DAVIS is a pioneer and a leading mer- 
chant of Delano. He first came to Cali- 
® fornia from Chicago in 1873. He was 
born in Utica, New York, August 5, 1848. His 
lather, Thomas Davis, was a blank book manu- 
facturer of New York City. Mr. Davis learned 
the trade of a marble cutter, which he later 
pursued in Detroit, Michigan, aud at Fort 
Wayne, Indiana. He followed the business 
from 1863 to 1887, when he located at Delano 
and engaged in general merchandising, being 
the third merchant of the town. He married 
in Butte County, at Chico, California, January 
18, 1882, Miss Anna M., daughter of J. H. 
Parr, and they have three children., — Ferdinand, 
Vivian and William. Mr. Davis is a progres- 
sive merchant and business man. He owns a 
fine ranch of 160 acres two miles from Delano, 
on which he raises wheat without irrigation. 
He also owns property near Tulare, which he is 
planting to prunes. Mr. Davis is wide awake 
to the best interest of Delano, and is highly 
esteemed. 



§S COVERDALE, of Delano, is a native 
of Lapeer County, Michigan. His father, 
° Jonathan Coverdale, was a pioneer of 
Lapeer township and County. He, however, 
removed to Minnesota and located at Red Wing 
in 1830. Mr. Coverdale was born March 16, 
1836, and was reared on a farm. He entered 



the Union army from Minnesota in the Second 
Minnesota Infantry, Company K, as a private 
in 1861. He served until the close of the war, 
doing much hard fighting. He held three com- 
missions in his company. He was wounded in 
the face in a skirmish in Tennessee, a musket 
ball striking his fact! and removing the entire 
row of his upper teeth. He was in command of 
his company and remained with them until the 
war was over. He was also in charge of his 
company at Chickamaugi, and there received 
a bullet wound in the groin. He wi> with 
General Sherman and made the famous march 
to the sea. Captain Coverdale is a deserving 
pensioner. He came to Delano in 1886, where 
he has engaged in the real-estate business. He 
holds a commission as Notary Public and is 
Treasurer of Poso Irrigation District. Be lias 
listed on his books and for sale a large lot of 
choice farming lands, in tracts of from five to 
10,000 acres, with or without water; he attends 
faithfully to the business and property of non- 
residents. Mr. Coverdale enjoys the confidence 
and esteem of the citizens of Kern County. 



-<$* 



>«Z*- 



J^ENRY HOWE HELMAN was born in 
Wtl St. Peter, Minnesota, in 1857. His father, 
""^5-i William Helman, a native of Germany, 
emigrated to America and reared his family in 
Minnesota. 

Henry H. was educated in his native State, 
and when quite young developed a love for 
horsemanship. He worked for trainers until 
he learned the business, exhibiting a decided 
talent in that direction. He drove in several 
closely contested races, each time with success. 
In 1875 he came to California, and in Sonoma 
County continued his business, being very suc- 
cessful and winning for himself an enviable 
reputation as a horse-trainer. Among other 
fine horses which he drove on the circuit was 
the celebrated trotting horse Warwick, the 
property of Judge Rodney J. Hudson. At 
Santa Rosa Mr. Helman opened a stable for 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



723 



training horses, and with, it also conducted a 
livery business. Two years later he went to 
Healdsburg and carried on his business at that 
place until 1885, when he came to Visalia, and 
has since remained here. He raised Stratha- 
way, an inbred Hambletonian, which, at the age 
of three years, made a record of 2:26 in the 
fifth heat, and was sold by Mr. Helman for 
$5,500. He now has under his care Mortimer 
484, sired by Electioneer. This horse, one of 
the finest in the County, has a record of 2:27, 
and is valued at $15,000. Among other horses 
which Mr. Helman has trained may be men- 
tioned the following: Milton R. 2:33, and 
Charles F., 2:33. To a two-year old colt he 
gave a record of 2:41, and won all the stakes 
for which he entered. He also trained "W. H. 
Hammond's Oakland Boy, started him in four 
races, won three and made a record of 2:29. 
He campaigned Emma Temple, started in seven 
races, won six and returned with a record of 
2:21 made in the fifth heat. At this writing 
(1891), he has twelve colts in training. 

Mr. Helman was married in 1891 to Miss 
Nellie Parker, a native of his own State. He 
has made investments in Visalia property. In 
politics he is a Republican, and is a thoroughly 
reliable citizen. 



fOHN BEATY is a native of Missouri, born 
in Pulaski County, August 30, 1834. His 
father, Henry Beaty, was a farmer, stock- 
raiser and trader. From Pulaski County he 
purchased large quantities of cattle and hogs, 
drove them south to Louisiana, Georgia and 
Alabama, and there disposed of them. He 
died in Benton County, Missouri, in 1889, 
well advanced in years. The mother, whose 
maiden name was Jane Newell, is still living 
at her native home in Pulaski County, Mis- 
souri. She had six sons and six daughters, and 
of these twelve John is the second born. 

Mr. Beaty came to California in 1858 and 
located at Visalia. Until 1868 he devoted a 



part of his time to mining in Oregon; from 
there came to Kernville, and then to Weldon, 
Kern County. Since 1884 he has been the 
trusted superintendent and manager of Andrew 
Brown's extensive ranching interests at Weldon. 
Mr. Beaty was married December 1, 1859, to 
Miss Alvira Peinberton, of Saline County, Mis- 
souri. A devoted wife and loving mother, she 
died in the prime of womanhood in 1877, 
leaving five children: Mary E., now Mrs. Bev- 
erly Robinson, -Newell, 011a, wife of Ed. Cross, 
and Charlie and Nellie. 

Mr. Beaty is a man of social habits and con- 
servative business methods, and by all who 
know him is regarded as a first-class citizen. 



-==$** 



»**=- 



fAVID RISLEY DOUGLASS was born 
in Visalia, Tulare County, California, May 
1, 1859. His father, D. R. Douglass, a 
native of Utica, New York, came to California 
in 1852. He subsequently removed to Tulare 
County and became one of the first merchants 
of Visalia; was successful in his business under- 
takings and acquired considerable property both 
in the city and county. He was married in 
Mexico, to Miss Jesas Acosta, and to him and 
his wife were born three sons and two daugh- 
ters, all of whom they reared in Visalia. Mr. 
Douglass died in 1874, leaving a nice property 
to his children. During his life he was greatly 
interested in the prosperity of Visalia, and did 
much to promote her growth. He built several 
business houses on Main street, now owned by 
the subject of this sketch. The lot on which 
the city engine-house is built was presented to 
Visalia byhim. 

Young Douglass was educated in his native 
town and also spent one year at San Jose in the 
Vinsonhaler Business College. He was then 
employed for some time as a clerk in the store 
of his brother, after which he clerked for Sweet 
& Co. Next he was employed as searcher of 
records, with the firm of Jordan & Hammond, 



721 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and since then has been in the collecting 
business. 

He was married in 1888 to Miss Edna Wells, 
a native of Tulare County, and a daughter of 
M. J. Wells, a California pioneer. Mr. Doug- 
lass is a Knight of Pythias, and a prominent 
young Republican. His party recently ran 
him for Marshal of Visalia, but he was unable 
to overcome the large majority of the opposite 
party. 

tIRAM KELSEY was born in Logan Coun- 
ty, Ohio, December 10, 1829. His an- 
cestors were pioneers of Kentucky and 
were also among the first settlers of Ohio. 
Grandfather John Kelsey moved from Kentucky 
to Ohio in 1799, when his son, Abner Kelsey, 
Hiram's father, was six months old. They set- 
tled in Warren County, forty miles north of 
Cincinnati. Abner Kelsey was reared to man- 
hood in that State and married Miss Nancy 
Purdy, a native of Genesee County, New York. 
The Purdys were for many years residents of 
New York. On the maternal side, however, 
Mrs. Kelsey's ancestors were Scotch people. 
Her mother, whose maiden name was Brown, 
was born and reared in Scotland. Of the eleven 
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey, nine grew 
to adult age and seven of them still survive. 
Mr. Kelsey lived to the advanced age of ninety- 
one years, save one month, and his wife was 
eighty years, two months and sixteen days old 
when she died. 

In 1852 the subject of our sketch visited the 
El Dorado of the West in search of gold, not 
expecting to make a permanent home in the 
great State, then principally a vast desert. He 
engaged in mining in Placer County, after 
which he went to San Jose valley and farmed 
till 1854. The success he had had in the mines 
caused him to return to Placer County, where, 
shortly afterward, he engaged in the butcher 
business. It was then a very remunerative oc- 
cupation. The stock was raised in Napa valley 



by the Todd Bros., who came up to the mint's, 
took orders for the cattle and then delivered 
them. Mr. Kelsey made money both in the 
mines and at his business, and after three years 
spent in California returned East. He first 
went to Michigan and afterward to Iowa, pur- 
chasing a farm in the latter State. About that 
time he was married to Miss Jemima Hill, a 
native of Ohio. He improved his farm and 
resided on it until 1864. While there three 
children were born to them, namely: Isadore 
May, now the wife of George A. Batz, Harlan 
Wade, and Minnie Rebecca, wife of F. R. Kel- 
lenburg — all of whom reside in Visalia. Mr. 
Kelsey sold his farm, returned to Michigan, 
spent two years there, and in 1866 went to 
Missouri, where he purchaseu property and re- 
mained till 1873. Their youngest son, John 
William, was born in Missouri. 

In 1873 Mr. Kelsey returned to California 
and settled in Visalia. He again turned his at- 
tention to butchering, opened a shop and con- 
ducted it successfully until 1887, when he retired 
from active business. He resides with his 
family in a comfortable home which he built in 
Visalia, in which to spend the evening of his 
life. While he was a farmer in Iowa he was 
three times elected Supervisor of his district. 
Mr. Kelsey is an intelligent and entertaining 
gentleman, who has won his own way in life by 
honest industry, and for his many estimable 
qualities is highly respected by all who know 
him. 



~-' V » S " S -a'~ > " 

tNDRRW JACKSON DAVIS, one of the 
well-known early settlers of Farmersville, 
Tulare County, California, was born in 
Tennessee, November 23, 1833. He left home 
in 1854 and arrived at Sacramento, this State, 
in the spring of the following year. He en- 
gaged in mining at Hangtown, on the Frazier 
river, for three years was moderately successful, 
saved his money and came to Tulare County in 
1858. Here he took up a Government ranch 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



725 



near Farmersville, established his home on it 
and at once began to make improvements. He 
married Sarah Ann Davis, a native of Illinois, 
a relative of his, however. They took up their 
abode on the farm and here reared their family. 
To them were born seven children, four sons and 
three daughters, namely : Alfred Ambrose, 
Fitzhugh, Eva, Irene, Elizabeth, Clemens and 
Porter. Fitzhugh died in early manhood, Eva, 
at the age of seven years, and Irene at five. The 
mother passed away in August, 1880. 

Alfred Ambrose, the oldest of the family, was 
born, reared and educated in Tulare County. In 
1888 he married Alice R. Johnson, a native of 
his own County. One son has been born to them, 
whom they have named Ira. The subject of 
our sketch resides with them, and father and son 
are carrying on general farming. The father 
owns 160 acres of choice land, located a half 
mile south of Farmersville. In politics both 
are Democrats. The senior Mr. Davis has 
passed through many thrilling scenes during his 
experience in California, especially in the early 
mining days. Time has dealt gently with him, 
and he is still hale and well preserved. 



JILLY BLAND, one of the progressive 
farmers of Bear valley, Kern County, 
California, is a native son of the Golden 
State, born at Los Gatos, Santa Clara County, 
August 8, 1859. His parents, John and Isa- 
bella (Combs) Bland, came to California in 1849. 
His father was born in North Carolina, and his 
mother in Texas. They spent five years in Cal- 
averas County, where the father engaged in 
mining, with fair success, after which they 
moved to San Luis Obispo County, and located 
the Juero Juers grant, acquiring title by pur- 
chase from the Mexican Government. He lived 
there until about 1855, when he sold out and 
removed to Santa Clara County, there engaging 
in general farming. In 1861 Mr. Bland loca- 
ted in Sonora, where he lost his life by accident, 
drowning in 1864. The family returned to San 



Luis Obispo in 1865, and the widow now lives 
in San Jose. Of her seven children, Tilly was 
the fourth born. 

The subject of our sketch was educated in 
the public schools of San Luis Obispo and Kern 
Counties. He served Miller, and Lux, and Carr 
and Hoggin as vaquero until 1877. In that 
year he commenced work for the Southern Pa- 
cific Railroad Company, remaining in their em- 
ploy two years as freight conductor. He then 
located in Bear valley, since which time he has 
been engaged in general farming and stock- 
raising. He has 240 acres of land, 100 head 
of cattle and twenty horses. 

May 1, 1884, he married Miss Sarah Hart, 
who was born in Kern County, California, Feb- 
ruary 17, 1865, daughter of Moses Hart. They 
have two children, Thomas, born February 17, 
1885, and Chloe D., born April 22, 1887. 



fOSEPH NEWTON BOWHAY is one of 
Traver's successful business men and one 
of her pioneer settlers. 
He is a native of Illinois, born March 31, 
1861, son of John and Mary (Peck) Bowhay, 
both natives of Pennsylvania. His grandfather 
Bowhay was a British sailor who came to the 
United States and settled in Pennsylvania, and 
his grandfather, Peter Peck, was a Pennsylvania 
Dutchman. He was die sixth of the seven 
children born to his parents, five of whom are 
living. When he was thirteen years of age 
they moved from Illinois to Nebraska, remained 
there six years, and in 1880 came to California 
and settled in Hanford. 

After his arrival in California, Mr. Bowhay 
worked by the month as a farm hand for one 
year, and was ditch tender of the People's 
Ditch two years. In 1884 he came to Traver 
and purchased five lots and, in partnership with 
James Clark, established a butcher business. 
He also ran a livery stable for three years. 
Buying outthe interest of Mr. Clark, he became 
sole proprietor of both establishments. He 



726 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



subsequently sold the livery to Mr. Littlefield. 
since which time he has given his attention to 
the meatmarket. In July, 1890, his shop was 
destroyed by tire. Heat once replaced it with 
a fine two-story brick building, the first floor 
being used for his market and equipped with all 
the appliances necsssary to a first-class establish 
ment, and the second story fitted up for a lodge 
room and occupied by the different fraternal 
societies of the town. Mr. Bowhay has built 
four business houses in Traver, and has invested 
in land in this vicinity, owning one ranch a 
mile from town, and another six miles distant. 

He w r as married in 1886 to Miss Mary A. 
Brooks, a native of California, and a daughter 
of Mr. J. T. Brook-, a pioneer of the State. 
They have one child, Leslie. 

Mr. Bowbay is fond of hunting, and takes 
pleasure in pets. He has a badger, a deer, two 
American eagles and a brown bear. He is a 
member of the Foresters, the A. O. U. W., the 
I. O. O. F. and is a Knight Templar. In poli- 
tics he is a Republican. As a business man be 
is wide-awake, enterprising and public-spirited, 
enjoying the confidence and good-will of his 
fellow citizens. 

fOHN CUDDEBACK was born in Teha- 
chapi, Kern County, California, in Septem- 
ber. 1864. His father, G. P. Cuddeback, 
first settled in Tehachapi in 1858, and for many 
years was one of its prominent and influential 
citizens, extensively engaged in stock-raising. 
He is now a resident of Los Angeles, and owns 
valuable property in Orange, California. In 
early life John Cuddeback assisted his father, a 
practical stock man, and thus acquired the 
habits of a successful stock-raiser, which busi- 
ness, in connection with farming, is now claim- 
ing his attention. He owns about 3,000 acres 
of agricultural land and stock range. He has 
600 fruit trees on his ranch, all in a flourishing 
condition, and on his grazing lauds are found 
200 head of cattle and fifty horses. Among the 



latter is some of the best horse flesh in Southern 
or Central California. For energy, perseverance 
and thrift, Mr. Cuddeback is recognized through- 
out the valley as having no peer, and his tine 
stock is the pride of the entire stock-raising 
community, 

Mr. Cuddeback was married February 15, 
1886, to Miss Emma, daughter of John M. 
Cunningham, of Orange, California, and a 
native of San Jose. 

W^% B- TAYLOR, one of the enterprising 
^\] fanners of the Tehachapi valley, Kern 
•"e^ 8 County, California, is a native of Texas- 
He was born March 24, 1846, and at the age of 
twenty- two years left his native State and came 
to California. His father, W. W. Taylor, a 
native of Georgia and a farmer by occupation, 
located in Texas and finally came with his fam- 
ily to El Monte, California, late in 1871, where 
he died soon after his arrival. Seven of his 
nine children lived to maturity, and of the 
seven R. R. is the fourth born. 

From 1878 to 1886 Mr. Taylor resided in 
Los Angeles County; returned to Kern County 
and located at Tehachapi. He first purchased 
land and lived in Cummings valley. Selling 
his farm there, he bought 640 acres of school 
land three miles east of Tehachapi Station. He 
has also leased other lands, and now has 1,750 
acres of wheat and about 500 acres of barley, 
keeping sixty head of cattle and forty work 
horses. 

Mr. Taylor married Miss Julia Wiggins, 
daughter of Marion Wiggins, Esq., of Teha- 
chapi, April 4, 1872. They have four children: 
William, Bessie, Mary and Albert. 



jOSES HART, of Bear valley, Kern 
County, has been a resident of Califor- 
Sc|m=* nia since 1852. He first located in 
San Jose, where he remained until November, 




HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



727 



1853; mined in Mariposa County until 1856, 
after which he took up his residence in Los 
Angeles County. Since 1857 he has lived in 
Kern County, having located on his present 
farm of 160 acres in 1876. He was one of the 
petitioners for the organization of the county in 
1865. Besides his home ranch Mr. Hart owns 
a quarter section of railroad land, and keeps a 
band of cattle and horses. 

He was born in Conway County, Arkansas, 
December 1, 1833. A line of facts concerning 
Josiah Hart, his father, may be seen in con- 
nection with a sketch of Isaac Hart, a brother 
of the subject of our sketch and a resident of 
the same valley. Mr. Hart was married in Los 
Angeles County, July 15, 1859, to Miss Julia 
Ann Findley. To them twelve children have 
been born, of whom the following are living: 
Thomas J., Sarah E., Moses H, Charles M.> 
Riley, "William M., Edward, Mattie and Benja- 
min H. 



SSJ-^ 



Jlggll ILLIAM A. SIMS, a prosperous and 
"IPfflil muc -h respected rancher of Farmersville, 

t-B$sH Tulare County, California, was born in 
Greene County, Illinois, January 20, 1846. 
His father, Augustine Sims, was born in Ken- 
tucky, June 29, 1805, and on June 29, 1826, 
was united in marriage with Mary Ann Red- 
man, also a native of Kentucky. They removed 
to Illinois, and in 1869 to California. At 
this writing, (1891) they reside in Sacramento. 
Of the eleven children born to them, seven are 
still living, one died in infancy, and their son 
John Fletcher was killed by the Apache Indians. 
William A., the tenth born, was reared on his 
father's farm, attended the public schools, and 
at the age of twenty was married to Miss 
Josephine Woodman, a native of Illinois and a 
daughter of Nelson Woodman. They sold 
their farm in Illinois and came to California in 
1869. 

After his arrival in this State, Mr. Sims set- 
tled on the Sacramento river and farmed there 



five years; he sold out, removed to Sonoma 
County, and resided there one year; in 1875 he 
came to his present ranch, half a mile south of 
Farmersville and seven miles from Visalia. 
Here he owns a choice farm of 320 acres, 
where he is successfully engaged in general 
farming, and on which, in 1888, he built a nice 
residence. Their children are all natives of the 
Golden West, and are named as follows: Eulo 
Lee, "Winfield A., Volney A., Josephine, Lenora, 
Ava, Commodore W. and Lela. 

Mr. Sims is a Prohibitionist, a prominent 
member of the Farmers' Alliance and the 
Industrial Union, and is one of the representative 
farmers of Tulare County. 



fOHN BARKER.— It is doubtful whether 
there lives in California, a pioneer who has 
seen and experienced more of early life on 
the Pacific Coast than this venerable pioneer. 
He was born in Bristol, England, September 4, 
1832. At eighteen years of age, as second offi- 
cer of a ship, he navigated the seas between 
English ports and Constantinople. At Gibral- 
tar, hearing of gold in California, in 1848 
he immediately returned to England, proceeded 
to New York, and from there made his way 
overland to the land of Gold, arriving at Stock- 
ton September 1, 1850. He spent three years 
in the mines of Tuolumneand Mariposa Coun- 
ties, and in 1854 rode a horse 300 miles south 
through the Kern river valley. He was at 
Visalia when the town was first founded, and in 
1855 was Under Sheriff; he was appointed by 
Sheriff Poindexter of Tulare County, which then 
comprised what is now the counties of Kern and 
Inyo. Mr. Barker was active in subduing the 
Indian outbreaks in 1856. He was the first white 
settler on the lower King's river, on the Fresno 
plains, where thousands of wild elk, wild horses 
and antelope roamed at will. At Elk Horn 
ranch he kept a station on the public stage route 
until 1860, when he sold out and joined a mili- 
tary company of cavalry. The services of Cali- 



728 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



fornia troops not being accepted by the general 
government, he did not reach the field of battle- 
He spent about ten years in the butchering busi- 
ness, and in 1870 he returned to Kern County; 
he located his present home in 1874. He owns 
1,800 head of fine stock, and farming lands. 
He located on Kern river, about nine miles 
above Bakerstield. Upon this property are 
some «>f the most valuable sulphur springs in 
the State. He has discovered natural gas on 
his farm, which supplies him amply with lights 
and fuel. 

Mr. Barker is a thorough nautical engineer, 
has made a thorough study of the irrigation 
problem in California, and has practically dem- 
onstrated his theory of farming by irrigation, 
having laid out and developed an elaborate sys- 
tem on his own estate. As a citizen and a 
social "old-timer" he is the only original 
"John Barker," a man of plain and quiet man- 
ners. He has a keen relish for good stories, and 
his natural wit and ready tongue may be 
depended upon to evolve an anecdote illustrat- 
ing the points at issue. 

He was married at Stockton, in 18(52, to Miss 
Mary A. Weaver, a native of Ohio, and they 
have three children. 



MONLEOT, of Tehachapi, Kern Coun- 
IWW1K ty, California, came to this State in 
-^i^° 1854, landing at San Francisco. He 
spent fourteen years in the mines of Calaveras 
County, and came out of the deal with no 
profits. He then sojourned for two years in 
Idaho Territory, one year in Los Angeles, and a 
brief time in San Diego County, being engao-ed 
in the cattle business at the latter place. 

In 1870 Mr. Monleot came to Tehachapi. 
He worked for Mr. Shenoek eight years, and 
subsequently on the ranch of George Cum- 
mings, Cumming's valley, six years. After 
that he engaged in the sheep business, in which 
he was very successful. He now owns 1,200 
acres of land at the lower end of Cumming's 



valley, where he is engaged in the stock busi- 
ness. 

He was married in 1871, to Miss R. Veilleo, 
by whom he has seven children living. 




flLIAM SCOD1E was born in Prussia, 
July 4, 1827. When a boy he learned 
the art of cooking at Bremen, Germany, 
and at the age of twenty-four years he went to 
sea as cook on a merchant ship, trading between 
German and South American ports. He spent 
the years 1853 and 1854 in Valparaiso as hotel 
cook. In 1855 he made a trip to Australia, 
from which point he came to San Francisco, 
where he remained until he came to Kern 
County in 1856. Here he did some exploring 
and prospecting for gold, but soon entered the 
hotel business at Old Keysville. In 1861 he 
purchased cattle and located on his present place 
on the south fork of Kern river, where he has 
since resided. He almost immediately engaged 
in merchandising at this point, keeping on sale 
a line of supplies tor the miners, stock men and 
he Indians, which then made up the sole popu- 
lation of that entire region. He has also kept a 
comfortable stopping place for the traveler, and 
Scodie's is known far and wide as a place where 
an abundantly supplied table, comfortable sleep- 
ing accommodations, and in cold weather, a 
bright, open fire, are always in waiting for its 
guests. 

Mr. Scodie is a typical pioneer. A man of 
broad views in business matters, he has gained 
and ever held the confidence of the settlers of 
his section of the country. The Indians were 
not slow to recognize in him their friend and 
well-wisher. To many he furnished employ- 
ment, and taught them habits of a more enlight- 
ened people. Indeed, some of his most pleasant 
associations have been with this race, as he mar- 
ried the daughter of an Indian. 

Mr. Scodie has been the postmaster of Onyx 
since its establishment at his place. He owns 
480 acres of land, under a good state of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



729 



improvement, with abundant water for irrigat- 
ing and domestic purposes. 

Such, in brief, is the sketch of one of the 
worthy pioneers of Kern County, California. 



;LIVER THATCHER has resided in South 
Fork valley, Kern County, California, 
since 1873. He was born in Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, November 22, 1841, and made 
his home in his native State until 1866. 

In the late rebellion Mr. Thatcher served as a 
soldier in the United States Navy for about 
four years, during a portion of which time 
he was on detached duty in United States 
navy-yards. The last year of his service he 
was on the war ship Augusta, a blockade run- 
ner. At the expiration of his term of service 
he came to California, making the journey via 
the Southern route. The year 1869 found him 
in Nevada. In 1873 he located on South Fork, 
where he has a farm of 160 acres of land, and 
is engaged in merchandising. 

April 9, 1877, Mr. Thatcher married Miss 
Bertha Oldorff, by whom he has eight children. 



-=**« 



>*s=- 



«DWAED 0. MILLER, of the firm of 
Miller & Frasier, engaged in real estate, 
insurance and abstract business, office 
Court street, Visalia, was born in Visalia, No- 
vember 23, 1861. His father, Artelius O. 
Miller, was a contractor and builder. Mr. 
Miller was educated at the public schools of 
Tulare County, and was graduated from the 
Visalia Normal School. At the age of seven- 
teen years he started in business. He obtained 
a certificate to teach school, but never followed 
the profession. For one year he labored on a 
farm to support his invalid father and the fam- 
ily. At the age of eighteen he entered the em- 
ploy of C. J. G-iddings, a searcher of records, 
which business he followed till 1886. 

He was the Democratic nominee for Sur- 

46 



veyor-General of California, and in 1888 was 
appointed Registrar of the United States Land 
Office, which position he held till September 2, 
1889, when a change of administration removed 
him from office. He served two terms as mem- 
ber of the Common Council of Visalia, and was 
elected by the State Legislature a member of 
the Board of Library Trustees. 

Mr. Miller has the distinction of being the 
youngest man in the State of California ever 
nominated for a State office, and he has shown 
himself in every way worthy the honors con- 
ferred upon him by his fellow-citizens. He is 
yet a very young man, full of energy, pluck 
and business ability. By his own exertion he 
has worked his way up in the world, and to 
such as he , the material development of the 
great San Joaquin valley is largely owing. 
At present he is engaged in the real-estate 
business. He owns lands in Fresno, Tulare 
and Kern counties, and also deals in lands in 
the San Joaquin valley generally. He owns 
valuable property in Visalia, and his residence 
on North Court street would be a fitting orna- 
ment to any city. 

Mr. Miller was married December 2, 1883, 
to Miss Cora Dineley, also a native of Visalia, 
and the union has been blessed with three 
charming children. 

o 

Politically Mr. Miller is a Democrat; socially 
he is an I. O. O. F. and a member of the order 
of '• Native Sons of the Golden West." 






ISHOMAS H. SWAIN.— This gentleman 
came to California in 1849, has since been 
*g* identified with its interests, and is now a 
prominent citizen of Tulare County. 

Mr. Swain was born in Georgia, July 25, 
1826. His paternal ancestors came from Scot- 
land. His great-grandfather, James W. Swain, 
was a prominent factor in the early history of 
the country and was a soldier of the Revolu- 
tionary war. His father, William C, and his 
grandfather, Josiah Swain, were natives of 



730 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Georgia, as also was his mother, whose maiden 
na.ne was Nancy Saxon. In his father's family 
were ten children, of whom six sons and one 
daughter are now living. Of the two sons who 
were in the Confederate army, one was killed at 
the battle of Atlanta and the other passed 
through twenty-six battles without receiving a 
scratch. Two daughters are deceased. The 
subject of our sketch wa6 the second born in 
this family. He was reared and educated in 
his native State, and at the age of twenty- 
three years crossed the plains to California. 

On his overland journey to this coast, Mr. 
Swain's experience was similar to that of many 
others. Twice he was attacked by cholera; on 
one occasion their wagons came near being 
destroyed by a herd of buffalo; at another 
place they saw where two Indian tribes had 
met and fought, and the sight of the dead war- 
riors lying in heaps was something not to be 
forgotten by the emigrant party. Los Angeles, 
the objective point of the company, was finally 
reached. From there Mr. Swain came up the 
coast to San Jose, and thence to the mines at 
Gold Hill, Tuolumne County. He mined there, 
at Mokelumne Hill and at Sonora, meeting with 
1.0 large finds and no heavy losses in the mines, 
and during his two months experience as a 
miner averaged $25 per day. He carefully 
saved his earnings and purchased 320 acres of 
land on Coyote creek, near San Jose, where he 
built and made other improvements. Three 
Years later it was decided by the land commis- 
sioners that the property was included in a 
Mexican grant, and he was thus obliged to lose 
the result of his years of labor. He then went 
to the Red Woods west of San Jose and engaged 
in teaming. While there he and his brother 
made a contract with the Quicksilver Mining 
Company to deliver them one million feet of 
lumber annually, and were engaged in this busi- 
ness three years. After this they rented 2,000 
acres of land, which they farmed. 

Mr. Swain soon afterward became a stock- 
holder in the San Benito Homestead Associa- 
tion. That company purchased $375,000 worth 



of land and each shareholder was entitled to 
1G0 acres of land. The land was sold at auction, 
men paid for choice of land, and the surplus 
was sold for the benefit of the company. Mr. 
Swain was president of this company for five 
years and Thomas Hawkins was secretary. The 
town of Hollister was founded by them, and the 
whole business of the association was conducted 
without lawsuit or trouble of any kind, tin- 
management of the enterprise reflecting much 
credit on the officers. Mr. Swain built on the 
property he acquired there, and made that his 
home from 1869 till 1881. In the latter year 
he sold out and came to his present location. 
Here he purchased a ranch of 160 acres, at 
$4.50 per acre, and it is now valued at $100 an 
acre. He has been chiefly engaged in wheat 
farming, sowing annually about 600 acres, but 
is now turning his attention to fruit and vines. 
and is meeting with marked success. 

Mr. Swain was married, June 3, 1873, to 
Miss Lela Gilbert, a native of Iowa. She is 
the only child of D. E. Gilbert, and was brought 
to this State when one year old. (A history of 
Ler father will be found on another page of this 
work.) Eight sons and one daughter have been 
born to them, of whom one son and the daughter 
are deceased. Those living are Edward L., 
Robert E., Thomas H., Jr., Ira A., Charles R., 
Frank G. and William Arthur. Mrs. Swain 
and two of the sons are members of the Pres- 
byterian Church. Mr. Swain's people were 
members of the Methodist Church South. He 
is associated with the I. O. O. F., and in poli- 
tics is a Democrat. 



§B. MOSHIER, Kernville, Kern County, 
is a native son of the Golden West. He 
° was born in San Bernardino County, 
September 3, 1859, the son of Charles Moshier, 
a surveyor by profession and a descendant of 
German ancestors. At the age of nineteen 
years our subject left his native county, spent 
two years in Nevada, and in the fall of 1880 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



731 



located in Kernville. He purchased a ranch 
near the town, and ranges about seventy head 
of cattle and forty horses. 

Mr. Mushier was married in 1885, to Miss 
Drazilla Anders. 



fOHN NIOHOLL.— This venerable pioneer 
has been a resident of California since 
1852. His father, Peter Nicholl, moved 
from Canada to Hancock Qpunty, Illinois, in 
1840, and from there to California in 1854; 
engaged in mining in Calaveras C>unty, where 
he died in 1855. John Nicholl also had a min- 
ing experience in Calaveras County, he having 
come to this State two years before the arrival 
of his father. In 1859 he came to Kern 
County, mined for a short time in the vicinity 
of Kernville, and afterward turned his attention 
to agricultural pursuits. He located on his 
present place in 1863, and the following year 
commenced improving it.' And he now owns 
480 acres of the best soil in South Fork val- 
ley, and keeps about 300 head of cattle and 
twenty-five horses. 

Mr. Nicholl was married in 1884 to Miss 
Elizabeth Carden, and has two children, — John 
W. and Alice M. 



-^ 



S=^ 



H*£- 



§ON YGNACIO S. VALENCIA is a lead- 
ing Spanish- Mexican of Delano. His 
genial manners and social qualities so 
characteristic of his country- people have made 
him a thoroughly popular citizen. He dates 
his birth July 3„ 1836, in the Republic of 
Mexico. His father, Don Jose" Valencia, was a 
successful stock-raiser, and a miner in Mexico, 
where he was born He came to California in 
1847, and pursued the same business in Los 
Angeles County. Upon the discovery of gold 
in California he went to Calaveras County, 
where he successfully mined gold, in which 
business he was professionally experienced. 



Don Ygnacio took up the calling of a miner, 
which he pursued for some time in various sec- 
tions of the mining regions. He has also been 
engaged in the stock and the butchering busi- 
ness. He owns several tracts of land in Kern 
and Tulare counties, and is now engaged in the 
wine and liquor trade at Delano, which is his 
present home. He has been twice married, in 
each instance to daughters of Esperela Eli- 
varrie. The first wife died in 1878, of diph- 
theria, and he married Seiiora Carmen Elivarrie, 
a sister of his deceased consort. By this latter 
union Mr. Valencia has four sons and two 
daughters. 



«§H«f-$ 



f*-^o*=^- — 



fAMES S. HURST has been a resident of 
California since 1876. He first settled in 
Clark's valley, not, however, being thor- 
oughly contented to remain in this State. Re- 
turning East, he traveled through Michigan, 
Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, looking for a 
better location, but not finding it, he came back 
to California, after having been absent from 
April till September. In 1885 he purchased 
the 160 acres of land, where he now resides. 
It was then new land, and with his character- 
istic enterprise Mr. Hurst set about improving 
it, built his home and planted an orchard, con- 
taining a variety of fruits for family use. He 
annually raises several hundred acres of grain, 
and also some alfalfa. This season, in partner- 
ship with his oldest son, he has 560 acres in 
wheat. 

Mr. Hurst was born at Hastings, Lauton 
County, Canada, April 23, 1842. His father^ 
John Hurst, a native of Ireland, emigrated to 
Canada when a boy, and in Canada was married 
to Nancj' Sharp, a native of New York, of Ger- 
man ancestry. Of their eleven children nine 
arrived at maturity, and eight are still living. 
James S. was reared on the farm and attended 
the public schools, and as soon as he was old 
enough began to work at lumbering. He re- 
moved to Wisconsin in 1866, purchased a farm 



732 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and improved it by building, etc.; three years 
later he sold out and bought a larger farm, 
which he also improved. After selling the lat- 
ter property he came to California as above 
stated. 

He was married in Canada, September 20, 
1867, to Miss Nancy McMuller, a native of Ire- 
land. There were born to them eight children, 
two of whom, — Martin and John Alexander, — 
died before reaching manhood. After nineteen 
years of wedded life Mrs. Hurst died. She was 
a most estimable woman, a devoted wife and a 
loving mother, and her death was a source of 
great bereavement to her family and many 
friends. On the 8th of April, 1887, Mr. Hurst 
was united in marriage to Miss Mary Hogan, a 
native of Missouri, by whom he has three 
children. 

He is an official member of the A. O. U. W., 
and in politics is a Republican. By all who 
have the pleasure of his acquaintance, Mr. 
Hurst is regarded as an honest, industrious and 
worthy citizen. 

■■i 'i ? » Si » { « 7 '» «■* 



fAMES ALLEN BACON came to Cali- 
fornia in 1859, and to Tulare County, on 
the 22d of October, that same year. 

He was born in Missouri in 1837. His 
father, William Bacon, was a native of Ken- 
tucky, as was also his grandfather, Nathaniel 
Bacon. William Bacon married Sarah Parma- 
lee, a native of Missouri, and there were born 
to them tTwelve children, seven of whom are still 
living. 

When James A. reached his majority he came 
to California, and settled on government land, 
which he afterward sold. The most of his life 
has been spent in the cattle, sheep and hog 
business, ten miles northeast of Visalia, and in 
this he is still engaged; has often had 400 head 
of cattle and 4,000 sheep at a time. He has 
purchased fifty aces of choice fruit land at 
Orosi, and built a good house, and to this place 
he moved on the first of January, 1889. He 



is planting this land to fruit and raisin grapes, 
and the prospects for an abundant yield are 
most flattering. During his long experience in 
the stock business Mr. Bacon has become very 
familiar with every portion of this county, hav 
ing traversed every foot of its mountains and 
plains. 

In 1880 he was married to Miss Sarah J. 
Edmiston, daughter of Mr. N. B. Edmiston. 
(see his history in this book.) They have four 
children, — one son and three daughters, viz.: 
Alice M., Thomas A.. Edith T. and Jessie E., 
all natives of Tulare County. Mrs. Bacon is a 
member of the Presbyterian Church. Politi- 
cally Mr. Bacon affiliates with the Democratic 
party. 



A. WELLS, of Delano, is a native son 
of California, born in Stanislaus County, 
' December 28, 1854, which territory at 
that time formed a portion of Tuolumne County. 
His parents, N. W. and M. J. (Grusoell) Wells, 
were both pioneers of this State, the former an 
Englishman by birth, and the latter a native of 
the State of Indiana. They came to California 
in September, 1S49. N. W. Wells was a man 
of means and great enterprise. He associated 
with him one William Swanson, purchased a 
ship on the English coast, loaded the same with 
an assortment of merchandise, sailed to Amer- 
ica via the Cape of Good Hope, landed at a 
portion of the port of San Francisco, then 
known asHnppy Valley. They proceeded with 
their stock to what is now San Joaquin Countv, 
and there in 1849 opened the first store in the 
present city of Stockton. Mr. Wells raised a 
family of six children, of whom the subject of 
this sketch is the second. He received a thor- 
ough education at the California State Univer- 
sity, and at the Pacific Business College. In 
1876 he entered the law office of Harmon A: 
Galpin, and was admitted to the bar of the 
Supreme Court of the State at the April term 
of 1877. He then returned to his native county, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



7b3 



and with a brother engaged extensively in grain 
and stock-fanning, which business venture 
proved unfortunate. In April, 1888, Mr. Wells 
took up his residence and the practice of his 
profession at Delano. He has been received 
and recognized in Delano and Kern County as 
a man of excellent business ability. He has 
served two years as Justice of the Peace in 
Delano, and was a prominent candidate for 
Judge of the Superior Court of Kern County in 
1890, failing of a nomination by a slight ma- 
jority. 

Mr. Wells was married in 1880 to Miss Susie 
Fitzpatrick, a daughter of O. Fitzpatrick, a 
native of Marysville, California. Mr. and Mrs. 
Wells are estimable people, and take not an un- 
important part in the social affairs of Delano. 



fAPOLEON 13. EDMISTON was born in 
Tennessee, April 25, 1827. His father, 
Robert Edmiston, was of Scotch-Irish an- 
cestry and was a native of Tennessee. The 
subject of our sketch is the only surviving 
member of a family of five children. The 
family moved to Arkansas when he was ten 
years of age, and he remained there until 1850, 
when he came across the plains to California. 
He engaged in mining on Wood's creek, one 
mile above Sonoma, and after being thus en- 
gaged there nine months he purchased a team 
and gave his attention to freighting from Stock- 
ton to Sonoma. In 1852 he returned East, and 
with a partner drove 575 head of cattle across 
the plains to Stockton. He purchased a ranch 
of 160 acres on the Mokelumne river, erected 
buildings and otherwise improved the property. 
and resided there eight years. The place 
proved to be a Spanish grant and he sold out 
for $175. Later, however, it was discovered 
that the grant was void. From there Mr. Ed- 
miston went to Calaveras County and in the foot- 
hills took up 160 acres of land and began over 
again, building and improving. This property 
is now known as Mead's valley. He resided 



there until 1874, when he sold out and came to 
his present locality, Orosi, Tulare County. Here 
he bought a half section of land from the rail- 
road company. It cost him $5 per acre and is 
now valued at $100 per acre. On this property 
he has since resided. He also has 160 acres of 
laud in Fresno County. For several years Mr. 
Edmiston has been raising wheat, and one year, 
in connection with his son-in-law, Mr. Bacou, 
he sowed 3,600 acres. He is more recently, 
however, turning his attention to orchard and 
vineyard culture. He has forty-seven acres in 
vineyard, thirteen of which are bearing. 

In 1864 he wedded Miss Nancy A. Howell, 
a native of Arkansas, and to them were born 
five children, as follows: Sarah J., wife of James 
A. Bacon (a history of whom will be found on 
another page of this work), Allan McDougal, 
superintendent of the Alta Irrigating Ditch, 
Theodate L., became the wife of John Toler, 
and to them one son was born; her death oc- 
curred September 23, 1887; Robert Lee died 
when a year and a half old, and Elizabeth Jessie, 
the youngest, now resides with her parents. 

Mr. Edmiston is a member and steward of the 
Methodist Church South. He is in politics a 
Democrat. He has been a member of the School 
Board for years, and is one of the solid and re- 
liable men of Tulare County. 

~» : : ' ''t 1 'I' ^ : ' " •' "• 

fOHN ALEXANDER DRAKE, one of 
Traver's enterprising business men, has 
been a resident of California since 1870. 
Illinois is his native State, and 1857 the year 
of his birth. His father, Simpson Morgan 
Drake, was born in Springfield, Greene County, 
Ohio, of German extraction, and his mother's 
maiden name was Sarah Alexander. He is the 
fourth born of their five children, all of whom 
are still living except one. 

Mr. Drake received his early education in 
Illinois, and at the age of thirteen came to 
California with his parents and settled in Tulare 
County, sixteen miles below Visalia. They 



734 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 



-■--^ 



»**=- 



fAIGE, ROUT and CHITTENDEN.— 
After a long experience and acquaintance 
with Mr. E. J. Root, Mr. L. S. Chittenden 
came with him to Han ford in the fall of 1889. 
They selected a valuable tract of 960 acres of* 
land belonging to Timothy Paige, of San Fran- 
cisco, and the firm of Paige, Root & Chittenden 
was established and the Lucerne Vineyard organ- 
ized. The land was then a wheat field. Prep- 
arations were at once commenced and on 
February 1, 1890, the planting of vines began, 
with a large force of men, and inside of two 
months 930 acres were set to raisin grape-vines. 
Thus was established the largest raisin vineyard 
in the world. By wise and careful management 
ninety five per cent, of the vines lived, an un- 
usaul stand for so large an acreage. Twenty 
acres are in alfalfa for pasture, and ten acres 



fill sequently removed to Fresno County and 
located on a tract of government land in Squaw- 
valley. He remained there until 1878, when 
he leached his majority, alter which he engaged 
in ranching on his own account on rented lands 
in Fresno County, and followed the business 
four years. 

Possessing rare mechanical genius and being 
able to do any kind of mechanical work, Mr. 
Drake located in Traver in 1885, purchased a 
blacksmith shop and began business. At this 
writing, 1891, he has a machine shop, and man- 
ufactures carriages and wagons and does all 
kinds of work in wood and iron. 

When he first came to Traver he built the 
dwelling in which he now resides with his 
family. He was married, in 1880, to Miss 
Nancy E. Turner, a native of California, and a 
daughter of Peter Q. Turner, an early settler of 
this State. Two children were born to them, 
Robert S., in Fresno County, and Lem, in 
Tulare County. 

Mr. Drake is a member of the 1. O. O. F. 
the Rebekah Degree Lodge, and the Foresters. 
In politics he is a Democrat. 



represent the area for buildings. About fifty 
head of horses and mules are employed in the 
vineyard and about fifty men are steadily en- 
gaged outside of packing season, when many 
hundreds are employed. They have an im- 
proved drying house, 94 x 130 feet, with a 
capacity of sixty tons of fruit, through which 
steam is distributed by a system of pipes and 
hot air forced by a steam hot blast apparatus. 
Their packing house is 80 x 1U0 feet, weight 
room 36 x 40 feet, steaming room 40 x 72 feet, 
with steam steamer and box factory, 40 x 60 
feet. Grapes and raisins are distributed from 
house to house by a track and cable system, 
power being gained from a seventy-five horse- 
power Corliss engine, which will do the steam 
work of the establishment. The boarding and 
lodging house for women is a handsome two- 
story structure, 26 x 76 feet, very complete .u 
appointments. A similar house has been erected 
for men, cottages for families and numerous 
buildings to accomodate the animals and imple- 
ments of the ranch. The establishment em- 
braces thirty-eight buildings and is the largest 
and most complete raisin vineyard in the known 
world. Messrs. Root and Chittenden reside on 
the vineyard in their tasty cottages, which are 
handsomely fitted up. In their different de- 
partments they superintend and manage this 
vast enterprise, and with their superior knowl- 
edge of the business they are the right men in 
the right place. 



~" & - 3 " S - 5 

'm.TILLIAM SANDERS, a leading pioneer 
f-^/A]' of Kern County, California, and 
i < -$$J?S rancher of the South Fork valley, was 
born in Frederick County, Maryland, August 
28, 1837. He remained at home until about 
twenty-six years of age. His father was a cabi- 
net-maker by trade, and in later years took up 
the occupation of a farmer. On leaving the 
home of his nativity, William came West as far 
as Morgan County, Illinois, where he lived some 
years. He then went to Dayton, Ohio, and en 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



735 



gaged in the milling business one year, after 
which he crossed the plains to California, via 
St. Joseph, Missouri, reaching the booming 
gold fields in 1854. He mined with fair suc- 
cess up to 1857, when he turned his attention to 
stock raising, in which he has since been suc- 
cessfully engaged. He owns in the neighbor- 
hood of 1,300 acres of goodland on the South 
Fork of Kern river; has about 4,000 head of 
cattle and 100 horses. He is a man of strictest 
integrity, and commands the respect of all who 
know hi in. 



§EVIN A. SLEDGE, a prominent member 
of the Alabama Colony of Fresno County, 
was born in Franklin County, Alabama, 
April 3, 1823. His father,Dr. Alexander Sledge, 
was a native of Halifax County, Nova Scotia, 
and in early life removed to Alabama. In 1868 
the family removed to California, and the father 
and son purchased the lands known as the Ala- 
bama Settlement. Prominent among the early 
settlers were Mr. Sledge, Judge Holmes of 
Fresno, Dr. Joseph of Borden, (now deceased,) 
Joseph Borden, Mr. Strudwick, Major Redding 
and Mr. Mordecai. 

Mr. Sledge was married in Marengo County, 
Alabama, in 1859, to Miss Martha Strudwick, a 
native of Alabama, wbose father was one of 
the pioneers of that State. The union has been 
blessed with four children: Sally, Levin, Strud- 
wick and Winifred. The daughters are teaching 
in Fresno, and the sons assist in carrying on the 
ranch. 



fM. PATTERSON— Few men have seen 
more of the growth and development of 
Kern County in general and the South 
Fork valley in particular than J. M. Patterson. 
He was born in Ohio, August 26, 1830. His 
father, Samuel R. Patterson, was a native of 
New York, a farmer by occupation, and a pio- 



neer of Ohio. He married Miss Fannie Mason, 
a native of the Buckeye State, and by her bad 
five daughters and one son. The last, the 
subject of our sketch, left home at the age of 
tweuty-two years, came west to Colorado, and 
thence to Nevada and California. In 1870 he 
came to Kern County, via White Pine, Inyo 
County. He located that year on his present 
home, 160 acres of land in section 19, South 
Fork valley. He was married in Kernville to 
Mrs. Annie Brown, a native of Ireland. She 
has five children. 

Mr. Patterson is a quietly deported citizen, 
a good neighbor and a man fully ab 'east of the 
times in matters of public interest. 



-H- 



fOHN LOULS TiLLEY, Esq., is one of the 
leading pioneers of Kernville. There is 
probably not acitizen of Kern County who 
seen more of frontier life on the Pacific 
coast than the subject of this sketch, 

Mr. Tilley is a native of Illinois, born in 
Naples, Scott County, March 3, 1834. His 
father, John Tilley, was a farmer and lumber- 
man by occupation, and died when John Louis 
was about two years of age. He was of Ger- 
man and Irish descent, and was born in Louisi- 
ana. Mr. Tilley's mother, whose maiden name 
was Rebecca Smith, was born of German par- 
ents, and her father, Judge Amos Smith, sat on 
the bench of a circuit comprising Lancaster and 
two adjoining Counties in Pennsylvania. The 
widowed mother was left without a means of 
livelihood, and from boyhood the dutiful son 
gave her support until her second marriage, 
which occurred in 1855. 

Mr. Tilley left Illinois the first of March, 
1853, for California, and arrived in Tuolumne 
the following September, having driven an ox 
team the entire distance. He soon engaged in 
mining in Tuolumne County, and afterward in 
the cattle trade. In 1862 he came to the Kern 
river country, where he engaged in mining with 
average success. He passed through this valley as 



vsg 



UlSTOHr OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



early as 1862, before the Government survey was 
made. Up to that time the laud where bis ranch 
is located, was occupied by the Indians as a 
raneheria. In 1861, the Owens River Indian 
Outbreak occurred, and Mr. Tilley joined. tha 
Owens River Home Guards, and served in the 
same as a Sergeant. His company was merged 
into the Rangers, and the Indians were pursued 
by this organization until effectually subdued. 

As a miner, rancher and business man, Mr. 
Tilley has met with success. He has been twice 
married — first, in 1867, to Miss Carrie Fisher, 
of Illinois, who died in 1869. His present com- 
panion was Mrs. Jane Booth of Lynn's valley. 
Mrs. Tilley is a native of California, born in 
Sonoma County, daughter of James Pruitte,Esq. 

M. BURTON, of South Fork valley, Kern 
County, California, was born in Jackson, 
Missouri, September 13, 1857. He came 
to California in 1876; he is a miner by occupa- 
tion, and is also engaged in ranching. He first 
lived on Tule river and mined in the hills of 
Tulare County; he worked for some time in the 
Big Blue mine in Kern County, and has pros- 
pected and mined on his own account. He 
opened a mine which he now owns on Piute 
mountain. As has already been stated, Mr. 
Burton is conducting farming operations. He 
owns 160 acres of land at the junction of the 
North and South Forks of Kern river, which he 
is improving. 

Mr. Burton is a man of industry, good habits, 
and has a promising future. 

fC. PREWITT.— One of the well known 
citizens of the South Fork valley of Kern 
9 river is the subject of this brief sketch. 
Mr. Prewitt is a native of Kentucky, born in 
Todd County, July 27, 1837. His father, John 
Prewitt, a farmer and stock- raiser by occupa- 
tion, reared a family of twelve children, of 



whom J. C. was the fourth born. He came to 
California in 1857; first located in Yuba County, 
where he followed farming successfully up to 
about 1860. Pie then removed to Inyo County 
and kept the Little Lake Hotel for fourteen 
years. In 1874 he located in the South Fork 
valley. His home place consists of 160 acres 
of fine land, beautifully located, and he ranges 
about 500 head of cattle and twenty-five horses. 
He was married, in 1881, and has a family 
of four bright children. Mr. Prewitt is well 
informed on the current matters of the day, and 
has the reputation of being a first-class citizen. 



PM. WATTS has been a resident of Cali- 
fornia since September, 1849, first locat- 
9 ing in El Dorado County. He has spent 
about four years in mining in El Dorado and 
Siskiyou Counties, and later, in 1852, did some 
work in the same line in Oregon. He met and 
wedded his wife in Oregon, in 1853, July 21. 
Her maiden name was Eliza Meeker, daughter 
of Enoch Meeker, a native of New Jersey, who 
crossed the plains to Oregon in 1852. Mr. 
Watts has spent a busy and eventful life on the 
Pacific coast. He has at various times engacred 
in mining, milling and merchandising. The 
years 1858 to 1866, he spent in Columbia Coun- 
ty, Oregon, where he took a somewhat prominent 
part in local politics, and held the offices of 
postmaster of his town, Assessor of his county, 
Prosecuting Attorney, County Clerk, and Coun- 
ty Judge, which responsible offices he tilled with 
credit to himself, and satisfaction to his consti- 
tuency. Judge Watts'is a native of Pike County, 
Missouri, and was born November 3, 1827. He 
grew to mature years in his native county, where 
he received a good common school education. 
II is grandfather, known in the local history of 
Missouri, as Major Jack Watts, was an old-style 
Scotchman by birth. He came to Virginia. 
later he lived in Kentucky, and finally located 
in Pike County, Missouri, in 1806, where he 
figured conspicuously in the affairs of his sec- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



737 



tionof country, and raised a large family. Judge 
Watts is descended from strong, vigorous stock; 
he is firm in his convictions of right and wrong, 
and is deeply interested in the growth and de- 
velopment of his county. Judge Watts has 
been a resident of Delano about four years, 
where he is developing a fine ranch property. 
He is highly esteemed as a citizen, and credited 
as a man of good business qualifications. Pie is 
President of the Kern and Tulare Irrigation 
District, and is identified with the development 
of the school system of Delano. He owns a 
fine fruit ranch near Delano, which, with com- 
mendable pride and zeal he is developing. He 
is a man of broad and liberal religious views, 
and aids in every good work. 



►*Mj- 



^fff 0. HAYS, one of Visalia's enterprising 
real estate men, is a native of the Golden 
State, born in San Francisco in August, 
1852; he is a son of Colonel J. 0. Hays, who 
came to California in 1849, and svas the first 
Sheriff of San Francisco County. At the age of 
fifteen Mr. Hays left the pirblic schools of San 
Francisco and went to what is now Washington 
and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia. 
He was graduated from that institution in 1870. 
He then came back to California, and tried to 
reclaim an island in the San Joaquin river. 
After this he farmed for one year in Alameda 
County, and subsequently went into the real 
estate business in Oakland, where he remained 
three years. He then came to Tulare County 
and bought a ranch of 500 acres eight miles 
south of Visalia, on which he resided till 1888. 
He has recently put out twenty acres of vines, 
and in future will make grape-culture a spe- 
cialty. Two years ago he moved to Visalia and 
went into the real estate and insurance business, 
and is trading generally in lands in the 
counties represented in this work. He owns 
valuable property in Tulare City and in differ- 
ent places. November 3, 1880, Mr. Hays 
married Miss Anna McMullin, a native of 



Sacramento. The union has been blest with 
two children, John C. and Harry. 

Politically Mr. Hays is an enthusiastic and 
intelligent supporter of the Democratic party, 
and is prominently connected with the Masonic 
Fraternity. 



I||ATRICK O'BRIEN, a thrifty farmer of 
'B? ^ e South Fork valley, came to Kern 
^K County from Inyo County in 1877. He 
was born in Ireland, March 17, 1852, and in 
1876, at the age of twenty-four years, came to 
America, lauding in New York City a stranger. 
He proceeded to the Lake Superior mines of 
upper Michigan, where he worked one year. 
From that place he came west to Eureka, 
Nevada, and thence to Amador County, Cali- 
fornia. He then spent a brief time in the mines 
of Inyo County, coming to Kern County as 
aforesaid. A younger brother of bis, Terrance 
O. by name, joined him in America in 1883. 
They formed a partnership, and by patient 
industry and frugality have accumulated a fine 
property. They own 320 acres of fine, rich 
land in sections 23 and 24, all of which is well 
improved, and they also have 100 head of stock. 
In addition to their farming interests they own 
a gold mine at Havilah, which they are devel- 
oping. 



ALKER RANKIN is regarded as one 
of the most prosperous and influential 
iHp^S citizens of Kern County, California. 
Like many other pioneers of this State, he 
came with naught save a level head, a strong 
constitution and a determined purpose to carve 
from the resources of California a future suc- 
cess. 

Mr. Ptankin was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- 
vania, October 10, 1832. His father, William 
Rankii, was of Irish descent and a native of 
Maryland. In Pittsburgh he was superintend- 




738 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ent of one of the large iron works. Leaving 
that city about the year 1840, he located with 
his family in West Moreland County, Pennsyl- 
vania, near the town of Mount Pleasant, where 
he engaged in farming. Mr. Rankin's mother, 
whose maiden name was Versula Keen, was 
born in Pennsylvania of Scotch and Dutch 
ancestry. He was the seventh son in their 
family of nine children, three of whom died in 
childhood. His boyhood and youth were spent 
on his father's farm, and at twenty-two years 
of age he left home and came to California. 
The years 1854-'55 he spent in the placer mines 
of Butte County, meeting with fair success. 
In 1856 he joined an older brother, Aquilla 
Rankin, in the dairy business in Contra Costa 
County, remaining there three years. He then 
located in Tulare County and engaged in the 
stock business near Visalia, where he continued 
until 1878. He next drove his business stake 
in Walker's Basin, Kern County, by purchasing 
land of Dan Walser, and also some of T. J. 
Williams. The location of his present spacious 
home he purchased of C. W. Wicks. Then 
from time to time he added to his landed estate 
until he now owns 4,380 acres of farming land 
and stock range in one body, 120 acres of line 
alfalfa and grazing lands near Kernville, and 
520 acres at the head of the South Fork valley. 
September 18, 1878, Mr. Rankin married 
Miss Lavinia Lightner, an accomplished daugh 
ter of the late Abiah T. Lightner, a biograph- 
ical sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this 
work. Mr. and Mrs. Rankin have a family of 
six children. 



fATRICK JOSEPH DOODY was born in 
Ireland, August 15, 1852. His parents, 
Patrick and Nora (Picket) Doody, both 
natives of the Emerald Isle, were married in 
1834, and came to the United States in 1854. 
All of their thirteen children, except one, grew 
to maturity. Upon their arrival in America, 
Mr. and Mrs. Dood\ settled at Ed<rerton, Ohio, 



and some years later removed to Chicago, the 
mother dying in 1865 and the father in 1889. 

The subject of our sketch attended school in 
Ohio, went with his parents to Chicago, and in 
1874 came to this coast. For one year he mined 
in Arizona, and experienced the usual nps and 
downs of a miner's life. In this State he has 
prospected in the mountains and worked in the 
mines and also in the lumber camps. He was 
employed four years in San Francisco and some 
time in Bakerslield, in the hotel business. In 
April, 1885, he came to Traver and built a 
saloon, in which he did a successful business 
until October, 1887, when he was burned out 
and sustained a loss of about §3,000. He took 
up 160 acres of Government land near Traver, 
which he still owns. At present Mr. Doody is 
conducting a salo >n in the Del Lante Hotel, his 
apartment adjoining the hotel office and being 
run in a first-class way. 

Mr. Doody is a Democrat, and is regarded as 
a reliable citizen. He is a member of the Iv. 
of P. 



T^sf 1LEY WATSON, one of the earliest 
',; 1/ A|| settlers of the city of Visalia, was born 

r-Spsri in Greene County, Georgia, April 6. 
1812. His parents were .lames and Temperance 
( Helfin) Watson, of Irish and German origin, 
respectively. James Watson was twice mar- 
ried. By his first wife he had nine children, 
and by the second, Elizabeth Coopwood, thir- 
teen. By trade he was a mechanic. In No- 
vember, 1812, he moved to East Tennessee, 
where he farmed till March, 1818, when he 
moved to Alabama, and remained till March, 
1829. He then emigrated to Greene Countv, 
Illinois, in which State he lived till his death. 
The subject of this sketch had very little oppor- 
tunity to get an education. It is all told by 
saying that he attended school six weeks in a 
log shoolhouse. with split logs for seats and 
writing desks. He started out in life for him- 
self in Illinois, in 1832, being at that time 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



739 



twenty years of age. In 1836, at Naples, Scott 
County, Illinois, he married Miss Emily P. 
Dillon, a native of Guilford County, North Caro- 
lina. Her parents were Peter and Lydia (Clem- 
ens) Dillon. On May 4, 1852, Mr. Watson 
started for California with an ox team. They 
stopped two months at Salt Lake City, and sub- 
sequently proceeded on their journey westward, 
reaching Stockton in about four months, by 
the Southern route. 

Mr. Watson was one of the first settlers of 
Visalia, and helped to lay out the town. He 
pre-empted 160 acres of land now in the city 
limits. When he first came he camped out for 
some time. He built there a good brick resi- 
dence, where he has since resided. He has sold 
the greater portion of his land, some of which 
is occupied by the fair grounds. Mr. Watson 
has been prominently identified with the place 
for thirty seven years. He has served as County 
Treasurer, and lias been a member of the City 
Council a number of terms. He also served as 
Deputy Sheriff of Tulare County, and was at 
one time Mayor of the city. 

Politically he affiliates with the Democratic 
party. His first vote was cast for General 
Jackson, and he has ever since been an enthu- 
siastic and intelligent supporter of the princi- 
ples of the Democratic party. Mr. and Mrs. 
Watson have never been blessed with any chil- 
dren of their own, but have adopted and reared 
several. Mr. Watson was a soldier in the Black 
Hawk war. He entered in 1831 under Captain 
Thomas Carlin, and served about six months. 
He is now well down the shady side of life's 
hill, and is living quietly in his neat home with 
the wife and partner of his youth. 



S*- 



+~8i 



|P|EORGE RACINE is one of the pioneer 
Vwf ' an dmarks of early California. There are 
W few men in Kern County who can talk 
more fluently upon matters of early occurrence 
in California than George Racine. His life 
has been full of the romance of pioneer days. 



He is a resident of Delano, and a genial, social 
person, whom no one shrinks from meeting. 
He was born in St. Louis. Missouri, October 25, 
1839, and is a son of Toussaint Racine, and of 
French-Canadian ancestry. His mother, Amelia 
Grenia, was of like nativity and extraction. 
They lived near Montreal, came west with Gen- 
eral Fremont as far as the Humboldt river, and 
from there joined a party to the Hudson Bay 
country. He became a very successful hunter 
and trapper of fur-bearing animals. He finally 
returned to St. Louis, Missouri, where he sold 
merchandise and kept a popular hotel. George 
Racine came to California in 1855 and farmed 
in Santa Clara County. He soon took up stock 
ranging. He came to Chamola, now in San 
Luis Obispo County, and there remained until 
1858. In 1860 he came to this side of the 
mountain range and was the first settler of the 
Aveual ranch, where he lived until 1873, when 
he adopted Delano as his future abiding place. 
He is a modest man. In political matters he 
has asked and received few public favors. He 
is a well-read man, and can talk intelligently 
upon the current topics of the day. The name 
of George Racine is familiar through the San 
Joaquin valley. 



fAMES A.NDREW BOYD, a successful 
horticulturist of Traver, crossed the plains 
to California with his father and family in 
1859. Je was born in Arkansas, June 24, 
1848, the eldest child of James Saxton and 
Mary M. (Little) Boyd. (See their history in 
this book.) 

After the family arrived in this State they 
spent their first year in Napa County, thence to 
Placer County, thence to Calaveras County, 
and in the spring of 1866 located in Tulare 
County, where James A. worked for wages. 
Visalia was then a small town, and only a few 
settlers were scattered throughout the county. 
Since that time the growth and development in 
this section of the country have been marvelous. 



7-10 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Mr. Boyd at first took up what he supposed 
was government land, but when surveyed was 
found to belong to the railroad company, and 
he lost it. He then purchased 160 acres, im- 
proved his property and added to it by other 
purchases until he had 800 acres, on which he 
lived and farmed until 1888. That year he 
sold out and came to his present locality, three 
miles north of Traver. Here he owns forty 
acres of choice land, abundantly supplied with 
water, on which he is engaged in horticultural 
pursuits, his trees and vines showing luxuriant 
growth and bearing heavily. 

Mr. Boyd was married, in 1869, to Miss 
Letha A. Work, a native of Missouri and a 
daughter of Flemming Work. They have one 
daughter and two sons, namely: Annie L., now 
the wife of John EL Johnson, resides at Din- 
uba, this county; James F. and Zachariah El- 
phenos. 

In politics Mr. Boyd is a Democrat. When 
a young man he held the office of Constable, 
but he is not a politician. He is a member of 
the Christian Church, is an honorable and up- 
right man and is held in high esteem by his 
fellow-citizens. 



tEANDER BLOYD was born in Illinois, 
March 8, 1850, sou of William and Lydia 
(Thurber) Bloyd. His father was a 
descendant of Scotch ancestry, and was born and 
reared in Kentucky, removing from there to Ill- 
inois. In 1861 he brought his family to Cali- 
fornia, Leander being then eleven years old. 
They settled on a farm in Sutter County, and 
resided there seven years, the children (three in 
number) attending school there. 

When he became of age, the subject of our 
sketch settled on a government claim in Wash- 
ington. He was married to Laura L. Robinson, 
and continued to reside on his ranch and 
improve it for six years, after which he sold 
out. In 1883 he came to Tulare County and 
located on his present farm of eighty acres, there 



being few settlers in this vicinity then. At first 
he was a renter, and afterward purchased the 
property. He has planted trees and made 
all the improvements on the place, and as the 
result of his own industry and well-directed 
efforts, is now the owner of a nice ranch and 
pleasant home. His chief products are fruit 
and alfalfa. To him and his wife six children 
have been born, of whom three are now living, 
viz: Clemmie, Jennie and Madella. 

In 1865 Mr. Bloyd eidisted in Company A, 
First Oregon Cavalry, and served against the 
Indians, principally in Washington and Idaho 
Territories, receiving an honorable discharge in 
February, 1866. He was only fifteen years old 
when he entered the service, but was very large 
of his age, being now six feet and six inches tall. 
He is a member of the G. A. K., and is quarter- 
master of his post. Is also associated with the 
A. O. U. W. 



- %» : 



LORD, whose hardware store is on Front 
street, Hanford, and who figures promi- 
nently as a successful business man of 
ihe town, dates his birth in Dover, Delaware, in 
the year 1840. His father, E. Lord, Sr., was a 
a merchant of fifty-one years continuous expe- 
rience, the family having settled in Delaware 
about 1806. 

The subject of our sketch was educated in the 
public schools of his native town, and at the age 
of eighteen entered upon a four years appren- 
ticeship to the tinner's trade in Wilmington. 
In 1867 he commenced a business career at 
Ravenswood, West Virginia, where he opened a 
a small tin and stove store, continuing there until 
1870. That year he moved to Glen wood, Mis- 
souri, and established himself in the same 
industry, conducting his business there with 
marked success until 1879, the year in which he 
came to California. Arriving in this State, he 
settled in San Francisco and purchased an inter- 
est with Martin Kelly in the manufacture of 
tiles and edge tools. This, however, proved a 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



141 



losing investment, and after five months the 
business was closed out and Mr. Lord lost all of 
his capital invested, amounting to $3,260. Thus 
reduced to penury, he began working at his trade 
by days' wages, which he continued until 1881. 
That year he came to Visalia, borrowed $200 
and opened a small tin shop in a room 10x12 
feet. By close application to his business, often 
working night and day to accomplish his pur- 
pose, he pushed steadily forward, and in two 
years he netted $4,000 from his borrowed capi- 
tal. He bought out the two shops in Visalia 
and became the sole representative in his line of 
business in that town. In July, 1887, he came 
to Hanford and purchased the hardware store of 
Frank Blakely. Again misfortune beset him. 
The very day the transfer was made a destruct- 
ive lire swept over the town, and the new pur- 
chase was wiped out of existence, Mr. Lord 
thereby losing $600. Foreseeing the business 
activity which would necessarily follow, within 
ten days he was again established, and his shop 
was the only one of the kind in Hanford. In 
September of that year he disposed of his inter, 
ests in Visalia, and settled permanently in Han- 
ford. He purchased 30x150 feet on Front 
street, and built his present fine store, 30 x 96 
feet, with full basement for storage purposes. 
He keeps a large stock of hardware, tinware, 
stoves and agricultural implements, and has a 
work room fitted up for his tin and plumbing 
business. Having bravely met and surmounted 
all obstacles as they presented themselves, Mr. 
Lord is now comfortably situated and in the 
enjoyment of a very extensive patronage. 

In Parkersburgh, Virginia, in 1866, he wedded 
Miss Sarah Foster, and their union is blessed 
with five children, William P., Nellie, Edith, 
Katie and Pauline. 



-=**< 



»*>£=- 



fOSEPH ANDREW HOUSE.— On the list 
of successful ranchers in Tulare County will 
be found the name of this gentleman. He is 
a native of Missouri, born January 28, 1849. 



His father, Thomas House, was born in Illinois, 
of German descent, and married Hannah Cole- 
man, a native of Missouri. To them eight 
children were born, Joseph A. being the second 
and one of the five who are still living. He 
was reared on the farm and remained with his 
father in Missouri until 1874, when they came 
to California. 

4. 

In 1886 the subject of our sketch purchased 
his present ranch of eighty acres in the vicinity 
of Traver, paying for it $25 per acre. He built 
his home and otherwise improved the property, 
and it is now valued at $100 per acre. He has 
a fine bearing orchard, containing a variety of 
fruit, all the trees being of his own planting. 
He also r.iises alfalfa and horses and cattle. 
This farm is well supplied with water, and is 
indeed a desirable one. In order to have pasture 
for his stock when the grazing in the valley is 
poor, Mr. House purchased 320 acres of pasture 
lands in the mountains. 

He was married in 1889, to Miss Martha 
Baker, a native of Pennsylvania, and their union 
has been blessed with a son, whom they have 
named Roy Earl. Mr. House is a member of 
the Christian Church, and contributed to the 
building of their house of worship in Traver. 



F. HAMMERS is one of the substantial 
and well-to-do farmers of Fresno County, 
California, as well as a pioneer of this 
locality — the son of Joel Hammers, deceaesd. 
He was born in Missouri, September 27, 1830. 
His early life was spent at home on his father's 
farm, and when he was fifteen years old the 
family moved to Texas. 

In 1848 Mr. Hammers started out to make 
his own living, and for many years his career 
was full of the excitements, dangers and vicis- 
situdes of frontier life. At first he was asso- 
ciated with General Joseph E.Johnston, who was 
engaged in work on an engineering commission 
in Texas. He was one of the guard appointed 
to accompany the General on his various expe- 



742 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ditions — an experience that was full of excite- 
ment and adventure throughout. Later, he was 
recommended to the well-known Major Bartlett 
by General Johnston, and was in the service of 
the Major for a long period, going with him to 
El Paso, Mexico, where he engaged in business 
and remained three years. 

In 1853 he crossed the plains to California, 
reachingi,os Angeles first, and a short time after- 
ward moving on to Mariposa and Tuolumne 
counties, in which localities he was successfully 
engaged in mining. This period extended from 
1854 to 1864. He then settled down on a farm 
in Tuolumne County and did well, making con- 
siderable money and thoroughly enjoying his 
surroundings and occupations, which, compared 
to his rough mining experiences of the earlier 
period, was a great relief. In October, 1877, 
Mr. Hammers moved to Fresno County and 
took up half a section of land where he now 
lives, two miles from the town of Selma. He 
has been engaged continuously in farming and 
stock-raising on this fine property, and is re- 
garded as one of the most successful farmers in 
the community. There was no water and not a 
sign of vegetation here when Mr. Hammers set- 
tled on this property. A desolate sand plain 
was all that the eye could see, and $2.50 per 
acre, the price he paid for his land, seemed ex- 
orbitant at that time. All is changed now. The 
visitor, whose good fortune it is to drive out 
in this locality, will find on every side raisin 
vineyards and finely cultivated farms, with a 
general air of prosperity pervading the whole 
country. 

Mr. Hammers was married in 1868 to Mrs. 
Seasle. 

■ £ - i " f3 . ~ - — 




IflLLIAM MENZEL, of Havilah, Kern 



r }i County, first set foot on California soil 
in 1857. He is a native of Germany, 
born April 8, 1836. In early life he followed 
the sea for about five years, going before the 
mast of a German merchant ship, trading 



between German and American ports. Upon 
coming to San Francisco in 1857, he worked as 
a sail rigger for two years; spent a time in the 
Mono County mines, and in 1860 he came to 
Kernville and clerked in a store. He subse- 
quently engaged in various pursuits in Kern 
County — mining, butchering and hotel-keeping. 
At this writing he is proprietor of the Golden 
Gate Hotel, Havilah, the principal hotel of the 
valley. 

Mr. Meuzel was married in 1871, to Miss 
Johanna Goelenrath, a native of Hamburg, Ger- 
many. They are the parents of four children, 
two sons and two daughters. 



fDWARD A. CUTTER, the pioneer drug- 
gist of Dinuba, Tulare County, California, 
is a native of Hopkinton, New York, born 
October 24, 1870. He was reared and educated 
in the province of Quebec. 

Mr. Cutter came to California August 
16, 1888, and to his present location in March, 
1890. At Dinuba he opened the first drugstore. 
His well-kept store is located in the new hotel 
building, and from this place he supplies drugs 
to the citizens of Dinuba and to those in the 
country contiguous to it. 



fOSEPH CYRUS.— This genuine Califor- 
nia pioneer crossed the plains from Ken- 
tucky in 1850. He is a native of Franklin 
County, that State, born near Frankfort, Sep- 
tember 15, 1826. His father, Joseph Cyrus, a 
native of Cumberland County, Kentucky, was a 
farmer by occupation. 

The subject of our sketch learned the trade 
of a millwright in his native county. At the 
age of nineteen he entered the Mexican war as 
a private under Captain G. W. Cavenaugh. a 
Kentuckian. Colonel W. R. McKee and Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Henry Clay, son of the great 
statesman, were his superior officers. He fought 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



743 



at Buena Vista, where the two former officers 
were killed. Although he enlisted for twelve 
months he served fourteen, and now draws the 
allotted pension of a Mexican veteran — $12 per 
month. 

At the close of the war Mr. Cyrus returned 
to Kentucky and resumed work at his trade, 
subsequently coming to California, via Salt 
Lake and Truckee, landing in Nevada County 
the latter part of that year. For one year he 
tried his luck in the mines, after which he en- 
gaged in erecting mills, and built several of the 
first and best quartz and saw mills in tbe cen- 
tral counties of the State. From 1868 to 1874 
he was employed in railway bridge work in Cal- 
ifornia aud Oregon. In May, 1874, he pur- 
chased his present ranch, which is beautifully 
situated on the Kern river opposite Kernville. 
He has 600 acres, comprising a variety of soil, 
a portion of which he devotes to grain culture, 
the whole ranch being well fenced. The best 
quality of apples, apricots, peaches, cherries, 
etc., are produced on this farm. Mr. Cyrus 
gives much attention to stock-raising; he ran- 
ges about fifty head of cattle, thirty horses 
and 250 hogs — 100 of the latter being 
extra graded stock. He has been espec- 
ially interested in breeding Hambletonian stal- 
lions, and has some fine specimens of stock 
on his ranch. Prince, a five-year old, weighs 
1,400 pounds, is dark brown, has fine action and 
is fleet footed. Grant Belmont, Morgan dame 
and Cleveland Bay sire, is four years old, weighs 
1,600 pounds, stands sixteen hands and three 
inches high, is a beautiful dappled gray, is kind 
in disposition and was also foaled by Mr. Cyrus 
on his ranch. 

Mr. Cyrus is a thorough farmer as well as an 
expert mechanic. Reference has already been 
made to his mill work. He built an eighty- 
stamp quartz mill on Carson river for Hay ward 
& Jones, and in 1874 also erected the eighty- 
stamp quartz mill — a water mill — at Kernville, 
known as the Sumner Mill, both of which are 
models of their kind and monuments to his 
mechanical skill. 



In 1880 Mr. Cyrus married Mrs. Rose Bro- 
field at Kernville. ' She died in 1882 without 
issue. 

Mr. Cyrus is a man of good social qualities, 
and is well informed on the current questions 
of the day. He is hospitable and generous in 
disposition, and is generally esteemed as a most 
worthy citizen. 



**=- 



jP^ENRY RHOADS was born in Edgar 
Iff) C ount y> Illinois, April 9, 1834. He comes 
*M from French ancestry. His grandfather, 
Newman Rhoads, participated in the Revolu- 
tionary war as one of General Washington's 
body guard. His father, Thomas Rhoads, was 
a native of Kentucky, removed to Mississippi, 
thence to Illinois, thence to Missouri, and in 
1846, to California. Thomas Rhoads married 
Miss Elizabeth Foster, and to them were born 
sixteen children, ten sons and six daughters, all 
of whom they reared to maturity. Five sons 
and four daughters are still living. 

The subject of our sketch passed his thir- 
teenth birthday on the plains, while the family 
were en route to this State, and after a most de- 
lightful journey of five months and five days 
they entered California. Our young friend first 
found employment in herding stock on a large 
ranch on Dry creek, near Sacramento. As soon 
as gold was discovered he became a miner, and 
until 1852 was engaged in the mines. During 
that time the largest piece of gold he found 
weighed an ounce, and his largest day's work 
netted him $100 Leaving the mines, he in- 
vested his earnings in stock, and was engaged 
in raising cattle until 1864. The dry year he 
and his brother lost about 3,000 head of cattle 
and 100 horses. 

In 1865 Mr. Rhoads came to Fresno County 
and took up the government claim upon which 
he now resides, and located three miles north- 
west of Lemoore. Here he built a neat adobe 
house, planted trees and vines, and here he has 
since lived. His cozy home presents a most in- 



744 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



viting appearance, shaded as it is by a fine grove 
of trees, planted by the hands of this worthy 
pioneer and his estimable wife and family. 

Mr. Rhoads was married in 1857 to Miss 
Jane Good, a native of London, England. She 
came with her parents to Illinois when a small 
child, and from there to California, settling at 
Sacramento. To Mr. and Mrs. Rhoads seven 
children and nine grand-children have been 
born. All their children are living save one, 
and all but two are married and settled in life. 
The names of those surviving are Ellen, Maria, 
Sarah, Mary, Louisa and Henry. 

When Mr. Rhoads first settled in this County 
all their provisions were brought from Stock- 
ton, a distance of 175 miles, and from Yerba 
Buena. now the great metropolis of California. 
They made a trip with their teams once in six 
months and hauled in their supplies. Although 
the country was new, and the settlers far apart, 
they experienced litt.e danger from the Indians. 
At one time, when the Indians were fighting 
the miners, Mr. Rhoads and some others came 
upon an Indian fort in the mountains, and, in 
the absence of the Red men, tired it. They 
were pursued by the savages, but fortunately 
made their escape. Although only a boy at 
that time, he remembers the excitement about 
the Donner party. He remained with the 
family while his father went to rescue those suf- 
ferers in the mountains. A history of his 
brother, Daniel Rhoads, will be found else- 
where in this book. 

— - ..■ ; • ! . < • ; . - — 



fANIEL McDONALD was born in Nova 
Scotia, May 10, 1850. His parents, 
George and Mary (Cameron) McDonald, 
were both born in Tennessee, their ancestors 
having resided in America for many years. 
Donald McDonald, the original progenitor of 
the family in America, came here from the 
Highlands of Scotland at an early period in the 
history of this country. The Camerons were 
also of Scotch descent. Daniel was the second 



born in a family of five children, all of whom 
are now living in California. At the age of 
twenty he came to this coast, first to San Fran- 
cisco, then to Solano County, and in 1873 to 
Tulare County. At first he did farm work, for 
wages, and afterward learned the blacksmith 
trade. In 1873 he opened a shop and has since 
been engaged in business. He came to Dinnba 
on the 12th of May, 1888, when the town was 
just starting, and opened the pioneer blacksmith 
and carriage shop, and has conducted a success- 
ful business, which, as the town and County 
grow, constantly increases. He built the 
pleasant home in which he resides. 

Mr. McDonald was married in 1877, to Kiz- 
zie B. Fowler, a native of Missouri, and their 
union has been blessed with five children, all 
natives of California, viz.: Don D., Dick C, 
Lena Estella, Frances Vivian and Fred Holt. 

In politics he is a Republican. 



fALVIN DUNLAP, of Bakerstield, is a 
member of one of the American pioneer 
families of California. From a recently 
published history of Los Angeles County, this 
State, we take the following carefully recorded 
facts concerning John Dunlap (deceased), the 
father of the subject of this sketch: " John Dun- 
lap was among the emigrants to California, from 
Texas, in 1854. He brougnt some means with 
him to this new country, but his capital con- 
sisted of almost an inexhaustible fund of energy 
and ambition. Two years following their com- 
ing were spent on a ranch near El Monte. They 
then removed to Tulare County, (which point 
of their location has since become a portion of 
Kern County, and lies in what is now Lynn's 
valley,) and there soon become known far and 
wide as a successful stock-grower and dealer." 
Mr. Dunlap sold his interests in Lynn's valley 
to Hiram Hughes, (who still owns the prop- 
erty), removed to San Bernardino County. 
where he continued actively engaged in basil 
until his death, which occurred July 6, 1875, 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



745 



aged si..ty-four years. John Dunlap was twice 
married. His first wife, whose maiden name 
was Early, bore him two children, — James E. 
and Mary, who- became Mrs. Glen. About five 
years after this sad occurrence, he married Miss 
Mary Ann Heurton, and to her were born, 
Jennie, Calvin, the subject of this sketch, A. EL, 
Franklin P., Lanra, Louis N., Andrew J., Ida 
and Ella. Mrs. Dunlap still survives and makes 
her home with her children in Los Angeles 
County. 

Mr. Dunlap was a broad-guage business man 
and operated in stock on an extensive plan. 
He brought with him to California 1,500 head 
of large Texas steers, which he drove into Lynn's 
valley, losing from various causes about 150 
head on the route. His operations in sheep- 
raising were on an equally extensive scale. 

Calvin D;inlap is the second oldest of the 
children, was born November 29, 1847, in Bs.ll 
County, Texas, and was about seven years of 
age when his parents reached California, fie 
was married September 7, 1871, to Miss 
Eliza, daughter of William Fugitt, of Lynn's 
valley. They have six children, — Cora, Estella, 
Sara C, Josie G., Blanch and Clara. 

He is engaged in business in Bakersfield and 
owns the hotel and other property at Glennville. 



fP. CLARK, one of the prosperous farmers 
of the Tehachapi Valley, was born in Ire- 
° land, April 5, 1836, and came to America 
in 1845. He first located in the East, where 
he remained several years, and in June, 1855, 
came from Carbondale, Pennsylvania, to Cali- 
fornia, making the journey via steamer from 
New York to the Isthmus of Panama and 
thence to San Francisco. From that city he 
went to Sonoma and worked in a saw-mill- on 
the Russian river. In 1864 he commenced 
work for the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany, and continued with them for ten years as 
section boss aud division road-master. After 
that he took a pleasure trip to Japan and China 



and also visited Lima and Peru, being absent a 
year. Returning to California in May, 1875, 
he located at Tehachapi and resumed work for 
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. In 
1880 he purchased 160 acres of land of John 
Dozier, and from time to time continued to 
make other purchases until he now owns 1,210 
acres, upon which he is raising grain and 
grazing stock, keeping about forty-five cattle 
and twenty horses. 

Mr. Clark was married in Truckee, Califor- 
nia, to Miss Sarah Hetten, also a native of the 
Emerald Isle. She came to America in 1861. 
They have three sons: Peter F., John A. and 
Charles II. Another son, Michael, died on the 
6th of April, 1891, aged three years. 



TC^FILLIAM D. SPRAGUE has been iden- 
lf|W tified with the interests of Tulare 

l-TDpNS County since 1872, and is regarded as 
one of 'her enterprising and reliable citizens. 

Mr. Sprague was born in Ohio, November 2, 
1846. His ancestors came to the United States 
before the Revolution, and were participants in 
that struggle for independence. His father, 
Enos Sprague, was a native of Ohio, his family 
being among the early settlers of that State. 
He married Miss Jane Price, also a native of 
Ohio and a member of a pioneer family. Her 
mother was of Spanish ancestry. To them were 
born two sons and a daughter. The last is de- 
ceased. From the time he was six until he was 
in his eighteenth year, William D. lived in 
Iowa. At that time, in 1864, he enlisted in 
Company D, Tenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, 
and served with Suerman on his memorable 
march "from Atlanta to the sea." After the 
grand review at Washington he returned to his 
home and learned the carpenter's trade, follow- 
ing it three years. We next find him engaged 
in farming on rented lands in Missouri. 

In 1872 Mr. Sprague came to California and 
located at Visalia. At first he worked for 
wases, afterward rented lands, and now has a 



74li 



BISTORT OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ranch of 400 acres of his own. For five years 
be lias been engaged in raising wheat, culti- 
vating bis own and other lands, annually sow- 
ing about 700 acres; be owns a beader, and 
harvests and threshes bis crops himself. 

In 1869 Mr. Sprague wedded Miss Margaret 
E. Hill, a native of Indiana. Their rive chil- 
dren were all born in California, and are named 
as follows: Clara Adaline, Charles Henry, Min- 
nie Alice, Elizabeth and Maud. Mr. Sprague's 
political affiliations are with the Republican 
party. He is a charter member of the 
G. A. R., and has held the office of junior vice- 
coininander. 



-JlP M. BLOWERS, a rancher near Grange- 
mft v il' e ) was born in Indiana, in 1845. His 
«SE^° o-randfather, John O. Blowers, was a na- 
tive of England and was among the early set- 
tlers of Crawford County, Ohio, where, as a 
minister of the Methodist Church, he was first 
to preach in Crawford County. The father of 
our subject, Lemuel L. Blowers, with his young 
son, came to California by steamer and the isth- 
mus of Panama, in 1854, settling in Yolo 
County. He engaged in farming until illness 
came upon him in 1855. and he was called to 
the other world, leaving his young son, C. M. 
Blowers, a stranger in a strange land, and de- 
pendent upon his own resources. He was taken 
by one Fisher until he was twelve years of age, 
then he began rustling for himself, working 
upon ranches until the age of seventeen, when 
he bought a team and began freighting from 
Sacramento across the mountains to the mining 
localities of Nevada. He followed teaming 
about six years, then came to Tulare County 
and put in a crop near Porterville, but the sea- 
son being dry, his efforts were fruitless, and he 
then returned to Yolo County, rented land and 
farmed until 1874, when he came to the Mussel 
Slough district and bought a claim of 160 
acres of railroad land, and was one of the first 



among fifteen settlers to purchase their lands ot 
the railroad comj any at the first grading. 

He was married in 1875 to Miss Susan B. 
McLaughlin, a native of Ohio. Erecting their 
little cabin, and the country being too dry to 
farm, he then bought an interest in the Last 
Chance ditch and began work on the ditch, thus 
getting water upon his land about 1876. He 
then put in a summer crop of corn, potatoes, 
beans and pumpkins, which did well, and in 
1877 he secured a fine crop of grain. In an 
experimental way lie planted a few vines and 
fruit trees about 1878, and continued farming, 
gradually working into stock, mainly hogs and 
horses. In 1881 he began setting a larger acre- 
age in vines, and thus laboring, through the 
profits of fanning and stock business, he has 
acquired other lands and now owns 260 acres, 
sixty-five of which are in alfalfa, fifty j five acres in 
vines and thirty in fruit. He keeps about forty 
head of horses and an average of 250 hogs. 
Realizing the importance of water Mr. Blowers 
has closely guarded his ditch interests and for 
eight years has been president of the Last 
Chance Ditch Company. Mr. and Mrs. Blow- 
ers have seven children: Hurlburt L., Mack 
R., Olive G., Francis I., Bessie, Mary and Ralph 
C, all living and at home. 



B. T1MMONS, Postmaster of Delano, 
Kern County, has been a resident of 
° California since 1887. He is a native 
of Indiana, born in La Fayette, Tippecanoe 
County, September 4, 1833. His father, a 
native of Ohio, and a minister of the United 
Brethren Church, reared a family of ten chil- 
dren, of whom the subject of this brief sketch 
is the oldest. The father removed with his 
family to Peoria County, Illinois, in 1849. 

W. B. Timmons was married in 1858, to 
Miss Vashti Koontz, a lady of German descent, 
and by her has ten children living. He has all 
his life been interested in agricultural pursuits. 
During a residence of ten years at Hallsville, 




HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



747 



Missouri, he served as postmaster of his town, 
which experience qualified him for the position 
he now fills at Delano, having received the ap- 
pointment in 1889. Besides performing the 
duties of this office, he also manufactures hrick 
and carries on farming and stock-raising. 

During the war of the Rebellion Mr. Tim- 

o 

tnons served as a private in Company B, 
Twenty-first Missouri Veteran Volunteers, 
being mustered out in April. 1866. 



f CHAUVIN, one of the first settlers, 
and a present active merchant of Delano, 
* is not only a pioneer of Kern County, 
but also one of the early pioneers of the State. 
He was boru in the South of France, Novem- 
ber 1. 1833, the son of Jevene Chauvin, who 
was a scientific scholar, a newspaper editor, and 
one of the outspoken and aggressive patriots of 
the Republic of France, and as such suffered 
not a little persecution at the hands of the for- 
mer governmental authorities. He left his 
country in the latter part of 1847, and located 
at Martinique, an isle of the West Indies. 
In 1848 he went to the Isle of Porto Rico, 
thence to the city of Havana, Cuba, where he 
died in 1877, still a strong advocate of the 
principles of free government. He had but 
two sons, the older, Achille, died a retired officer 
of the French army in Africa or " Chasseurd 
Afrique." 

The subject of this brief biography was the 
second son. Upon reaching the new continent 
he proceeded to Philadelphia in March, 1849, 
and left that city for New York, and the latter 
city the same year for San Francisco, via Isth- 
mus of Panama, crossing the Isthmus on foot; 
145 days were consumed in making the voyage 
up the Pacific coast to San Francisco, during 
which time supplies ran short, and much suffer- 
ing from extreme hunger was experienced. 

Upon his arrival in San Francisco, Mr. Chau- 
vin went to San Jose and engaged in the pur- 
chase and sale of native fruits, and continued in 



the fruit and provision trade in San Jose, and 
later in Monterey, for about six months. He 
was in Sacramento in 1851, with Generals Riley 
and Fremont, and in Southern California, at 
San Juan Cupistrino, in 1853. 

In 1854-5, he engaged in mining at La 
Grange, and later in the Kern river country. 
During the time intervening between that and 
1873. he was engaged in merchandising at La 
Grange, and in the stock business, in which he 
was prospered. In 1877 he visited Havana, 
Cuba, to pay a last visit to his aged father, con- 
tinuing his journey to Europe, where he, with 
his son, visited Constantinople, London, and 
Paris. In 1858, Mr. Chauvin was married to 
a Parisian lady, who bore him one son, Ande, in 
1859. She died in 1861. The son grew to 
manhood, was finely educated at Santa Clara 
College, in this State, and developed a brilliant 
scientific mind. He died in 1885. 

Mr. Chauvin was the first postmaster anaV' 
merc.iant of Delano, locating there as he did/in 
L873, when the Southern Pacific Railway ter- 
minated at that point. He has been. .ah enter- 
prising business man, and still continues in 
business, owning large amounts of real estate 
in and about Delano. He is quiet in his de- 
meanor, constantly at his post of duty, and is a 
man of strict integ ity, widely known and 
highly esteemed. 

ROBERT L. STOCKTON is a son of the 
Mg venerable Dr. I. D. Stockton, a pioneer of 
~ =s %i\ Kern County, a sketch of whom appears 
elsewhere in this work. 

Robert L. was born in Santa Rosa, Sonoma 
County, California, October 25, 1863. He was 
educated in the public schools of Kern County, 
and in Los Angeles Business College. His 
studious habits and aptitude for acquiring know- 
ledge soon qualified him for teaching, and in 
1881 he took up that occupation professionally, 
and since that time has taught in various sec- 
tions of Kern County. At this writing he 



748 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



holds a State certificate. Mr. Stockton lias 
also engaged in ranching and cattle raising on 
an extensive scale. He owns various tracts of 
land, situated as follovs: East half of north- 
west quarter sec ion 32, township 26, range 29; 
section 25, township 26, range 28; northwest 
quarter of southeast quarter, northwest quarter 
and south half of northeast quarter, and south- 
east quarter of northwest quarter of section 26, 
township 26, range 20 — nearly 1,000 acres. 
He ranges 100 head of cattle and twenty 
horses. 

Mr. Stockton was united in marriage, De- 
cember 27, 1885, with Miss Frances Engle, who 
was born in Kern County, December 24, 1866, 
daughter of David Engle, Esq. They have two 
children, Ralph T. and David D. 



tOUIS SCHMIDT furnishes a striking ex- 
ample to " Young America " of what hon. 
esty of purpose, perseverance and industry 
will accomplish in the way of acquiring and 
developing a good property. He is a son of 
William Schmidt, a shoemaker by trade, and a 
native of Germany, born in Mecklenburg, De- 
cember 10, 1844. He came in 1853 to this 
country with his parents, who located in Ohio. 
\fter five years sojourn in the Buckeye State, 
they removed to Tuscola County, Michigan, 
where they still reside. Louis remained with 
his parents until August, 1864, when he joined 
the army, to assist in putting down the Rebel- 
lion. Enlisting in the Twenty-ninth Michigan 
Infantry, he served as a non-commissioned 
officer from August, 1864, to September, 1865, 
when the war closed and the armies of the 
United States were disbanded. He served with 
General Thomas, and participated in the ad- 
vance upon Decatur, and later upon Murfrees- 
boro, Tennessee, where they were when the fall 
of Richmond was announced. Soon after this 
he was honorably discharged from the service, 
at Detroit. He then returned to his Michigan 
home, there he remained until he came to Cali- 



fornia, in 1867. First he located in Napa 
County, later he lived two years in Sonoma 
County, subsequently spent three years in Lob 
Angeles, and later, five years at Tehachapi, 
Kern County. It was not long after until he 
acquired his present place of 160 acres, which 
is the west half of the east half of section 28, 
township 31, range 27 — 160 acres. This he 
keeps well stocked and under a good state of 
"improvement. Mvt Schmidt is a man of un- 
assuming ways, of an even temperament, and 
is eminently fitted for the calling he has chosen. 

#^-6§Hs# 




H. WERFIELD.— The subject of this 
sketch stands prominently forth among 
i" = ^r} v » the active young men of Madera, 
and through his colony system he is doing 
much toward developing that part of the valley. 
He was born in Shamokin, Northumberland 
County, Pennsylvania, in 1856. His father, 
He:iry Werfield, was a well-known mining ex- 
pert ot that locality, and after forty-five years 
of anthracite coal mining, became to California 
in 1890 and is now settled upon a forty-acre 
ranch, southwest of Madera, which he is im- 
proving in vines and trees. 

After a common school education, young 
Werfield took up the study of mechanical en- 
gineering, in which he became very proficient 
and which he followed very successlnlly in the 
mining districts of Pennsylvania until 1881. 
With a desire for travel and a broader develop- 
ment, he then visited the Western States and 
located in Denver, Colorado, and engaged in 
the real estate business. In 1885 he returned 
to Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, where he accepted 
the position of general time keeper with the Sus- 
quehanna Coal Co., a position of great respon- 
sibility, as the list of laborers numbered 4,500 
hands. After four years of faithful service lie 
resigned his position for the purpose of coming 
to California and entering into the colonization 
business at Madera, as president of the first, 
colony organized in that locality, which was 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



749 



incorporated in September, 1889. The colony 
was a success from its inception, which was 
largely due to the extensive business acquaintance 
and executive ability o, its able president. Ou 
October 10, 1890, Mr. "Werlield resigned his 
position, and then organized the Border Farm 
Colony, to which he now gives his undivided 
attention. This colony land consists of 640 
acres, and is considered of the finest land in 
Fresno County. It has been subdivided in 
blocks of five acres and upwards, and according 
to the system, the purchaser can pay for setting 
and cultivation of vines and allow the fruit 
to piy for the laud; or lie can pay for the land, 
receive deed, and direct his own impiovements. 
Mr. Werfield began his improvements on Jan- 
uary 15, 1891, and on March 21, 1891, he 
completed the planting of 420 acres, a large 
portion of which was already sold to colon- 
ists, the balance of land to be set in the spring 
of 1892. Mr. Werfield will continue a general 
colonizatiou and real estate business in both 
ranch and city property. He was married, in 
Wilkes Earre, Pennsylvania, in 1882, to Miss 
Janet S. Nesbit, a native of Pennsylvania, but 
of Scotch descent. 

Mr. Werfield is an energetic, progressive and 
careful business man. He enjoys the respect 
and confidence of all who know him, and he has 
proved himself an enterprising and valuable 
citizen. 



~=S»K 



»+>£>- 



JB^ENRY W. BYRON dates his birth in 
yW\ Ohio, February 22, 1840, and his advent 
%lfts to California in 1857. His father, Peter 
Byron, a native of England, came to America 
when a young man, and in Pennsylvania mar- 
ried Mary Hesketh, a native of that State. To 
them were born seven children. Their son 
James served his country with that heroic band 
of soldiers who took the city of Mexico, and in 
that struggle lost his arm. Two other sons, 
William and Philander, were volunteers in the 
Union army, and both lost their lives in the 



service. Henry W., their youngest son, was 
reared on his father's farm in Illinois, and was 
educated in the district schools. 

At the age of seventeen, our young friend, 
filled with the spirit of adventure^ started for 
California. After an uneventful journey he 
arrived in El Dorado County, where he mined 
for fourteen months with moderate success. At 
the end of that time he went to Australia, and 
was engaged in the mines there until 1864, 
making and losing money and making it again. 
In the Colony of Victoria he and two others 
each took out £3,000 sterling from the Bendigo 
mine on Jenny Lind Flat. 

In 1864 Mr. Byron married Miss Rosina 
Gallard, a native of Australia, and soon after 
sailed with his bride for California. He settled 
at Antioch, Contra Costa County, and took up 
160 acres of land where Byron Station is now 
located. In 1869 he sold this property and 
came to his present ranch in Tulare County, 
half a mile from the village of Lemoore. The 
country here was then all unimproved, and the 
stockmen did all they could to discourage set- 
tlers. Mr. Byron took up a quarter section of 
government land and at once began the work of 
improvement. Since that time he has been an 
important factor in the growth and develop- 
ment of this portion of the county. He was 
one of the twenty-five settlers who organized 
the King's River Ditch Company and opened 
a new era for this country, brought the water 
with its life-giving power to the thirsty soil, 
and made the wilderness to produce in abun- 
dance all varieties of delicious fruit. Mr. By- 
ron has seventeen acres in apricots and nectar- 
ines, and forty acres in raisin grapes, all bearing 
abundantly. He is also carrying on general 
farming, and sows annually about 1,200 acres of 
wheat. 

Mr. and Mrs. Byron are the parents of seven 
children, one having died in infancy. Those 
living are as follows: Lincoln H., Olive A., 
Albert, Rupert, Eddie and Willie. All the 
children are at home except Lincoln, who is 
married and has one child. Olive has exhibited 



750 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



considerable talent as an artist, and their parlor 
is ornamented with a number of fine landscape 
paintings, the work of her brush. 

Mr. Byron is a Republican, an I. O. 0. F., 
arid A. O. U*. W., a Red Man, and a member of 
the Farmers' Alliance, being vice-president of 
the latter organization. He has been president 
of the King's River Ditch Company ever since 
its organization, eighteen years ago. He and 
his estimable wife maintain the same cordial 
and hospitable ways of the early settlers, and 
the stranger, as well as their many friends, both 
old and yonng, is sure of a hearty welcome at 
their door. 

-- #hk§e$5^ — 

IfHOMAS J. TOPHAM, proprietor of the 
Madera Soda Works, was born in Hunt- 
ingdonshire, England. He was reared on 
the farm of his father and was educated at Eton 
College. In 1872 lie came to the United States 
with his parents and landed at Boston during 
the disastrous fire in that city. They then went 
to Wythe County, Virginia, where Mr. Topham 
bought a farm of 420 acres and carried on gen- 
eral farming. After five years in this country, 
on account of failing health, young Topham 
took a trip to England, and after one year there 
went to Australia and New Zealand, hoping to 
derive benefit from the sea voyage. After four 
years passed in traveling about Australia, with 
health restored, he started for California, where 
he arrived in February, 1884. He then settled 
upon a farm of 120 acres in Tulare County, 
where, for three years, he carried on general 
farming. In 1887 he came to Madera, pur- 
chased land and erected his present estab- 
lishment, which is fitted up with the latest 
improved machinery for the manufacture of 
soda water and the bottling of wines. Mr. 
Topham purifies the water used in his soda 
water by a chemical process. The water is then 
carefully filtered before being used, making the 
soda of better quality and causing it to keep for 
a longer time. He has a bored well, 100 feet 



deep, which sup] lies the factory and an ice 
house for the storage of manufactured stock. 
He is pleased with his success, as he is build- 
ing up an extensive patronage throughout the 
county. Mr. Topham was married, in Aus- 
tralia, in 1884, to Miss Carrie Reinhardt, a 
native of Australia, but of German descent. 
They have no children. 



— =?» 



»*■£=- 



tAUNCELOT GILROY was born in Ireland, 
in 1849, was reared in British Columbia, 
and when seventeen years of age came to 
California. He is the only son of John and 
Catharine (Chancy) Gilroy. His first work in 
this State was that of dry goods clerk in San 
Francisco, in the service of D. Samuels & Co., 
by whom he was employed two years. In 1868 
he came to Fresno County as a clerk and book- 
keeper for Elias Jacobs, and was with him three 
years as clerk and seven years as partner in the 
general merchandise business. Then for two 
years he was railroad and Wells- Fargo agent at 
Lemoore, after which he built a store at this 
place and engaged in the general merchandise 
business on his own account. After conducting 
his business successfully for two years he was 
burned out. He then accepted a position with 
Scisson, Wallace & Co., Tulare„ at $150 per 
month, continuing with them until they sold 
out, and then for a time being employed by their 
successors. In 1862 he accepted the nomina- 
tion for County Clerk, was elected by the Demo- 
cratic party, and held the office for six years, 
conducting the business of the same with 
marked ability. At the em! of that time he 
declined to run for office, and came to his ranch, 
where he has since resided. Tins property con- 
sists of eighty acres devoted to fruit trees and 
vineyard, and is located half a mile northwest 
of Lemoore. He also has 160 acres of land nine 
miles north of Hanford, besides several other 
tracts. 

Mr. Gilrcy was married in 1878 to Miss Lizzie 
Esrey, daughter of Thomas Esrey. Four chil 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



751 



dren have been born to them only one of whom, 
Robert, is now living, the others having died in 
infancy- 
Mr. Gilroy is a Blue Lodge, Chapter and 
Commandery Mason, and has from time to time 
held various offices in the order. He is widely 
and favorably known in this county. 



fAPTAIN RUSSELL P. MACE. -There 
is much of historical interest connected 
^*- with the lives of the pioneers, but few 
have passed through more thrilling adventures 
than the subject of this sketch, who was born in 
Boston, Massachusetts, May 14, 1821. His 
father, Eliphalet Mace, was a manufacturer of 
planes and carpenter tools, and having a large 
family and small income, Russell was adopted 
at an early age by his uncle, Russell Perry, then 
living at Putney, "Vermont. Young Mace was 
not of a studious nature, but of a more adven- 
turous disposition, and the country life soon 
irritated him. Anticipating the delights of a 
sea life, though still but a boy, he went to Bos- 
ton, and as a cabin boy shipped on board a 
coaster, bound for New Orleans. But the life 
was not all his youthful dreams had pictured, 
and^ he found one trip quite sufficient. At 
New Orleans he left the ship, and with an old 
friend led a rambling life, spent one season 
with a French trader in visiting the Comanche 
country and trading with the Indians. He then 
went to Independence, Missouri, and joined the 
trading train of the American Fur Company, 
en route for Bent's Fort on the Arkansas river. 
The train was loaded with blankets, shot guns, 
blue and red cloth, beads, and a general stock of 
Indian goods, to trade for otter and beaver 
skins and hides. The company was represented 
by the four Bent brothers and Mr. St. Vrain. 
At Bent's Fort his adventurous life began. It 
was desired to send important messages to 
Charles Bent, then at Taos, a distance of 180 
miles, the trail leading through a country in- 
fested by the Dte Indians, then very hostile to 



the white man. Robert Fisher, a noted scout 
and trapper — the man who raised Kit Carson — 
volunteered to go, but wished a companion, and 
young Mace, seeking adventure, though warned 
of the dangers of the journey, agreed to accom- 
pany him. They were three days on the trip, 
and but for the experience of Bob Fisher, they 
would surely have been killed, as they followed 
the Indian trail and lay concealed in canons 
while Indians passed but a few feet away. Tney 
journeyed mainly by night and arrived safely at 
Taos midst great rejoicing, as the mission was 
an important one. They returned to Bent's 
Fort accompanied by a strong guard of trappers 
and hunters. Young Mace was in the employ 
of Charles Bent for six years, and was considered 
one of his most trusty and faithful scouts and 
express riders. He carried express from Bent's 
Fort to Fort George, another very dangerous 
trail, usually traveling with a mule, trusting to 
familiarity with the country and strategy to 
escape the Indian, rather than speed of travel. 
His arms were his trusty rifle, two belt pistols 
and two Holster pistols, and with these on one 
of his rides, he kept five Indians at bay. At 
another time, disguised as a Mexican, he rode 
directly through an Indian village where detec- 
tion meant instant death. For two years, in 
connection with Kit Carson, the noted scout, 
they hunted buffalo for the fur company simply 
for the meat, as the company employed about 
400 men. Mr. Mace has chased thousands of 
buffalo over the site now occupied by Denver, 
Colorado, and he was at Pueblo, Colorado, when 
the flrst adobe was named for a trading post. 
Buffalo meat was the staple food, and they had 
little other meat, and rarely bread or vegetables, 
following vast herds of buffalo and killing only 
the fat ones. These six years were one round 
of thrilling adventure, but space must limit our 
sketch. In 1844, then but twenty three years 
of age, Mr. Mace returned to New Orleans, and 
for three years acted as clerk in the wine rooms 
of Mr. Wertield. At the opening of the Mexi- 
can war Mr. Mace was among the first to vol- 
unteer, .and for three months served under 



752 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



General Gaines. During this time the Secre- 
tary of War had made a requisition upon 
Louisiana for a regiment, and by leave Mace 
returned to New Orleans and recruited the first 
company under the requisition — Company A, 
First Regiment, Louisiana Volunteers, and was 
appointed Captain of the company, and being 
Senior Captain, had command of the regiment 
until all officers were elected. The regiment 
then served through the war until the treaty 
was made with the Mexicans. About that time 
Governor Barbechanoa, of Yucatan, applied for 
troops to help quell the Indian uprising, and 
Captain Mace, with a company of men, went to 
Yucatan and performed some heavy service, 
succeeding in driving the Indians from many 
strongholds which they had occupied for years. 
At this time the gold excitement broke out 
in California, and on his return to New Orleans, 
Captain Mace started at once via Panama and 
arrived in San Francisco in August, 1849. He 
then went into camp at " Happy Valley " for a 
few weeks, and then to Rose's Bar on the Uber 
river, and with the usual experience of miners, 
being rich today and poor to-morrow, he fol- 
lowed mining through the districts of California 
for about twenty years. On the San Joaquin 
river, above Millerton, with a company, they 
spent three years in building a race to turn the 
river. They then struck it very rich for a short 
time, making the first day, from a few buckets 
of dirt, about $900, and for several days, $1,000 
per day, but the bed soon played out and became 
valueless. Captain Mace also discovered a rich 
quartz mine at Fine Gold Gulch, which, during 
his absence was mismanaged and destroyed. He 
then returned to his ranch and attended to his 
stock interests. He was a heavy loser by the 
>' No Fence" law, and he had to kill his stock 
to dispose of them. In 1874 he came to Borden 
and rented and managed the hotel until the 
start of Madera in 1876, and Captain Mace was 
among the first to buy town lots. In 1877 be 
built a two-story frame hotel at Madera, which 
was subsequently destroyed by fire, and the 
present brick structure was reared over its 



ashes. Captain Mace has been twice married. 
His present wife was Mrs. Gilmore. a widow 
with one child, Matilda, who married Dr. Edgar 
Brown. Mr. and Mrs. Mace have four chil- 
dren: William F., Mamie, Russell and Inez. 

Captain Mace is a member of Madera Lodge, 
No. 280, F. & A. M„ and Trigo Chapter, Royal 
Arch Masong. He is also a member of the 
California Pioneers and of the Veterans of the 
Mexican War. He has been elected Justice of 
the Peace many times ; and for three terms has 
been elected to the General Assembly 

Thus are summed Up a few incidents from a 
long and diversified life— a life filled with ad- 
venture, yet replete with honorable actions in 
the unwritten side and of strict integrity in his 
business transactions. 

'HOMAS W. BROWN is, in a sen.-e. one 
of the earliest pioneers of Kern County, 
He crossed its barren plains and explored 
them while on a southward trip to Los Angeles 
as early as 1861. While he entertained thoughts 
of permanently locating at some favorable spot, 
he saw nothing at that time in this now favored 
section that attracted him as a place fir per- 
manent abode The present beautiful city of 
Bakerstield had not at that time been thought 
of, there being only one house any where in 
that vicinity. Captain Stevens had made a very 
modest beginning at that time, and a few scat- 
tering stock-herders were seen at varions points 
as he crossed the valley. He proceeded south- 
ward until he reached Los Angeles, and from 
that point made various trips of exploration into 
different sections of the country. He returned 
to Kern County in 1875 and spent the follow- 
ing year in the mountain regions of Ilavilah 
and Kerqville. In December, 1876, he sold out 
his business and went to Arizona and remained 
until his return, when he settled in Bakerstield 
in 1888. He has been an extensive traveler 
and explorer, and has an accurate knowledge of 
the "Great West" and the Pacific Slope. He 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



753 



married, in 1866, Miss Cornelia Glass, a daugh- 
ter of Robert Glass, then a pioneer of Los 
Angeles County and later of Tulare. Mr. 
Brown has one son living, two children having 
died. 



fP. MURRY. — Prominent among the ear- 
liest stockmen to settle upon the Tnle 
° river is Mr. J. P. Murry, who was born 
in Louisiana. His early life was passed upon 
the home farm until his eighteenth year, when 
he struck out in life and started for Califor- 
nia in 1852. He went to Independence, 
Missouri and was there engaged by John 
Montgomery to assist in driving a band of 
600 cattle across the plains to California. The 
trip was successfully made and they entered Cal- 
ifornia through Carson and lone valleys to 
Stockton, and then to Bear creek, in Merced 
County, when the cattle were turned out to graze. 
Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Murry soon after re- 
turned to Missouri by water, and in 1853, 
another band of 700 was started, with Mr- 
Murry in charge, crossing by the old route. 
There were many Indians seen along the route, 
but they were not troublesome, and the passage 
was made without particular incident, driving 
their cattle to Bear creek. Subject remained 
with Mr. Montgomery until 1855, when he 
started in bnsiness with a Mr. Johnson, who 
was later called "Tule river" Johnson, to des- 
ignate him from others by the same name. 
They went to Los Angeles and purchased cattle 
in 1855, and wintered on Tule river. The only 
stockmen then on the river were Elisha Pack- 
wood and Joshua and Jesse Lewis — and with 
abundance of fine feed and free grazing the cat- 
tle fattened, and in the spring of '56 they were 
driven to the mines and sold. Making a succes 
of this first venture, Mr. Murry continued in 
the business and became one of the prominent 
stockmen of the valley. The range of the San 
Joaquin valley was then common property, and 
the private brand of the stockmen was the only 



identification of their cattle. The stockmen 
had undisputed possession until 1859, when the 
sheepmen began coming in, seeking the moun- 
tain ranges of the Sierras. Soon after followed 
the farmer, who to protect their crops, evolved 
the "No Fence" law, prohibiting free grazing, 
and this was a death blow to extensive ranges, 
and the stock business gradually decreased, 
Mr. Murry has been an exteusive dealer, and in 
in 1874, in partnership with Henry Mentz, they 
owned 12,000 head; but the dry year of 1877 
was very disastrous, as they lost 5,000 head 
from starvation, and for want of suitable range, 
sold the balance to J. B. Haggin at $10 per 
head, who turned them off the following year at 
$40 per head, making a handsome speculation. 
Mr. Murry was then out of business for several 
years. In 1883 he went to New Mexico to buy 
cattle and stock ranches for Messrs. Haggin & 
Heart, and was in their employ about four years, 
purchasing over 8,000 head of cattle. In 1887 
Mr. Murry returned to Porterville, and has con- 
tinued in stock speculations, owning a range of 
about 1,400 acres lying upon or near the Tule 
river. In 1888 he attached Murry's addition 
to the town of Porterville, and subdivided 
eighteen acres for building purposes. Mr. 
Murry was married in Yisalia in 1858, to Miss 
Martha Kenney, a native of Ohio, and to the 
union has been added two children — Theodore 
R. and George G. He is a member of Por- 
terville Lodge No. 199, A. O. U. W. Mr. 
Murry has speculated somewhat in mines, but 
only as a side issue, as cattle-raising and selling 
have been his business first;, last, and all the time. 



JjfJEORGE W. COFFEE, a leading rancher 
HW and stock raiser and dealer of Bakersfield, 
W^ is a native of Johnson County, Missouri, 
and was born December 13, 1855. His father, 
Eli Coffee, was a resident farmer of that County, 
but came to California in 1857 and located in Vis ■ 
alia, Tulare County, where he lived until about 
1875, when he went to Texas. Mr. Coffee came 



751 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



to Kern County in 1876. He has been one of 
the foremost men in his occupation. He did for 
several years a very extensive business in the 
butchering and meat trade, which he closed out 
in 1878 He now owns and occupies 160 acres 
of land about four miles west of Bakerstield. 
He married Miss T. F. Thompson, and they 
have no children. 

#^€B-^ 



fC. HIGGINS, M. D., is one of the oldest 
practicing physicians of Porterville. He 
°was born in Ellsworth, Hancock County, 
Maine in 1855. His father, Josiah H. Hig- 
gins, was a school teacher by profession, and a 
boat builder by trade. For twenty-five years he 
taught winter schools about Hancock County i 
and his summers were devoted to his trade on 
Union river, where Ellsworth was situated. In 
1875 he came to California, accompanied by his 
son Charles R., and together they worked at 
ship-carpentering at San Francisco. O. C. Hig- 
gins was educated in common schools, and at the 
age of sixteen years he began the trade of boat- 
building and ship-joining, which he followed at 
Ellsworth until the fall of 1876, when he, too, 
started for California to join his father at San 
Francisco. They then took a house and fol- 
lowed boat-building by day, while the subject 
devoted his evenings to study, and in the win- 
ter of 1879 he took up the study of medicine 
under the preceptorship of Dr. Alexander Mc 
Rea, paying all fees of tuition and expenses 
from his personal savings. He graduated from 
the California Medical College — Eclectic — at 
Oakland, April 26, 1882. He was married in 
San Francisco, November 1, 1881, to Miss Hat- 
tie G. Ferry, a native of Maine. The doctor 
commenced practice on Mission street, San 
Francisco, and came to Porterville in June, 
1882, upon the suggestion and recommendation 
of I)r. G. G. Gere, a professor of the medical 
college, and a former practitioner at Porterville. 
Dr. Higgins rented Dr. Gere's house on the 
corner of Oak and Gum streets, and after five 



years of practice the location seemed so desir- 
able, that he purchased the property. The doc- 
tor built up an extensive practice, traveling 
in every direction within a radius of forty 
miles. While he has made much money, he 
has also performed much gratuitous service; 
the circumstances of the applicant were never 
considered, as the appeal from the poor when 
suffering or in distress, received the same 
prompt attention. He is a devoted attendant to 
business, and either at his office or in profes- 
sional attendance, is constantly engaged. He 
was elected coroner and public administrator in 
1888, but after six months of service, was 
obliged to resign, owing to professional duties. 
Dr. and Mrs. Higgins have three children: 
Robert M., Eloise L. and Hattie M. 

Jlp^ERMAN PIPER, a prosperous farmer of 
||§J\ Kern County, is a native of Prussia, born 
■%$& October 7, 1854. He is the oldest of a 
family of ten children of Samuel Piper, and is 
the only one of the family in this country. He 
emigrated to America at the age of twenty- 
eight years and located at VVatertown, Wiscon- 
sin, and engaged in farming. This he continued 
only one year, however, and he then turned his 
attention to lumbering on the Mississippi and 
Wisconsin rivers. His last work in this line 
was rafting lumber from Warsaw, Wisconsin, to 
St. Louis, Missouri. He came to California in 
1879. After spending a year in Stockton he 
took up his residence in Kern County, where 
he has devoted his energies to raising grain and 
stock. Mrs. Piper is of Swiss parentage. There 
are two children in the family. 



§D. WHITT was born at Gallatin, Daviess 
County, Missouri, April 23, 1849. His 
° father, John Whitt, was a native of Ken- 
tucky, but emigrated to Gallatin, Missouri, in 
1838, and helped build the first house after the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



755 



town was destroyed by the Mormons. He pur- 
chased a farm of 800 acres near Gallatin and 
carried on general farming. Subject was edu- 
cated at the district school and followed the 
farm life at home until his marriage, April 7, 
1872, to Miss Mary Noah. He then rented a 
farm of 160 acres, but after two years they de- 
cided to try their fortunes in California, upon 
the suggestion of friends then living at Tulare. 
He closed his business associations in the East, 
and in due time arrived safely in Tulare, and 
while looking about the country for a proper 
place to settle, he found employment with 
George D. Bliss in fencing the L — — ranch 
of 7,040 acres. He then came to Portersville 
and helped build eight miles of fence for R. E. 
Hyde; this fe. icing was made necessary by the 
passage of the ■' No Fence" law at about that 
time, compelling ranchers to take care of their 
stock. Mr. Whitt followed ranch life until 
June, 1882, when he began buying and selling 
stock for the Visalia market, and being a suc- 
cessful buyer his business has gradually increased 
and he now represents leading honses in Sacra- 
mento and San Francisco, and also buys and 
speculates on private account, dealing in all live 
animals. In August, 1890, he bought four lots 
of the Pacific Improvement Company, south of 
Porterville, where he has built his home and 
stock corral for shipping, and he owns a stock 
range of 230 acres twelve miles east of town. 
Mr. and Mrs. Whitt have six children: John 
N., Mary H, Sarah J., Jessie G., Lycurgus R. 
and Henry A. He is a member of the Porters- 
ville lodges, F. & A. M., I. O. O. F. and 
A. O. U. W. 



fM. and R. S. ASHE own and conduct a 
320-acre ranch on section 34, township 
° 30 north, range 27. They are both na- 
tives of Orange County, North Carolina, and 
came west in 1868 and located in Merced 
County, California. They came to Kern County 
n 1875, and settled upon their present home 



property in 1880. They are successfully en- 
gaged in the raising of live-stock and have 
their ranch under excellent cultivation and well 
improved with substantial buildings. 



-Tf^l 



•&* 



|||ETER VAN VALER, one of the early 
'f Br stock men of Tulare County, who settled 
^t upon King's river, and whose interests are 
now in the line of fruit and farming, was born 
in Monroe, Orange County, New York, in 1832. 
His father, Cornelius Tan Valer, settled in 
Monroe in boyhood, and in 1844 moved to New 
York City, where he was prominent in mercan- 
tile life. Our subject was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of New York, with a practical 
business course, in the store of his father, where 
he remained until nineteen years of age, then 
going to Stony Point, New York, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Sarah Knight, and entered into 
partnership with his brother-in-law, Mr. Knight, 
and for two years they were engaged in mer- 
cantile business; then Mr. Van Valer bought 
the entire business and continued the store. In 
1859 he first came to California to visit his 
brother, Andrew Van Valer, who came to this 
State in 1849, and was engaged in the cattle 
business near Stockton. While here Mr. Van 
Valer was induced to embark in the business, 
and after a visit of six months he returned to 
New York. Then with frequent visits to Cali- 
fornia, time wore on until the war in 1861, 
when he returned and enlisted in the One Hun- 
dred and Severity second New York Infantry, 
stationed at Fort McHenry, near Baltimore. 
Then the regiment consolidated with the One 
Hundred and Thirty-fifth New York, and 
organized the Sixth New York Heavy Artillery. 
Mr. Van Valer was on detatehed service as 
Quartermaster, and in other departments for 
nine mouths, and was then discharged and re- 
turned to Stony Point He then sold out his 
business, and in 1869 he came to California for 
permanent settlement, living at Visalia, and 
from there superintending their stock-interests 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



upon the King's river. They ran about 1,000 
head of cattle and 200 horses. In 1874 they 
entered the sheep business, which prospered un- 
til 1877, when they were caught in the dry year 
and lost about 4,000 head. The average band 
was 8,000 head, and the business was continued 
until 1886. In 1874 Mr. Van Valer was ap- 
pointed Deputy Clerk, United States Internal 
Revenue, Ninth Division, First District, under 
John Sedgwick, and later, William Higby, con- 
tinuing in office for seven years, but all the time 
engaged in his stock business. In 1875 he 
bought his brother's interest in stock and lands, 
but lived at Visalia until 1884, when he settled 
upon his ranch of 1,000 acres, and reduced his 
stock to horses, keeping about seventy-five head. 
He has 160 acres in alfalfa, 140 acres in prunes 
and peaches, and 60 acres in vines, renting a 
large part of his farm lands. 

Mr. and Mrs. Van Valer have three children 
— John K., who resides at Stony Point, in the 
furniture business, Cornelius, living at Fresno, 
in real estate, and Eugenia A., now Mrs. 13. S. 
Gurnee, of Fresno. 

The ranch of Mr. Van Valer borders on King's 
river, about six miles northeast of Hanford 
with his ranch houses pleasantly situated in the 
heavy oak timber, and there midst Nature's 
solitude, he is busily employed in the manage- 
ment of his extensive interests. 

#^€^-£# 

|||OBERT W. WITHINGTON is one of the 

KV "old timers'' of California, having first 
""^ set foot on Calif ornian soil in 1854. He 
was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, 
December 9, 1838, and at seventeen years of 
age left home, sailed around Cape Horn for 
San Francisco, and from San Francisco he 
went to Stockton, thence to Knight's Ferry, in 
Merced County, where he worked for a time 
for a man by the name of Buckley. From 
Knight's Ferry he went to Shaw's Flats, in 
Tuolumne County, and engaged in mining 
there and in Calaveras and Mariposa Counties 



up to about 1859. In the winter of 1861 Mr. 
Withington came to Kern County, and was lo- 
cated at Tehachapi until 1862. He made a 
trip to Los Angeles, and returned nortli by way 
of Solidad Canon, and with a partner pro- 
ceeded to execute contracts for the sinking of 
mining shafts and tunnels, at what is now called 
Ravenna. He bought his partner out of this 
deal, completed his contracts, and then took up 
his residence at San Bernardino, (old town) 
where he lived until 1866. He then returned 
to Caliente in 1867, and took a hand in the de- 
velopment of the Joe Walker mine. In the 
meantime he purchased land on the South Fork 
of Kern river, continued mining at Havilah 
during a portion of the mining boom at that 
point, and also engaged in a freighting business 
between San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Kern 
County towns. 

In 1868 he came to Bakersfield, purchased 
the property upon which stands his present 
place of business, where he is engaged in the 
sale of wines and liquors. 

Mr. Wellington's experience in California is 
the same as many other early time men who 
have lived to see wha. was once a somewhat bar- 
ren plain, blossom as the rose. 



4LLIAM CARVER is one of the ven- 
erable pioneers of the Golden State, 
first setting foot upon California's soil 
in 1850. Reports of the discovery of gold in 
California is what induced him, his brother Joel 
and a cousin, Daniel Carver, to leave their old 
Missouri home, make the journey overland, then 
a perilous one, and adopt the life of a miner. 
He first located at Placerville and spent about 
two years in the mines of that region, when he 
returned to Missouri and remained until l s 7", 
pursuing the life of a farmer. Then, with his 
wife and a step-daughter, lie returned to Cali- 
fornia and Kern County, by rail, and took up 
his residence in Lynn's valley, where he remained 
three years, when he removed to his present 




HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



757 



place, in the Woody precinct, where he has since 
resided. He has 640 acres of foothill land, 
adapted to grazing and general farming pur- 
poses. 

Mr. Carver was married, in 1872, to Miss 
Leetha Stover, a native of Meigs County, Ten- 
nessee, and a daughter of Abraham Stover, a 
planter. Mrs. Carver's ancestry is German) 
her grandfather being a native-born German' 
Mr. Carver is also born of German parents' 
and his grandfather, Christian Carver, was a 
soldier, having spent seven years of his life in 
the Revolutionary war. Mr. and Mrs. Carver 
have two children: Mary, now Mis. Kern, and 
a second daughter, Allie. 



tW. RAWLINS.— Is a native of England, 
born in Warwickshire in 1858. His 
° father, Samuel Rawlins was aproiiiinent 
business man of Birmingham. His mother 
Catherine (Donaldson] Rawlins was a native of 
Scotland. Our subject was educated at the 
Repton school in Derbyshire, and in 1874 went- 
to London to study for the India Civil Service 
After three years of study, and failing in the rig- 
orous examination, his plans were then changed, 
and in 1878 he came direct to California to join 
his brother, J. E. Rawlins, who came to the 
Slate the preceding year. They then followed 
farming until 1881, when the partnership was 
formed between J. E. & H. W. Rawlins and 
J. S. Robinson & Brother, firm Robinson 
& Rawlins. They then purchased 400 acres 
of land in the coast range near Coalinga, 
and developed a coal mine which, after be- 
ing placed upon a paying basis, was incorpo- 
rated as the San Joaquin Valley Coal Mining 
Company, with a capital stock of $300,000. The 
firm also established the Hanford Waterworks, 
by boring four wells 48 to 160 feet deep, then 
pumping to an elevated tank. They distribute 
through the town by pipes for domestic and 
fire purposes. In the fall of 1890 they sunk 
an artesian well 500 feet, and thus secured an 



ample supply of water. In 1881 Mr. Rawlins 
also engaged in the sheep business, which he 
followed for two years, and then changed to the 
cattle business, buying, fattening and selling on 
the market. 

Mr. Rawlins' ranch of eighty acres lies about 
one and one-half miles southwest of Hanford, 
where he has twenty-five acres in fruit and vines, 
thirty-five acres in alfalfa and the balance he 
farms in wheat. 

He was married in London on November 3, 
1887 to Miss Florence Holder, a native of Eng- 
land, daughter of Colonel C. Holder, of Tiver- 
ton, Devonshire. In 1888 Mr. Rawlins built a 
handsome three-story brick residence on his 
ranch, which is the first and only brick residence 
in the County, and surrounded as it is with 
shrubbery, lawn and flowers, makes a comfort- 
able and attractive home. 

To the household have been added two chil- 
dren — Eleanor Marjorie and Henry Guy, who 
bring their quota of sunshine and brightness to 
the family. 



fH. BERRY. — Few citizens stand higher 
in the estimation of the people of Kern 
9 County than J. H. Berry. His career in 
Kern County has been eminently creditable 
from a moral and social standpoint. He is one 
of the well-to do farmers of Lynn's valley, a 
native of the State of Alabama, and born in 
Franklin County, February 19, 1833. His 
father, John S. B rry, was a native of Mary- 
land, a tailor by trade, which was his ]ife occu- 
pation. He lived at Tuscumbia, Alabama for 
many years, and there died, leaving a family of 
three sons and one daughter. The subject of 
this sketch was the third of this family and is 
now the only one living. He was educated in 
the public schools of Alabama and California, 
having come to the Golden State in 1851; he 
took up school teaching, which for many years 
he pursued with signal success. He was elected 
to the office of Superintendent of Schools of 



:5a 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Kern County, and held the position from 1884 
to 1887 with credit to himself and his consti- 
tuency. He owns 730 acres of good agricul- 
tural and grazing lands in Kern County on 
sections 10 and 15, township 25, range 31. He 
is President of the County Board of Examiners 
of Teachers hy appointment, and is authority in 
Kern County upon many educational matters. 

He was married February 22, 1872, to Miss 
Hannah I., daughter of William Clapp, in El 
Dorado Cornty, California, a merchant of the 
town of Newton. 

Mr. and Mrs. Berry have five children living: 
Herbert, born August 5, 1875; Clara, born Oc- 
tober 10, 1877; James H., born April 28, 1881; 
Susan W., born February 11, 1885; Charles D., 
born April 19, 1887. Two children are de- 
ceased: Henry I. died June 11, 1880, and Byron 
H., died August 17, 1889. 

Mr. and Mrs. Berry are influential members 
of the Christian Church of Glennville. 



>/\ 



i^FILLIAM J. DUNLAP, of Glennville, is 
v|| one of the later generations of Dunlaps, 
■J a son of James E. and Lucy (Ellis) 
Dunlap, now resident at White River, Tulare 
County, this State. James E. Dunlap came to 
California in 1854 from Bell County, Texas, 
where he was born. He lived about twenty-five 
years at Glenville, where he pursued the stock- 
raising business. He had four children, two of 
whom are deceased. W. J., the subject of this 
brief sketch, is the youngest of the family; he is 
a native of Glennville and was born August 16, 
1868. He is an ambitious, industrious and 
frugal young man. He owns 160 acres of land 
at White river, upon which he grazes sixty head 
of cattle and about twenty- five head of horses. 

£ - i " I - 3 



fLIAS GALLUP, proprietor of the Jonesa 
Poland China Farm, was born in Mystic. 
New London County, Connecticut, April 
10, 1840. He was the youngest in a family of 



nine children. His father, B. F. Gallup, was a 
mechanic and followed his trade in the above 
town. Subject lived at home until eighteen 
years of age, when he started for California to 
join his three brothers who had preceded him. 
Coming out by water and the Isthmus of 
Panama, he arrived s fely at San Francisco and 
then joined his brothers at Sacramento, where 
his elder brother, Josiah Gallup, had a prominent 
position in the forwarding of Chinese emigrants 
to the mining districts. The brothers also had 
a large 6tock ranch at Salino County, where 
they had 1,300 head of Spanish cattle and forty 
riding horses; subject went to the ranch and 
was there employed. In the fall of 1858 his 
brother died, and after the estate was settled, 
Elias and Calvin Gallup went i::to the sheep 
business in Salino County, keeping only fine 
South Down sheep which they imported from 
New Jersey and Vancouver's Tsland. They 
exhibited at the fourth State Fair held at Sa- 
cramento in 1860, and were awarded first pre- 
mium. They followed the business until 1864, 
— the dry year, — and then lost everything; but 
in various occupations they followed sheep 
interests until 1867, when they began farming 
in Yolo County, and there Mr. Gallup was mar- 
ried in 1872 to Miss Almina B. Ruggles, a 
native of Michigan. He continued farming 
until 1876, when he came to Tulare County and 
bought his present ranch of eighty acres, six 
miles northeast of Hanford. Water was then 
brought to the land, but there were very few 
improvements about the valley. He started in 
with farming and stock, bringing with him a 
small band of Poland China hogs — all standard 
bred, registered animals. Mr. Gallup has built 
up an extended reputation, and ships pigs to 
Japan, China, Sandwich Islands, Central Amer- 
ica, Arizona, Nevada and the East. He is a 
stockholder of the American Poland China 
Record Company, and has been vice-president 
for many years, and is the most prominent 
breeder in the State, having the largest herd of 
recorded Poland Chinas on the Pacific coast. 
About 1885 lie engaged in breeding Holstein 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



759 



cattle for dairy purposes, and now has a fine 
band of thirty head. Re also has a small baud 
of horses, and breeds for driving purposes. He 
has only planted an orchard for family use — 
has forty acres in afalfa, and farms in grain. 
Mr. and Mrs. Gallup have three children, — 
Walter W., Maud and Elmer H. 



4*~ 



$•&- 



fAMES SUTHERLAND is a native of 
England, born near New Castle in 1838. 
His father, John Sutherland was engaged 
in coal mining near New Castle. He emigrated 
with his family to the United States about 1838, 
and settled near St. Louis, Missouri, and con- 
nected himself with the coal mining interests 
of that vicinity, remaining until 1850; he then 
crossed the plains for California by wagon and ox 
team. The trip was a long and dangerous one, 
as the Indians were very hostile; but after six 
months of travel, Mr. Sutherland and family 
arirved safely at Big Canon, south of Hangtown, 
when he at once commenced mining operations. 
After three years of successful work, he went 
to the Sacramento valley, took up 1,000 acres 
of land and engaged in the stock business, and 
also kept a public house. As to the price of 
provisions in those early days, flour cost $1 per 
pound, and hogs brought $1 per pound on foot, 
meals were served from one to two dollars each. 
In 1855 Mr. Sutherland returned to the 
States and picked up sixty fine horses and about 
350 head of American cattle. These he drove 
across the plains, and with slight loss landed 
them at his ranch. In the fall of 1855 he gathered 
his stock and drove south through the San 
Joaquin valley and settled on the lower King's 
river, in what was then called the swamp land — 
very few settlers at that time in the locality — 
and the valley filled with, wild horses, cattle, 
antelope and elk. Grazing was then free through 
the valley, but Mr. Sutherland wisely took up 
land then and later, until he secured 14,000 
acres, he then dealt extensively in cattle and 
horses, with about 20,000 of the former and 



5,000 of the latter. During the settlement of 
the country in the early '70's, and the digging 
of the irrigating ditches, it was Mr. Suther- 
land's cattle which supplied the half- starved set- 
tlers in a country too barren to sustain life, until 
water was secured for irrigation. After the 
passage of the " No Fence " law, Mr. Suther- 
land went into the sheep business very exten 
sively, increasing his band to 30,000 head. His 
interests were all in stock, which were gradually 
reduced, and at his death in 1881 his interests 
were small in comparison. He had been twice 
married, and left ten children, among whom his 
large land interests were divided. 

James Sutherland lived at home through his 
father's life. He was married in Sacramento in 
1890 to Miss Augusta Young, a native of Mis- 
souri. After the division of the estate our sub- 
ject lived upon his allotment until 1886, when 
he sold out and moved to Grangeville, purchas- 
ing four and one half acres for a home, and 
subsequently 100 acres one mile south of Ar- 
mona, sixty acres of which are in alfalfa snd 
forty acres in vines. He also farms outside, and 
sows annually about 300 acres. 

Mr. and Mra. Sutherland have six children — 
Thomas, Amelia. Dora, John, FreJ and Eva. 
Mr. Sutherland has been a hard working man 
through life, attendiug strictly to his ranch in- 
terests, and now congratulates himself that what 
he owns, he owns without incumbrance. 



G. WICKER is one of the pioneer citi- 
zens of Lynn's valley. He came to Cali- 
fornia from the State of Illinois, in 
1852. He is a native of Fayette County, Ohio, 
town of Washington, and was born April 12, 
1829. His father, Andrew Wicker, was a 
farmer by occupation, a native of North Caro- 
lina, who emigrated to Illinois, and located near 
Springfield, where he died in the year 1848. 
His mother, Sarah Glaze, was born in Mays- 
ville, Kentucky. She bore twelve children, 
seven of when lived to maturity, of whom the 



760 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 




subject ot this sketch is the eighth. He re- 
ceived a good education, and adopted the calling 
of a fanner. He arrived at Placerville, Cali- 
fornia, in 1851, from Illinois, mined in El 
Dorado and Calaveras counties for about three 
years. He then went to Santa Clara County, 
and lumbered for a brief time, and located 
then in what is at present Kern County, 
where he has since remained. Mr. Wicker has 
240 acres of the best soil in Lynn's valley, all 
well improved and stocked with cattle and 
horses. He was married January 1, 1863, near 
Bakersfield, to Miss Sarah J. Doherty, daughter 
of Anderson Doherty. She is a native of Illi- 
nois, and they have four children living. Mr. 
and Mrs. Wicker are regarded as among the 
valuable citizens of Lynn's valley. 



WILLIAM LOYD is a native of Arkan 
sas, born April 17, 1849, and is a son 
of William Loyd, a farmer by occupa- 
tion. His father died when the subject of this 
sketch was a mere boy, and his mother married 
Mr. Henry Coker, who came with his family 
to California in 1851. They located in Ne- 
vada County, this State, where he pursued farm- 
ing. Mrs. Loyd had four sons and four 
daughters, and the subject was the fourth born 
of the family. He was educated in the public 
schools of Placer County, and in the higher 
branches by a private tutor. He commenced 
school teaching in the year 1876, in the public 
schools of Tulare County, and with the excep- 
tion of one year (1878) has been continually in 
the service. The past two years he has been 
in Kern County. Mr. Loyd has been twice 
married; first to Miss Elizabeth Smith, of 
Tulare County, who bore him one son, William 
C, born October 19, 1871. She died in 1886. 
His second marriage was to Miss Mary Car- 
others, of the same county, in 1879. She lived 
only about four months after the union, dying 
of quick consumption. 

Mr. Loyd is an excellent tutor. He is 



thoroughly posted in the science of good school 
government and educational ethics, and in his 
profession stands in the front rank. 



rfS^ NATHAN". — The mercantile firm of 
[M]) Schwartz & Nathan, situate at (xrange- 
^M Ql ville, represents one of the oldest busi- 
ness houses in that section of the valley. The 
firm consists of Mr. B. Schwartz, who resides 
at San Francisco, and attends to the buying for 
the firm, and the selling of grain, of which the 
firm handle large quantities; and Mr. II. Na- 
than, who resides at Grangeville. as business 
manager. Mr Nathan was born in Milaslaw, 
Germany, in 1857, his father being a merchant 
of that locality. Subject remained at home 
until fourteen years of age, and then entered a 
wholesale dry goods house at Breslau, Germany, 
where for three years he was thoroughly drilled 
and educated in mercantile life. Having friends 
in California, he then came to this State, with 
his father, about 1874, and after passing six 
months in school at San Francisco, learning the 
English language, he began mercantile life as 
clerk for D. Brownstone, at Watsonville. re- 
maining until 1875, when he came to Grange- 
ville in the employ of B. Schwartz. After three 
years of faithful service he became a member 
of the firm, |Which has continued with a steadily 
increasing business. Mr. Schwartz be^an busi- 
ness with the early settlement of Grangeville, 
in a little building 25 x 50 feet. With the in- 
crease of business he increased his facilities. 
and his store then covered 50 x 100 feet, which 
was destroyed by tire in 1887, and over its ashes 
was raised the present building 62 x 100 feet, 
with sheds for agricultural implements, a house 
16 x 60 feet as a residence for their employees, 
and all conveniences for the management of 
their extensive business, carrying a complete 
stock of supplies for the family and household, 
with all the requirements of the ranch in agri- 
cultural implements and machinery. In 1884 
they built an extensive warehouse at Armona, 




■jdsm 




JL<Z&t4^ts 



(2^o4 




tz2Z\ 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



761 



64x200 feet, for the storage of grain, which 
they have handled in very large quantities. In 
1888 they incorporated the " Verona Vineyard 
and Orchard Company," and planted 160 acres 
to vines and tress. In 1891 they planted 240 
acres to vines, prunes, peaches and olives, which 
they incorporated as the "Felicia Vineyard and 
Orchard Company," — the firm controlling and 
managing both corporations. They own 800 
acres in the "76" country, in Fresno County, and 
other land interests. Mr. Nathan is one of 
the incorporators and directors of the Farmers 
and Merchants Bank, which was organized in 
Hanford in 1891, and opened its doors for busi- 
ness on July first of same year. 



fHILO D. JEWETT, whose name is a most 
familiar one through the San Joaquin val- 
ley, and who has figured more effectively 
in the settlement and material development of 
Kern County than almost any other man, was 
born in Vermont, July 31, 1837, and reared in 
the town of Weybridge, Addison County, that 
State, only a short distance from the shores of 
the beautiful and historic lake Champlain. 

His father, Solomon W. Jewett, was born 
May 22, 1808, in the same town, and for many 
years was one of the most distinguished men of 
his State. He represented the Weybridge Dis- 
trict in the Vermont Legislature in 1838-39, 
and was prominently before the State conven- 
tion for Governor, and 'acked only three votes 
of a nomination. He represented his State as 
commissioner to the World's Fair at London, 
England, in 1851, and has been for over half a 
century a prominent contributor to the agricul- 
tural press. He was given added prominence 
by the introduction of high-grade sheep into 
that country, the outgrowth of which gave Ver- 
mont a world-wide fame as a sheep and wool- 
producing State. 

In 1863 he came to California and made the 
acquaintance of one Solomon Fried, a squatter 
on the present site of Bakersfield. Fried 



abandoned his claim in favor of Mr. Jewett, 
who paid him $32 for his improvements on 160 
acres. He soon sold that portion of his claim 
covered by Chinatown for eight days work (six 
only of which he received) to one Stine; this 
property is now valued at upwards one million 
dollars. He gave to the city of Bakersfield its 
name in honor of its first settler, Colonel 
Thomas Baker. His ancestors were among the 
first settlers of the old commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, they having emigrated from 
Lincolnshire. England, in 1638, and located at 
Rowley. The annals of New England mention 
the name in various historical connections, 
showing the Jewetts to be as a family, resolute 
and of progressive tendencies. 

Solomon W. Jewett was twice married. Fide- 
lia Bell, his first wife was, born at Weybridge, 
Vermont, and the marriage took place June 5, 
1831. She departed this life May 20, 1838, 
leaving the following dependent children: 
Louisa M., born January 19, 1833; Solomon, 
born March 13, 1835; Philo D., born July 31, 
1837. 

Mr. Jewett's second marriage was to Miss 
Mary K. Jewett, a native of New Haven, Ad- 
dison County, Vermont, where she was born 
July 16, 1819. This union was blessed witli 
six children: Mary, born March 6,1840; Susan 
Nash, born August 19, 1841; Charles Elam, 
born April 27, 1843; Martha Caroline, born 
May 5, 1845; Fidelia, born October 3,1851, 
and Kate Wright, born July 27, 1858. All but 
the last named of this family were born at Wey- 
bridge, and she at Racine, Wisconsin. The 
mother and wife died at New Haven, the place 
of her birth, June 12, 1891. The father still 
survives, and is spending his declining years in 
San Francisco, frequently visiting his relatives 
and friends on the coast and various points in 
California. 

Philo D. Jewett was educated at Weybridge 
and the Middlebury (Vermont) Academy, and la- 
ter graduated at Racine (Wisconsin) College, in 
1858, to which point his father and family had 
removed. In the spring of 1859 he started for 



763 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Pike's Peak, with an ox-team, accompanied by 
a brother, Solomon, now an influential business 
man and tinancier of Kern County. They 
reached St Joseph, Missouri, and after proceed- 
ing about 300 miles westward, they met 
wagon trains of Pike's Peak emigrants, who 
were disappointed with the prospects there, and 
were on their return eastward. These unfavor- 
able reports determined the Jewett brothers to 
change the course of their journey, and they 
proceeded overland on foot, and readied Cali- 
fornia in September, that year, having walked 
the entire distance across the plains from the 
Missouri river, and consuiningabout five months 
time. The last day of their travel they covered 
about thirty-five miles, and arrived at Hang- 
town, now Placerville. 

The following spring Mr. Jewett returned to 
Carson valley to get cattle which they had left 
there the year before. lie spent about sixteen 
months in teaming in and about Virginia City, 
and then returned to California. He and his 
brother embarked in the stock business, near the 
Tejon reservation, now the Beale ranch, in the 
fall of 1860, and in the following year they re- 
moved to Kern river, and located the " Rio 
Bravo" ranch, remaining there until the fall of 
1874, when they sold the ranch, and a portion 
of their sheep for $42,000. They then removed 
to their farms adjoining the town of Bakersfield, 
having previously purchased about 2,000 acres of 
choice land, for which they paid twenty-five cents 
to $1 per acre. The lands lying nearest the city 
of Bakersfield were purchased at the latter price. 

In company with the late Julius Chester they 
erected the first store at Bakersfhld, the second 
building in town. In 1874 the subject of this 
sketch was one of the incorporators of the 
Kern Valley Bank. In 1865 these enterprising 
pioneers raised the first crop of cotton ever 
planted in Kern County, on 120 acres of soil. 
The prosecution of this enterprise required the 
importation of Chinamen for labor from SanFran- 
cisco. A finecrop of cotton was produced, but be- 
fore the crop was gathered the war closed, and cot- 
ton fell from $1 to twenty five cents per pound. 



That, and the high price of labor made the ven- 
ture an unprofitable one, and cotton-raisins was 
abandoned. They built, and with Julius Ches- 
ter operated the first store in Bakersfield, 
which occupied the present sight of the beauti- 
ful Southern Hotel. 

In 1885 Mr. Jewett removed with his family 
to San Francisco, where ha owns, with a brother- 
in-law, Mr. John Farnham, the celebrated 
Crystal Baths, the largest and mo-t complete 
salt-water baths in the world, which are located 
at North Beach. He still has large interests 
in Kern County, and is indisputably claimed as 
one of her most respected and interested 
citizens. 

Mr. Jewett was united in marriage, October 
8, 1873, to Miss Jeanie Deans Ketchain, a 
daughter of Andrew J. Ketchain, an influential 
farmer of Sudbury, Rutland Comity, Vermont, 
and Mrs. Adaline Buckmaster Ketchain, a lady 
of rare intelligence and culture. 

Jeanie Deans wa* born at Sudbury, Rutland 
County, Vermont, March 3, 1851. She at- 
tended the district school at her native town, 
and also a seminary at Fairfax, Vermont. She 
came to California in May, 1870, to attend school 
at "Laurel Hall," San Mateo County, a seminary 
for young ladies, of which her aunt, the late 
Miss Buckmaster, was principal and proprie- 
tress. And it was at this schoool that she was 
married to Mr. Jewett. Mrs. Jewett's ances- 
tors were men of position, and prominent for 
their wealth and intelligence. Her paternal 
grandfather, Major Bernard Ketchain, major of 
the war of 1812, was born March 2, 1778. He 
was the most influential man in the town of 
Sudbury, Vermont, where he resided, and was 
the largest land owner in that section of the 
State. Her maternal grandfather, John Buck- 
master, was born August 31, 1794", and resided 
at Shrewsbury, Rutland County, Vermont, 
where he was a noted and successful lawyer. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jewett are the parents of six 
children: Adaline Bell, born at Vallejo, Cali- 
fornia, August 6, 1874; Lathrop William, born 
al Sudbury, Vermont, October 27, 1875; Helen 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



763 



Ketcham, born at Bakersfield, California, Janu- 
nry 23, 1879; Hugh Saxe, born at Bakersfield, 
California, February 26, 1882; Jeanie Deans, 
born at San Francisco, California, July 4, 1885; 
Phelps Dodge, born at San Francisco, Califor- 
nia, July 1, 1890. 

Mrs. Jewett is a lady of rare force of charac- 
ter and energy, and possesses the qualities of a 
true helpmate. A fond and ambitious mother, 
her education and artistic and musical culture 
have fitted her for the proud position she occu- 
pies, as the ruling spirit of an attractive home. 

Mr. Jewett is a member of the California 
Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of San Fran- 
cisco, and of California Connnandery, No. 1, K. 
T. ; he also belongs to the Islam Temple of the 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and to the socialis- 
tic order of the Native Sons of Vermont of San 
Francisco. 

The following thrilling adventure is related 
by Mr. Philo D. Jewett. It happened at the 
house of Jewett Bros., at Rio Bravo ranch, on 
the night of July 13, 1865. '• I was a Union 
man during the late civil war, which circum- 
stance nearly cost me my life. The war had 
been closed nearly three months, and yet 
there were some people in the remote portions of 
the United States who believed it had not. 
Among those who shared that belief was a band 
of forty guerrillas, who went by the name of 
"The Mason and Henry gang," from the names 
of their leaders. This gang had committed 
many depredations, and murders in the San 
Joaquin valley, and were a terror to the people 
from Visalia to San Diego. At about dusk on 
the night above mentioned, Mason and one of 
his men by the name of Tom Hawkins rode up 
to our house at Rio Bravo ranch. The house 
was a long, low adobe, containing three rooms; 
the middle one was used for a kitchen and din- 
ingroom, a bedroom being at each end, butthere 
was only one outside door. The house was 
situated on the south bank of Kern river, or 
" Rio Bravo." as it was called by the Mexicans, 
and was about two miles below the point at 
which the river comes out of the Sierra Ne- 



vada mountains. This house, with a new and 

large one, was washed away by the great flood 

of December, 1867. A miner by the name of 

Johnson, who was actino- as cook for me at the 

time, and I were living at the house, and a Mexi- 
co 7 

can who was sick, was lyino- in one of the bed- 
rooms. Just after the guerrillas rode up, I 
arrived from one of my sheep camps. The men 
had dismounted, and were standing near the 
door, while their horses, which were large and 
beautiful ones, were unhitched near by. Mr. 
Johnson, who was standing in the door, spoke 
to me, and said, these gentlemen wish supper; 
I replied, 'All right, give them some: I am hun- 
gry and will take some, too.' I told them that 
there was good grass near the house, and a iked 
them if they would like to stake their horses, 
and stay all night. They replied that their 
horses were accustomed to stand without hitch- 
ing, and that they expected to travel farther 
that night. 

The repast being placed upon the table, we 
all sat down to our meal. The large, heavy- 
built desperado (who proved to be Mason) was 
very talkative, but his companion was silent. 

His principal topic being guerrilling, I re- 
marked that I thought that guerrilling never 
did any good, and now that the war was over, 
it could not help the Southern, cause. Here- 
plied, ' You will find out that guerrilling has 
just commenced in California.' Each had a 
canteen of whiskey hung to the horn of his 
saddle. They brought one in, and handing it to 
me, said, 'This is Eugene's best.' I had noticed 
when I came up that each had a bundle of new 
clothing tied to his saddle. It was afterwards 
proven that they had robbed Engene's store on 
Green Horn mountain, on the morning of that 
day, and had shot at Eugene, an old French- 
man, as he ran away. I also noticed that each 
carried two large Colt's revolvers, and a villain- 
ous looking knife, stuck in their belts. 

After smoking their pipes, and conversing 
awhile after supper, they arose, and the spokes- 
man said, ' Well, let's have another drink before 
we go,' handing the canteen to me; I pretended 



764 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



to drink, and said, ' "Well, here is luck.' Then 
villian No. 1 drank, and said, 'Well, here goes.' 
They went out, and I supposed that they were 
goino- to leave. Johnson and I were sitting 
side by side near the back end of the room, 
facing the outside door, I being nearer the door 
of the bedroom on our left. I was about to 
arise and close the outside door, thinking they 
were gone, when Mason appeared at the door, 
and walking up to me, said, 'Where did you say 
that good grass is back of the house?' I replied, 
'I will go and show you if you wish to stake 
your horses ' He said 'No, you will not do any 
such thing,' and at the same time he drew a 
revolver, and I heard three quick clicks of the 
hammer as he cocked it, and put it to my breast. 
Just then villain No. 2 appeared, and stood in 
the door, with a drawn revolver in his hand, 
which without saying a word he pointed at 
Johnson. I began to think that ' I was in it,' 
and as I arose, I said, ' Don't kill me.' The 
powerful villain by my side replied, ' I am not 
going to kill you, keep your hands off from 
me.' He turned his eyes for a moment toward 
Johnson (who sat like a stone.) and with his 
other hand he appeared to be drawing his two- 
edged knife, when quick as a flash I jumped 
through the open door into the bedroom on 
my left, which luckily was dark. There 
was but one small window in this bedroom, 
that was on the front of the house, and near the 
door, which was being guarded by villain No. 2. 
This window was partly open, but the opening 
was only 15x24 inches. The window was 
raised fifteen inches from the sill, and the sill 
was covered by large and small quartz speci- 
mens; the window was further obstructed by a 
large dry goods box placed under it in the room, 
and by several smaller ones piled up on the 
ground just outside. Through this window I 
went like a frog. I cleared the boxes with- 
out touching them, and did not brush off a 
stone from the sill. I landed on my hands and 
knees. At this moment villian No. 2., who 
was but a few feet from me, stepped out of the 
door, and snapped his pistol at me, but it did 



not explode. This fact I did not know until 
over a year afterward, when the night before 
Hawkins was hung at Visalia for the murder of 
Johnson, he confessed it to a fellow- prisoner. 
After making my escape from the house, I ran 
around the west end of it, passed the cow cor- 
ral and out into a plowed field about fifty rods 
away, and lay down between the furrows. 

I now had time tocollect my thoughts, and I said 
to myself. 'What a coward I am to run away ami 
leave poor Johnson there, alone! Especially, 
as the man said that he was not f;oing to kill me. 
They are only a couple of drunks, so I will go 
back to the house and see what they are up to.' 
I did not dream they were murderers, and one 
of them was the captain of the terrible Mason 
and Henry gang. As it was, I got up, and 
started back for the house, but I had not gone 
many steps before I heard the report of a pistol. 
I wisely concluded that it was better for me to 
lie down again. Up to this time, the night had 
been lighted only by the stars, which circum- 
stance aided me in my escape, but I had not 
been in the plowed field more than ten minutes, 
before the beautiful bright moon arose over 
Mount Breckenridge, and lighted up the hills 
and the little valley in which the house was sit- 
uated. A new thought now struck me. which 
was to go to the river, which was but a few rods 
away; its banks at that time were covered with 
a heavy growth of cottonwood and willows. By 
keeping among the trees. 1 could safely walk up 
the river to a point opposite the house, which 
was situated only about ten rods up the sloping 
bank from the river; 1 could thus observe 
everything that was transpiring in front of the 
house and not be seen myself. In a few mo- 
ments I was opposite thehouse, when peering out 
from among the trees, I was much relieved to 
find that the horses were gone, but there w:i> a 
dense smoke rolling out of the door and win- 
dows. I went to the door of the house; there 
were no lights burning, and the darkness in- 
side was more intense on account of the smoke. 
1 called for Johnson, but there was no response; 
all was still as death. I dared not go into the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



house, so I went to get my horse which I left 
staked but a few rods away (expecting to go to 
our store on Kern Island, where my brother 
Solomon was, thirteen miles down the river). 
The horse was gone. The villains had antici- 
pated what I would do and hid him among the 
brush by the river, where he was found next 
morning. I then decided to walk to our store 
and inform my brother of what had happened, 
but being very tired, I concluded to lie down by 
the side of the house until morning. I had had 
two Indians that day making hay on the table 
land about a mile south of the house. They 
had spread their blankets on a piece of canvas 
near the east end of the house. Immediately 
after Johnson was shot and stabbed in the bed- 
room through which I made my escape, the 
murderers left. And the sick Mexican who 
had been lying on the floor in the opposite bed- 
room being frightened, ran out of the house; 
on passing through the dining-room, he saw 
poor Johnson staggering out of the bedroom 
from the opposite side, and fall on his face be- 
fore he reached the outside door. The Indians 
hearing the shot and seeing the Mexican run 
out, they left their blankets, ran to the river and 
swam across, the river being very high that 
year. After I concluded to not walk to our 
store that night (which was thirteen miles away), 
I noticed the canvas and blankets which the In- 
dians had occupied only a few minutes before, 
and being completely exhausted I rolled myself 
in the canvas and was soon fast asleep. I had 
been asleep but a short time, when I was 
awakened by what appeared to be the sound of 
horse's hoofs galloping down the little hill back 
of the house; I jumped up and ran for the river, 
but before I reached it, I was informed of my 
mistake by the braying of one of my jacks, as 
they came rushing up to the house. I went 
back to the canvas again and slept undisturbed 
until about four o'clock in the morning, when 
I was awakened by the crowing of the cocks 
that roosted nearly over my head at the gable 
end of the house. I arose, and going to the 
door and looking in saw poor Johnson lying on 



his face near the middle of the kitchen; he had 
not lost a drop of blood and he appeared to be 
asleep. 

I went up to him and took hold of his hand; 
then for the first time I knew that he was dead. 
The bullet had gone through him from side to 
side, then struck the adobe wall just over iny 
bed, then bounded back on to the bed. He was 
also stabbed in the breast, the knife passing 
through him, and cutting his suspender nearly 
through on his back. 

I now discovered the cause of the smoke at 
the time I went back to the house. The villains 
had set fire to some clothing which was hang- 
ing on the side of the adobe wall in tne bed- 
room, with the intention, no doubt, of burning 
the house. The house was thatched with tulies, 
many of the ends of which hung down on the 
inside two and three feet; and they would have 
burned as easily as so many strips of paper 
(only a few loose boards were laid on the hori- 
zontal timbers overhead), but just above the 
clothes which were set on fire there happened 
to be stretched three large California lion skins, 
which prevented the flames from reaching the 
roof. 

I now went to my sheep camp, which was 
near the mouth of Cottonwood creek, about a 
mile above the house on the river, where I 
found my sick Mexican, who came direct to the 
camp on leaving the house. He had informed 
my old herder, a faithful Yaqui Indian, of what 
had occurred at the house, telling him that Don 
Pablo (as I was called by the Mexicans) and 
Johnson were killed. Judge of his surprise 
upon my appearing to him alive. The herder 
had started on foot for our store as soon as he 
heard of what had happened. The Deputy 
Sheriff of Tulare County (which then included 
what is now Kern County) chanced to be stop- 
ping with iny brother Solomon at the store that 
night. At about 3 o'clock that morning my 
brother with the Deputy Sheriff, Mr. E. H. 
Durable, and three other white men started on 
horse-back for our sheep ranch. They arrived 
at our house just as the sun was rising. I saw 



7CG 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



them coining down the trail single-file as I was 
returning to the house from my sheep camp. 
Not knowing whether they were friends or 
guerrillas, I took to the brush along the river to 
await developments. The party first stopped at 
the house. Then my brother and one of the 
number continued on up the river. On their 
coining near enough for me to recognize them, 
1 came out of the brush to meet them. On re- 
turning to the house we lifted the body of 
Johnson from the floor. We gently laid him 
under the shade of the willows, by the river's 
bank. Soon my father and that old pioneer, 
Captain Elisha Stevens (who was captain of the 
first wagon train that crossed the plains and 
entered California), arrived with lumber from 
Kern Island (as Bakersfield was then called) to 
make Johnson's and my coffin. We buried 
Johnson that day near the river a few rods 
above the house. 



IJI^IRAM L. ALLEN (deceased) was one of 
|M] the pioneers and an early miner of 
%$5 California. He was born in Alabama, 
January 27, 1820. He was a son of James 
Allen, a fanner who emigrated to Arkansas in 
the early days of the settlement of that coun- 
try. Of a family of ten children, Hiram was 
the third born, and aside from a brother John 
M. Allen, was the only one of the family who 
ever came to this State. Mr. Allen mined in 
Calaveras County up to the time of his location 
in Glennville, in 1866, when he engaged in the 
raising of stock. He was married in 1849, 
April 3, to Miss Mary Jane, daughter of Samuel 
Flu miner. Her father was a pioneer, a saddler 
by trade, and an influential citizen of Plummer- 
ville, Arkansas, from whom the village took its 
name. He was a native of the district of Col- 
umbia, and was raised in the city of Washing- 
ton, District of Columbia. Mr. Allen was a 
good man, and his influence in his community was 
on the side of right. Mrs. Allen is an estima- 
ble lady, and is greatly respected by all who 



know her. She has four sons and one daughter: 
Alexander S., born October 15, 1852; John ('.. 
born September 12, 1855; Samuel P., born 
April 10, 1860; Robert N., born January 26. 
1863, and Fannie H. Mrs. Allen is still a 
resident of Glennville, where she resides with 
Samuel P., landlord of the hotel at that point. 

Jg^^gS, 



f LIVER .S. DAVIS, an old-time Califor- 
nia!), and an esteemed citizen of Lynn's 
valley, is a native of North Carolina, born 
July 12, 1829. His father, Elnathan Davis, 
was a farmer, and a native of the same State. 

Mr. Davis left his native home in 1851, and 
went to Indiana, where he remained until 1858, 
when he came to California. He mined and 
pursued stock-raising in Kern County for many 
years. He spent five years in Texas, returned 
in 1887 to this County and purchased a home of 
180 acres in Lynn's valley, where, he intends 
spending the declining years of his life. Mr. 
Davis is a man of the strictest integrity, and is 
highly respected by all who know him. 



SA. BLAKELEY is one of the representa- 
tive real-estate men of Ilanford. He 
° was born in East Aurora, Erie County, 
New York, in 1850. U]> to manhood his life 
was passed upon the home farm with his 
parents, and his education was acquired at the 
Aurora Academy. He was the youngest of 
two children, his brother, J. O. Blakeley, now 
residing in Los Angeles. 

In 1873 the father of our subject, Mr. Isaac 
Blakeley, with his wife and two sons, emigrated 
to California and settled near Visalia, and en- 
gaged in the fruit business. F. A. Blakeley 
passed the winters of 1873 and 1874 in teach- 
ing school at Visalia. and in 1875, in partner- 
ship with E. A. Luce, they started a hardware 
and tin business at Visalia, which they con- 
tinued until 1878, when Mr. Blakeley sold his 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



767 



interest and came to Han ford soon after the 
settlement of the town. Purchasing property 
on Front street, he erected a building 25 x 64 
feet, and therein established the pioneer hard- 
ware and tin store of Hanford, and for several 
years he conducted a large and profitable busi- 
ness almost ruining his health from close and 
constant application. Finding a change of life 
necessary, he sold out his business in 1887 to 
Mr. E. Lord, and he passed six months in idle- 
ness and travel about the southern part of the 
State. Theu returning to Hanford, he engaged 
in the real-estate business in a general way, and 
securing sixteen prominent fire insurance com- 
panies, mainly foreign, he has worked up an ex- 
tensive business in that direction. In 1890, in 
partnership with J. H. Dopkins, they bought 
fifty-six acres of land north ot town, which 
they subdivided, and as Dopkins addition placed 
it upon the market. 

Mr. Blakeley has also built several residences 
in town which he has sold on the market. He 
was married in San Francisco in 1874 to Mrs. 
V. B. Haslett, a native of Indiana, daughter of 

E. Bingham, a California pioneer of 1858. To 
this union have been added three children: Ada 
I., Franc Ethel and Mabel A. 

Mr. Blakeley is a member of Hanford Lodge, 

F. & A. M., Visalia Chapter, No. 44, E. A. M., 
and Visalia Commandery, No. 26, K. T. 



**m* 



C. KING is a native of Missouri, and 
WJSTOf was k° ru m St. Louis in 1857. His 
l^p?H ° father, W. C. King, was a professional 
book-keeper, who brought his family to San 
Francisco in 1860, but he survived the change 
of climate only two years. Mrs. Ring then 
moved her family of three children to Placer- 
ville, El Dorado County, where our subject re- 
ceived a grammar-school education. He left 
school at the age of seventeen years, and then 
took up mercantile life as clerk in a store at 
Placerville, and later he engaged in mining, 
but as neither occupation was congenial or 



profitable, he took up teaching, which he fol- 
lowed very successfully in Northern California 
and Nevada for six years. Upon coming to 
Madera in 1884 he was appointed superintend- 
ent of the Madera Grammar School, which 
position he filled for three years, giving emi- 
nent satisfaction to the towns-people. In the 
spring of 1887 he gave up teaching and was 
engaged as bookkeeper by the Madera Flume 
and Trading Company, where he is still em- 
ployed. Mr. Ring was married in San Fran- 
cisco in 1890 to Miss Laura A. Zuiver, a native 
of California. 

He is a member of Madera Lodge, No. 280, 
F. & A. M„ Trigo Chapter, No. 69, R. A. M., 
Visalia Commandery, No. 86, K. L\ ; Sincerity 
Chapter, No. 53, O. E. S. ; also a member of 
Morning Star Lodge, No. 20, I. O. O. F. ; Zeta 
Encampment, No. 5, I. O. O. F., and Rebekah 
Degree Lodge, No. 159, I. O. O. F. 



B. PHELPS is a native of Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin, born March 2, 1847. His 
father, Captain Benedict Phelps, was a 
native of New York, but settled in Milwaukee 
in a very early day, and there raised his family 
of nine children, — subject being second in order 
of birth. His father was a ship-owner and 
freighter. He built the first vessel at Mil- 
waukee, and called it the "Emily," after his 
eldest daughter. He freighted on Lake Michi- 
gan, from Green Bay to all points of settlement, 
and continued the business about nine years. 
He then moved to Sheboygan, and engaged in 
mercantile business. While there he was strick- 
en with rheumatism, and for thirteen years was 
a helpless invalid. He subsequently moved to 
Willamette valley, Oregon, and purchased a 
ranch of 240 acres, where he now resides, in im- 
proved health, and engaged in the hop business. 
O. B. Phelps was educated at Milwaukee and 
Sheyboygan, and remained at home until 1862, 
when he enlisted in Company C, Fourth Wis- 
consin regiment, but being under age, he was 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



not allowed to go to the front with his regi- 
ment, but was placed in the State Militia, where 
he served until the close of the war. As to the 
active service of the Fourth Wisconsin regi- 
ment, suffice it to say that of the original en- 
listment of Company C but three men survived 
and returned at the close of the war. In 1866 
the subject started on a trip through the terri- 
tories into Texas, and was gone about two years. 
He caught the Texas fever, which quite broke 
him up physically and financially, and on recov- 
ery had to start a little school and teach to get 
funds with which to return home. In 1870 he 
came to California, and settled in Contra Costa 
County, and followed coal mining about three 
years. He was married, in 1873, to Miss 
Esther E. Robertson, daughter of J. W. Robert- 
son, a pioneer of 1857, and commonly known as 
'•Tod" Robertson, quite prominent in the 
stock business on King's river. He was a 
staunch and fearless Republican, and during 
the excitement of the Lincoln campaign in 
1864 the Democrats swore no Lincoln votes 
should be deposited at the poles at Kingston, 
Fresno County. Mr. Robertson was not in- 
timidated, but deposited his vote, and he be- 
came a martyr to his convictions, as on his way 
home he was waylaid and mercilessly killed. 
The villains were pursued, but never captured. 
Mr. Phelps moved to Oakland in 1875, and was 
engaged as traveling salesman in portrait work, 
and in the patent-right business. In 1878 he 
moved to the Willamette valley, Oregon, and 
followed grain-farming for six years, when he 
returned to California overland, driving by the 
old emigrant trail and bringing his family and 
effects, and settled at Cross creek, Tulare 
County. 

Upon the starting of Traver he was one of 
the pioneers of the town, and was engaged in 
the grain commission business, purchasing for 
prominent San Francisco parties. He home- 
steaded 160 acres near Traver, which he has 
farmed through hard labor. In 1887 he moved 
to Hanford, purchasing resident property on 
Eighth street, and continuing the grain and 



insurance business, purchasing grain on his own 
account. He is improving his ranch in fruit, 
has forty acres set in vines and prunes, and will 
set forty acres more in the spring of '92, the 
balance of the ranch being in grain land and 
alfalfa. 

Mr. and Mrs. Phelps have six children: Ida 
May, Emmet V., Zesah L., Orilla B., Chester 
Arthur and Cuthbert. Republican principles 
have descended through the Phelps family from 
remote ancestry, and Mr. Phelps is very promi- 
nent in political work, and a member of the 
Republican County Central Committee. 



^UNROE MINTER, of Glennville, 
is an old-time citizen of the town. He 

^0^ was born in Virginia, January 15, 
1833. His father, Anthony Minter, was a 
physician, a farmer, and a pioneer of Campbell 
County, that State. He removed to Shelby 
County, Missouri, in 1836, where he practiced 
medicine successfully and raised and educated 
his family. He died at Shelbina in 3870. He 
was married to Jane Biby, who bore him nine 
children, and died in 1841. Munroe was at 
that time about eight years of age, and the 
sixth born of the family. He received a com- 
mon-school education, and inherited the in- 
stincts of honest and industrious parents. He 
came to California in 1S53 and located at So- 
nora, in Tuolumne County, where he worked in 
the mines for about eight years. He took up 
fanning and continued in that occupation until 
1>>63. He then located at Glennville, in Kern 
County, where he has been conducting a hotel 
and boarding-house, which he discontinued in 
March, 1891. 

Mr. Minter was married in ls59 to Mi>s 
Louise Arnold, a native of Mississippi, and 
they have six children living: Alice, wife of 
James G. Murrell, M. D., of Glenuville, John 
F., Ella, now Mrs. William Fugitt, of Lynn's 
valley, Jessie, Columbus and Ida M. Mr. and 
Mrs. Minter are members of the Christian 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



7C9 



Church at Glennville, and are highly respected 
people. 



-=&*■ 



+■%>- 



fS. RUSSELL, rancher, near Borden, was 
born near Bi-kville, Cumberland County, 
® Kentucky, in 1833. He lived at home 
on the plantation of his father until 1852, when 
he started for California to get the benefit of 
the climate, and as strength was restored to en- 
gage in mining. He first lived at Mariposa, 
mining a little, and later at Sonora, Tuolumne 
County, where he was engaged in mining and 
teaming until the spring of 1858. He then 
went to San Joaquin County, and in the fall 
was married to Miss Catharine Baker, a native 
of Arkansas. Mr. Russell then took up ranch- 
ing, which he followed until 1873, when he 
came to Borden to settle upon land he pre- 
empted in 1872. He annually sows about 800 
acres of grain. Mr. and Mrs. Russell have 
twelve children, the younger ones living at 
home and the older ones upon ranches near. 
He is also tax collector for the Madera Irriga- 
tion District, which was organized in the fall of 
1888, under the Wright irrigation law. He 
has been collector since the date of organiza- 
tion. The system will cover 335,000 acres. 

Mr. Russell is a member of Madera Lodge, 
No. 280, F. & A. M. 



fM. CROCKER, like many other pioneers 
of California, has seen and experienced 
° phases of frontier life, that, if fully por- 
trayed, would thrill the lover of adventure and 
romance. 

The boyhood scenes of Mr. Crocker's life are 
almost identical with those of his older brother, 
James C. Crocker, which are described elsewhere 
in this volume. He was born in Whitesboro, 
Oneida County, New York, March 31, 1835, 
and is the fifth son of the family. After his 
arrival in California, in 1851, he devoted much 



of his time to mining, pursuing that calling 
with varied success. He also engaged in team 
freighting, cattle raising and various other oc- 
cupations common in early California. Joining 
his brother, as partner in their Kern County 
enterprises, he bore an active part in their de- 
velopment. (See sketch of J. C. Crocker). 
Their operations were all conducted on a large 
scale, as is illustrated by the fact that on their 
Tembloer ranch alone they ranged 56,000 head 
of stock. The Crocker brothers have never 
done business by halves. They were notably 
successful in their San Joaquin County and 
Kern County enterprises, and the recent removal 
of their base of operations from Kern to Inyo 
County was a loss to the former and a corres- 
ponding gain to the latter. They have invested 
a large amount of money in Inyo County. Aside 
from their extensive ranch interests, they have 
erected a commodious hotel at Big Pine, which 
fills a great want to a growing country. 

Besides James C. and "Ed" M. Crocker, 
who comprise the firm of Crocker Brothers, 
Anson and Milton, two other brothers, are re- 
sidents of Big Pine and indirectly associated in 
these enterprises. 



H. COOLBAUGH has been a resident of 
Kern County since 1880, coming here 
from Stockton, and engaging in stock- 
raising six miles below Bakersfielcl, where he 
developed 640 acres of land. He continued there 
until 1888, when he located in Bakersfield, where 
he has made his permanent home. Mr. Cool- 
baugh is a native of Bradford, Pennsylvania, of 
German descent, and was born December 8, 1836. 
His father, Moses Coolbaugh (now deceased), 
emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ogle County, 
Illinois, during the days of the early settlement 
of that country and became an influential citi- 
zen. His mother, whose maiden name was 
Sarah Brewster, was a sister of Henry Brewster, 
an eminent lawyer and jurist of New York. 
The subject of this sketch was the third born of 



770 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 



a family of eight, children. His life has not 
been an eventful one. Being a man of quiet 
demeanor and unassuming ways, he has sought 
to do his whole duty as a straightforward, up- 
right citizen simply, and it is safe to assert that 
never has his conduct brought contempt upon 
the good family name. He married in 1864, 
Miss Elizabeth Blevins, a native of Oregon, and 
daughter of Alexander Blevins, a pioneer of 
that State. 



- ~V 3 " i ' <l>" '"" 

fEFF JOHNSON, a rancher east of Le- 
moore, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, 
in 1837. His father died when he was but 
four years of age, after which he lived with his 
mother until the age of twelve years, when he 
struck out in life to gain his own support. He 
worked for wages upon farms in Indiana until 
1859, when he came to California. Joining a 
company of twelve men and six wagons they 
crossed the plains and landed at Placerville, 
after an uneventful trip of about six months. 
He then began mining on the middle fork of 
the American river, but after an unsuccessful 
year he went to Oregon and engaged in lumber- 
ing. In 1868, he returned to the East, making 
the trip by water and the Isthmus: he began 
farming in Illinois and in different localities in 
Iowa and Missouri; in 1883 he returned to 
Caliiornia and settled in Fresno. The last time 
Mr. Johnson crossed the plains he was accom- 
panied only by his family. The journey was 
made in a wagon with a single span of horses, 
and consumed five months and one day. He 
purchased forty acres near town, and also rented 
about 400 acres outside, and followed grain 
farming until 1888, when he sold out and 
purchased his present ranch of forty acres near 
Lemoore. He has a small orchard and thirty 
acres in vines, and now devotes his time to his 
vineyard interests. 

He was married in Bureau County, Illinois, 
in 1873, to Miss Eineline Hartley, a native of 
Illinois, and of this union have been born four 



children: May, Essie, Warren and Viola. Mr. 
Johnson is a member of the Farmers' Alliance, 
and through the influence of the order expects 
greater protection to farming interests. 



fE. LECHNER, one of the enterprising 
business men of Bakersfield, is a native of 
Indiana, born in Evansville, Vanderburg 
County, October 22, 1863. 

He has been a resident of California from his 
youth, having come to this State in 1876, at 
the age of thirteen years. His mother is still 
living in California, as are also a brother and 
business partner, H. C. Lechner. and two sisters, 
Helen and Hortensia. 



f FORGE W. COTTON, a California pio- 
neer of 1850, was born in Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, in 1839, the youngest in a family 
of eight children. In 1843 his father started 
with hie family to Illinois, but died on the jour- 
ney. The family continued and settled at Pilts- 
field, Pike County, Illinois, where our subject 
received a limited education, and also worked on 
a brick yard. In 1849, accompanied by two 
brothers, he started for California with an ox 
team, in a company of thirty wagons. The trip 
was saddened by the death of one of the broth- 
ers, who was buried in the Black Hills. The 
company then continued on their journey, and 
arrived at Placerville in September, 1850. 
Though but seventeen years of age, our subject 
began mining at Rattlesnake Bar, on the Amer- 
ican river, and followed that occupation through 
the chief districts of California and Nevada for 
a period of twelve years. He and his partner, 
"Jim" Brown, discovered the Indian diggings 
which became celebrated for their rich prospects. 
In the early days of the diggings our subject and 
his partner were confined twelve hours in a hollow 
tree fighting the Indians, who were very hostile 
at that time. In 1862- Mr. Cotton gave up 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



771 



mining and went to Stockton, and engaged in 
draying for eighteen months. Then, going 
to Woodland, he followed ranching for a num- 
ber of years, working 400 acres of land, 
Subsequently he moved to the O'Farrell Red- 
woods in Sonoma County, where he was engaged 
in a saw-mill, ranching, teaming and in the dairy 
business in different localities. In 1874 he 
came to Tulare County and settled at Jonesa 
six miles northeast of Hanford. Purchasing 
160 acres of land from the railroad company, he 
began farming, and was also appointed postmas- 
ter of Jonesa, which position he had for three 
years, or until the office was abolished by the 
organization of the town of Hanford. He con- 
tinued farming until the fall of 1887, when he 
sold out and bought forty acres three miles west 
of Hanford. He then built his cottage home, 
and began improving his ranch by setting out 
twenty acres in vines and trees and sowing the 
remainder to alfalfa. 

Mr. Cotton was married in Woodland, in 
1866, to Miss Sarah Fowler, a native of Indi- 
ana. In April, 1889 she was called to the next 
world, and in August, 1890, he was again mar- 
ried, to Miss Ella Heath, a native of Maine. 
Mr. Cotton is a member of the A. O. U. W., 
the Good Templars and the Farmers' Alliance. 



fHOMAS JENKINSON, a rancher east of 
W&f Armona, and a pioneer farmer of the 
' Mussel Slough district, was born in New 
York State, April 20, 1835. His father, Will- 
iam Jenkinson, a native of Ireland, emigrated 
to the United States at an early day. In the 
infancy of Thomas his parents moved to Canada, 
and subsequently to Kalamazoo, Michigan, 
where they both died about the year 1845. Our 
subject then lived with his brothers and sisters, 
he being the youngest of six children, until 
1852, when he crossed the plains for California, 
via Fort Laramie, Fort Hall, the Snake river 
and the Columbus river to Portland. There 
they stopped on Rogue river, and passed the 



winter in mining. The snow being deep and 
supplies giving^out they were obliged to live 
for six weeks on deer meat, without a particle 
of salt or seasoning. In the spring of 1853 
they went to Humboldt bay and engaged in 
lumbering, cutting logs and hauling to the saw- 
mills. In 1855 our subject left his oxen, val- 
ued at $400 per yoke, with a partner and went 
to the mines. During his absence his partner 
sold the oxen and " skipped" without reporting 
to Mr. Jenkinson. The latter continued mining 
in Placer County until 1856, and then engaged 
in wheat farming, which he continued until 
1868, when he came to Hill's Ferry, Merced 
County, and farmed two seasons He again 
pushed South and landed in Tulare County, on 
the banks of the historic Mussel Slough, August 
18, 1870, settling upon 160 acres of govern- 
ment land. The slough was then dry, the plains 
an arid waste, covered with wild horses and 
cattle, and their only canopy from the sun's 
rays was the spreading branches of a massive 
oak. Here they rested for two months, and 
during the time Mr. Jenkinson cut and hauled 
hay from Tule lake to feed their jaded horses. 
He then hauled lumber from the mountain saw- 
mill, seventy-five miles distant, and built his 
house, 12 x 12 feet, yet they were glad enough 
for even this protection from the wild cattle of 
the plains. 

In the spring of 1871 Mr. Jenkinson went to 
Tule lake, and upon its moist border put in a 
summer crop. At that time groceries were all 
hauled from Stockton, a distance of 160 miles, 
to Kingston, the nearest trading post. In the 
spring of 1873 our subject was one of five men 
to organize and commence digging the People's 
Ditch, the number being increased as later set- 
tlers came in. While Mr. Jenkinson worked on 
the ditch his wife supported the family by 
raising turkeys, having at one time 2,300, which 
she carefully herded as one would herd sheep. 
One season she netted $1,500 from her turkeys, 
besides guarding the crops from the wild ani- 
mals. After securing water Mr. Jenkinson be- 
gan farming more extensively, also sowed afalfa 



772 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and started the stock business in a small way. 
He was among the earliest in planting fruit 
experimentally, to which he has since added to 
the amount of twenty-six acres, and will soon 
plant a large part of his ranch of 100 acres. 

He was married in Placer County, in October, 
1862, to Miss Abby A. Jewett, a native of Mas- 
sachusetts. They have three children: Henry 
R., Thomas A. and Lucy M., all living at home. 
Mr. Jenkinson is a member of Hanf'ord Lodge, 
A. O. U. W., and a stanch supporter of the Far- 
mer's Alliance. 



fUGENE W. KAY, Sheriff of Tulare 
County, was born in Howard County, 
Missouri, June 10, 1851. He is the 
son of John W. Kay, a native of Virginia, and 
their ancesters were Virginians as far back as 
they have any history. His father married 
Mary Johnson, a native of Kentucky, and of 
Kentucky ancestry. There were four daughters 
and three sons born to them. Eugene W. is 
their oldest child; he was raised and educated 
in Kentucky, and when nineteen years old, in 
1870, he came to San Joaquin County and en- 
gaged in the live stock business with his uncle, 
W. B. Johnson, who was one of the early set- 
tlers, coming in 1850. Mr. Kay continued 
with him five years. In 1875 he was married 
to Miss Dorlusea A. Castle, a daughter of 
George H. Castle, ex-Sheriff of San Joaquin 
County. There have been born to them a 
daughter and son, both natives of San Joaquin 
County. Mr. Kay then engaged in the hotel 
business at French Camp, San Joaquin County, 
which he continued two years; he then went 
to San Francisco, and remained there a year and 
a half in the same business. He returned to 
San Joaquin County, and ranched it with his 
uncle, giving some attention to the dairy busi- 
ness till 1881, when he sold and came to Tulare 
County. He purchased 320 acres of land, and 
engaged in grain farming. He became one of 
the pioneer wheat raisers of the valley, and has 



continued in the business, raising from 1,000 to 
3,500 acres of wheat annually. In the fall of 
1890 he was nominated by the Democratic 
party for the office of Sheriff, was elected, and 
is filling the office in a worthy and highly satis- 
factory manner. He is very highly spoken of 
by his fellow citizens of Tulare County, as an 
officer and citizen. He has united with the 
I. (). O. F. in all its branches. It can be said 
of him, that he was born and raised a Democrat. 
He has made a fair improvement on his ranch; 
has an artesian well, with three and a half inches 
of water flowing; it is conveyed in pipes to his 
house, farm and orchard. 



fAMUEL WALLACE BRIGGS, a rancher 
southwest of Borden, was born in Howard 
County, Missouri. His father, S. G. 
Briggs, was a minister of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian Church of Missouri, and died in Ama- 
dor County, California, in 1875. at the age of 
seventy-six years. His mother, Xancy Wallace 
Briggs, died the same year, at the age of 
sixty-eight years. Our subject lived at home* 
until 1849, and then with his brother, E. M. 
Briggs, in the company of Captain Bess, 
crossed the plains for California by the old emi- 
grant line to Salt Lake, and then north by Head- 
spith Cut-off, landing at the Peter Lassen ranch. 
They dug their tirst gold at Reddiug's diggings, 
now Shasta City, and the first day made thirteen 
dollars and three "bits." He then followed 
mining until 1853, when he was married at Santa 
Clara, to Miss Anna A. Hope, a native of Ken- 
tucky. He then followed farming for about two 
years, when he returned to the mines in the 
spring of 1855, and his was the first white fam- 
ily to settle at West Point, Calaveras County. 
He was elected assessor and tax collector of the 
West Point district, holding the office for many 
years, and until the office and district were abol- 
ished. He was then appointed Deputy Sheriff, 
under B. K. Thorn, for a period of four years. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



773 



He next mined and kept a boarding house at 
Mosquito Gulch, and Sheep Ranch, both mining 
settlements, until 1881, when he came to Bor- 
den and took up land for farming purposes. 
He now rents 800 acres, all of which he sows to 
grain. 

Mr. and Mrs. Briggs have four children: 
"William Samuel, Flores Belle, Ruth Wallace 
and Eugene C. 



JlgiARVEY P. GRAY is one of the pioneer 
W| farmers of the Mussel Slough district, and 
~^M a native of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, 
born in 1841. His father, A. W. Gray, followed 
an agricultural life, and did much pioneer work. 
In 1847, he emigrated to Rock County, Wiscon- 
sin, and farmed until 1850, when the gold excite- 
ment started him for California. Leaving his 
family he then crossed the plains for the unde- 
veloped State. Arriving safely, he then followed 
mining for three years with fair success, and in 
1853 he returned to his family in Wisconsin, 
but soon after arrival moved to Fillmore Coun- 
ty, Minnesota, and continued farming until 
1859, when, accompanied by his four sons, he 
again started for California. Traveling with ox 
team, they followed up the Platte river by Forts 
Laramie and Kearny, passing Salt Lake, and 
crossing the Humboldt Desert they landed 
safely at Placerville and began mining. After 
one year A. W. Gray returned to the States, and 
the brothers separated. Harvey P. followed 
mining one year at Oak Flat, and then went to 
the valley and followed ranch life. In 1861 he 
started an apiary with bees at $50 per stand; 
after two years his bees increased to 100 stands, 
when a dry year caused a shortageof flower food, 
and his bees starved out, and he lost everything. 
He then tried farming in Stanislaus County, 
but he was again a victim of a dry year. In 
the fall of 1864, he enlisted at Mokelumne Hill, 
Calaveras County, in Company H, Eighth Regi- 
ment, California Volunteers, under Colonel 
Woods. They were then sent to San Francisco 



and stationed on Albatros Island, and there re- 
mained until the close of the war. Receiving 
his discharge, he returned to ranch life, and 
siibsequently bought 320 acres near Stockton, 
and farmed until 1869, when he sold out and 
came to the Mussel Slough district, in Tulare 
County, with his brother, R. P. Gray. In 
partnership they took up and bought about 
1,000 acres of land and engaged in farming, but 
the plains then being so barren and dry, in 1873 
they entered the sheep business which was con- 
tinued successfully until 1877, when the dry 
year struck them, and about cleaned them out. 
In 1875 they put in 320 acres of alfalfa which 
was the first large field in Tulare County. They 
farmed every year, and though losing heavily on 
sheep in 1877, they made a raise on wheat and 
alfalfa seed, and thus saved their land. Mr. 
Gray was among the organizers of the Peoples 
and Last Chance Ditch, the completion of which 
began the prosperity of the locality. In Jan- 
uary, 1879, Mr. Gray was married at Lemoore, 
to Miss Emma C. Hurd, a native of Illinois. 
During the same year Mr. Gray and brother dis- 
solved their partnership interest, and subject con- 
tinued farming, working about 1,200 acres each 
year. In 1882 he entered the fruit business, among 
the first to set a considerable acreage, he planted 
twenty acres to vines and thirty acres to stoned 
fruits, gradually increasing each year, until 
now his entire ranch of 335 acres is set to fruit 
and vines, a large part being in full bearing. 
Mr. Gray makes 'a practice of packing and 
handling his own product, in which he has been 
very successful. About 1887 he engaged in 
the nursery business with marked success. In 
1890 he devised the method of setting grape 
cuttings in adobe moulds for summer planting, 
thus enabling the removal and setting of vines 
through hot weather, without disturbing the 
roots. To prove his experiment he planted 
sixty acres in mid summer, with great success, 
which will revolutionize the system of vineyard 
planting. Mr. and Mrs. Gray have two children, 
Donly C, and Dallas H. 

Mr. Gray has always been a Republican in poli- 



774 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



tics and in the early days of partisan strife and feel- 
ing, was decided, outspoken and very active, but 
in later life he has retired from poli ics in the 
attention to his manifold duties. He has farmed 
with his head as well as his hands, and always 
being in the advance line in improvement and 
development, has foreseen the times and been 
generously rewarded thereby. 



BROWNSTONE.— A leading merchant 
of the town of Lemoore, was born in 
the Province of Posen, Prussia, in 1839- 
In boyhood he entered the store of his father, 
and when but sixteen years of age he came to 
the United States and began peddling through 
the eastern part of the State of Massachusetts. 
In 1859 he came to California by steamer and 
the Isthmus of Panama, to join his brothers 
already in this State. After a short term of 
clerkship he entered into partnership with his 
brothers, I. & J. Brownstone, of Santa Cruz, 
witli a branch store at Soquel, same county, 
where subject passed his time After the flood 
of 1862, the town was so badly damaged, that 
they moved the stock to Watsonville, same Coun- 
ty, and there remained until 1873, when the 
firm dissolved and subject retained the Watson- 
ville interest. He then opened a store at 
Grangeville, and after a few months he closed 
out the store at Watsonville and took in Mr. B- 
Schwartz as partner at Grangeville, and in 1878 
the linn opened a store at Lemoore, with Mr. 
Brownstone as manager. In 1880 the firm 
built the present fine structure 32 x 150 feet of 
brick, for store purposes, and the firm continued 
until 1886, when they dissolved and Mr. Brown- 
stone retained the Lemoore interest. He then 
entered into partnership with his brother, H. 
Brownstone, and they started branch stores at 
Traver, Hanford and Grangeville, and conducted 
a very large business, untill the tire of Traver 
in 1888. This, in addition to heavy losses in 
wheat speculations, so crippled the linn, that 
they dissolved, but subject has now overcome 



his reverses, and he is again doing a prosperous 
business, carrying a general stock of merchan- 
dise, agricultural implements and farm ma- 
chinery. He also deals extensively in grain, 
aud has two warehouses 50 x 75 and 60 x 100, 
for the proper storage. He is still interested 
with Mr. Schwartz in ranch property, and in- 
dividually owns town property improved and 
unimproved. Mr. Brownstone was married at 
San Jose, in 1864, to Miss Adeline Cohn, a na- 
tive of Prussia, and to this union have been 
added seven children, Alfred, Caria. now Mrs. 
M. I. Haber, of San Francisco, Lily, Mabel, 
Louis, Minnie and Samuel. 



^ 



S. ELLIS is another one of the venerable 
pioneers of Kern County. He was born 
in West Randolph, Vermont, October 24, 
1828. His father, Josiah Ellis, was a farmer 
and a native of the "Green Mountain State," as 
was also his mother, whose maiden name was 
Anna Jones. Of their live children, Jonathan 
S., the subject of our sketch, is the youngest. 

Leaving home at the age of eighteen, young 
Ellis went to the city of Boston, where he 
clerked in a hotel. There he remained until 
1851, the year in which he came to California. 
He sailed for San Francisco via the Isthmus of 
Panama, and entered the Golden Gate in Decem- 
ber. After his arrival in this State he began 
mining in El Dorado County, but on account of 
sickness, soon went to Sacramento, where he 
remained five months. He kept a hotel for a 
time at Pleasant Grove on the Placerville pike. 
In 1853 he sold this business, and in partner- 
ship with his old friend, Vining Barker, opened 
a hotel at Diamond Springs, near Placerville. 
While there he married Miss Nancy, daughter 
of Owen Ingersoll, Esq., a farmer and pioneer 
of Sacramento County. He then engaged in 
farming, and in the meantime conducted the 
dairy business near Truckee. 

In 1869 he came to Kern County and estab- 
lished his home on his present location, twelve 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



775 



miles southwest of Bakersfield. Here he owns 
416 acres all under a good state of cultivation. 
His chief crops are alfalfa and grain, and he 
also raises stock. He and his wife are the par- 
ents of two daughters, Ella and Alma. The lat- 
ter is the wife of Vandoran Stoner. 

Mr. Ellis is well known throughout Kern 
County as a leading agriculturalist. 



E. CHITTENDEN", an old settler of Kern 
County, is a native of Illinois, born at 
Warsaw, Hancock County, May 17, 1839. 
His father, E. F. Chittenden, a farmer and mer- 
chant by occupation, was a native of Connecti- 
cut, and a student of Oxford College. His 
mother, whose maiden name was Julia Rogers, 
is now a resident of San Francisco. Mr. Chit- 
tenden spent his youth in Illinois, leaving there 
in 1855 to come to California. He first located 
in San Joaquin County, where he followed 
ranching, and remained during the years 1869- 
70-71. He located in Kern County iD 1875, 
and engaged in the forwarding and commission 
business at Sumner. He discontinued this busi- 
ness in 1890, and took up his residence on 160 
acres of land in Lynn's valley. 

He was married at the latter place, Novem- 
ber 26, 1885, to Miss Elizabeth Clapp, daughter 
of William Clapp, of El Dorado County, Cali- 
fornia, and they have two children, Virgil and 
Justin L. Mr. Chittenden is a well informed 
man, and while a resident of Sumner held the 
office of Justice of the Peace nine years. 



•£=8- 



<&< 



°FS 




E. HILL, proprietor of the Durham 
Dairy Farm, situate one and one-half 
miles east of Hanford, is a native of 
Buckinghamshire, England, son of the Rev. 
E. Hill, a clergyman of the Church of England. 
V. E. Hill was educated at Lansing College, 
Sussex, and at the age of twenty-one years, went 
to Riga, Russia, where he began his business ca- 



reer in a mercantile life. After two years he 
learned of the advantages and opportunities of 
the soil and climate of California, through his 
friend Mr. James Robinson, and he immediately 
came to this Stale, and Tulare County, spending 
eighteen months on the ranch of Mr. Robinson 
in gaining an insight into agricultural life. In 
1883, he purchased his present ranch of 160 
acres and began farming, and in a small way 
entered the stock business. In 1888 he bought 
a band of registered Durham cattle, from tbe 
celebrated stock farm of Robert Ashburner of 
San Mateo County, and his herd now numbers 
twenty-five head of registered stock, and fifty- 
five head of grade Durhams, and his dairy is run 
in the interests of butter and cheese making. 
Mr. Hill has 130 acres in alfalfa and twenty-five 
acres in fruit and vines — all in bearing and do- 
ing well. Mr. Hill built his cottage home in 
1887, which is under the direct supervision of 
his sister, he being a bachelor. 



t-S^-#SE- 



Wa and N. HANSEN", ranchers near Armona, 
W(li were natives of Denmark, who came to 
^^° the United States in the early seventies 
to escape enrollment in the German army, and 
to enjoy the privileges offered under the pro- 
tection of the American flag. L. Hansen 
came to California in 1873 and worked for 
wao-es until 1876, when he leased a dairy of 
seventy-five cows in Sonoma County and for 
seven years was engaged in the butter and 
cheese business. N. Hansen came to Cali- 
fornia in 1875 and followed ranch life up to 
1880, when he settled in the Mussel Slough 
district, and purchased 172 acres one-half mile 
west of Armona and began farming. In 1884, 
L. Hansen came to Armona and began buying 
lands, and in partnership with his brother, en- 
gaged in the dairy business, keeping about 100 
cows. 

N. Hansen was married at Armona, in 
1886, to Miss Josie Hutton, a native of Cali- 
fornia. 



776 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



In 1887 the brothers dissolved partnership 
and L. Hansen moved to his ranch of 492 acres, 
three miles south of Armona, and engaged in 
the stock business, keeping horses and cattle 
and doing some farming. 

N. Hansen, has set out about thirty-five 
acres lo vines and fruit, with balance of ranch 
in alfalfa and farm land. Eighty acres three 
miles south of Arinona he has subdivided and 
sold in colony lots. In 1890 Mrs. Hansen was 
stricken witli disease and passed away, leaving 
an afflicted husband and two little ones: Jessie 
and Alexander. 

The two brothers are jointly interested in the 
stock business, although their land holdings are 
separate and individual. 



— ~ — & • ; >' ; • % '■— — 

P. St. CLAIR was born in Allegheny 
County, Pennsylvania, November 20, 
1831. His parents both died when he 
was young and he moved with his grandfather, 
Philip Covert, to southern Ohio, where he 
received his early schooling, living on a farm 
until sixteen years of age, In the spring of 
1849 he went to Iowa, worked on a farm near 
Burlington awhile and then learned the black- 
smith's trade. In March, 1852, he left Burling- 
ton and started across the plains on foot, driving 
an ox team part of the way. There were three 
wagon's in the train and eleven people, three of 
whom were women, who, of course, rode in the 
wagons. None of the party except the subject 
of this sketch are now in the State. They ar- 
rived at the head waters of the Feather river 
August 1, 1852. 

Mr. St. Clair went to work mining on Feather 
river where he had fair success for a few weeks, 
when he resolved to set out for the mines of 
Australia, but got no farther than Sacramento, 
and finally gave up the trip. 

He spent the winter of 1852-53 in Auburn 
and vicinity. The following spring he went to 
the Middle fork of the Amerian river. He 
tried mining a short time, and then entrao-ed in 



the butchering business at Volcanoville, El Do- 
rado County. He continued in this business till 
1856, when he sold out and bought a tannery 
on Otter creek in company with Judge Aar >n 
Bell, now of Shasta County. This proving a 
failure he returned next year to butchering. In 
1859 he went to the town of Red D >g, in Ne- 
vada County, following the butchering business 
for a year or more, and then went to Dutch 
Flat in Placer County, but he soon returned to 
Red Dog. In 1865 he went East on a two 
years' visit. On his return to California lie lo- 
cated in Dutch Flat and followed the butcher's 
trade till in the fall of 1887, when he came to 
Bakerstieid and engaged in the same occupation 
a year where he has developed one of the most 
important and successful public enterprises of 
Bakerstieid, the Bakerstieid Electric Light & Gas 
Company, of which he is the manager and con- 
troling spirit, and of which more extended men- 
tion appears elsewhere in this work. 

Mr. St. Clair was married, in 1869, to Miss 
Mary F. Dunn and they have four children. 



P. GRAY, rancher, east of Lemoore, is a 
native of "Wayne County, Pennsylvania, 
■orn in 1840. His father, A. W. Gray, 
(whose biography elsewhere appears,) was by 
occupation a farmer. In 1847 they moved to 
Rock County, Wisconsin, and settled near Janes- 
ville, and in 1853 they moved to Minnesota, 
where subject secured a common-school educa- 
tion and attended to the duties of the ranch, 
remaining at home until 1859, when, in com- 
pany with his father and two brothers, they 
started overland for California. The father was 
taken sick in the mountains, anil it was only by 
great difficulty that they readied Placerville, 
and then securing medical attention, he partially 
recovered, and then returned to the State-. 
R. P., with his brother. Har.ey, then went to 
the mines at Oak Flat and mined in that locality 
about one year. In the Bpriug of 1860 subject 
left the mines, and near Stockton he found 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



777 



occupation with a threshing machine, which he 
followed during the season. In 1861 he enlisted 
at Stockton in Company A, Third Infantry, 
California Volunteers, under Colonel Connorand 
Thomas E. Ketchum as Captain of Company 
A. Companie's A and B were then sent to Hum- 
boldt County, California, to relieve (he regulars, 
who were then forwarded to the front. This 
disturbed the California boys, who were also 
anxious to go East, but their service was by no 
means a sinecure, as the Indians being very 
troublesome, Company A soon engaged in 
active measures for suppression. They were 
the picked men of California quick, resolute, 
daring, and with such qualifications were sent to 
Fort Seward in the Eel river country where the 
Indians were the most troublesome. .Passing 
the winter at the fort in the spring of 1862 the 
warfare commenced, the company dividing into 
squads, which through ambush and ambuscade, 
eluded the Indians and captured many prisoners. 
Mr. Gray was detailed for scout duty, and with 
slight support was frequently placed in trying 
and dangerous positions, but by presence of 
mind and fearless actions, he escaped his pur- 
suers and at one time and another captured 
several prisoners. The company were so active, 
vigilant and successful, that after quelling the 
outburst, the people of the Eel river district 
presented the company with a handsome silk 
flag, as a token of appreciation. Upon return 
to Stockton the companies were then forwarded 
to Salt Lake to join the regiment, and they per- 
formed guard duty until 1864, when they were 
discharged and returned to California. Mr. Gray 
then followed threshing about Stockton or lum- 
bering and freighting in the mountains until 
1869 when he came to Tulare County, and in 
partnership with his brother, Harvey P. (whose 
biography elsewhere appears,) they began farm- 
ing and the sheep business, which they con- 
tinued jointly until 1880, when they dissolved 
and divided their lands, subject retaining 1,000 
acres near Lemoore. He then continued farm- 
ing and the stock business until the fruit inter- 
est succeeded the farming interest; then Mr. 

49 




Gray began selling his lands, and now has but 
eighty acres, thirty-five of which are in vines and 
trees, ten acres in alfalfa and balance in wheat 
and farm land. 

Mr. Gray was married at Salt Lake City, in 
1864, after his discharge, to Miss Hoxana J. 
Slocum, a native of Pennsylvaria. To this un- 
io:i have been addeil five children: Josie, now Mrs. 
R. Giddings, Clarence A., Julian O., Jennie 
and Florence. Mr. Gray is a Republican in 
politics, but believes in universal rights and per- 
fect freedom to all, allowing each man to direct 
his own life, so long as he does not oppose the 
laws of his country. 



ILLIAM REED was born in East Ten- 
nessee, December 27, 1839. His father, 
William Reed. M. D., was a physician 
of that locality. Subject began his education 
in the private schools of Tennessee, and then 
attended the Farmer's College near College 
Hill, Ohio, where he graduated in 1860. In 
May, 1861, he enlisted at Indianapolis, Indiana, 
in Company B, Seventeenth Indiana regiment, 
Colonel Milo S. Haskill in command, who later 
became Major General. The regiment was first 
sent to the army of West Virginia, under 
General Grant, and later to the army of the 
Cumberland; was also with the army of the Ohio 
and the Army of Tennessee. Mr. Reed was in 
thirty-nine engagements, wounded five times, 
and passed five months in Andersonville prison. 
He enlisted for three years, but in 1864 he was 
veteraned for the war and served four years and 
five months, and was discharged at Indianapolis 
August 25, 1865. He then came to Wyoming 
for his health and to recover from his wounds, 
and later went to the mining districts of Colo- 
rado. He passed one winter in the camp of 
Sittincr Bull, living with the medicine men. 
He remained in Colorado, and was engaged in 
mining at Leadville until 1882, when he came to 
Fresno County. He then began prospecting thir- 
ty-five miles east of Fresno, on the bank of the San 



778 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Juaquin river and discovered a very rich quartz 
mine, which he is now working, using an arastra 
in pulverizing his quartz. The mine was dis- 
covered in 1884 and in its working Mr. Reed 
has met with satisfactory results. Mr. Reed 
was married in Indiana in 1873, but his wife 
survived but two years, leaving no children. 
He now lives at his mine near Hamptonville. 



fDWARD ERLANGER.— There presenta- 
tive real-estate man of Lemoore, is a native 
of Germany, born at Marburg in 1852. 
His father and ancestors were all engaged in the 
banking business. His cousin, Emil de Erlan- 
ger, made the confederate loan, and married the 
daughter of Slidel, of confederate fame. The 
Southern railroad system is owned by a syndi- 
cate of Erlangers. Edward Erlanger was edu- 
cated at Marburg ffiniversity, a very prominent 
college of instruction, and at the age of sixteen 
years, he entered the Vereins bank at Frank- 
fort on-the-Main, and remained until 1870, when 
he came to the United States. Then traveling 
by easy stages through the south, visiting Old 
and New Mexico, he arrived in San Francisco 
in February, 1871. Through letters of credit 
he then visited the leading banking houses, with 
a view of studying the American banking sys- 
tem, to apply in his own country on his return. 
In February, 1872, he went to the Sandwich 
Islands, on his return trip around the world, but 
was taken sick at Honolulu, and then came 
back to San Francisco, where he lay in the Ger- 
man Hospital for many months, and when con- 
valescing sought the warm climate of the San 
Joaquin valley, and at Visalia met Mr. Einstein, 
of Einstein & Jacobs, and was employed by 
them as book-keeper at their store at Kingston, 
then a prominent trading point in the valley. 
At a certain age all the young men of 
Germany are obliged to enter the army, 
and upon recovery of health Mr. Erlanger dis- 
covered that it was too late for him to return, 
as he would be considered a deserter. He then 



took action toward becoming an American cit- 
izen, to secure the protection of the American 
flag, and also to be enabled to return home at. 
will. In December, 1873, Kingston was raided 
by that noted bandit and rubber, Vaequez, and 
thirty-two men were tied down, subject among 
the number, while they committed their depre- 
dations. Mr. Erlanger remained in Kingston 
until 1877, when the town of Lemoore was or- 
ganized. He attended the auction sale in the 
spring and purchased property and in the fall 
came to reside, as book-keeper for J.J. Mack 
& Co., general merchandise. Mr. Erlanger 
built the Park Hotel and in 1878, he opened a 
general merchandise store in his own behalf, 
and the same year built the Masonic hall, all of 
which were destroyed in the fire of 1882, ex- 
cept his stock which had been moved to another 
locality. He lost, however, a valuable scientfic 
library with a collection of curiosities which he 
had gathered in his travels. He retired from 
mercantile life in 1885 with the intention of re- 
turning to Germany, but land interests had so 
increased, with his stock interests of thorough- 
bred and standard bred horses, that he post- 
poned the trip and entered the real-estate 
busii ess with Dr. Brandt, a prominent land- 
holder of the locality. In 1889, Mr. Erlanger 
again engaged in the mercantile business which 
he still continues. He is a genial, affable gentle- 
man and deeply interested in the advanced im- 
provement of the town of Lemoore. 

J. MOWRY was born in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, in 1S52, but his earliest recol- 
3 lection is of Iowa, where his parents 
moved in 1853, and to Missouri in 1865, where 
young Mowry attended school, and assisted his 
father in his extensive farming duties and stock 
business, as for farm and grazing purposes they 
worked from 400 to 1,000 acres. In 1871 both 
father and son came to California and the father, 
Mr. L. Mowry, bought a small ranch at Lodi, 
San Juaquin County, which he has since set to 




HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



779 



fruit, and the subject of this sketch began his 
own support. He followed ranching until 1874, 
when in partnership with his brother, G. M. 
Mowry, they began the butchering business and 
market at Lockford, San Juaquin County, and 
there remained until 1881. He then gave up 
the business for several years, and followed 
ranching industries in San Juaquin and Tulare 
counties until 1890, when, in partnership with 
Charles Eaton, they started a butchering estab- 
lishments at Tulare, with their market on Kern 
street. With a small capital and in the face of 
a strong opposition they opened business, but 
by close application and honest dealings, they 
have built up a very extensiue patronage, and 
now average seventy-five head of cattle per 
month in supplying their trade, of which they 
are justly proud. Their market is well equip- 
ped with all conveniences, and with a small 
steam engine for chopping and other purposes. 
Mr. Mowry was married at Lockford, July 18, 
1887, to Miss Sarah E. Pygall, a native of Cali- 
fornia. They have three children: Walter J., 
Amelia and Willie. 

Mr. Mowry is a member of Tulare Lodge, No. 
78, A. O. U. W. 

- — #5M*a^# — 



gj^HARLES G. WILCOX, senior member 
fcK of the firm of Wilcox & Frazier, is a na- 
im tive of Honolulu, born April 17, 1862. 
He is the son of Captain P. S. Wilcox, who 
was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts; he 
sailed into San Francisco bay in 1843, and set- 
tled in California in 1865, residing in Oakland. 
He had been a merchant in Honolulu. He was 
the founder of the Oakland Savings Bank, and 
was its president for seven years. He married 
Miss Mary D. Davis, born in his native town. 
They had four children. Charles G. Wilcox was 
educated in Oakland, in Dagan's Classical, 
Sacket's School, and in the old university; he 
also attended the Visalia Normal school in 1875. 
He returned to Oakland and remained there 
till 1880. He spent some time on a ranch, 



owned by his brother, W. D. Wilcox, and him- 
self; they had a section and a half of land and 
were engaged in wheat farming. He finally 
sold out and engaged in his present business. 
Mr. Merrille P. Frazier is his partner; they are 
both courteous, capable men, have a good busi- 
ness, and enjoy the full confidence of the citi- 
zens of the county. 

Mr. Wilcox was married in May, 1889, to 
Miss Fay Brown, born in Visalia, and daughter 
of Mr. S. C. Brown, a prominent retired lawyer 
of Visalia. Their union has been blessed with 
a daughter, Maud H. Mr. Wilcox deserves the 
prosperity he has every prospect of realizing in 
the future. 



C. BROWN, the pioneer fruit-grower 
of Lemoore, is a native of Illinois, born 
in Hillsboro, Montgomery County, in 
1829. His father, John Brown, is a native of 
Kentucky, and was an Illinois pioneer of 1828. 
O. C. Brown was educated at the public schools 
of Hillsboro, and resided with his parents until 
twenty-one years of age, when he purchased 
eighty acres of land adjoining his father's farm, 
and was married in St. Louis County, Missouri, 
to Miss Elizabeth J. Kelso. He then lived upon 
his farm, to which he added to the amount of 
400 acres, and followed general farmino- and the 
stock business. In 1872 Mr. Brown sold his 
farm and moved to Geneva, the county seat of 
Filmore County, Nebraska. He there took up 
a timber claim of 160 acres, farmed in grain, 
and engaged extensively in the raising of Polan- 
China hogs, keeping a very large band. Contin- 
uing until 1879. Mr. Brown then came to the 
Mussel Slough district, of which he had heard 
through his son, then living in the district. 
Mr. Brown purchased 160 acres one and one-half 
miles east of Lemoore, which he farmed until 
1882. and then began the planting of fruit as a 
business. He first set ten acres to fruit and 
vines experimentally, and continued the raising 
of grain, and hogs, with a band of about 500. 



78U 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CAIAFORNIA. 



In the early days of. truit growing the market 
was soon overstocked, but with greater facilities 
for shipment Mr. Brown increased his planting, 
and now has 100 acres in vines, with the balance 
of his ranch devoted to a variety of fruits, and 
has given up all other agricultural work. He 
dries all of his own fruit, and then sells to the 
packers. The raisin crop of 1890 paid him 
$350 per acre, and his fruits paid from $100 to 
$500 per acre. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have six 
children: John W., James F., William H., Ed- 
ward E., Charles 0. and Cora May. In the 
fruit industry Mr. Brown has been successful* 
watching carefully the cultivation of his 
vines and trees, and superintending the 
gathering of fruits; he is now enjoying the 
reward, which has been acquired through years 
of application and vigilance. 

~" ' ■ "^ v <P"?*'' :: s' - * "■ ~ ~""~ 

fDUARDO SALCIDO, a prominent citi- 
zen of Kern County, is of Spanish-Mexi- 
can origin. He was born in Mexico, in 
the State of Sonora, October 30, 1852. He 
spent his boyhood and early youth in Mexico, 
and then came to Los Angeles, and later, to 
Bakerstield, where he was engaged for some 
years in the liquor and restaurant business, 
from which he has recently retired. He mar- 
ried, July 4, 1890, Mrs. Alexander Gody, of 
Bakerstield. They have a tine residence and 
other property in and around Bakerstield. 

M. POWELL, rancher two and a half 
miles southwest of Armona, was born in 
1 ° Morgan County, Ohio, in 1832. In 1840 
lis parents moved to Iowa, and there the boy- 
hood of our subject was passed, assisting his 
father upon the farm, and improving the limited 
opportunities of securing a common school edu- 
cation, which consisted of a winter school for 
three months; but the boys were only allowed 
to attend when it was so stormy that they could 



not work. F. M. Powell remained at home 
until 1852, when he joined an emigrant train of 
about, twenty wagons with ox teams, and started 
for California. They crossed by the northern 
route and landed at Portland, Oregon, where 
they remained about one year, and subject then 
took his blankets and, on foot, crossed the 
mountains for California. He then followed 
mining in Siskiyou County, at Cottonwood and 
on Scott river, remaining about three years and 
meeting with favorable success. He then re- 
turned to the States by water and the Panama 
route. After visiting his family in Iowa, he 
then followed the recommendation of Horace 
Greeley (who claimed that the climate of Kan- 
sas was equal to that of California), and pre- 
empted 160 acres in that State, but found the 
country unsettled and tilled with rascals and 
bushwhackers. 

He was married in Johnson County, Kansas, 
in 1857, to Miss Elizabeth DeTar, a native of 
Pennsylvania, and in 1860 he sold his ranch for 
just enough money to land him again in Califor- 
nia. He made up three teams of oxen and horses 
and with his family, started to cross the great 
plains by the old emigrant trail, through Salt 
Lake City. He was taken sick on the way. and 
he speaks feelingly of the heroic manner in 
which his wife took the whip and, through dust 
and dirt drove the oxen forward, until his re- 
covery. Without other incident they landed 
safely at Placerville, and then settled near Sacra- 
mento on the lower Stockton road and upon 
rented land, engaged in farming. Subsequently 
going to Lake and Santa Clara counties, he fol- 
lowed farming until 1872, when he came to 
Tulare County and settled upon the Tule river 
near Woodville, and purchasing 200 acres of 
land he farmed for five years. The land was 
very dry, and the wild stock very troublesome, 
the stock men placing every discouragement in 
the way of the farmer. In 1877 he sold out 
and came to the Mussel Slough district and 
after renting for two years, in 1879, he bought 
his present ranch of 160 acres, and began farm- 
ing, which he continued until the advent of the 



EISTORr OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



731 



fruit industry. He has sold twenty acres, and 
of the 140 remaining, twenty five acres are in 
fruit and vines, twenty-five acres in alfalfa, and 
balance in grain. 

Mr. and Mrs. Powell have seven children: 
Marcus J., born in Kansas; William A., Du- 
mont C, Frank Lincoln, now postmaster at Le- 
moore; Alfred M., Louis M. and Elizabeth A. 
Mr. Powell is a member of the Farmers' Alli- 
ance, but in politics is a Republican — very 
strong and decided in his partisan principles. 



1^ 




^m 



M. ESPITALLIER is one of the en- 
terprising citizens of Sumner. He is 
^W^ Q a native of France, born in Hautes 
Alpes in 1854. He emigrated to America in 
1874, landing in San Francisco, December 15. 
He had learned the trade of a baker in his 
native laud, and found employment at the same 
upon his arrival in San Francisco, and later in 
San Jose. January 7, 1887, he located in Kern 
County and engaged in sheep-growing for him- 
self, which he followed until 1887. He then 
located in Sumner and resumed his former busi- 
ness, in which he still continues with success. 
He was married in Los Angeles, to Miss Apol- 
onie Eyranod, in 1888. 

^ICHAEL J. RYAN, a successful mer- 
chant of Sumner, California, is a native 
^HS^ of Scranton, Pennsylvania, born May 
15, 1858. He is a thorough mechanic, having 
served a five years' apprenticeship in the loco- 
motive works of the Delaware & Lackawanna 
Railroad Co. in Scranton. His father, P. D. 
Ryan, is a skilled blacksmith and is still a resi- 
dent of Scranton. He emigrated from Ireland 
to America when a small boy. The subject of 
this sketch occupied a responsible position as 
foreman in the locomotive works at Scranton, 
when he left and turned his face toward the 
setting sun in 1880. He spent four months at 



Springfield, Illinois in the shops of the Wabash 
Railroad Co., thence pushed westward to Sacra- 
mento, California, and finally to Sumner in 
February, 1881. Here he resumed work 
at his trade, which he continued until 1888, 
when he established himself in mercantile busi- 
ness, in which he still continues. He has re- 
cently taken a partner in the person of John 
Dugan. The firm are straightforward, enter- 
prising and eminently " square " in their deal- 
ings, their aim being to supply their customers 
with the best quality of general merchandise at 
the lowest possible price, retaining only the 
customary margin to cover expenses and yield 
the legitimate profit. 

Mr. Ryan was married, in 1883, to Miss 
Carrie, daughter of John Henderson, now a 
locomotive engineer on the Detroit, Grand 
Haven & Milwaukee Railroad. Mr. and Mrs 
Ryan have two children: Jessie and May. 



fOHN" N. ALBIN" was born in Greencastle, 
Putnam County, Indiana, in 1843. His 
father was an extensive farmer and stock 
raiser, a native of Kentucky, who emigrated to 
Putnam County, among the earliest settlers. 
Young Albin received a very limited education 
in the private schools of that period. In 1854 
his parents moved to Gentry County, Missouri, 
and purchased 1,400 acres, where he continued 
his farming and stock interests. In 1858, at 
the age of fifteen years, John N. struck out for 
himself and secured employment with Holliday 
& Carlyle on their overland freight line between 
the Missouri river and Salt Lake City, and here 
he was engaged until 1861, when he entered the 
Missouri State Guard under General Price, in 
sympathy with the Confederate cause. At Lex- 
ington they engaged in a three days' fight. The 
regiment was then sent South, but young Albin 
escaped and went to Indianapolis, Indiana, where, 
in 1863, he was drafted into the Union army — 
the Twenty-sixth Indiana. The regiment was 
sent to Kentucky, but was captured at Union- 



782 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



town. Our subject was then sent home on 
parole, and in the spring of 1864 went to Vir- 
ginia City, Montana, and engaged in placer 
mining, with success. Alternating stage driv- 
ing, freighting and mining, lie followed these 
interests in Montana and Nevada up to the 
spring of 1872, when he came to California, 
first settling in Vaca valley, Solano County, 
where he engaged in farming. In 1874 he 
bought a threshing outfit, which he ran with 
success until 1875, when he came to Fresno. 
In 1876 he leased the United States Hotel and 
later the Ogle House, and continued in the hotel 
business about eight years. He and his part- 
ner, T. R. Brown, built the Russ House on I 
street. In 1886 he entered mercantile life by 
building a store on Mono and E streets, r and 
keeping general merchandise and later a grocery 
store on K street, which he sold out in the sum- 
mer of 1890. He then bought a ranch of 160 
acres sixteen miles east of Fresno, seventy of 
which are in vines, six acres in fruits, and the 
balance grain land, which he is now managing. 
Mr. Albin was elected a member of the City 
Council in the fall election of 1888 for a term of 
four years. He was married in Solano County in 
the fall of 1873, to Miss Carrie Layton, a 
native of Indiana, and the union has resulted 
in five children, all of whom are at home. 

. ■ ( vg-) l1 {, pg> g ■ , 

fTEPHEN GREGG has been a resident of 
California since 1852. He lived in El 
Dorado County, and engaged in placer 
mining up to 1857. He then turned his atten 
tion to the raising of cattle and horses, continu- 
ing that business until 1860, after which he 
went to Owens river, prospected for silver, and 
located several mining claims, which he subse- 
quently sold. In the organization of his County, 
in 1864, he took an active part and about that 
time resumed the stock business, which he con- 
tinued until appointed Deputy Sheriff of Inyo 
County, in 1875, by Sheriff Thomas Fassmore. 
He was elected Sheriff of Inyo County in 1880, 



and was chosen for a second term in 1887. Mr. 
Gregg has seen much of the pioneer settlement 
and growth of this County. During the ter- 
rible Indian outbreaks that have darkened the 
history of this section of the country he re- 
sided there and witnessed its awful results. 
About 75 whites and 1,000 Indians were killed 
at various times, constituting one-third of the 
then limited population of the new County. Mr. 
Gregg is an upright and conservative citizen, 
and has made a most popular and efficient 
officer. He is now devoting his time chiefly to 
his private interests. 

He was married at Owens river, in 1872, to 
Miss Carrie A. Moore, a native of the State of 
Illinois. They have four children living, viz.: 
Carrie, Stephen, Clarissa and William. 



W%Wl H - COONS, of Rosedale, has seen 
7^l]\h Kern County develop from its primi- 

l^gl^n ° tive state into what approaches a 
veritable garden. The latter term is especially 
applicable to the Rosedale district. lie came 
to California by the Southern route in 1858, 
from Callaway County, Missouri, spent the year 
1860 in Los Angeles, and in January, 1861, 
he went to San Francisco, and then to the min- 
ing districts of Trinity County, where he spent 
two years in gold-mining, with moderate suc- 
cess. In January, 1863, he went to Tehachapi, 
and thence to Kernville and Havilah, in Kern 
County. In 1867 he was appointed Deputy 
Sheriff of Kern County by W. B. Ross; later 
he served in the same capacity under B. F. 
Sagerly. He was elected to the office of Sheriff 
to succeed Mr. Sagerly in 1869, and served four 
years as Sheriff. He was connected with the 
office as Deputy eleven years. In 1888 he en- 
tered the stock business, in which he still con- 
tinues. He was married in April, 1872, to 
Miss Louise F. Reed, daughter of John C. Reed, 
of Bakersfield, one of Kern County's pioneers. 
They have five children living. Mr. Coons 
owiis eighty acres of choice land in the Rosedale 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



783 



district, which is under improvement. He has 
been and still is a conspicuous figure in the civil 
and political history of the country, and pos- 
sessed of strong traits of character which have 
insured him the kindly feelings and esteem of 
the community. 

t^€B~£# 



W. MAHON arrived in California in 
1875 from Tennessee, his native State. 
He was born at Dyersburg, Dyer County, 
February 24, 1858, and is the son of Rev. W. 
J. Mahon, now presiding elder of the Merced 
Methodist Episcopal conference in this State, 
and a resident of Modesto. Rev. Mr. Mahon 
has been twice married, and the subject of this 
sketch is a son by the second marriage. Young 
Mahon attended the high schools in Tennessee, 
and read law in Merced with R. H. Ward, Esq., 
and was admitted to the bar of the State in 
1882, at Merced, where he commenced the prac- 
tice of his profession, and in 1883 located at 
Bakersfield. He makes a specialty of the crim- 
inal practice branch of his profession. Mr. 
Mahon stands high in professional circles, and 
is classed among the best criminal lawyers in 
central Califor. ia. He married, in Bakersfield, 
August 20, 1885, Miss Rachel E. Nash, a na- 
tive of Dyer County, Tennessee, born February 
22, 1865, and daughter of John Nash, deceased. 
They have two ahildreu: Ruth, born August 
10, 1886; and Jackson H, born August 6, 
1889. Mr. Mahon is a member of the order of 
the Knights of Pythias. He is held in the 
highest estimation in the community where he 
resides. 



*¥* 



jm L. BORGWARDT, Je., Sheriff of Kern 
f ED) County, was born in El Dorado County, 
'Wl ' California, March 13, 1857, at the town 
of Greenwood. A carefully prepared sketch of 
the life and expiriences of his parents as pio- 
neers of California, which appears elsewhere in 



this work, gives an idea as to the manner in 
which the early life of our subject was spent. 
During his boyhood he was afforded the advan- 
tages of a good common-school education, which 
he improved. He inherited the instincts of a 
first-class business man, which were developed 
by actual experience with his father, who 
earned to depend on him to shoulder some of 
his business cares. In 1877 he embarked in the 
stock and butchering business for himself, in 
which enterprise he was eminently successful, 
and in which he continued in Bakersfield until 
elected to his present responsible public posi- 
tion, when he closed out the best organized and 
conducted meat market and slaughtering busi- 
ness in the County. Sheriff Borgwardt's excel- 
lent business qualifications are a safe guarantee 
that the duties of the office which he has at this 
writing just assumed, will be performed in a 
manner alike creditable to himself and the 
Republican party. 

He has property in Kern County, both ranch 
and residence. He was one of the original 
organizers of, and stockholders in, the Bakers- 
field Water Company, and is a stockholder in 
the Bank of Bakersfield; is a member of the 
order of the K. of P., and a social, genial and 
popular citizen. 

He was married April 10, 1882 to Miss Nora 
C, daughter of Miller Smith, a pioneer of Kern 
County, a miller by occupation, and now retired 
from business. Mrs. Borgwardt is a native 
daughter, being born in Yisalia, Tulare County i 
aDd she has one daughter, Gertrude Louise } 
born August 18, 1884. 






ffACQUES DUSSERRE, of Sumner, was 
born in France in 1853. He came to 
America at eighteen years of age, and com- 
menced life as a sheep herder in Los Angeles 
County, California. Industry, frugal habits 
and economy soon enabled him to acquire a herd 
of sheep of his own, which he increased to 
about 3,000 head, and finally sold. He invested 



784 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



his money in his present property in Sumner. 
He owns real estate and one of the best regu- 
lated wine rooms in Sumner, which he person- 
ally superintends. 



X 



JTp^ENRY T. FREEAR, residing near Bakers. 

p:]] Held, was born in London, England, De- 
'wi cetnber 18. 1845. His father, Rev. H. T- 
Freear, presided over a parish in Norfolkshire, 
England, for many years, where he died, 
in 1852, leaving a widow and one son, the 
subject of this sketch. The mother re-married, 
came with her husband and son to this country, 
and located at De Kalb, Illinois, where she died 
in 1881. Henry T. came west as far as Cass 
County, Nebraska, where he engaged in farming 
six years, and then came to California and lo- 
cated in Kern County, his present home near 
Bakersfield. 

Mr. Freear was a soldier of the rebellion. 
He joined the Union army in De Kalb County. 
Illinois, in 1863; was mustered into the Seven- 
teenth Illinois Cavalry, and served until the 
close of the war. He was at that time only 
about nineteen years of age. 

Upon his return from the war he married 
Miss Mary Garlick. They have five children 
living. One is deceased. Mr. ^reear is a 
member of the G. A. R., Hulburt Post, No. 
127, Bakersfield. He is counted among Kern 
County's most upright and esteemed citizens. 



ILLIAM MONTGOMERY was among 
., the few very early-comers to Bakersfield, 
r^spsri and took an active part in its early de- 
velopment. He is a native of Ireland, born in 
County Longford, in 1841, and emigrated to 
Canada in 1865, where, in the city of Montreal, 
he learned the trade of tinner and plumber. 
After remaing there four years he came to San 
Francisco, via the Isthmus of Panama. He 
remained there but a short time, however, and 




in 1869 came to Kern County and entered the 
employ of Solomon Jewett. By faithful serv- 
ices and economy he was enabled to engage in 
the sheep-growing industry on his own account, 
in which enterprise he was successful, and 
which he pursued until 1869. He then closed 
out his stock, took up his residence in Bakers- 
field, and resumed his former business in the 
fall of that year. He owns and conducts one 
of the most complete tin and plumbing estab- 
lishments in the city of Bakersfield. It is lo- 
cated in the new Scribner Block. 

Mr. Montgomery was married, in 1876, to 
Miss Emma S., daughter of J. G. Benninger. 
She is a native daughter of the Golden West, 
born in Sierra- County, this State. They have a 
daughter, Agnes, and a son, William C. 

Mr. Montgomery is esteemed for his good 
qualities of heart; is an enterprising, yet safely 
conservative business man, taking an interest in 
the public affairs and welfare of this town and 
County. He is active in promoting the cause 
of education in Bakersfield, and his influence as 
as a member of the Board of School Trustees is 
salutary. He is a Master AVorkman of Justice 
Lodge, No. 81, A. O. U. W. 



JUl CHARE is one of the prominent figures 
WM of Kern County. A native of Ireland, 
*tc 9 he emigrated to America and settled in 
California in 1854, spending a brief time in 
Massachusetts. He is an enterprising business 
man, as his transactions in Kern County have 
shown. Prior to locating in Kern County in 
1869, he spent some time in Mariposa County 
and that region of country. At the latter 
named date he visited the United States land 
office at Visalia, where he made duplicate maps 
of Kern Island. He then visited the island 
and located thereon 250 acres of land adjoining 
the Bellevue ranch, which he still owns. He 
has been a leader in some of the political move- 
ments of the County, and was a member of the 
Board of Supervisors from 1882 to 1886. re 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



785 



ceiving the election in the face of 6trong oppo- 
sition and as an independent candidate. He 
made quite as independent and popular an offi- 
cial, his labors being in the direction of reform 
in local governmental affairs. He has taken an 
active part in irrigation matters, and is one of 
the originators of the Buena Vista Canal. Mr. 
O'Hare was born December 7, 1843. He is 
temperate in his habits and manner of speech, 
and is in all respects highly esteemed. 



D. HUDSON, a prominent vineyardist 
and fruit packer of Fresno County, was 
born in Bangor, Maine, in 1834. His 
father, S. D. Hudson, was an all-round business 
man, and emigrated to Ohio in 1840, where he 
followed farming, trading and a general business 
life. Young Hudson was educated at the Wes- 
leyan University and Oberlin College, and at 
eighteen years of age he started out in life to 
make or break, but dependent upon his own re- 
sources. Inheriting the business tact of his 
father and the indomitable will of New Eng- 
land's sons, he pressed forward, and passing 
successfully through a business career, from 
a commercial drummer to proprietor of a 
paper manufactory, he acquired general 
business habits of management and directorship, 
which were primal elements in his California 
success. 

Mr. Hudson came to California in 1870, and 
has since engaged in the improvent and man- 
agement of vineyards and the cultivation of the 
grape. He passed three years near Los Ane- 
les in the cultivation of fruit and vineyards, 
and in January, 1874, he came to Fresno County 
and bought twenty acres near the town, which he 
improved, and to which he has since added, un- 
til his vineyard now covers 275 acres, all in 
raisin grapes. He made the second pack of 
raisins in the County in 1877, and since then 
has packed or sold as the market best afforded. 
In 1890 he made a specialty of the packing 
business, opening his packing house on the 



corner of Santa Clara and H street in May, and 
receiving every variety of green fruit offered, 
suitable for either drying or canning. He has 
handled over 300 car loads of green and dried 
fruits, and has paid out over $250,000 therefor. 
During the season of 1890 he packed 100,000 
twenty-pound boxes of raisins, which are 
handled by A. Lu,sk & Co. of San Francisco. 
Mr. Hudson has had an extensive experience 
in the planting and care of vineyards, and for 
eight years was manager of the Fresno Vine- 
yard of 400 acres, which he also planted, and 
which was very prosperous while under his 
management. 

Mr. Hudson was married in Ohio in 1867 to 
Miss Ellen M. Allyn, and four children have 
been added to the household. 



■« =t-K 



>+&-- 



fA. YANCEY, rancher and hotel-keeper 
at Toll House, was born in Albemarle 
° County, Virginia, in 1833. His father, 
R. H. Yancey was for many years the Sheriff of 
same County, and also operated the well-known 
Yancey Mill. He emigrated to Joe Daviess 
County, Illinois in 1835, and then carried on 
general fanning. Young Yancey was educated 
at the public schools, and lived at home until 
1850, when he came across the plains to Cali- 
fornia. He came with the Miller & Harper 
Emigrant Train, who charged for transportation 
one-half of first year's receipts. The company 
was quite large, and they divided at the junction 
of the Fort Hall and Salt Lake route, and after 
traveling over 1,000 miles — as a singular coin- 
cidence — the trains again united with the union 
of the two trails, and arrived at Hangtown, Sep- 
tember 22, 1850. Young Yancey then followed 
mining in Amador County about one year, and 
in 1852 bought a team and began freighting 
from Stockton to the mining districts, which he 
followed until 1856, and then bought a ranch 
and ran a hotel on the north side of the San Joa- 
quin river. He followed ranching until 1858 
and then went into the stock business, which he 



786 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



followed until 1868. He then came to Toll 
House and bought a claim of about 900 acres 
and built a hotel 18x90 feet, with a dining 
room 20x40 feet, and he has since built up the 
town around him — consisting of six dwellings, 
box factory 30 x 80 feet, blacksmith shop, store 
and the necessary barns and outbuildings, all of 
which he owns and rents. He is ever ready to 
build for a renter, but says he has nothing to 
sell. 

Mr. Yancey went there without a dollar in 
ready cash, and the results speak volumes for 
his enterprise and business sagacity. He car- 
ries on general farming and all the decidious 
fruits grow to advantage. 

Mr. Yancey was married at Millerton in 1860 
to Mrs. Black, a widow with two children, a 
daughter of Judge Gillum Baley. Mr. and 
Mrs. Yancey have had nine children, but three 
only survive. They lost five children inside of 
eleven days in a terrible epidemic of diphtheria. 

Mr. Yancey was appointed postmaster of 
Toll House under the administration of Presi- 
dent Hayes in 1876. 

He was a charter member of the first Odd 
Fellow Lodge established at Millerton. 

^"6~M§* 

tH. CUM MINGS, the oldest telegraph 
operator in the United States and the 
13 present superintendent of streets of the 
city of Fresno, was born in New York City in 
1822. His father, James M. Cummings, was a 
wholesale dry-goods merchant of New York, 
but died when subject was a small lad. Young 
Cummings began mercantile life as clerk, at the 
early age of twelve years, which he followed 
about nine years. In 1843 he began his career 
in telegraphy, under his brother-in-law, Alfred 
Vail, who invented the instrument to apply to 
the Morse telegraph system, and subject re- 
ceived his first appointment under Samuel F. 
B. Morse, and for several years was directly 
connected with the business, in establishing and 
operating lines, and instructing operators. In 



1853 he was appointed general freight agent of 
the New Jersey Central Railroad, holding this 
position until 1856, when he came to California 
by steamer via the Isthmus of Panama, arriving 
in San Francisco in January, 1857. He came 
out under engagement as book-keeper for Van 
Winkle & Duncan, of Sacramento, who were 
wholesale iron dealers. In 1858 he was elected 
Justice of the Peace of Sacramento, and was 
also secretary of the tire department and clerk 
of the waterworks. He also had a ranch of 160 
acres, near town, which was flooded out in 1861 
at a loss of §36,000. In 1862 Mr. Cummings 
went to San Francisco as general freight agent of 
SanJoseand San Francisco Railroad, and was also 
elected Supervisor of the County. In 1864 he 
was appointed superintendent of the Alameda 
Railroad, holding this position until the fall of 
1867, when he entered the produce business, and 
in the spring of 1868 he returned to Sacramento 
and engaged in fruit shipping. He was the 
first shipper of California fruits to eastern 
markets, and going east witli the first car of 
California grapes he realized a net profit of 
$2,800. He also shipped the first car of Cali- 
fornia fresh salmon, which was sold at §1 per 
pound. His shipping business became very 
extensive —as high as 250 cars per year — and 
he became prominent in the shipping circles in 
all the leading cities in the East, and England 
and Germany. While in Europe in 1888, 
through unwise speculations of his partner in 
mining properties, the firm became involved, 
and business was wound up. Mr. Cummino-s 
then engaged in speculation in the coast towns 
until 1884, when he came to Fresno and took 
charge of the Farmers' Grain Warehouse until 
1887, when he was elected superintendent of 
streets, which position he has continuously held 
to date (1890), and on completion of sewer 
system, in 1890, he was elected superintendent 
of sewers. Having had a long connection with 
the fire department service, being an old volun- 
teer in New York City, and foreman for thir- 
teen years in Fresno, he organized the tire 
department of Fresno, and was chief for about 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



787 



eighteen months. When the system became 
well established and in running order, he then 
resigned. 

Mr. Cummings was first married in New 
York in 1844 to Miss Wilcox, who died 
in Sacramento, leaving two children. He 
was again married in San Francisco in 1882 to 
Miss Josephine Higgins, and this union has 
been blessed with one child. Mr. Cummings is 
a Master Mason; he is Past Commander of the 
American Legion of Honor; Past Noble Arch 
of Ancient Order of Druids; a member of Veter- 
an Fire Association of New York and San Fran- 
cisco, and an ex-Major of Seventh Regiment 
of New York. 



fUDGE CHARLES A. HART.— The only 
surviving resident of the once prosperous 
town of Millerton, was born in Geneva, 
New York, in 1820. 

His father, Trnman Hart, was a lawyer in 
early life and prominent in both law and poli- 
tics in that part of the State. At the time of 
the Embargo between the United States and 
England, he gave up practice and entered mer- 
cantile life, which was then a field for great spec- 
ulation. In 1825 he moved to Palmyra, New 
York, and during the excitement of the New 
York Safety Fund Banking System, which 
pledged all banks to redeem the notes of 
the others, he was elected State Senator on 
that issue, and when about to make a speech in 
the Senate, he was stricken with paralysis and 
died without regaining consciousness. 

The first bank organized under above issue, 
was the Bank of Geneva, which still exists, and 
it is said that no bank ever lost one dollar by 
that banking system, which for years was the 
popular system of the country. 

Young Hart attended the high school at 
Palmyra and graduated at the Genesee Wesleyan 
Seminary at Lima, New York, about 1840. 
Having made surveying and engineering a 
special branch of study, he then accepted a 



position of engineer on the New York & Erie 
Railroad in surveying and setting grades be- 
tween Elmira and Binghampton. In 1841 he 
returned to Palmyra and began the study of law 
in the office of Judge Theron R. Strong, where 
he remained until 1845. He then formed a co- 
partnership with Albert G. Heminway in the 
practice of law, and continued about one year 
when he gave up practice and went to New 
York and entered the wool business with Win. 
K. Strong; remaining until December, 1848, 
he joined a party of forty men from 
Massachusetts and started for California by 
steamer to Brazos, Texas, then overland through 
Texas and Arizonia, and across the Big Desert, 
entering California at the south, then journey- 
ing north through Los Angeles and into the San 
Joaquin valley, arriving at Hill's Ferry August 
7, 1849. Then forward to the Merced river near 
which they found . an old Mexican cart, aban- 
doned, but containing two gold rockers, which 
they appropriated and took with thein to the 
mines, though with no knowledge of the neces- 
sary mining instruments. On the river they met 
Captain Cutter, a captain under General Taylor 
in the Mexican war, who was familiar with 
mining, and under his instructions they began 
operations at a camp near by, and the Cutter 
camp and that of Hart and Johnson still retain 
their names, and the relation with Captain Cut- 
ter always continued very cordial. Mr. Hart 
and party mined for two seasons, making one 
pound of gold each day, and in 1853 the Judge 
settled at Fort Miller, later changed to Miller- 
ton, then in Merced County and resumed the prac- 
tice of his profession. Upon the organization 
of Fresno County in 1856, Millerton became the 
county seat, and Mr. Hart was then elected the 
first County Judge. Upon the expiration of his 
term he again resumed his practice, continuing 
until 1874, when the county seat was changed 
to Fresno, and owing to failing health the Judge 
then gave up his practice, and has since devoted 
himself to the interests of ranching. He owns 
2,000 acres of land, but his interests are mainly 
in stock — both cattle and horses. 



788 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Judge Hart is the pioneer fruit grower in the 
County. To gratify his children he planted 
orange and other seeds about 1878, in an ex- 
perimental way, bringing water in buckets frim 
adjoining springs to keep up irrigation. His 
trees grew remarkably and his orange trees are 
now giants in size and very productive, and all 
other fruits in proportion. 

Judge Hart was married at Millerton in 1865 
to Mrs. Anna McKenzie, a widow with three 
children by her first marriage. Mr. and Mrs. 
Hart have one son, Truman Hart, who was born 
in April, 1866. 

Upon the abandoning of Fort Miller in 1863, 
Judge Hart bought all the buildings then .com- 
prising the fort at public auction, and there he 
still resides, using the Government buildings 
for his residence, and monarch of the once busy 
town and surrounding country. 

-*~ — ;=3> « dr> J-^aV i f • — -<**- 

§C. RICE, rancher, of Tulare County, 
was born on the ranch near Visalia in 
® 1868. His father, G. F. Rice, a native 
of Indiana, emigrated to California in 1852, 
and worked in the mines until 1858, when he 
settled on the ranch in Tulare County, and en- 
gaged in the stock business, and died in 1885, 
leaving three children, — two sons and one 
daughter. Our subject was educated in the 
private normal school of Visalia, and continues 
to live on the ranch which he and his brother, 
James Rice, now operate. The ranch contains 
3,500 acres. They farm 500 acres in grain, and 
use balance for grazing. They keep 250 head 
of horses, and breed from Norman trotting and 
running stallions, getting a good colt for gen- 
eral business purposes. They also keep 600 
head of cattle, part of graded Durhams and 
part full-blood Devons, leasing additional graz- 
ing land and having a fine mountain range. 
Subject also owns 876 acres of wood land, 
heavy oak timber. This he is clearing, selling 
large quantities to the South Pacific Railroad 
Company, and also supplying small dealers. In 



August, 1890, he started a coal and wood-yard 
in Fresno, where he carries a large stock and 
does an extensive business, decidedly the lead- 
ing business of the city. 



fAMES LINDSEY, one of the respected 
pioneers of Kern County, came to Cali- 
fornia in 1852, from Knox County, Illi- 
nois. He was born in Tippecanoe County, 
Indiana, August 22, 1832. His father, John 
A. Lindsey, was a fanner, and a native of Ohio. 
James grew tired of the monotony of farm life 
in Knox County, and desired to see the Golden 
West, of which he had read so much. Upon 
his arrival in California he, like many others, 
trie! his skill or good luck in the mining 
regions. The result with him, however, was 
not sufficiently satisfactory to induce him to 
continue the deal, and he took up the occupa- 
tion of stationary engineer at Havilah, Kern 
County, and later superintended quartz-mining 
mills in Oregon. In 1880 he came to Sumner, 
and engaged in the hotel business, his present 
situation being the popular landlord of the 
Lindsey Hotel. 

tHARLES MOORE was born in Canada 
West in 1818, in the town of Norwich, 
Oxford County, where his father carried 
on general farming and the stock business. He 
lived at home and assisted with the farm work 
until 1868, when he started for California, first 
going to New York City, where he took the 
steamer and journeyed by the Isthmus of 
Panama, arriving in San Francisco, March 23, 
1868. He settled at Milpitas, Santa Clara 
County, and farmed for two years, then went to 
Hollister, San Benito County, where he con- 
tinued wheat farming, and worked about 300 
acres, remaining four years. He was married 
at Hollister, October 5, 1873, and then came to 
Fresno County and settled at Liberty, of which 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



789 



town lie was one of the first settlers. He bought 
320 acres of land, and engaged in the stock 
business, raising horses and cattle, and keeping 
about fifty head. In 1887 he sold out and 
came to Washington colony, and bought sixty 
acres on the corner of East and South ave- 
nues, at the average price of $30 per acre. 
He began improving, and in 1890 sold twenty 
acres, partly improved, for $3,000, still retain- 
ing forty acres, which are improved in vines, 
orchard and alfalfa He has built a nice two- 
story house and barn, 32 x 54 feet, and when 
one realizes the fact that he came with very 
little money, and made all improvements from 
the products of the soil, one must confess that 
he is a " rustler," and has met with general suc- 
cess. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have seven children, 
all living at home, and five of them are now at- 
tending school. Mr. Moore also owns 240 
acres of land on the West side, and 160 acres of 
timber culture on Fine Kidge. He keeps 
twenty-four head of horses and fifteen head of 
cattle, and does a general speculative business 
in stock and real estate, with an eye always open 
to speculative opportunities. 

«A.PTAIN DANIEL McLOUGHLIN* 
vineyardist at Oleander, was born in Nova 
Scotia in November, 1823. His father, 
Daniel McLoughlin, was in the British army, 
and while a cadet was with General Wellington 
as despatch-carrier at the battle of Waterloo, in 
1815. His horse was shot under him, and' 
while walking he was wounded and carried from 
the field. He was later sent with his regiment 
to New Brunswick, but they were wrecked on 
the coast of Halifax, and were there discharged. 
Subject's mother was a native of Halifax, and in 
1813 she attended the funeral of Captain Law- 
rence, who was captain of the American frigate 
Chesapeake, and was killed in Boston bay while 
in action with the British ship Shannon. Cap- 
tain Lawrence's last words were, "Don't give 
up the ship." 



Daniel McLoughlin was married in Halifax, 
and then settled in Nova Scotia, and in 1828 
he moved to the island of Grand Menan, where 
he died March 9, 1862. Young McLoughlin, 
with a very limited education, began his seafar- 
ing life at the age of thirteen years, shipping 
from Eastport, Maine, as a common hand on 
that class of ship which performed the West 
India and coast trade. After twelve years of 
faithful service he was promoted from seaman 
to the honorable position of captain of the brig 
S. G. Bass. After gold was discovered in Cali- 
fornia, in 1848, Captain McLoughlin made his 
first deep sea voyage as captain of the Gray 
Feather, a full-rigged clipper ship, and sailed 
from New York to San Francisco with a gen- 
eral cargo. Freights were so high in those 
early days that the freight on cargo amounted 
to more than the value of the ship. From San 
Francisco he sailed for Batavia 1 sland, Cal- 
cutta, London, Wales, and back to New York — 
a voyage ot eighteen months. Captain Mc- 
Loughlin followed the sea forty-six years, and 
was master of the ship thirty-four years. He 
rounded Cape Horn forty-two times, and sailed 
three times around the world. He has visited 
every seaport of the world of any note. He has 
owned many vessels, and was usually interested 
in the ships he sailed. .The ships which he has 
sailed as captain are ^Etos, Western Empire, 
steamer Cassandra, clipper ships Swallow, Her- 
ald of the Morning, Glory of the Seas. As 
incidents of his experiences, the Captain learned 
of the firing on Fort Sninpter while in England. 
Having just sold his ship, he immediately took 
the steamer for New York, and as captain of 
the Western Empire, during the rebellion he 
was connected with the transport service. He 
took a cargo of 200 horses, provender, coal and 
500 tons of ammunition, to supply General But- 
ler at City Island, and in one storm fifty-eight 
of his horses died in their slings from fright 
and sickness, and he lost 100 on the voyage. He 
also carried supplies for General Banks while at 
Fort Hudson. He took a cargo of supplies to 
the French during their invasion of Mexico, 



790 



HISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and while lying at anchor at Vera Cruz during 
a hurricane nine ships were blown ashore. The 
Captain foresaw the storm, and dismantled his 
ship, and with all anchor's out was enabled to 
ride the storm. The last ship the Captain sailed 
was the Glory of the Seas. On one of his last 
voyages from San Francisco to Havre, with 
3,400 tons of grain, the captain met a hurricane 
in the south latitude, and for sixteen hours was 
hove on his beam ends, through the shifting of 
cargo, but by careful seamanship he weathered 
the storm and reached Valparaiso, where he un- 
loaded 2,800 tons to properly relay his cargo. 
The Captain made six trips to Liverpool in the 
same ships with a cargo of grain, and on his ar- 
rival in San Francisco in 1883 he retired from 
the sea, at the age of sixty years, after a long 
and faithful service. 

Captain McLonghlin was first married at 
Eastport, Maine, August 20, 1848, to Miss 
Hannah Corbett, who was his frequent com- 
panion on his long voyages, and who died in 
Maldon, Massachusetts, in 1867, leaving two 
sons and two daughters. The Captain was mar- 
ried a second time at Eastport, Maine, May 14j 
1868, to Miss Maggie Benson, who thereafter 
lived upon the sea until the captain retired. 

Captain McLonghlin has been a member of 
the Boston Marine Society since 1871. The so- 
ciety is an old and very rich benefit society, and 
was organized when this country was still a 
British colony. 

fEOJRGE EDWARDS, Veterinary Sur- 
geon of Fresno, was born in York 
County, Pennsylvania, in 1850. He 
attended the common schools, and graduated 
from the high school in 1868. Beinar a natural 
judge and admirer of the horse, he then settled 
at Philadelphia, where he trained and handled 
fine horses until 1872, when herealized the neces- 
sity of medicine in his business. He then began 
the study of medicine with Dr. Ward, and of 
surgery with Prof. Corbin, and then raking a 



course at the New York Veterinary College, he 
graduated in 1875. He then established a horse 
infirmary in connection with his training stable 
in Philadelphia, and later, opened one at Ilemp- 
sted, Long Island. He also opened a large and 
very complete infirmary and training-stable at 
Savannah, Georgia, where he remained five 
years. This was the finest infirmary south of 
Baltimore. In December, 1887, Dr. Edwards 
came to Los Angeles, and in March, 1888, came 
to Fresno, where he pr. ctices his profession. 
He has opened an infirmary on Q street, be- 
tween Mono and Ventura, with every conven- 
ience to conduct the business properly. 

Dr. Edwards was married in Philadelphia in 
1886, to Miss Jennie Van Ness, and the union 
has been blessed with one child, Clara Edwards. 
The Doctor has trained and handled many of 
the tine horses, and has been very successful in 
improving and even changing gaits, and in 
medicine and surgery feels competent to handle 
every disease of horse or any four-footed animal. 



— #^y 



iW^s* 



fj. BABER, manager of the Eisen Vine- 
yard, was born in London, England, in 
a 1855. After completing his education 
he went to the Cape of Gool Hope, and there 
engaged in the mercantile business for two 
years, and in 1874 came to the United States. 
He passed one year as clerk in Nevada City and 
then came to San Francisco, where he followed 
mercantile pursuits until 1880, wheu he came 
to the Eisen Vineyard at Fresno, to learn the 
cellar duties connected witli the wine business. 
Being quick to learn he soon mastered the busi- 
ness, and in 1882 became manager of the entire 
vineyard in all its departments. 

Mr. Baber was married in Fresno, in 1887, to 
Miss Margaret Bennett, a native of Sunderland, 
England. 

The celebrated Eisen Vineyard, which con- 
tains an area of 650 acres, was purchased by 
Francis Theodore Eisen, in 1872, at $10 per 
acre. He first plowed and planted five acres in 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



791 



Malaga grapes; of 250,000 cuttings 150,000 
died. These were the first grapes planted in 
Fresno County. Everybody predicted a failure, 
but he persisted in his intentions and in 1874) 
125 acres were in vines. He was alone in the 
business until 1876, when the Central colony 
was started, and then other small vineyards were 
planted; but for years the Eisen Vineyard was 
the show place of the valley, and people visited 
it from all parts of the country. They now 
have 400 acres in vines and are adding from 
year to year, as their continued testing of vines 
proved their adaptability to the wine industry. 
Ultimately they intend setting the entire acre- 
age in vines. The vineyard is of the wine grape> 
excepting a very small acreage in Muscats; but 
the purpose of the vineyard is the manufacture 
of wine, of which they make, annually, about 
200,000 gallons; and the character of their 
ports and sherrys have become widely celebrated. 
The cellars cover an area of 120 x 280 feet with 
a storage capacity of 1,000,000 gallons. 

■ ■ ■■■ .% ■ * ■ { ■ % ■■■ » ■ . 



A. BARKER, the City Marshal of Fresno, 
was born in La Fayette County, Missouri, 
September 5, 1853, where his father, 
William Barker, died about 1855. In 1856 
Mrs. Barker and children, with her father, Al- 
len Helm, emigrated to California and settled 
in Merced County, and there young Barker re- 
ceived a very limited education, only attending 
school during the winter months. At the age 
of fourteen years he began earning his own 
living in herding cattle, and in 1871 he began 
farming and trading in stock and fattening hogs 
for the markets. 

Mr. Barker was married in Merced County, 
in 1876, to Miss Frankie Taylor. He then set- 
tled in Plainsburg, and was elected Constable 
and was appointed Deputy Sheriff under A. J. 
Meany, serving in that capacity for four years. 
He was also interested in the silver mines at 
Mammoth City, but the mining was too expen- 
sive, so gave that up. In 1880 Mr. Barker 



moved to Tulare County and engaged in wheat 
farming for two years and then came to Fresno 
and started a dray business, keeping three drays 
and also running an express wagon, and during 
1883 attended to the delivery for Wells, Fargo 
& Co. In 1884 ne sold out, and was appointed 
Deputy Sheriff under O. J. Mead, and in 1886 
was elected Constable, and in May, 1889, was 
appointed City Marshal, to fill the unexpired 
term of J. H. Bartlett. 

Mr. and and Mrs. Barker have one child, 
Elsie, who was born October 31, 1884, and they 
reside at 1,036, M street, where Mr. Barker 
built his cottage home in 1887. He is a mem- 
ber of Fresno Lodge, No. 247, F. & A. M., and 
of Trigo Chapter, No. 99, R. A. M., and of 
Vineland Lodge, No. 186, Knights of Pythias. 

fOSEPH BORDEN, rancher, near the town 
of Borden, was born in Carteret County, 
North Carolina, in 1830, where the family 
had resided for generations. His father, Ben- 
jamin Borden, was a native of North Carolina, 
but moved to Green County, Alabama, in 1833, 
where he had extensive plantations of 3,000 
acres. Joseph Borden t was educated at the high 
school, which was superintended by Prof. Henry 
Tutwiler, one of the great educators of that 
country, and be graduated therefrom in 1850. 
He was married in Green County in Febnrary, 
1851, to Miss Francis S. Gray, and they then 
settled upon a plantation of 600 acres, where 
he followed the growing of cotton, which he 
continued until the spring of 1868, when labor 
became unreliable, and he came to California to 
prospect, and being so well pleased with the 
country, he returned to Alabama, sold his plan- 
tation, and in the fall of 1868 started with his 
family for California on a steamer by the Isthmus 
of Panama. He then settled upon his present 
ranch of 320 acres, under the homestead and 
pre-emption laws, and was one of the original 
Alabama settlers who were among the earliest 
settlers in that part of the valley. Borden was 



793 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



named after his uncle, Dr. Joseph Borden. 
Mr. Borden planted twenty acres of vines in 
1883, but all were destroyed by grasshoppers. 
He then put in 100 acres of alfalfa, and has 
followed stock and grain tanning up to 1801, 
when he planted forty acres in Muscat and Sul- 
tana vines, and he will improve from year to 
to year until the entire ranch is set. The early 
settlers endured great hardships from dry years, 
little knowledge of farming and loss ot crops; 
but as irrigation was developed the prospects 
brightened, and his ever-abiding faith in the 
country is being fully realized. Mr. and Mrs. 
Borden have nine children, three of whom are 
at home and the balance are scattered about 
California in various occupations. Mr. Borden 
has never had political aspirations, but has de- 
voted his time to his family and ranch interests. 



«=3r*<§ 






<*S> 



Pf RANK BAKER, one of the business men 
M of Visalia, was born in Placerville, El 



**3^ Dorado County, December 17, 1858. He 
is the son of Martin Baker, a prominent phy- 
sician and early settler of California. He was 
born in January, 1827, in Pickaway County, 
Ohio, and was educated at the Galesburg Col- 
lege, Illinois, and in 1847 was graduated from 
a medical college in Ohio. In 1865 he re- 
ceived a diploma from Rush Medical College at 
Chicago, and practiced in the East. He came 
to California in 1852; settled at Placerville, El 
Dorado County, and was the first County phy- 
sician. In 1859 he removed to Visalia with 
his family, and was physician of Tulare County 
for twelve years. He was a member of the 
State Medical Society, and was twice elected 
one of its vice-presidents, and represented it in 
the American Medical Association in 1876. He 
was commissioned in 1875 pension surgeon for 
the southern district of California. In 1862-63 
he held the position of surgeon of the Second 
California Volunteer Cavalry. For years he 
was a contributor to the medical press of all 
cases which he deemed worthy of reporting. 



Dr. Baker married in Peoria, Illinois, to Miss 
Mary Barr, a native of that place. There were 
born to them for children, of whom onlj the 
subject of this sketch is the surviver. His 
father died in 1880. Mr. Baker is of English 
extraction. 

His grandfather, John Baker, wa9 an English 
clergyman of the Episcopal church. On the 
maternal side they were of Scotch lineage. Mr. 
Baker was educated in California, finishing his 
studies at McClure's College. He began busi- 
ness as a druggist in 1879, and has enjoyed a 
good patronage. He affiliates with the Masonic 
fraternity and in politics with the Republican 
party. He gives close attention to his business, 
and has a high standing in commercial circles. 



-& 



->.,-.<-4=5. 



J||OBERT PIERCE GRANT is one of the 

fl\l reliable business men of Visalia and an 
"^ early settler of California, coming to this 
State in 1860. He was born in Milton. Massa- 
chusetts, on April 7, 1832. He is of Scotch 
ancestry, his grandfather, Luther Grant, having 
been born in Scotland and early sailing to 
America. He settled in Massachusetts where 
Mr. Grant's father, Whitley Grant, was bora. 
He married Miss Jane Pierce, a native of Mas- 
sachusetts. She was a second cousin of Presi- 
dent Franklin Pierce. There were born to them 
five children, of whom two are living. Mr. 
Grant worked on his father's farm while a boy, 
and was sent to school about three months in 
the year. He afterward learned the jeweler's 
trade., and worked at it some time, when he 
came to California in 1860. He then engaged 
as a salesman in the furniture business, first 
for W. J. Stranger, four years, and then for 
John Nelson till he sold out. In 1S72 he came 
to Visalia and opened a confectionery, which he 
run ten years, and then added to it. the baking 
business. He has continued it since, having the 
leading establishment of the town, in connec- 
tion with which he has an ice cream parlor. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



793 



lie is also engaged in wheat raising, having 160 
acres of laud on Tale river. 

In 1860 lie was married to Miss Annie 
Chapin, a native of Boston. They have three 
sons, born in California, namely: Austin W., 
Herbert M. and Robert E., all residents of 
Visalia. In politics Mr. Grant is a Republican, 
and has been a member of the 1. O. O. F. for 
the past twenty years. He is also a member of 
the A. O. U. W. He owns the store in which 
he does business on the south side of Main street 
between G-arden and Church streets. In 1882 
he built a pleasant home, corner of Oak and 
John streets, where he resides in contentment 
with his family. He is a successful business 
man, whose religion is the Golden Rule. 



fAMUEL DINELEY, one of the early 
settlers of Visalia, came to California in 
1854. He is a native of England, born 
October 17, 1829. His father, Samuel Dineley, 
was an Englishman and a small farmer. He 
was a member of the Episcopal Church. He 
emigrated to America with his family, and 
settled in New York in 1840, residing there 
twelve years. Samuel was sent to school in 
New York City and began the barber's trade 
there in 1846. When they removed to New 
Orleans in 1852 he continued the barber busi 
ness and secured a position as barber on the 
steamer Wmfield Scott, running between New 
Orleans and Cincinnati. In 1853 he engaged 
to drive cattle to California, spending the winter 
at Salt Lake. He came to Volcano, Amador 
County, and mined a little, but was engaged 
principally in the barber's business. When he 
left there in 1855 he went to Fort Miller, 
and from there in 1858 to Visalia, which was 
then a town of about 200 inhabitants. He 
has resided in this place continuously for the 
past thirty-three years, and has seen all the 
phases of the settlement and growth of the 
town. He opened the first barber shop in 
Tulare County and carried on the business for 

50 



thirty-one years in the same locality. He owns 
the lot on which the shop stood since 1858. In 
1888 he opened a variety store in the same 
locality, and he is in that business now. He 
was married On April 3, 1861, to Miss Char- 
lotte E. Kellenburg, a native of Washington 
City, who was raised at Alton, Illinois. There 
have been born to then in Visalia eleven chil- 
dren, tea of whom are living. The oldest, 
Cora L., is the wife of A. O. Miller; Kate is 
the wife of Hardy Kelsey; George is a sur- 
veyor; Florence and Josephine are both single; 
Fanny is tb.3 wife of William Hines; the other 
children are Lou, Clarence, Eve and Harry, all 
born in the same house, which the father built 
in 1861, and to which he has since made addi- 
tions. 

Mr. Dineley has always been a Republican in 
politics, and voted at the first election held in 
Fresno County. He is one of the respected 
early settlers of the County, who will be re- 
membered long; after he has passed away as an 
obliging, kind-hearted and loyal citizen. 

I AMES and J. W. ARMSTRONG, com- 
prising the firm of Armstrong Brothers, 
the proprietors of the Club stables of 
Fresno, were born in Shelby County, Illinois, 
and emigrated to California with their father, 
Washington Armstrong, in I860, and settled in 
San Joaquin County, where they engaged in 
farming and stock-raising. In 1862 they came 
to Fresno County and settled near the Toll 
House, engaging in the same pursuits. In 1876 
they moved to Fresno city and opened their ex- 
tensive feed yard on the corner of L and Kern 
streets, with a stable and carriage building, 
50 x 150 feet, to accommodate their general 
livery business. The father and sons were in 
partnership up to his death, in 1886, and the 
sons continue the business and live with their 
mother at 1,131, M street. They also own 
eighty acres at Fairview. They attend strictly 
to business and by their uniform good nature 



794 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



and fair treatment, have secured a very lucrative 
patronage. 

§UKE SIMPSON LIPSCOMB, Treasurer 
of the County of Tulare, now in his third 
term, is a native of Kentucky, born in 
Madison County, in 1844; he was taken to 
Missouri when six weeks old and was raised and 
educated in that State. His father, Dobney 
Lipscomb, had his birth in Kentucky, but re- 
sided for some years in Missouri, engaged in 
fanning. He died when the subject of this 
sketch was five years old and Duke S. resided 
with his uncle, Jack Harris, in Westport, Mis- 
souri. The great civil war burst upon the 
country when young Lipscomb was seventeen 
years old, his sympathies being with his 
people of the South. He enlisted in the State 
Guard and afterward in Company A, Sixth 
Missouri and served with General Price till 
1862. He was engaged in the battles of Lex- 
ington and Pea Ridge, crossed the Mississippi 
witli Price, joined Beauregard at Corinth, and 
participated in the series of fights. Then, in 
the fall of 1862, while making a charge on the 
enemies' breastworks he received a grape-shot 
in his right arm which disabled him for a few 
months. On his recovery he joined his regi- 
ment and fought at Port Gibson and at Grand 
Gulf against Grant's forces. In the battle of 
Champion Hill he was wounded slightly in the 
head. He afterward participated in the fight- 
ing at Big Black Bridge and at Vicksburg. He 
was again wounded in the knee and ankle by 
the explosion of a shell. He was taken prisoner, 
paroled and exchanged and joined General 
Johnson's army, before the advance of Sherman 
into Georgia. He participated in the Georgia 
campaign and then followed the fortunes of 
General Hood on his Tennessee campaign. He 
was in the battle of Altoona. At Franklin in 
a charge on the breastworks there, November 
80, 1864, he received a shot in his left arm 
from a soldier directly in front of him and he 



has never regained the use of his arm; he was 
again taken to Camp Chase, in Ohio, and was 
sent from there to Richmond and thence to Mo- 
bile, being surrendered with his command at 
Jackson, Mississippi, receiving a final parole as 
the great strife was over. He had been a most 
valiant soldier, participating in all the engage- 
ments of his company, often when quite unfit 
for service and when he could have been ex- 
cused if he had so desired. He believed that 
the cause was a just one and his part as a soldier 
was to do his duty. When the war was over he 
went six months to school, and came to Cali- 
fornia in the spring of 1866 He drove a four- 
mule team to Salt Lake City, and came Marin 
County from San Francisco, keeping books both 
there and at Stockton. After this he encracred 
in sheep raising and farming, and in 1872 came 
to Tulare County and to Visalia in 1887, where 
he lias since resided. He owns a grain and stock 
ranch three miles northeast of Tipton. He 
was twice nominated by acclamation by the 
Democratic party as a candidate for Treasurer 
and was elected both times. 

In 1874 he was married to Miss Mary Jane 
Woods, a native of California. They have had 
four children, three of whom are living: Will- 
iam, Rachel and Earl. Mr. Lipscomb is wide- 
awake and a most reliable citizen of Tulare 
County. 

#s^-%¥ 



JpDWIN R. PEASE, one of the prominent 
\ffijL business men of Visalia, is one of the 
«^ early settlers of California, coming to this 
State in 1859. He was born in McHenry 
County, Illinois, May 29, 1839. His ancestry 
dates back to the settlement of the colonies, in 
the early history of America. His father, 
Enos A. Pease, was born in Vermont, lie 
married Lucy Finley, a native of Ohio, and a 
niece of the noted James 13. Finley. Mr. 
Pease was the oldest of a family of six children. 
He attended the public schools, and the Whea- 
ton and Morenzo Colleges, and became a school 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



795 



teacher for a short time. In 1859 he came to 
California in searcli of better business oppor- 
tunities, and a better place to live. He settled 
at Georgetown, El Dorado County, and taught 
school for a short time. He then engaged in 
lumbering a few years and became interested in 
the California Water and Mining Company, in 
which he remained four years. He sold out and 
went to Gait, Sacramento County, and engaged 
in mercantile pursuits, with a partner, therefor 
three years. In 1884 he came to Visalia, and 
opened the Grangers union hardware establish- 
ment; thip business under his able management 
lias been a success from the start; they now 
carry a large stock of shelf hardware, ranching 
and farm implements, and tools of all descrip- 
tions, wagons and carriages. The business has 
grown to large proportions. In addition to his 
mercantile interests, he owns a raisin vineyard 
in Fresno County, of 140 acres, a very profita- 
ble investment. In Tulare County he has 
4.160 acres of land, on which he is raising 
wheat and other grain. 

Mr. Pease was married in 1867, to Miss 
Mary Carlock, a native of the State of Ohio. 
They . have three children born in California, 
namely, Frank M., "Walter R., Effa L. 

Mr. Pease is a member of the A. O. U. W. 
and is a Royal Arch Mason, a K. of P., and a 
member of the Tulare County Grange. He is 
a worthy and reliable business man. 



|j||AUL GALTES.— Kern, like other leading 
'0? coun ties of California, owes her prominence 
T: and prosperity to what may be termed a 
'•corporal's guard," or a faithful, few, cool-headed 
and aggressive pioneers. These pioneers as a 
rule, were determined men, who came to Cali- 
fornia for a definite and most laudable purpose, 
namely, to better their condition in life b t y en- 
gaging in legitimate business, developing the 
material resources of the country, rearing their 
families, and earning for themselves and their 
posterity, a name and competency. They were 



far from being capitalists, but generally speak- 
ing, were men of moderate means, their chief 
capital being a clear brain and willing hands. 
Paul Galtes of Bakersfield, one of this type 
of pioneers, located in Kern County in 1871, 
when it was in its very infancy—when Bakers- 
field was little more than an inland frontier trad- 
ing post. What he has there accomplished will 
be seen by the following brief narration of the 
facts touching his life's experiences. Mr. 
Galtes was born of humble parentage, in the 
town of Villafranca, province of Catalunia, 
Spain, October 18, 1842. His father, Paul 
Galtes, was a village blacksmith, respected in 
his community. Of his eight children, Paul, 
the subject of this sketch, and an older brother, 
Felix, were the only ones who left their native 
land and came to the new world. The latter 
located in Central America. He was educated 
for the priesthood, came north to S in Francisco, 
and finally returned to Spain, where he has since 
resided. Paul went from Spain to the West 
Indies, located on the island of Cuba, engaging 
in mercantile pursuits as salesman and business 
manager for about eight years. Upon the 
breaking out of a political revolution in that 
country in 1868, he embarked for California 
and came to San Francisco. After a brief stay 
in the '• Gate City," he went to Los Angeles and 
spent two years as a student at St. Vincent's i 
and there acquired a practical knowledge of the 
English language. Two and one-half years after 
his arrival in California, he took up his resi- 
dence in Bakersfield and engaged in merchan- 
dising on a modest scale, and gave years of dil- 
igent and painstaking labor to the business 
which laid the foundation of a handsome estate. 
His enterprise, methods of business and agree- 
able manners gained for him a wide-spread and 
a merited popularity. As the circumstances 
warranted, he judiciously invested his accumu- 
lations in real estate at his own town, and the 
wisdom of this policy is verified by the value of 
the property he now owns. This fact may be 
utilized as a practical suggestion to young men 
to locate somewhere and invest their earnings 



790 



HISTORT OF CBhTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



in the realty of young and promising towns. 
Mr. Galtes continued in active business pursuits 
until about 1387, when he retired from mer- 
chandising. He invested his money in various 
productive local enterprises, and has since 
devoted a large share of his time to the enjoy- 
ment of the privileges so well earned by a 
thrifty and successful business man. He is one 
of the stockholders of the Southern Hotel Com- 
pany, whose hotel is the pride of Central Cali- 
fornia in general, and Bakersfield in particular. 
He is also a stockholder and director of the 
Bank of Bakersfield. Besides one of the finest 
and most spacious business blocks in Bakersfield, 
he owns other business and residence property, 
and a fine vineyard three miles south of the city- 
Mr. Galtes has never been slow to encourage all 
public movements tending to the development 
of his town and County. He is a strong friend 
and ready supporter of California's free and 
broad educational system, which has become th e 
pride of the Golden State. He is liberal and 
generous in his religious views, according to al] 
people equal rights to their own religious opin- 
ions. Not avaricious in money matters, he has 
verified his beliefs that money in the main is 
for the masses and not for the few, by retiring 
from the field of active money warfare, and leav- 
ing the battle grounds open for other con- 
querors. 

In 1886, he, with his family, made an exten- 
sive trip of the continent of Europe, and now 
spends his summers at various points on the 
coa:-t. 

Mr. Galtes was married in 1874, at San Fran- 
cisco, to Miss Mariana Laxague, a most esti- 
mable young lady of French nativity, and they 
have two sons: Paul, born October 24, 1878; 
and Felix, bora August 18, 1880; and two 
daughters: Amelia, born February 6, 1879; 
and Lucy, born March 30, 1886. 

It is Mr. Galtes' native force of character and 
frank honesty of purpose that have placed him 
in the front rank of Central California's most 
successful business men, and his genial manners 
and many social qualities that have made him 



widely popular, and drawn about him a wide 
circle of friends. 

- : )^ |. l4& c — : » 



tRTHUR C. NEILL, Justice of the Peace 
and Justice of the Probate Court of the 
City of Visalia, is one of the early settlers 
of California. lie was born in Clay County. 
Kentucky. July 18, 1818. His parents, Daniel 
and Isabella (Carnett) Neill were both born in 
Virginia. Their ancestors originated in Scot- 
land, and settled in Virginia when it was a 
colony. Mr. "Neill's father died when lie was 
three weeks old; he grew to manhood in Ken- 
tucky, and acquired the blacksmith's trade. He 
removed to Missouri, afterward returned to 
Kentucky, and left London March 29, 1850, for 
California; he arrived on the 28th of Augnst, 
1850. He was in the State just twelve days 
before it was admitted into the Union; he has 
lived in the State forty one years, and has seen 
all its wonderful development and growth. It 
was then a vast wilderness, now it blossoms as 
the rose. His first business in California was 
to dig in the mines in Placer County; then he 
engaged in merchandising, keeping miners' 
supplies; he made some money, purchased an 
interest in the California House and managed it 
eighteen years. In the meantime he sold it. w :is 
in business in Sacramento, returned and pur- 
chased the house again. It wa> situated six 
miles above Auburn, and when the railroad was 
built it took the travel from the house; the 
property depreciated in value, so Mr. Neill sold 
out and came to Tulare County. In June, 1869 
he took up a ranch of 160 acres of land, farmed 
it, sold his claim, going to Kingston. Fresno 
County, where he opened a blacksmith shop. 
He also ran the hotel for a while in that town. 
In 1874 he came to Visalia and was in the sa- 
loon business six years; then he sold out and 
went to Mineral King anil purchased an inter- 
est in a sawmill; he operated this two years and 
lost his money in the transaction. He returned 
to Visalia and again engaged in the saloon busi- 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



797 



ness. Soon after lie was elected Justice of the 
Peace and Police Justice, and these offices he 
has held for the past twelve or fourteen years; 
he has just received a renomination for the place 
by the Democratic party. He purchased a good 
home in Visalia in 1886. 

His marriage occurred in 1855 to Miss Vir- 
ginia Surface. They have two daughters, Allie, 
now the wife of J. 1. Jordan, and Estella. 

Mr. Neill is one of the very old Master Ma- 
sons, having united with them in 1847. 



-<$<*< 



»■»>£=- 



SAXE is a native of Missouri, and was 
born in Andrain County, November 20, 
1852. His father, Jackson Saxe, was a 
native of Pennsylvania, and emigrated to Mis- 
souri in 1835, and was quite extensively en- 
gaged in farming. Young Saxe was educated in 
the high schools of Missouri, and at the age of 
eighteen years began learning the trade of plas- 
tering, which he followed until 1879, when he 
came to California; he first settled at Modesto and 
later in Fresno County, where he found employ 
ment upon a sheep ranch, and in 1882 entered 
into the business, purchasing sheep and locating 
at Lanesburg, Merced County, where he 
also operated a hotel. In 1884 he closed out 
his interests and came to Madera and purchased 
a residence on east one-half of block forty- 
five, and was engaged in the general merchan- 
dise store of H. S. Williams, remaining about 
one year, and then with the Chapin Commer- 
cial Company. In 1887 Mr. Saxe engaged in 
mercantile business with A. Colin, but after 
eighteen months the partnership was dissolved 
and he started a boot and shoe store on To Se- 
mite avenue, which he still continues. 

Mr. Saxe was married at the Daulton ranch, 
called " Shepard's Home " in 1882, to Miss Ida 
Daulton. They have two children, Myrtle and 
Enslen Clay. 

Mr. Saxe is a charter member of Madera 
Lodge, No. 327, I. O. O. F., and has been secre- 



tary of the lodge since the date of its organiza- 
tion, May 6, 1886. 



fAUL M. NORBOE, Visalia's city engi- 
neer, is a licensed land surveyor, a civil 
and hydraulic engineer and draughtsman. 

He is a native son of California, born in Los 
Angeles County, May 7, 1857. His father, 
John Norboe, a native of Norway, landed in 
New York in 1832 and came to California in 
1856. He was living in Texas when it was a 
republic, and gained his citizenship in the United 
States by reason of his being a citizen of Texas 
when it became one of the States of the Union. 
His business was that of farming and survey- 
ing. 

He married Miss Johanna Knight, a native of 
Arkansas, and their union was blessed with four 
children, all born in California. Mr. Norboe's 
grandfather was a physician, a native of Norway 
and spelled his name Nordboe. He came with 
his family to America in 1832 and located in 
New York. In 1792, at the age of twenty-four 
years, he painted an oil picture of himself, which 
is now in the possession of the subject of our 
sketch. It is a treasured relic and is well pre- 
served. Mr. Norboe strongly resembles his an- 
cestor. 

Paul M. received his education in the com- 
mon schools of this State, and began surveying 
in Kern County fourteen years ago. He says 
that the abandoned mines and old ditches in 
Tehachapi valley, Kern County, and in the To- 
kohe valley of Tulare County, in which are large 
oak trees growing, is evidence of mining in 
those Counties long before the advent of the 
white man. Mr. Norboe was also engaged as 
Government surveyor in Lassen, Plumas and 
Shasta Counties, and has surveyed all over these 
Counties. He was elected surveyor of Lassen 
County in 1879, when he was twenty-two years 
of age. Later, however, he resigned his posi- 
tion and went to Santa Barbara County, remain- 
ing there until 1882. In that year he came to 



798 



UlhTUBT Of? CENT HAL CALIFORNIA. 



Tulare Comity, and since then much of his at- 
tention has been devoted to hydraulics. 

Mr. Norboe married Miss Staeia Emma Jones, 
a native of Solano County, California, and to 
them four children have been born, two of whom 
are living, both natives of Visalia. Their 
names are Charles M. and Ethel. Mr. Norboe 
is a strong temperance man, a Good Templar 
and president of the Good Templars' Hall As- 
sociation, which has- built a tine hall, owns a 
nice library and has done much efficient work 
in the way of temperance reform. Ever since 
he began to vote Mr. Norboe has been a Pro- 
hibitionist. He was elected to office on the 
Temperance ticket, which is .a very unusual 
thing in California. He owns a pleasant home 
in Visalia, where he resides with his family. 



fOHN BROWN. — Prominent among the 
developers of Fresno County, and fore- 
most in the rank of development about 
Madera, stands the subject of this sketch, 
who was born in Warren County, Illinois, in 
1860. His education was acquired at Abing- 
don (Illinois) College, and at the Oskaloosa Col- 
lege in Iowa. In 1883 Mr. Brown was married 
at Oskaloosa, to Miss Emma Edwards, an esti- 
mable lady of that city. Mr. Brown then 
began teaching, which he followed for two 
years in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska, and in 
1885 came to California and settled at Elsinore, 
San Diego County, where he followed teaching 
for three years. During the last year Mr. 
Brown's mind was greatly occupied with a col- 
onization scheme, through the working of which 
he could develop a given acreage, sell it out on 
small holdings, and thus bring into the State 
agricultural communities, which are recognized 
as the life blood of every prosperous locality. 
The better to carry out his scheme, Mr. Brown 
came to the great San Joaquin valley in the fall 
of 1889, and settled at Madera. Mr. Brown 
was one of the incorporators of the Bank of 
Madera, which opened its doors for business 



November 25, 1889, and was elected cashier; but 
the duties of the office are mainly conducted by 
W. F. Baird, the vice-president, as Mr. Brown's 
time was given to the location and colonization 
of adjoining lands, under the name of John 
Brown Colony, which was incorporated at about 
that time, with Mr. Brown president and man- 
ager, J. E. Newman, secretary, and W. F. 
Baird, treasurer. The working system is that 
the company shall manage and care for the land 
as one ranch — lands to be subdivided into 
blocks of five acres and upwards, and sold to 
purchasers who pay a small price per acre for 
planting and care of land for a term of three 
years, and the fruits off the land to pay the 
price of purchase. Under this plan, the com- 
pany have bought and are improving 4,980 
acres, a large portion of which is already sold to 
colonists, and through the workings of this 
colossal scheme, Madera has felt a great impetus 
in her growth, and a large increase in her pop- 
ulation. The John Brown colony have also 
placed upon the market 10,000 acres in the Ante- 
lope valley, situated in the northern part of 
Los Angeles County. This valley, being at an 
elevation of 2,300 feet, is better adapted to 
deciduous fruits, but the colonization is being 
carried out on a similar plan. To the success- 
ful carrying out of this stupendous enterprise 
Mr. Brown is devoting all his attention, and to 
him is justly due the credit for much of 
Madera's present growth and prosperity. 

^~~'- : " ^ l t 1 ^' 11 ' : - 

fOL LAZAR, merchant, of Madera, was 
burn in Prussia in 1860. After a brief 
education, at the early age of thirteen 
years, he cut loose from all home association, 
and with a friend started for the broad and free 
land of America. He tirst found employment 
in Milwaukee at clerking, and he there began 
the study ot the English language. After a few 
months he started for California and settled at 
Firebaughs, Fresno County. In the general 
merchandise store of Mr. Jake Myer, young 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



799 



Lazar secured a position as clerk, and he re- 
mained with Mr. Myer until 1880, when he 
went to Fresno Flats and started in business in 
general merchandise. In 1882 Mr. Lazar went 
to Seattle, and after one year in the real estate 
business, he went to Olympia, and then opened 
a store, which he continued but one year. He 
then went to Tulare and opened business, but 
was burned out in 1886. Thus after many 
changes he came to Madera in 1887, and opened 
his present store with dry goods and gents fur- 
nishing goods, carrying a stock of about $12,000. 
Mr. Lazar was married in San Juan in 1889 to 
Miss Annie Flynn, a native of California, and 
the family has been additionally increased by 
the birth of two children, Willie and Louis. 
Mr. Lazar is a member of Madera Court, No. 
749, Independent Order of Foresters. Not 
neglecting the agricultural opportunities of this 
valley, Mr. Lazar has a twenty-acre ranch two 
miles west of town, which he has set to Malaga 
grapes, being the only Malaga vineyard in this 
locality. He is also interested in town property 
and owns his residence on D street. 

fEORGE REUBEN ANDERSON, cf 
Visalia, was born in West Chester, Butler 
County, Ohio, March 4, 1847. He is of 
Welch ancestry, and is the son of David Ander 
son. a native of Butler County, Ohio. George 
Anderson, grandfather of George Reuben, emi- 
grated from Wales to America when a boy. 
His forefathers were Presbyterians and people 
of rare force of character and influence. Mr. 
Anderson's father was a tanner by trade, and 
he also dealt in manufactured leather goods. 
He was married to Miss Elizabeth Frazer, a na- 
tive of Trumbull County, Ohio. They had six 
children, of whom five are living. Mr. Ander- 
son was the third child and finished his educa- 
tion at Lincoln College. He was in business 
with his father as a partner seven years. In 
1880 his father died, and he succeeded to the 
business and continued it till 1885, when he 



came to Visalia, California, and embarked in 
the same enterprise till 1890, doing a good and 
successful busiuess. He disponed of his inter- 
ests and engaged in fanning on a ranch of 160 
acres, which he owns; after living there some 
time he was burned out and sold his stock and 
removed to Visalia, and is engaged in building 
for himself a nice residence corner of South and 
Chestnut streets. 

In 1877 Mr. Anderson was married to Miss 
Libby Kent, a native of Pennsylvania, and they 
have five children, namely: Louie, Jessie, 
Willie, Annie and Cre. Mrs. Anderson's 
mother's maiden name was Martini Blare. She 
was a niece of General Anthony Wayne of 
Revolutionary fame. When the great civil war 
bsgan Mr. Anderson was only fourteen years 
old, and he could not enlist, but when sixteen 
years of age in 1863, his parents consented to 
his enlisting, and he joined the First Kansas 
Light Artillery, and served his country till the 
close of the war. He participated in the battles 
of the army of the Cumberland under General 
Thomas, and was slightly wounded both at 
Johnsonville and Nashville. He was honorably 
discharged in July, 1865. He is a worthy 
member of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
and was a charter member of Lincoln Post, 
organized in Topeka, Kansas, in 1866; he has 
filled all the officers of that lodge. He is also 
a member of the I. O. O. F. Mr. Anderson is 
a strong Republican, and was his party's candi- 
date for city clerk in 1890, but could not over- 
come the large Democratic majority in the city. 



>HOMAS CREIGHTON, Visalia, Tulare 
ps! County, was born in Canada, Au- 
tP- gust 6, 1835. He is the son of John 
Creighton, a native of Ireland, who emigrated 
to America when a young man, and married 
Annie Bishop, a Canadian by birth. There 
were born to them five children, of whom three 
survive. Mr. Creighton was reared and edu- 
cated in Canada, removed to Michigan, became 



800 



111 SI OH r OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



a civil engineer and made that his profession al 
his life. For years he was a railroad engineer 
on the Grand Trunk, Great "Western, and the 
New York and Pennsylvania railroads, also on 
tune of the roads in Michigan. He came to 
California in 1874, settled in Tnlaie County, 
and continued his business here until 1883. 
He was twice elected County Surveyor, and 
rts'gned his position during the second term. 
He has a ranch of 2,800 acres in Tulare County, 
and in Fresno County he has a fruit ranch of 
forty-three acres, thirty-two acres of which area 
b.aring vineyard. He also has 2,370 acres of 
unimproved land in Fresno County. He was 
in the abstiact business in Fresno and 
Tulare Counties, the firm being Miller & 
Creighton. He is a Knight Templar and a 
mfmber of the A. O. U. W. 

Mr. Creighton was married on September 8, 
1859, to Miss Helen M. Smith, a native of 
New York. They have one child, a son, Fred 
M. Creighton, bom in Michigan in 1861. He 
is engaged in fruit raising, and has a sixty-acre 
ranch of peaches and French prunes; he has also 
been engaged in the livery business in Visalia, 
since 1888, the firm being Creighton & English. 
He married in 1883, Miss Maria Atwell, of 
Visalia. They have four children, all born in 
Visalia: Minnie, Thomas, Fred and Mirene. 
Both the father and son are members of the 
Democratic party, and are substantial and reli- 
ble citizens of Tulare County. 



jlJUl M. WILSON, a prominent rancher and 
llKv stock raiser of California, was born in 
"^ <> Cayuga County, New York, in 183(3. 
His father, William Wilson, was a farmer, who 
emigrated to Calhoun County, Michigan, in 
1838, and in 1852 pushed still farther westward 
and came to California. He first visited the 
mines, but soon settled in the stock business on 
the San Juaqnin river in Stanislaus County, 
where he became extensively engaged in both 
land and cattle interests, and where he still lives 



at the age of seventy-eight years in good health, 
and though in a modified degree, still in the 
stock business. 

R. M. Wilson was educated in the public 
schools of Michigan, and followed farming on 
the home farm until his departure to California 
in April, 1857. He then joined his father, and 
with him was interested in tht stock business 
until 1865. They then reduced their stock 
interests, and subject took up the sheep business 
in Merced County, purchasing 11,000 acres of 
land and keeping an extensive flock. This land 
was sold in 1887. He now owns 500 acres of 
alfalfaland near Newman, StanislausCounty, and 
7,000 acres of foothill range for grazing, where 
he still follows the stock business, keeping about 
3,000 Spanish Merino sheep, 500 head of cattle, 
and 125 head of horses, breeding for draft, car- 
riage and general utility purposes. Mr. Wilson 
also owns one-half interest in 2,300 acres of 
land in Fresno County, which is being colon- 
ized under the name of the Howard and Wilson 
Colony. These lands were subdivided and 
placed upon the market January 1, 1891. The 
lands are well watered by the Madera Canal and 
Irrigation Company with main canal and laterals, 
extending about 150 miles, in which Messrs. 
Howard and Wilson own a prominent interest. 
Mr. Wilson was married in Stockton, in 1869, 
to Miss Elniira Gregg, a native of Napa County. 
This union has been blessed by a family of six 
children, all of whom are living. 

Mr. Wilson is a member of the Knights of 
Honor and of A. O. U. W. of Newman, but has 
never aspired to public office, his life being too 
full of duties pertaining to his private interests. 



~^i 



«-%^- 




ARION SIDES, one of the solid men 

Mil. of Selma, and one of its oldest citizens 

is the subject of this biography. 

He was born in Perry County, Missouri, 

January 27, 1837. When he was quite young 

his father died, and he with his older brothers 

was left to support the family and conduct the 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



801 



farm. In the year 1861 he enlisted in the 
Federal army, joining the Forty-eighth Mis- 
souri Infantry, Colonel Biodgett commanding. 
He successfully held the positions of Orderly 
Sergeant and First Lieutenant of Iris company. 
After being mustered out of the service in 
March, 1865, he returned to farming in Dent 
County, Missouri. He made his home in this 
place for a period of ten years, during which 
time he was a member of the State Legislature, 
being elected Assemblyman from his district 
for two terms. 

In his farming operations in Missouri, how- 
ever, Mr. Sides was not successful from a finan- 
cial point of view. He barely made a living, and 
in the year 1875 we find him looking around 
for a new field. In that year he came to Cali- 
fornia with $160 in his pocket, and located in 
Fresno County, two miles north of Selma, on 
160 acres of land. Two years later he moved 
to his present home in the suburbs of the town, 
where he resides to-day. 

The ranch consists of 240 acres, on which he 
is extensively engaged in fruit raising and 
raisin culture; there are forty acres of fruit 
trees and 160 acres of raisin grapes — all in a 
high state of cultivation. Mr. Sides' residence 
is an attractive one, and surrounded by beauti- 
ful grounds, well laid out and highly ornamen- 
tal. The owner of this valuable property has 
amassed his wealth through steady and persist- 
ent effort, exercising care and good judgment 
in his investments, and with an abiding faith 
always in the future of this valley, to-day he is 
regarded the owner of some of the best prop- 
erty to be had in this locality. 

Besides, Mr. Sides' interests above mentioned, 
he owns 500 acres of land in Kern County, un- 
improved, and small tracts and town lots in and 
around Selma. 

In public matters he is a prominent figure. 
He holds the office of vice president of the 
Bank of Selma, of which he is also a director, 
and in the Masonic Temple Association (an im- 
portant enterprise in this town) he is also a 
director. He served for four years as president 



of the Centreville and Kingsbury Irrigation 
Ditch Company. 

Mr. Sides was married in May, 1866, to Cas- 
ander Mathews, a native of Missouri, and has 
one son and one daughter, both now being 
educated at Berkley University, and Oakland 
Seminary. 



SRANK TYLER KIMBALL is president 
of the Parlor of Native Sons of the Gol- 
■ den West, and a member of the firm of 
Kimball & Jackson. This firm deal in wall 
paper, paints and oils, and are the leading 
painters of the city of Visalia. They employ 
several skilled workmen and secure a large pa- 
tronage. Mr. Kimball was born in Petuluma, 
Sonoma County, California, November 11, 
1852. His father died when he • was six 
months old, and he knows little of him; 
his mother's maiden name was Lucy Hogland. 
She was married again to Charles Ives, and our 
subject was raised by them until he was twelve 
years of age, when his mother died. She had 
crossed the plains in 1851. Since her death, 
Mr. Kimball has made his own way in the 
world. He went to school in San Francisco and 
in Santa Clara County. He was in the latter place 
a greater portion of the time, working and going 
to school; he finally went to San Francisco and 
entered the carriage manufactory of Kimball & 
Co., and spent three years learning carriage 
painting. He then went to San Jose and was 
in business there six years, and then went to 
Kedwood city for a year. In April, 1873, he 
was married to Miss Adelia Pyle, a native of 
Solano, California. She is a daughter of Wil- 
liam Pyle, a California pioneer. They have 
two children, namely, Maud, born in San Jose 
and Earl, born in Visalia. After his marriage 
he went to the upper King's river and farmed 
there till 1879, when he came to Yisalia, and 
was in business for himself a year. He then 
went into business with his present partner, 
Spier Jackson, and they have since done an ex- 



802 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



tensive business in this line. Mr. Kimball's 
politics are Republican, and be is a charter 
member of the Parlor of the Native Sons of 
the Golden West. He takes a deep interest in 
it, and is serving his third term as its president. 
The Parlor was organized July 3, 1883, and 
is one of the best in the State. 

gh^£§> 

fHARLES HENRY NORRIS was born 
in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, Sep- 
tember 7, 1833. His father, now de- 
ceased, was for many years a master mariner, 
making his home, when not in command of 
ships, in Bristol, Rhode Island. In this city 
our subject was reared and educated, but when 
a lad of fourteen he went before the mast, mak- 
ing three trips to Cuba, and afterward followed 
the sea, making trips continuously to different 
parts of the world. 

At first he engaged in the Russia trade 
between Boston and Cuba, and Russia, and at 
twenty, was third mate of a ship. Soon after- 
ward he became mate, and at twenty-five years 
of age was made captain and master of the 
Ocean's Favorite. In 1860 he was com- 
mander of the Energy, engaged in the Liver- 
pool trade, in which he made one voyage, and 
for ten years afterward he was captain of the 
Webster in the same trade. 

In 1873 Captain Norris came to California 
and bought three sections of land, where the 
town of Fowler now is. He engaged in the 
sheep business for three years, but his opera- 
tions were not at all profitable, and he lost 
money. He therefore determined to go to sea 
again, which purpose he carried out, still hold- 
ing the land, however, which he had originally 
bought. For seven years he was in command 
of different ships, sailing in all parts of the 
world. It is a matter of record, that during 
our subject's long and eventful career as master 
mariner, he never had a shipwreck; his voyages 
were uniformly successful, alike from a busi- 
ness point of view, and also the navigator's. 



In October, 1890, the captain returned to his 
California home in Fresno County, and has 
lived there ever since. Much of the property 
he originally acquired he has sold off in town 
lots, which now represent the town of Fowler. 
His home ranch, in the suburbs of the town, 
consists of 200 acres, all in raisin vines and fruit 
trees, and is one of the finest pieces of property 
in the county. The family residence is spacious 
and elegant, with luxurious interior appoint- 
ments. On the walls may be seen tine pictures 
in oil of the different vessels which Captain 
Norris has at various times commanded. 

Besides his land interests in the immediate 
vicinity of his home, the Captain has property 
in Sanger and Fresno. He is president of the 
Fowler Fruit ifc Raisin Packing Company, and 
is connected with various other enterprises. In 
all matters of public note affecting the town of 
Fowler, where he resides now permanently, he 
takes a lively interest. 

A gentleman of tine presence, always courte- 
ous in manner, and friendly in spirit, he is 
deservedly popular in the community. 

Captain Norris has been twice married, the 
first time in 1863, by which union there were 
seven children, four now living. After the 
demise of his wife in 1888, the captain married 
a second time, October 23, 1890. 



ILLIAM S. STALEY, one of the 
early settlers in the vicinity of Selma is 
H=ij&ri the subject of this brief biography. 
He was horn in West Virginia, July 20, 
1844, and was brought up on a farm. In 1875 
he emigrated to California, locating in Fresno 
County, one-half mile from the thriving town of 
Selma, where we find him to-day. He has been 
engaged in farming ever since he settled here, 
owning sixty acres of fine land on his home 
ranch. 

He has lately set out a raisin vineyard, which 
like all tne other vineyards in this vicinity, gives 
promise of excellent results. He also owns 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



803 



one-fourth section of land on the West Side 
unimproved. 

Mr. Staley was married, in 1872, to Miss 
Annie Hnrsberger, a native of Maryland, and 
they have a bright family of six children. 



fMITH NORRIS was born in Clarke 
County, Virginia, in 1836, and is a 
descendant of the old Norris family, who 
for many generations had been planters and resi- 
dents of that locality. His father, George W. 
Norris, was engaged in mercantile life in 
Baltimore. Young Norris was educated in the 
select schools of his County, and at the age»of 
seventeen years, began his mercantile life as 
clerk in the store of Enoch Pratt & Bro., of 
Baltimore, where he remained four years, and 
then returned to his plantation. In 1858-59 
he was employed by the Western Maryland 
Railroad in sawing ties and timbers for railroad 
construction. He then returned home, where 
he remained until the breaking out of the war, 
and then enlisted in the signal service, and was 
appointed chief signal officer in the department 
of southwest Virginia and east Tennessee. He 
served through the war, and though performing 
much active duty, was never wounded. At the 
close of the war he returned to his home and 
remained until he started for California in 
1868, by the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in 
San Francisco in June of that year. During 
the summer he enjoyed the festivities of San 
Francisco, and in the fall came to the present 
site of Madera, then a barren plain, and took 
up 160 acres of land and put in a crop, but 
the season was too dry, and the experiment 
was a failure. In the fall of 1869 he went 
to San Diego, and a little later, to the mines 
at Julian, where he labored for several months, 
but very unsuccessfully, and lost everything. 
In 1872 he came to Borden and built a little 
trading store for J. R. Jones, which he oper- 
ated as clerk for about five years. He then 
went to the north fork of the San Joaquin 



river to the silver mines, but in about two years 
he again broke up. He then returned to Fine 
Gold Gulch and started a store with mining sup- 
plies, which he continued quite successfully 
until 1887, when he came to Madera and was 
engaged by the Madera Flume and Trading 
Company as manager of their mercantile busi- 
ness, in which capacity he is still employed. 
Mr. Norris has never overcome his interest in 
mines, and he still owns and operates the Jack- 
ass mines, which were so named as placer 
mines in 1852, and later were developed as 
quartz mines, as they are now being operated. 
Mr. ^Norris has lived the life of a bachelor, and 
is a genial, pleasant gentleman, always looking 
upon the bright side, and enjoying the best that 
life affords. 



fPIER JACKSON", one of the business 
I men of Yisalia, was born in Saratoga, 
• New York, Apiil 10, 1843. His father, 
Chester, was born and reared in the same city. 
He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His mother, 
Jernsha Tyler, was born in New York. They had 
only one child, the subject of this notice. The 
father was a soldier in the war of 1812-15. 

Spier Jackson was raised in Saratoga, from 
thence emigrated to Illinois, and in 1861 
crossed the plains to California and settled in 
Columbia, Tuolumne County. Mr. Jackson 
did his first work for wages in a flouring mill. 
He mined in that County and also worked at 
saw-milling and in the lumber business. In 
1873 he came to Visalia and began the business 
of painting, which he has followed since. He 
has several investments in lands and owns some 
ranches obtained from the Government and from 
the railroad, and also owns several lots and re- 
sidences in the city of Visalia. For five years 
he was a member of the firm of Spier & Jack- 
son, and after this the firm of Kimball & Jack- 
son was formed, in which he still continues. 
They have done much of the business in their 
line in the County. 



804 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



In the fall of 1870 he was married to Miss 
Fanny Jones, a native of New York. She came 
to California with her parents when she was 
three years of age. They have one child, whom 
they have named Florence. 

Mr. Jackson is in politics a Republican, and 
is a member of all the branches of the I. (). O. 
F. 

" : : '-^ 't' ^ ; ' : : "" 



fAMES BARTON, one of the early settlers 
of Tulare County, and one of its capable 
and efficient supervisors for the past twenty 
years, was born in New Jersey on October 18, 
1819. The ancestors of the family came from 
Great Britain and settled in New Jersey. Mr. 
Barton's father, Eleazer Barton, was a native of 
that State. He married Rachel Reed, a native 
of the same State. Her ancestors were also 
early settlers in New Jersey. Mr. Barton's 
grandfather came to America a soldier of the 
British army; but. like many others, deserted 
and joined the American forces. He served 
through the struggle for the independence of 
the colonies. Mr. Barton was the second son 
of a family of eleven, and was reared and edu- 
cated in his native State. He learned both the 
carpenter and cabinet-making trades. He was 
married before leaving New Jersey to Miss 
Susan Davenport. In 1846 he removed to 
Davenport, Illinois, when that State was in 
embryo. They settled on government land in 
La Salle County, cleared and improved it, and 
then disposed of it. He then removed to Iowa 
and procured other lands, and later purchased 
timbered lands and built a saw mill, and car- 
ried on business in Iowa for fourteen years. In 
1865 he came to Tulare County, California, and 
located near Slick Rock, where he lived and 
farmed until 1880. He made fine improve- 
ments, and sold to his son, who now resides on 
the property. Mr. Barton purchased 200 acres 
of land thirty miles east of the city of Visalia, 
where he has improved and planted a fine fruit 
ranch. He has apples, prunes and a variety of 



fruit, his apples selling at from two to three 
cents per pound. 

There were born to Mr. and Mrs. Barton 
eleven children, eight of whom are still spared 
to them, all living in Tulare County. Their 
names are as follows: Hudson D., Orlando D., 
Milton, Enoi D., Jason E., Jane C, the wife of 
James B. Weaths; Cecelia A., the wife of 
James A. Butts; Rachel Melissa, the wife of 
Robert Harden. 

Mr. Barton cast his first vote for Martin Van 
Buren, and still stands firm in the doctrines of 
the old Jeffersonian Democracy. In 1869 he 
was elected one of the supervisors of his County, 
has held the office nearly all the time since, and 
ha» shown marked ability and great interest in 
the welfare of the County. The tine public 
buildings which are a credit and ornament to 
the County and second to none in the State are 
largely the result of his efforts. 

It is most gratifying to learn that his fellow- 
citizens esteem him highly, appreciate his 
efforts and give him the credit for what he has 
done. He now resides in Visalia in a home of 
his own, where he is spending the evening of a 
worthy life. He is a good husband and father, 
an upright citizen, and a faithful and trusted 
public officer. 



fLLIS M. DAVIDSON, one of the business 
men of Visalia and proprietor of the Art 
Gallery, is a native of Michigan, born in 
Van Buren County, April 17, 1858. He is the 
son of George Davidson, a native of New York. 
His mother's maiden name was Esther Dop- 
kins, a native of Canada. Mr. Davidson .was 
the eldest of a family of ten children. The 
family came to California in 1865, and settled 
in Yolo County. 

Ellis M. was then seven years of age, and 
was educated in this State. He learned 
photography when quite young, and has fol- 
lowed the business all his life. He worked a 
considerable time both in Sacramento and San 



HISTORY OF GENTHAL CALIFORNIA. 



805 



Francisco and other places. In 1885 he came 
to Visalia and established his business, and has 
met with flattering success. He draws his pat- 
ronage from the surrounding country for sixty 
miles. He uses the latest and most improved 
methods, and during the busy season employs 
skillful assistants. He is an excellent artist, 
has made photographs of nearly every citizen 
in the County, and enjoys the confidence of the 
community. 

Mr. Davidson was married June 10, 1884, to 
Miss Mable Bittleston, a native of Illinois, and 
they have a son, Herbert O., who is now (1891) 
six years old. Mr. Davidson is a K. of P. In 
politics he is liberal and votes for the best man. 
He is a member of the Board of Trade of the 
city, and takes an interest in the growth and 
prosperty of the County. 



-*&*■ 



f • H 



*-g=^ 



PANIEL GRIFFITH OVERALL, one of 
the representative citizens of Tulare Coun- 
ty, has resided here since 1859. He was 
born in Texas when his parents were en route 
for California. 

His father, Daniel Griffith Overall, Sr., was 
a native of St. Charles County, Missouri; he 
brought his wife and two children to California 
and engaged in farming and stock-raising. His 
wife was Miss Charity Mason, also of Missouri. 
Their son, the subject of this sketch, was educa- 
ted in the public schools of Tulare County, and 
spent two years in Missouri at St. Charles Col- 
lege. His father died in 1865, and he carried 
on the farm after his father's death. They owned 
it till 1890, when it was sold for a large price. 

In 1886 he was elected Auditor of the County, 
and after serving his term with ability he was 
elected Sheriff of the County, and served one 
term to the entire satisfaction of the public. 
He is now a member of the firm of Jordan & 
Overall, doing a real estate and abstract busi- 
ness. They are the proprietors of Durfee's self 
correcting system of deducing land titles for 
Tulare County. They have all classes of lands 



for sale. Mr. Overall is a stockholder in the 
Visalia Trust and Land Company. 

His marriage occured in 1883, Mrs. Overall's 
maiden name being Cynthia Hawpe, a native 
daughter of California. They have one son, 
Orval. After a brief year of married life, Mrs. 
Overalldied. She was a beautiful lady, and her 
loss was greatly lamented by a large circle of 
friends. In 1887 Mr. Overall married Miss 
Anna Van Loan, a native of California. 

Mr. Overall is highly respected in his County, 
and when he ran for Sheriff he received a much 
larger vote than the rest of his ticket, and is 
the only Republican ever elected Sheriff of the 
County. 



fAMUEL ADDISON CROOKSHANKS, 
superintendent of the schools of Tulare 
County, California, is a native of Nicholas 
County, Virginia, born January 14, 1858. His 
father, Robert D. Crookshanks, was also born 
in that State. Grandfather John Crookshanks, 
a native of Scotland, emigrated to America 
before the Revolution, and in 1776 enrolled 
himself with the Colonial army, acting the part 
of a brave soldier until independence was won. 
At the close of the war he returned to his plan- 
tation in Virginia, where three generations of 
the family were born and passed honorable and 
influential lives. Mr. Crookshanks' father mar- 
ried Maria Miller, a native of Virginia, and 
daughter of John Miller, a Virginian and a 
soldier in the war of 1812. To them were born 
ten children, of whom five still survive. In 
1869 the family removed to Missouri, where, in 
1875, the mother's death occurred. 

Mr. Crookshanks has been a teacher since 
1878. In 1884 he graduated at the Missouri 
State Normal School, and in 1886 came to Cal- 
ifornia. He taught thirteen months of school, 
four weeks each, the first year he spent in the 
State. In 1888 he was elected priucipal of the 
Visalia schools, which position he filled with 
marked success. He had been elected for the 



806 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



third terra when he was nominated on the 
Democrats ticket and elected County Superin- 
tendent of schools. Mr. Crookshanks is a pro- 
gressive, earnest worker, and favors all improve- 
ments in methods and books, and has entered 
upon the duties of his office with enthusiasm. 

He was married, June 20, 1889, to Miss N. 
Eugenie Pogue, a native of Tulare County, 
California. She is a graduate of the Visalia 
Normal School, and was a successful teacher in 
this County for six years. They have a daughter, 
Lefa Ray. 

Mr. Crookshanks is a member of the A. O. 
U. W. and of the Missionary Baptist Church, 
while Mrs. Crookshanks is a Cumberland Pres- 
byterian. They are both held in high esteem 
by the citizens of Tnlare County. 



tERMAN C. EGGERS.— The tract of 
land comprising the Eggers Vineyard 
was purchased in the year 1869 by George 
H. Eggers and C. H. Voigt, of the firm of 
Eggers & Co., at that time doing business in 
San FYancisco. The ranch, as purchased, com- 
prised 5,760 acres, situated four miles northeast 
of Fresno. It was devoted to grain and 
pasturage up to 1859, being reduced in area by 
sales as opportunity offered, until but 760 acres 
remained, which was owned by Mr. Eggers. 
As an experiment he then planted 100 acres of 
wine grapes, and those did so well that the 
grounds were rapidly impvoved, buildings were 
put up, and the business of the ranch was 
henceforth made grape-growing instead of cer- 
eals, lu 1882 the firm of Eggers & Voiot dis- 
solved by mutual consent, and Herman C. 
Eggers, a son of George H. Eggers, became a 
member of the firm and an owner of one-half 
interest in the Eggars vinegard. The vineyard 
has been increased from year to year, and now 
consists of 670 acres of vines, 100 of which are 
Muscats. The wine grapes have been carefully 
selected, and comprise some of the finest French 
varieties. The first cellar and distillery were 



built in 1882, but have long since outgrown 
their original proportions, and the present stor- 
age capacity is 225,000 gallons. 

Herman C. Eggers resides at the vineyard as 
manager, and superintends all the work. In 
1886 he built a spacious and handsome resi- 
dence, after the Italian villa style of architec- 
ture, which is surrounded by handsome and 
well laid out lawns ami walks. His house is 
one of the land marks of the valley, as his vine- 
yard is one of the most prominent. 

f||ETURN ROBERTS.— Prominent among 
fKt tne business men of Fresno County, stands 
^^ the subject of this sketch, who was born 
in La Fayette County, Wisconsin, in 1841. 
His father, John G. Roberis. was a native of 
Wales, and emigrated to Wisconsin in 1832, 
following the occupation of mining. Roused 
by the California gold excitement of 1849, Mr. 
Roberts was among the first to gather together 
his possessions and with his family, cross the 
plains for that new and but little known State 
of California. He arrived at Weaverville in 
the fall of 1849, and began mining, which he 
followed until 1851, when he moved to Santa 
Clara, and engaged in the stock business. In 
1852 he returned to the East and brought out a 
band of 5,000 sheep, which he purchased in 
Illinois and drove to California across the 
plains. In 1853 he acrain went East and brought 
out a band of 325 cattle, and this was the nu- 
cleus of his later extensive stock dealings. In 
1857 he moved his stock to Tulare County and 
bought the '• Buzzard Roost " ranch of 325 
acres on Tulare lake, which was headquarters 
for his stock business, and the cattle grazed 
upon Government land. He followed the stock 
business until 1869, and then sold out ranch 
and cattle and moved to San Jose, where he died 
in 1876. 

The educational advantages of Return Roberts 
were very limited. He attended school a short 
time in San Jose, but his knowledge was mainly 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



807 



acquired from observation and from his connec- 
tion with the business of life, the best kind of 
training for a practical business man. He was 
interested with his father in the stock business, 
and upon closing out the business went with 
his father to San Jose, where he was married in 
1869 to Miss M. J. Dowdle, a native of Texas. 
In 1872 Mr. Roberts was appointed superintend- 
ent of the San Jose Water Company, and held 
the position until 1880. He was also engaged 
in building enterprises, and in 1873 erected the 
Roberts Block in San Jose a three-story brick 
building 51 xl37 feet, also tenement property. 
He was also an incorporator of the Commercial 
& Savings Bank of San Jose, who loaned money 
to the California Lumber Company of Madera, 
and through foreclosure the bank came into 
possession of the property in 1878, and in 1880 
Mr. Roberts came to Madera as mauager of the. 
enterprise, which had been incorporated as the 
Madera Flume and Trading Company. Mr. 
Roberts also owns 1,100 acres of ranch property 
near town, 140 of which are improved in vines 
and trees, and the balance is fanned — also much 
town property, and in 1890 he built the Roberts 
Block on Yo Semite avenue, a one-story brick 
building 51x100 feet. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts 
have four children, all of whom are at home and 
in pursuit of an education. Mr. Roberts is a 
member of the Knight Templars, of San Jose 
Lodge, No. 10, F. & A. M., and he has never 
been an aspirant to office, but has devoted his 
time and energies to the proper management of 
his several enterprises, and judging from the 
honorable position he holds with his fellow- 
townsmen, we feel that his efforts have been 
amply rewarded. 



-^H- 



a*--*£ 



^€-1 



fAMES W. GREEN was born in Santa 
Cruz, March 6, 1848. His father, J. D. 
Green, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 
1807. He was a trapper and hunter by profes- 
sion, and first came to California in 1833, with 
a trapping company of 150 men in command of 



Captain Bonneville. They followed the rivers 
across, wintered in the Santa Clara valley at 
Gilroy, and returned to Missouri in 1835, con- 
suming about three years on the expedition. 
While on the Sierra mountains in 1833, there 
was a wonderful display of shooting stars until 
it seemed that every star was in motion. Mr. 
Green was married in Jackson County, Mis- 
souri, in 1835, to Miss Lydia Hitchcock, a na- 
tive of Kentucky, and a lady of strong character- 
istics and of great kindliness of heart. They 
settled in Jackson County, where Mr. Green 
followed farming until May, 1846, when, with 
his family, he emigrated to California coming 
with Captain Campbell's party and arriving at 
Santa Clara on October 18th of same year. Dur- 
ing the Spanish disturbance of that winter 
Mr. Green was a member of the Home Guards 
and performed active service under the com- 
mand of Captain Webber. In 1847 Mr. Green 
went to Santa Cruz, and in the fall to the mines 
and followed mining until 1849, when he moved 
to Stockton and began farming and stock-rais- 
ing, his cattle grazing over the San Juaquin 
valley. He was one of the first supervisors of 
San Juaquin County, elected in 1856, and serv- 
ed for three years. He followed the cattle 
business until his death, September 30, 1869. 
His children numbered ten, six of whom still 
survive. 

Mrs. Green is still living at the age of 
seventy-seven years, somewhat broken in health, 
after a life of many hardships, and of energies 
expended in the rearing of four families of chil- 
dren belonging to deceased relatives. She is a 
honored and highly respected member of the 
family of her son, James, with whom she resides. 
James was educated in Stockton but at the early 
age of fourteen years, began his own support by 
working on a farm, which he followed until 
1869, and then rented 400 acres in San Benito 
County, and began farming for himself in wheat 
and barley. He was married in Stockton, in 
1869, to Miss Retta Bozeman, a native of Texas. 
He folio wed farming until 1881, and then came to 
Madera and began work for the Madera Flume 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



Company at lumbering in the mountains. In 
January, 1885, his wife died, leaving one son 
and two daughters, and then his mother came 
to his assistance and took charge of his family. 
In 1886 Mr. Green returned to Madera, and for 
two years superintended the cultivation of two 
sections of land for Dan Ingraham. In the fall 
of 1888 he was elected roadmaster, and in 1890 
was elected Constable and appointed Deputy 
Sheriff by John M. Hensley, Sheriff of Fresno 
County. 

Mr. Green was a charter member of Madera 
Parlor, No. 130, N. S. G. W., and is now 
president of the parlor, and his son, J. D. Green, 
is marshal. 

Mr. Green is a member of Madera Lodge, No. 
134, K. of P., and of Mound Lodge, No. 166, 
I. O. O. F., and of the Encampment at Fresno. 



tUSTAVE SANGER, now of Inyo County, 
is one of the well known pioneers of cen- 
tral California. His great energy and en- 
terprise have made him a leader among business 
men, and brought him a large fortune. He 
was born in Saxony, Germany, October 18, 
1832. He learned thoroughly the trade of 
butcher, and emigrated to America in 1847. 
He first engaged in the butchering b-usiness in 
Cincinnati, Ohio; from there he went to St. 
Louis, Missouri, and later he pursued the same 
business in the District of Columbia. He 
came to California in 1853, and located on 
Paso creek, where he engaged in sheep and cattle 
raising. He contiuued in the same business 
until 1880, with phenomenal success, and was 
regarded at that time the owner of more stock 
than any other man in Kern County. In 1881 
he took his family,and with 23,000 head of stock 
went to Montana, where he sold his stock, and 
finally returned. He was at that time running 
an extensive butchering business at Bakersfield, 
and afterward sold the same to H. L. Borgwart, 
Jr., a son-in-law. He owned a considerable 
amount of land in Kern County, which he also 



sold, and took up bis residence in Inyo County, 
where he has 5,000 acres of choice hinds, and is 
raising stock and grain on a magnificent scale. 

Mr. Sanger has been twice married. His 
first wife was Miss Johanna Peterson, a German 
lady, and by her he has two daughters and one 
son. Mr. Sanger died at Bakersfield. 



§H. STOUTENBOROUGH, Ju., a native 
son of the Golden West, was born in San 
Francisco, January 5, 1858. His father, 
J. II. Stouten borough, was a pioneer of 1852 
from Brooklyn, New York. He was an exten- 
sive speculator during the Fraser river excite- 
ment, but his life has been mainly devoted to 
mercantile pursuits. He was in the employ of 
J. W. Britton &Co., who were amonu the earliest 
hardware dealers in San Francisco, for twenty- 
four years. In 1877 lie started a general mer- 
chandise storj at Bishop, Inyo County, placing 
his son, J. H. Stoutenborouurh, Jr., in charge of 
the store, and in 1882 Mr. Stontenborongh 
moved to Bishop to superintend his own inter- 
ests, where he still resides. The maternal 
grandfather of our subject, James Madison 
Welch, was a California pioneer of 1849, from 
Kittery, Maine. He was by trade a builder and 
contractor; lie was an active member of the 
vigilance committee, and he erected the scaffold 
from the window of Amies & Dallam's store on 
Sacramento street for the hanging of Casey and 
Corey. Later he was captain of the police force, 
and held the position for eleven years, dying in 
Napa City where he lived after he retired from 
business. J. H. Stontenborongh, Jr., was edu- 
cated in the grammar schools of San Francisco, 
then one year in the high school, and graduated 
from the commercial department of St. Mary's 
College of San Francisco in December, 1876. 
He then went to Bishop, in February, 1877, to 
take charge of his father's store, and remained 
as clerk and book-keeper until October, 1887, 
when he came to Madera. 

He was then engaged in painting about one 



HI3T0BT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



809 



year, then as deputy postmaster under J. 
Orrin Sharp, and on April 1, 1890, was engaged 
by the Madera Flume & Trading Company as 
assistant book-keeper. 

He was one of the charter tnembers of the 
Madera Parlor, No. 130, N. S. G. W., which 
was established October 8, 1888, and for about 
two years held the position of recording sec- 
retary. 



tLEXANDER MILLS is a familiar figure 
in the business circles of Kern County, 
having taken up his residence in Bakers- 
field m 1873. He is a native of the city of 
New York, where he was born April 24, 1852. 
His father, Alexander Mills, was a merchant of 
that city, of Irish birth; he reared two chil- 
dren, a daughter, and the subject of this sketch. 
Young Alexander received his education in 
New York City, and perfected himself as an 
accountant. Upon attaining his majority his 
ambition and enterprise dictated his coming 
West to carve out a prosperous future. He ac- 
cordingly made a trip to San Francisco, and 
thence to Bakersfield, in 1873. His manly 
bearing and business qualifications promptly 
found him employment, as the manager of what 
was then known as the Kern River Mills, which 
property is now owned by the Kern County 
Land Company, and which, together with other 
heavy interests of the same firm, are under his 
direction and business control. Mr. Mills is 
the manager of the Sumner Warehouse, a fire- 
proof store-house of 7,000 tons capacity, and 
the Cotton Ranch and Dairy, a model institu- 
tion of the kind, and is secretary of the follow- 
ing irrigating canal companies of Kern County, 
which form a portion of the Haggin & Carr 
and the J. B. Haggin interests, with general 
offices in the Southern Hotel block, Bakersfield : 
Kern Island Irrigating Canal Company; Stine 
Canal Company; Buena Vista Canal Company; 
Pioneer Canal Company; Goose Lake Canal 
Company; James Canal Company; James & 



Dixon Canal Company; Pluukett Canal Com- 
pany; Gates Canal Comoany; Joyce Canal 
Company; Anderson Canal Company; Farmers' 
Canal Company; McCord Canal Company; and 
Kern River Water and Irrigation Companj. 

Mr. Mills was married in 1881 to Miss Kate, 
daughter of E. Said, of San Jose. She is a 
Californian by birth. Mr. and Mrs. Mills are 
members of All Saints' (Episcopal) Church of 
Bakersfield, and take a deep interest in the so- 
cial welfare of their church and Bakersfield. 
They have three children: Louise, Nita L. and 
Alexander, Jr. 



JJRIEORGE H. EGGERS— Eggers' vineyard 
WW is perhaps one of the best known in Cali- 
wl fornia. The original land which was part 
of the great San Joaquin valley tract, was pur- 
chased by George H. Eggers and C. H. Yoigt 
in the year 1869. The land was new, and these 
two gentlemen secured 5,750 acres, which they 
planted to grain. But the excellent quality 
of Fresno County land could not long remain 
unknown, and in the latter part of 1872 the 
Eisen Vineyard was planted, which was the first 
in this part of the County. The vines did so 
well that Mr. Eggers determined to plant vines 
also, which he did in 1879. 

From the year 1869 until 1873 portions of 
the original 5,750 acres were being sold all the 
time until but 760 acres remained, all of which 
was owned by Mr. Eggers. Of these, 100 
acres were planted to about twelve varieties of 
wine grapes. 

The vineyard at present consists of 760 acres, 
670 of which are planted to vines, 100 of which 
are Muscats. The remaining ninety acres are 
given up to pasture, fruit and shade trees, and 
the buildings. All the land is under cultiva- 
tion. The drives of the Eggers vineyard are 
well known for their beauty and the perfect order 
in which they are kept. Everything is neat 
and clean, and the wagon roads through the 
vineyard look more like the roads of a park. 



810 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



The irrigating ditches are also well kept, and do 
their work perfectly. The vineyard, last year, 
produced 2,000 tons of grapes, and is expected 
to produce ahont 3,000 this season. 

The present winery was built a good deal like 
many of the old castles in Europe were — a little 
now and then. The first work on it was done 
in 1882, when the first wine was made, but ad- 
ditions had to be built each year to meet the 
demands of the growing business. The first 
building had a capacity of 25,000 gallons, while 
the one now used has a capacity of 200.000 gal- 
lons. The building, which is two stories in 
height, is built of adobe, and its dimensions are 
250 x 100 feet. The power for the pumps, 
presses, etc., is furnished by a twenty- five horse 
power engine of the most improved tyre. 

The excellence of California grapes for mak- 
ing brandy has long been known, and in 1886 
Mr. Eggers determined to build a distillery. 
The building is 75 x 50 feet, and fitted with all 
conveniences necessary for manufacturing 
brandy. 

This vast establishment is owned by George 
H. Eggers and his son, Herman C. Eggers. 
Al' the work of managing the vineyard and 
winery is done by the younger man, and his en- 
ergy and push are known to all who come in 
contact with him. 

Over a hundred hands are employed and 
about forty horses are kept on the grounds to 
do the necessary work. Nearly all the hands 
are accommodated right on the grounds, and 
the quarters are healthful and commodious. 

The progress and prosperity of this vineyard 
speaks well for Fresno County lands, and, taken 
altogether, is one the people may be proud of. 



»BRAHAM G. MEYERS, one of the well- 
known citizens of Bakersfield, was born in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, September 17, 1840. 
He is a carpenter and blacksmith by trade, and 
has been for sixteen years a resident of Bakers- 
field. He was married. May 16, 1877, to Mrs. 




Hanora Bransford, widow of Allen C. Brans- 
ford. 

Mr. Meyers served throughout the war of the 
rebellion as an army blacksmith and a soldier. 
His engagement as a blacksmith was from Sep- 
tember 10, '62, to January 20, '65. The follow- 
ing March he enlisted in the One-hundred and 
First Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and 
served nearly one year, receiving an honorable 
discharge June 25, 1865, at Newbern, North 
Carolina. Mr. Meyers is engaged in contract- 
ing and building in Bakersfield. He is a Past 
Commander of Hulbert Post at Bakersfield. 

gh4°gHg 

WILLIAM McFARLAND.— Not a man 
in Kern County is more widely known 
than William McFarland. He came to 
Kern County in 1871, and was known in nearly 
every move of political importance in tho6e 
days. He is a native of Carbondele, Luzerne 
County, Pennsylvania, born October 12, 1844. 
He went to Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1861 
enlisted in a Massachusetts battalion to aid in 
suppressing the opening rebellion against the 
States United Government. At the expiration 
of his three-months enlistment, he re-enlisted 
and served two years in the Twenty-ninth Mas- 
sachusetts Infantry. He served a third term of 
enlistment in the First Massachusetts Cavalry, 
and was mustered out in 1865, having served 
four years. He was with his regiment in 
many hot engagements. For eighteen months 
before the surrender, he served as orderly 
sergeant. He is a carpenter by trade, a first-class 
workman, and has had charge of most of the 
heavy building in Kern County for years past. 
He took an active part in the removal of the 
county seat of Kern County from Havilah to 
Bakersfield, and was delegated personally to 
remove the records of the county, which he did 
without bloodshed, but against the loudest kind 
of protests from the citizens of the town of 
Havilah. He was Deputy Assessor of Kern 
County under B. J. Walker, in 1873, afterwards 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



811 



Deputy Sheriff under W. R. Bowers, and suc- 
ceeded hi mself in the same position two years 
later under Matt Wells. Mr. McFarland is 
social in his disposition, and popular throughout 
the county. 



J. WAREHAM, a rancher near Bakers- 
field, is a native of England, born 
February 10, 1840, who emigrated 
to the United States when seventeen years 
old. His independent spirit prompted him 
to come as he did, alone, taking passage as 
a sailor before the mast of a merchant-ship. 
He remained in New York city several years, 
sailing in and out of that port, to the West 
Indies, Liverpool, and other points. In the fall 
of 1862 ho came to California via Cape Horn. 
After a visit East he returned and followed min- 
ing in Placer and Calaveras counties, till 1874. 
He is now engaged in raising horses on a 400- 
acre ranch four miles south of Bakersfield. 

Mr. Wareham has been married since 1887, 
his wife having formerly been the widow of Dr. 
William Laird, of San Bernardino. Mr. and 
Mrs. Wareham are counted among the thrifty 
thrifty and well-to-do people of Kern County, 
and during their residence here have borne a 

o 

conspicuous part in its business and social 
development. 



tNDREW M. SERIGHT, one of the pio- 
neers of Kern County, was born in the 
city of Zanesville, Ohio. He is the son 
of John Seright, who was a farmer, and raised 
eleven children, of whom Andrew M. is the 
fourth born. 

His father emigrated to Iowa in the early days 
of its settlement, and Andrew at fifteen years 
of age enlisted as a soldier in defence of the 
Union, and was mustered into the Twenty-fourth 
Iowa Infantry, Company F, January 15, 1864. 
He served until the close of the war, and was 



by general order of the War Department mus- 
tered out July 5, 1865. Mr. Seright was at the 
front, engaged in various battles and skirmishes 
and received slight wounds and contracted dis- 
ease from which he still suffers. He came to 
California in 1875 where he has ensao-ed in 
various pursuits. He owns a ranch about four- 
teen miles southeast of Bakersfield. He is a 
member of Hurlburt Post, No. 127, G. A. R., 
Bakersfield. 

B. ROGERS, proprietor of the Margke- 
rita Vineyard, was born in Albany 
County, New York, in 1853. He was 
educated in Troy at the Rensselaer Polytechnic 
Institute, in civil and mechanical engineerincr, 
and began the practice of his profession in the 
same county. In 1874 he came to California 
and settled in San Francisco, and became a 
member of the firm of Malter, Lind & Rogers, 
in the manufacture and erection of mining ma- 
chinery. The firm became very celebrated in 
mining localities, from Central America to the 
Northwest. 

In 1880 Mr. Rogers went to New York City as 
the representative of the firm, and e tablished 
an office, as at that time New York was the 
financial center of mining speculations, and he 
then secured many valuable contracts for stamp 
mills and mining machinery to be erected in 
Arizonia, Colorado and New Mexico. 

Mr. Rogers was married in New York in 
1880, to Miss Augusta M. Sickal, and there 
continued to reside until 1884, when he returned 
to San Francisco, and there lived and labored 
until 1888, when the firm dissolved by mutual 
consent. 

Mr. Rogers bought the Margherita Vineyard 
in 1881, eighty acres being in vines and the bal- 
ance unimproved. He placed it in charge of a 
superintendent and increased the size of his 
vineyard, and he now has 195 acres in wine 
grapes, and seventy acres in raisin grapes. Mr. 
Rogers has added many substantial improve- 



812 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



ments, and in 1888 he built an adobe and ce- 
ment winery, three-stories high and 100 x 200 
feet, surface measure, with crusher and fomen- 
ting and storage tanks conveniantly arranged to 
conduct a large business. In 1890 he handled 
3,800 tons of grapes, and manufactured 250,- 
000 gallons of wine and 50,000 gallons of 
brandy. Since 1888 Mr. Rogers has resided at 
his vineyard and given it his personal attention 
and supervision. 



-=t*< 



»*-3>— 



fEVINGER was born in Westtield, Clark 
County, Illinois, in 1858. His father 
° owned 150 acres of land, and carried on 
general farming. Young Evinger was educated 
in the common schools of Westtield, and lived 
at home until twenty-one year* of age. In 
1879 he came to California, first settling for a 
few months in Los Angeles and then came to 
Fresno County, and engaged in agricultural 
pursuits on the borders of King's river. 

In 1884 he bought a blacksmith shop at Cen- 
trevilie, which he operated for one year, then 
took up some Government land on Hughes 
creek and engaged in the stock business. He 
was married on Hughes creek in 1884, to Miss 
Delilah Akers, who died in 1885, leaving one 
child, Oscar. In 1885, Mr. Evinger sold his 
stock interests and came to Fresno and bought 
a grocery and fruit store on Mariposa street, 
which he continued successfully for two years, 
then sold out and went to Tulare and engaged 
in the butcher business. Mr. Evinger was 
again married at Centreville in 1887, to Miss 
Ella A. Burns, daughter of Joseph Burns, who 
was a native of South Carolina, and emigrated 
to California, across the plains, in 1853. He 
followed mining about eighteen months, and 
then engaged in the stock business on the plains 
in the San Joaquin valley, varying from the 
Seirras to the coast range. In 1868 he bought 
160 acres of land near Centreville, and now 
owns 1,400 acres, and carries on farming with 
the sheep business, keeping 2,000 head. In 



1874 Mr. Burns began growing fruits, and has 
been very successful in his oiange culture. He 
was married in Fresno County in 1862, to Miss 
Mary A_ Lewis, his being the first marriage 
license issued in the county. In 1889 Mr. 
Burns bought the city market in Fresno at 
1,147 I street, and his son-in-law, Mr. Evinger 
sold his interests in Tulare, and came to Fresno 
to manage the business. 

Mr. and Mrs. Evinger have one son, Joseph 
Burns Evinger, born October 6, 1890. Mr. 
Evinger is a member of Central California 
Lodge, No. 343. 1. O. O. F 



JJHEORGE RUPERT was born in Johns- 
Tmt town, New York, in 1850. His lather 
w^ carried on general farming. Young Ru- 
pert started out in life at the early age of twelve 
years, and began his own support, in performing 
the light work of a farm, and with increased 
years and strength took up the heavier duties. 
He performed farm work alxmt Johnstown, and 
later in Pennsylvania, until 1871, when he came 
to California, and settled near Stockton, still in 
the line of agricultural pursuits. In 1876 he 
opened a wine and club room in Stockton, which 
he continued for several years. He was also 
much interested in horses, and owned the trot- 
ting horse "Castoria," with a record of 2:32, and 
he was a member of the San Joaquin Trotting 
Association. In 1881, he sold his interests and 
came to Fresno, and opened a wine room od 
Front street, and was burned out in that disas- 
trous tire in July, 1882, which nearly wiped 
out the town. With the rebuilding he resumed 
business, which he continued until 1890, when 
sold out and retired. In 1889 he built a very 
handsome two story frame house, on the corner 
of L and Tuolumne streets, where he now re- 
sides. 

Mr. Rupert was married in Stockton, in 1879, 
to Miss Margaret O'Donnell, and they have 
three children, Irene, George and Joe. 

Mr. Rupert owns valuable ranch property on 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



813 



the west side of San Joaquin river, which he 
is about improving. He is also a member of 
the Board of Trade of Fresno County. 



-=$*< 



»*>&=— 



fAMES C. CROCKER was for many years 
one of the leading citizens of Kern County. 
Few men have been more active and en- 
terprising in developing her natural resources. 
It is therefore fitting that this history of Kern 
County should contain at least a brief notice of 
so worthy a pioneer. 

James C. Crocker was born in the old town 
of Whitesboro, Oneida County, New York, third 
son of Abraham and Maria (Richardson) 
Crocker. The family removed from Whitesboro 
when he was a boy of eight years and located 
at Pulaski, Oswege County, New York, where 
the parents both died. Abraham Crocker was 
a cabinet-maker and architect by trade. He, 
however, made farming his chief occupation. 
To him and his wife nine sons and one daughter 
were born, all of whom are still living save one, 
William, who died in Canada about the year 
1857. 

Mr. Crocker came to California in 1850. He 
at once went to the mines of El Dorado County, 
but followed mining only a few months. He 
then took up the occupation of a butcher and 
stock-raiser in Sacramento County, a business 
which he lias pursued with marked success to 
the present time. His first visit to what is 
now Kern County was in 1852, passing from 
Los Angeles north to Sacramento with a band 
of cattle and horses, his route taking him about 
three-quarters of a mile south of Bakersfield. 
He describes the country as a monotonous 
stretch of wild, open territory, with tall weeds 
and underbrush. There were no signs of civil- 
ization until he reached Fort Millerton on the 
San Joaquin. Kern river at that time ran in 
its old channel between Bakersfield and Sumner. 
After leaving the mining districts, Mr. Crocker 
located near the San Joaquin river, at San Joa- 
quin House; this was in 1855. He remained 



there twelve years and raised horses. Then he 
located the Lagoon ranch and spent two years 
there. At the same time he purchased Thomp- 
son & James' butchering business and stores at 
Amador and Sutter creek. He made the first 
improvements on the Santa Reta rancho, San 
Joaquin County, for Miller & Lux, working as 
manager for them for about six years. He came 
to Kern County and located Tembler ranch in 
the western part of the county, in partnership 
with Miller & Lux, in 1868. There he re- 
mained about fourteen years. He next located 
and made the first improvements on what is 
known as the Headquarters ranch, for the same 
capitalists. These lands were at that time 
covered with elk, antelope and wild horses. Heat 
the same timeimproved the Panamaranch, which 
he sold. He severed his connection with the Mil 
ler & Lux interests in 1880. Next he located at 
the Crocker ranch, with his brother, Ed Crocker, 
as partner. This property comprised 1,500 
acres, which they sold to Messrs. Peters & Sim- 
mons, the present owners, and took up their re- 
sidence in Inyo County, at Big Pine, where 
they own 3,000 acres of good farming and graz- 
ing land, and raise horses and cattle. 

Mr. Crocker was married at Woodbridge, in 
1861, to Miss Mary E. Smith, an adopted 
daughter of one of the pioneers of San Joa- 
quin County. Mr. and Mrs. Crocker have two 
sons and two daughters. One daughter is the 
wife of James Herrod. 

Mr. Crocker is a man of unpretentious man- 
ners, with a cool, collected and well-balanced 
mind. He is an honor to the noble band of 
pioneers who took the first steps leading to the 
present high standing of California. 

jjgg> P. BROWNSTONE, manager of the 
!B)| Mercantile House of I. Brownstone & 
siKi Sons, at Sanger, was born in San Fran- 
cisco in 1868. His father, I. Browjjstone, is a 
native of Germany, and came to California in 
1852. In 1853 he entered mercantile life and 



814 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



\v;is one of a firm to establish general merchan- 
dise stores in the cities of San Francisco, Santa 
Cruz and Watsonville. 

The subject of this sketch received his pre- 
liminary education in the public school of San 
Francisco, but his practical education was in 
business associations, entering as he did, his 
father's store in San Francisco, at the early age 
of twelve years. In 1879 the firm of I. Brown- 
stone & Co., composed of I. Brownstone and 
Joe Brownstone, his son, was organized, and 
they established a general merchandise store in 
Selma, and in 1882 Mr. H. P. Brownstone went 
there as clerk, remaining until 1887, when the 
firm of I. Brownstone & Sons was established, 
and they opened a store at Fowler, but 
on the building of the new town of Sanger, 
in 1888, the firm purchased land, erected a one- 
story brick store, fire- proof, 50 x 100 feet, and 
moved their merchandise from Fowler to the 
Sanger store, where they keep a general assort- 
ment of household supplies, in dry goods, gro- 
ceries, furniture and stoves, and also agricultural 
implements and farm machinery. They also 
built Brownstone Hall, a frame building, which 
was constructed for store purposes, and later 
converted into a public hall. Mr. Brownstone 
is a member of Selma Parlor, No. 107, Native 
Sons of the Golden West. They are doing an ex- 
tensive business in Sanger, and are well satisfied 
with the substantial growth and future pros- 
] ects of the town. 



fHARLES B. TIBBETTS, of KernviUe, is 
a native son of the Golden West, born in 
Placer County. His father, R. G. Tib- 
betts, is a native of Liberty, Massachusetts, but 
spent his boyhood and youth in the State of 
Maine. Tie became a sea-faring man, and sailed 
for California in 1849. At Alpha, Nevada Coun- 
ty, California, he married Miss Helen Brand], 
who was born in Augusta, Maine, and they had 
seven children, Charles B. being the fourth in 
crder of birth. 



R. G. Tibbetts came to Kern County in 1874, 
and located at Kernville, where he built the 
Olympic Hotel and conducted it for four jears. 
selling; the same to Daniel Brown. He then 
went to Calico, where he built and conducted a 
skating rink, which was burned in 1887, when 
he went to Fresno County and engaged in the 
livery stable business at Huron. After his 
parents left Kernville, Mr. Tibbetts pre-empted 
160 acres of Government land near that place. 
After having purchased his title to the same he 
sold out and engaged in stock-raising. He con- 
trols a good cattle range, upon which he grazes 
350 to 400 head of stock, besides owning a fine 
homestead. His industry, frugal habits and 
upright business methods command fur him the 
respect and esteem of the business and social 
community in which he lives. 



fAMES A. BURNS is a native of Washing, 
ton County, Illinois, born August 12, 1852. 
Early in life he received the benefit of an 
excellent education, finishing his studies in the 
Washington Seminary, one of the best educa- 
tional institutions in the State. He then taught 
school for a short time and also took up the 
study of law, entering the office of John Breeze, 
Esq., of Richview, Illinois. He was admitted 
to practice before the Supreme Court of that 
State, November 6, 1880. Almost immediately 
he left for California and settled in Tulare 
County, opening a law office in Lemoore. An 
excellent opportunity now occurring, however, 
to teach in the schools, he temporarily aban- 
doned his practice for that occupation. 

In the fall of 1881 he was elected Justice of 
the Peace on the Democratic ticket, which office 
he tilled for one year, when he resigned to en- 
gage actively in the practice of law. For six 
years he filled the position of Deputy District 
Attorney of Tulare County, discharging the 
trying and laborious duties of that office with 
great credit to himself. 

In 1886 he moved to 1 Ian ford, where he 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



815 



formed a partnership with Justin Jacobs, re- 
siding there and doing well in bis practice until 
1888, wben he moved to Selma, and has since 
lived in that prosperous town. 

Mr. Burns is one of the few prominent and 
successful attorneys in the place, and is highly 
esteemed in his profession. He was married 
July 17, 1879, to Miss Anna Lewis, a native of 
Kentucky, and bas two children, a son and a 
daughter. The former is named after the gifted 
poet, Robert Burns. 



— =*+' 



*£=— 



fEORGE A. ARMSTRONG & CO. -The 
firm is composed of George A. Armstrong 
and his son, D. F. Armstrong, and they 
have the leading salesroom for musical instru- 
ments in Fresno. 

George A. Armstrong was born in Vermont, 
in 1880, in the Green Mountain district. In 
1835 his father, Chester Armstrong, emigrated 
with his family as a pioneer to Michigan, and 
settled near Lansing, where he carried on 
farming. George A. was then educated at Ann 
Arbor University in both classics and law, and 
was admitted to practice in 1858. He then 
followed his profession in Lansing, and later at 
Eaton Rapids, where he settled with his family. 
He filled the office of Justice of the Peace at 
Eaton Rapids for many years. In 1862 Judge 
Armstrong raised a volunteer company for the 
war, of which he was appointed captain. They 
then joined the Seventh Michigan Cavalry under 
Colonel Geo. A. Custer. They were then sta- 
tioned at Washington, and later joined the De- 
partment of the Tennessee. At Washington 
Captain Armstrong had charge of sending troops 
to the front, and through jealousy trouble arose 
in his regiment, and through President Lincoln 
he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster, 
and was located at Nashville, Tennessee. He 
continued in service until the close of the war, 
when in broken health he returned to his home 
and resumed his practice. In 1872 he was 
advised to go to Florida for his health, and in 



1873 to California. He then settled at Los 
Angeles, where, after one year, his health was so 
restored that he resumed his profession, which 
he followed until 1880, when he returned to 
Eaton Rapids, and feeling the ill effects of close 
confinement in office work, he gave up his pro- 
fession and engaged in the sale of musical in- 
struments. D. F. Armstrong was born at 
Eaton Rapids in 1865. He was educated in 
the common schools there and at Los Angeles, 
and then entered the musical instrument busi- 
ness with his father and received a musical 
training under his guidance, being connected 
with the business at Eaton Rapids. In 1885 
they returned to California, and after one year 
in business in Oakland and vicinity, they came 
to Fresno and formed a permanent settlement. 
The)' opened a musical instrument store in the 
Helm building on Fresno street, and in De- 
cember, 1890, moved to their present handsome 
salesroom in the Barton Opera House. They 
keep a full line of pianos, organs and string in- 
struments, and have built up a very satisfactory 
business. They also invested in city property 
at 1034 P street and twenty acres in the Wash- 
ington Colony addition, which they have set in 
vines, and are much pleased with the location 
of Fresno as a permanent home. 



fRED. BARCROFT, a hardware merchant 
and tinsmith of Madera, was born in 
,f Hornitos. Mariposa County, California, in 
1858. His educational facilities were extremely 
limited, and his later successes are due to his 
natural brightness and adaptability to the busi- 
ness of life which he adopted. He was. appren- 
ticed at an early age to J. Kocher, of Merced, 
to learn the trade of tinsmith, with whom he 
remained nearly six years. He then started a 
hardware and tin store in Merced, which he 
continued until in December, 1884, when he 
came to Madera. The town was just starting, 
and his was the pioneer tin-shop in the town. 
Though business was dull for some time, later 



816 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



events proved the wisdom of his choice of loca- 
tion, as he has built an extensive trade. He 
built his present store (the first having been 
destroyed by fire) on Yo Semite avenue, in 
1885, which is a frame building 48 x 100 feet, 
partly for a shop, with one room, 30x100 feet, 
for a public hall, called Barcroft Hall. The 
hall has recently been converted into a business 
room, a part of the space being used as a tin- 
shop and the rest thrown with the store-room. 
Mr. Barcrofl keeps a general stock of stoves 
and hardware, and is prepared witli experienced 
men to perform all kinds of plumbing and tin 
or sheet-iron work. 

He has been twice married, first at Hornitos 
in 1884, and again in Madera, September 20, 
1890, to Miss Cornelia Reyes, a native of Cali- 
fornia. Mr. Barcroft is a member of the vol- 
unteer fire department, and is an experienced 
hand, having been foreman of the tire company 
at Merced. He was a member of the Madera 
brass band, but has withdrawn from it. He 
owns a comfortable residence on C street, and 
other town property unimproved. His business 
is growing rapidly, and he has bright prospects 
of future success and prosperity. 



-^s*- 



«**—** 



~*iC4 



§R. ROBERT M. OSBURN is a native of 
Pennsylvania, born in the year 1854. His 
father, now deceased, was for many years 
a successful druggist, and in this line ot work 
Robert M. laid the foundation for future study. 
After a public school "drilling" at his home 
he entered the University of Pennsylvania at 
Philadelphia, graduating trom the medical de- 
partment of this famous institution in the year 
1879. Two years prior to this course of study 
our subject had taken an extensive trip west, 
visiting Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and making a 
hurried tour of this region in search of health 
and also for pleasure. He returned to this lo- 
cality again after his medical studies in Phila- 
delphia and settled in Portland, Oregon, in the 
active practice of his profession. Five months 



later he entered the University of "Willamette, 
and received a diploma from that medical insti- 
tution. He then came to California and was 
employed in the hospitals in San Francisco for 
a period of eight months, afterward coining to 
the San Joaquin valley and settling in Kings- 
burg, Fresno County, in which locality he prac- 
ticed medicine for seven years. At the end of 
this period the Doctor returned East and at- 
tended a course of post graduate lectures in 
New York city. There were many distin- 
guished physicians who at various times de- 
livered these lectures, one of whom is in the 
mind of every student who was fortunate 
enough to be in attendance. The physician re- 
ferred to was Dr. Skeene, one of the ablest men 
in the profession and a general favorite in the 
school. 

Our subject also took a short course of study 
in the Brooklyn Medical College, and then vis- 
ited his old home in Meadville, Pennsylvania. 
Making a brief sojourn here, he came next to 
California, and settled among his old patients 
again in Kingsburg. In November, 1888, we 
find him a resident of Selma, in which place 
he has ever since made his home. 

A recent appointment from the naval de- 
partment at Washington, wherein our subject is 
despatched as assistant surgeon at the naval 
department at Mare's Island, San Francisco, 
will result in the Doctor's leaving Selma, Jan- 
uary 1, 1891, and making his temporary home 
at least in that locality. 

He was married December 20, 1882, to Miss 
Van Tassel, a native of Kingsburg. There are 
no children. 

— **< 



D. HOPE, rancher, near Borden, was 
born in Scotland County, Missouri, in 
1848. His father, A. M. Hope, was a 
farmer, but with the tide of emigration in 
1852, he brought his family to California, 
across the plains in the old Prairie schooner, 
with ox teams, — a schooner of slow progress. 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



817 



Mr. Hope farmed about one year in Contra 
Costa County, and then followed mining in 
Amador and Calaveras counties until 1872, 
when he came to Fresno County and pre- 
empted 160 acres near Borden, where he died in 
1883. Subject lived at home through all the 
changes, but devoted his life to farming instead 
of mining, and he now occupies the ranch of 
his father, to which he has added, and now owns 
320 acres, and rents additional lands, sowing 
annually about 600 acres in wheat and barley. 
Mr. Hope returned to Fairfield County, Ohio, 
in 1884, and was married to Miss Mary Smith, 
whom he brought to his western home. They 
have one child, Robert Bruce, who was born in 
January, 1887. Having been prospered in this 
world's goods Mr. Hope is about taking his 
family East for a visit to the home of his 
childhood. 

fM. BOWLES & SONS, proprietors of the 
Tulare City Flour Mills. — J. M. Bowles 
9 was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky) 
November 10, 1817. He was born and educated 
upon the farm, and in 1842 emigrated to Ad- 
ams County, Illinois, and in 1852 pushed still 
farther west and crossed the plains for Cali- 
fornia, and settled in Colusa County. He then 
engaged in the stock business very extensively 
and successfully, making a considerable amount 
of money. In 1856 he moved to Petaluma and 
purchased 300 acres of land, continuing the 
stock business and doing some farming. Scott 
Bowles, the manager of the Tulare mill, was 
born in Adams County, Illinois, in 1848, and 
was educated at Brayton College, at Oakland, 
and at the State Normal School at San Jose. 
Bourbon Bowles was born in Petaluma in 1857, 
and was educated at McClure's Academy at 
Oakland. Upon arriving at years of discretion 
the sons became identified with the father in 
the farming business, and in 1879 they built a 
stone flour mill at Petaluma, with a capacity of 
100 barrels every twenty-four hours, doing a 



general milling business. This they continued 
very successfully for several years, until the erec- 
tion of roller mills in this vicinity, and then, ra- 
ther than alter their stone mill, they decided to 
come to Tulare County, the banner County in 
wheat, and there build anew. They bought 
eight acres south of Tulare, on the line 
of railroad, and there built their fine struc- 
ture, 30 x 50 feet, four stories high, with 
two additional storage rooms, 20 x 70 each. 
The mill is fitted with th° most improved 
machinery, using five double sets 9 x 18 rolls, 
Stevenson's patent, with a capacity of 100 bar- 
rels of flour every twenty-four hours. The flour 
thus made is on the gradual reduction process, 
and is considered vastly superior to that made 
by the old stone mills. The Messrs Bowles 
are identified among their competitors as mak- 
ing a good grade of flour, and, being centrally 
located on the Southern Pacific li. R., they do 
a large amount of shipping business, besides 
supplying their local trade. They have also 
improved the quality of wheat to a great extent 
in their section of the county, by encouraging 
the growth of white wheat, which is the su- 
perior for flour purposes, and is now extensively 
raised. 



f[OHN GAW KNOX, one of the best known 
and most highly esteemed citizens of Tu- 
lare County, California, is a descendant of 
the distinguished and royal Knox family. 
Long before going to England, A. D. 450, his 
ancestors figured as reining princes in Saxony. 
In their veins flowed the royal blood of Saxony, 
Northumberland, England and Normandy. They 
removed to Scotland, in 1072, and one member 
of the family was created Earl of Dunbar. They 
enjoyed great power and influence, and the earl- 
dom of Dunbar, which consisted of the town 
and castle of that name, remained in the family 
for many generations. Other earldoms were 
added to their possessions, and at one time their 
holdings comprised more than half of England. 



818 



HISTORY OF VENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



In 1610 Andrew Knox, Bishop of the " Isles," 
was transferred to Bishop of Raphoe, Ireland, 
leaving his son Bishop of the " Isles." This 
branch of the family flourished in Ireland for 
many years, and from them is descended Henry 
Knox, famous in the history of our own country. 
He was born in Boston, in 1750; was appren- 
ticed to a bookseller in that city and subse- 
quently was in business on his own account 
there. During the Revolution he distinguished 
himself and was afterward appointed Secretary 
of War by Washington. His death occurred 
October 25, 1806. The coat of arms of this 
illustrious family was two eagles, one on either 
side of a shield, with a third perched above it, 
the motto being " Moveo et Proficior," under 
which was the word '-Knox." 

Mr. Knox's father, George Knox, was born in 
Virginia, in 1800, and his grandfather bore the 
same name and was also a native of the Old 
Dominion. In 1835 George Knox married 
Amanda Gaw, daughter of John Gaw, both na- 
tives of Virginia. Mr. Knox and Mr. Gaw re- 
moved West, became early settlers of Missouri, 
and Knox County, that State, was named in 
honor of our subject's father. To George and 
Amanda Knox were born eight children, five 
sons and three daughters, five of whom are now 
living. 

John Gaw Knox was born in Missouri, Feb- 
ruary 19,1839, the second son in the family. 
He was educated in the Missouri University 
and also took a business course in a commercial 
college. 

In 1857, at the age of eighteen years, he 
crossed the plains to California, the trip cover- 
ing a period of eight months and being a most 
enjoyable one. After his arrival in this State 
he spent six months in the mountains as a 
vaquero. He then mined at Kern river for six 
years, being engaged in both placer and quartz 
mining. Mr. Knox says, "Timber for county 
clerks beinj; scarce, I was elected County Clerk 
in 1865." He had been sent from the mount- 
ains as a delegate to the convention, was notn- 
nated for clerk and elected After filling the 



office for six months, his health declined, he 
resigned his position and returned to the 
mountains. 

September 3, 1866, he was married in 
Visalia, to Miss Julia Bowen, who was born in 
Kentucky and reared in Illinois, the daughter 
of John H. and Caroline (Slocum) Bowen. Her 
father was born in Maine, in 1809. He came 
to California in 1850, and in 1855 sent East for 
his family. He is of English ancestry, ami is 
able to trace back to 1737. They also have a 
beautiful coat of arms. His ancestors were 
Presbyterians and Episcopalians, and ranked 
among the leading lawyers, ministers and army 
officers of their day. The Slocums were equally 
prominent and influential, and were among the 
active participants in the wars of the United 
States. 

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Knox set- 
tled in Kern County, where for one year he 
acted as Under Sheriff. During that time he 
was 6hot by a Cherokee, but in a miraculous 
manner the ball passed around him instead of 
going straight through. Indeed, many are the 
encounters he has had with the Indians. In 
1870 he returned to the clerk's office, with 
which, excepting a few years, he has been con- 
nected ever since. 

Mr. and Mrs. Knox have had five children, 
three of whom are living, viz.: Caroline A., 
born in Kern County, California, is now the 
wife of A. H. Mnry, Jr., short-hand reporter 
for the court of Tulare; Nora L., at home with 
her parents; and John Franklin, at school. The 
two latter were born in Visalia. 

Mr. Knox has been an ardent Democrat all 
his life. He is a Good Templar and a member 
of the I. O. O. F. A man of very generous 
impulses, he can never let the wants of the 
needy go unsupplied while he has a dollar in his 
purse; and so far in his life it has been his good 
fortune to have "enough for self and some to 
give to such poor souls as need it." Few, if 
any, stand as high in the esteem of their fellow 
citizens as does John G. Knox. In 1876 he 
built his home on Court street, where he still 



BISTORT OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



819 



resides. It is the abode of taste and refine- 
ment, and is distinguished for the genial hospi- 
tality of its owner and his estimable family. 

In referring to the family history, it should 
be further stated that the name was formerly 
Uchter, was afterward softened to Ucter, and did 
not become Knox until after the family settled 
in Scotland. It was then derived from lands 
that they possessed there. 



tC. MAUD. — Few men have made their 
presence in Kern County more generally 
* felt than A. C. Maud. Active and en- 
ergetic as he has been in business matters, it is 
to. the labors and the influence of just such 
men that Kern County and Bakersfield owe 
their world-wide reputation as a growing section. 

Born in old England, he made a second trip 
to the United States to remain permanently in 
1859. In 1861 he enlisted in a regiment of 
New York Yolunteer Infantry and fought for 
the Union. He held various important posi- 
tions under the Government throughout the 
South during the period of reconstruction, and 
was Government post contractor at different 
points. He came to California and to Kern 
County in 1872, and took up a Government 
claim — now a portion of the Bellevue ranch — 
which he finally sold to J. B. Haggin and en- 
tered the real estate business. For years, up to 
the organization of the firm of Houghton & 
Lightner, he did the entire real estate business 
of the county, and has always been regarded as 
an authority on actual real estate values, in 
Kern County. In 1879 he purchased the Kern 
County Californian, the remnants of the busi- 
ness of which in 1866 had been removed from 
Havilah to Bakersfield, and took editorial charge 
and management of in December of that year. 

While Mr. Maud is a pronounced Republican 
in politics, his paper has never been conducted 
as a party organ, but has always maintained the 
dignity of a first-class paper and made itself 
useful and influential. It is fearless and ag- 



gressive, the people's news journal. April 1, 
1891, the initial number of the Daily Califor- 
nian was launched into the field of usefulness 
and is working a salutary influence throughout 
Central California. 

Mr. Maud has large real-estate holdings in 
Kern County, and is identified with her many 
public enterprises. He with many others sus- 
tained severe losses by the recent historic fire 
which devastated the town, but on his property 
elegant new and substantial business blocks 

o 

have risen, Phoenix-like, upon the ashes of 
former structures. He is eminently a man of 
practical business affairs and such a citizen as 
modern towns and growing counties can ill 
afford to do without. 

He married Miss Sally Lechner, formerly of 
Evansville, Indiana, and they have three 
children. 



«-«g-**^~- 

jgJH L. ROBERTSON .—Mr. Robertson is one 
ftWf of the highly esteemed citizens of Delano, 
V^° is a native of McLean County, Illinois, 
and was born January 11, 1857. He is a son 
of Andrew Robertson, a pioneer of McLean 
County, and now a resident of Santa Cruz, this 
State, where he located in the winter of 1887. 
He had five sons and two daughters, and the 
subject of this sketch is the third born. The 
latter came to California in the spring of 1885, 
and located in Tulare County. In the fall of 
the same year he came Co Kern County and lo- 
cated on 160 acres of land about nine miles 
south of Delano, near Paso Station. In the 
fall of 1886 Mr. Robertson commenced opera- 
ting in general real estate at Delano, making a 
specialty of farm property. He is a thorough 
business man, and is well posted in all matters 
pertaining to his branch of the real estate busi- 
sinees. 

Mr. Robertson is the first settler in the region 
of country where he located, being on section 
24, township 26 south, range 25 east. It was 
then a barren, dry plain and only used in cer- 



820 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



tain portions of the year for a stock range. 
Stockmen vigorously opposed the settlement of 
the country at that time, as it curtailed the acre- 
age of their ranges. But Mr. Robertson was 
equal or more than enough for the stock mono- 
polists, and held firmly to his rights, which 
served as an example and encouragement tor 
other settlers to '• follow suit." He has within 
the space of a few years seen the marvelous 
growth of Kern County, and taken a prominent 
part in the good work of development. He or- 
ganized the first school district in his section of 
country, which is known as the Robertson dis- 
trict. 

Mr. Robertson is characterized as a conserva- 
tive citizen of good judgment in local public 
matters. He is of a religions turn of mind, 
but not a member of any church. In political 
matters he is in accord with the Prohibition 
party and sees in the platform of the Farmers' 
Alliance much that he can most heartily en- 
dorse. 

He was married in Illinois, in 1X79, to Miss 
Mary Smith, a native of Indiana. She died in 
the spring of 1889, leaving two sons and one 
daughter, Ora B., William B. and Annie B. 



jARHJS CESMAT is one of the progres- 
sive and influential members of the 
French colony in Kern County. He 
was born in France, in 1858, and came t<> Cali- 
fornia in 1874, direct from his native land, a 
brother, Jean, having preceded him about fifteen 
years, and another brother, Germain, following 
in 1885. 

His father, Jean Cesmat, is a well-to-do 
farmer in France, and all three of these sons 
were reared on the rural homestead. Mr. Ces- 
mat, upon his arrival in this country, proceeded 
to Los Angeles and engaged in sheep herding, 
which he followed for nine years in various sec- 
tions of Southern California. He then settled 
at Sumner, in Kern County, and engaged in the 




occupation in which he has been eminently suc- 
cessful and still continues. 

Mr. Cesmat has been twice married, first to 
Miss Eliza Rouquette, who died in 1889; and 
afterward to Miss Frances Monleot, by whom 
he has one son, Marius. 

Mr. Cesmat is a good business man, and a 
respected citizen. 



'HOMAS L. BRIGGS is one of the active 
and enterprising business men of Bakers- 
field. He is a native of Colorado, born 
March 1, 1839. His father, Calvin Briggs, 
was a native of Brattleboro, Vermont, and came 
West in the early days and followed hunting 
and trapping as a livelihood. 

Thomas L. is the oldest of his family of 
four children, and came to California with his 
parents as early as 1841, who located on Dry 
creek, and engaged in stock-raising, with which 
the subject grew familiar; and upon attaining 
his majority, he adopted it as a business. He 
came to Kern County in 1859, and raised cat- 
tle upon the open ranges of this and San Luis 
Obispo Counties. He acquired ranch property 
in the latter county, which he sold, and with a 
partner, H. A. Jastro, is now engaged in the 
butchering business. He is a careful and judi- 
cious business man, a respected citizen and a 
life member of the San Francisco Pioneer So- 
ciety. 

Mr. Briggs has been twice married, and has 
one son, Thomas L. Briggs, Jr. 



«mELSON GAY WARD, deceased, was one 
Vjtl of the early settlers of Tehachapi. He 
r*k was born in Toledo, Ohio, December 28, 
1838, and emigrated to California in 1855 from 
St. Louis, Missouri. In 1861 he married Ade- 
lia O'Brien, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, 
born January 29, 1848. The marriage occurred 
in Los Angeles. They became the parents of 



HISTORY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. 



821 



the following named children: Charles B., John, 
Sarah, Tudy and Ida. 

In 1862 Mr. and Mrs. Ward removed to 
Willow Sprirgs and established a boarding 
house and ke\t a number of teams. Mr. Ward 
died June 21, 1873, in Los Angeles. After his 
death Mrs. Ward kept a hotel in Greenwich, 
but when the railroad passed through Mojave 
she opened a restaurai.t a t that point. In 1878 
she became proprietress f the hotel at the 
Summit in Tehachapi. In 1.878 she was united 
in marriage to Jack Eveleth, an <} ne child was 
born of that union, Thomas E'<cn. Mr. Eveleth 
has since assumed charge of tL hotel, and also 
conducts a ranching business. \ 

David W. Ward, father of the si\j ec t f this 
sketch, came from St. Louis, Misson\ j n 1855, 
and settled in California; he and his wfc, both 
died in Los Angeles. Nelson G. Ward v^ s a 
member of the Baptist church, while his Wi- e 
belonged to the Roman Catholic church. She 
died July 29, 1881. 

Misses Ida and Tudy Ward are the surviving 
members of the family, and they have succeeded 
to the possession of their father's estate which 
consists of real estate in Tehachapi. 



<9 TO) 



fUDGE E. C. WINCHELL, who is recog- 
nized by the bar of Fresno County as a 
leader in professional circles, has given to 
the material growth of Fresno a strong and 
lasting impetus. 

The 12th of July, 1889, the building that 
stood on Mariposa street, next to the site 
of the present Fiske Block, was destroyed by 
lire, and from that time until last May it was 
in sore contrast with the surroundings. How- 
ever, in that month, Judge Winchell concluded 
to erect a building that would appropriately 
close the last gap between the reservation and the 
Courthouse park, and the handsome building, 
now about completed, is the creation of his own 
architectural ideas, and how well he has 



wrought will be better understood by the sub- 
joined description: 

The building is two stories high, besides hav- 
ing a seven-foot basement, and covers the entire 
lot, which has a front of 25 feetx 100 in depth. 
The location is one of the very best in the city, 
adjoining the elegant Fiske block. The first 
story is sixteen feet, and the second fourteen 
feet between joists. Ventilation seems to have 
been the key note of the structure. A 
"light-well" or ventilating shaft 7x13 feet, 
cutting through the roof and second story, 
admits a flood of light and air through the 
heart of the edifice and to the lower floor. It 
is encased on the second floor with large, mov- 
able windows. 

On this floor, several of the rooms are pro- 
vided with the novel feature of octagon or bay 
window fronts. This plan breaks the monotony 
of a long, straight hall, while the air currents 
more readily enter the rooms. Over each door 
ind interior window is a pivoted transom. Each 
c inple of rooms is connected by sliding doors, 
arK each room not lighted by the central shaft 
has •. l ar ge sky-light of its own by which it is 
lightea H1( j ven tilated. The east brick wall of 
the secol^ s t or y i 8 pierced with five large win- 
dows whicv .freely admit the cooling zephyrs. 
On each no\, the rear) an opening 10 x 14 
feet is also en\ elv occllp } ec ] by windows for 
light and ventilat^ A11 the roomg bnt 0Qe 
are fitted with har.<, ome mantek) ti]e hearths 
and stationery wash-^ ds _ The toilet sygtein 
is very complete. The ^. & bnildi is fitted 
for gas and wired for t nMchj The frQnt 
show windows are of unusu:.^ and e]egance _ 
The vestibule is thirteen feet w.^ | ea( j iug to a 
single four-foot door fitted with k ^ Q , tg 
glass. 

Judge Winchell has spared no expei.^ t 
make the building not only strictly useful, . .. 
an ornament to the city and street in which n 
is located. He has an abiding faith in the 
future growth and unexampled prosperity of the 
city which he has seen "rise like an exhala- 
tion " out of the arid sands of the desert, and 



822 



HISTORY OF GENTUm. 



abundantly proves his faith by his investments 
of coin. The actual cost of the present build- 
ing will not be less than $10,000. The post 
office building in the same block, with its 
appurtenances and furniture, entailed an expense 
of $22,000, and the stores between that and 
the Griffith Block $10,000 more, making a total 
of $42,000 invested by Judge "Winchell in a 
single block of the city. 

Long before even the foundation was finished, 
the first floor and basement of this desirable 



building were secured by jiujo... 
the popular boot and shoe dealers 

It is the sincere regret of the publishers of 
this work that they are not in p>sse.jsion of a 
detailed account of Judge Winch'U's career in 
this county. His time has beea so occupied 
with the more pressing demaa^s of client and 
contractor that he has been unable to furnish 
more than the merest ont-'me of his operations 
which have been fraught with the most grati- 
fying success. 




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